Marketing Crypto Casinos: Trust Over Traditional Ads

0:00Anders Figueira:There's infinite numbers of little crypto casinos and online casino websites that pop up where, you know, you don't even know who's behind it. You don't know their faces. You don't know their names. You don't know where they're based, that sort of thing.

0:10Tyler Axon:How have you been able to create that trust and cultivate it with your players and with everybody through BetHog?

0:17Anders Figueira:We have in our leadership, like the refutability within the U.S. betting space that should hopefully provide those consumers like some level of comfort working with us and sending their crypto to our site and back and vice versa.

0:30Tyler Axon:Have you noticed any difference about like the growth marketing in a crypto gambling website versus a traditional online gambling casino?

0:38Anders Figueira:Oh, yeah, it's been a huge learning curve. And it's been a lot of fun. You can reach people through wallet information and on chain activity. It's just a whole new world in terms of the traditional marketing channels and mix there. And then also the data capture side.

0:57Tyler Axon:Hey, everybody. Thank you for tuning in. My name is Andres Figuera, and I'm going to be your host for the day. This show is brought to you by the Global Talent Company. We're helping fast-growing teams hire exceptional remote talent from Argentina, South Africa, and beyond. We connect companies with world-class professionals who bring skill, reliability, and a global perspective to every role. And just for our listeners, we're offering an exclusive 10 % discount on your first hire. So all you need to do is just visit globaltalent.co, click start hiring, and mention the podcast listener discount when we reach out.

1:32Tyler Axon:And today, with me here, I am speaking with Tyler Axon, head of growth at Bedhog, a crypto casino and sportsbook from the creators of FanDuel. So how's it going, Tyler? It's a pleasure to have you here on the show, man.

1:47Anders Figueira:Hi, Andres. Yeah, thanks for having me on. And now all's going well. As you mentioned, working hard to help BetHog grow. It's early in our journey. So both a very busy time, but a very exciting time for the marketing side. And certainly doing a lot to try to get our name out there. So more than happy to come on your show. And hopefully some other people can hear more about us.

2:08Tyler Axon:Of course, man. We're very glad to have you here to come on the episode and everything. Just to give the audience a bit more context, Tyler, Would you be able to tell us a bit about your journey, what your background is, and how you arrived at BetHog and became head of growth?

2:23Anders Figueira:Yeah, no, absolutely. So I'm originally from the U.S. and grew up in the Northeast, went to school at the University of Connecticut, and then continued to grad school where I went to Columbia University. throughout both of those and like kind of my whole education period I was really into sports like big basketball player a huge fan of the UConn sports teams and the like there so that kind of carried over into my career where like you know I wanted to go into marketing and I viewed kind of sports as you know the the kind of ultimate connection between brand and consumer like where are you getting more passionate consumers of a product sports fans consuming like the players and teams that they they watch and love so that kind of steered my journey there and early in my career I really kind of got into sports via the sponsorships and partnerships route I started off working at a few different marketing agencies initially Wasserman and then another group called CSM sport and entertainment based out of the UK and work kind of both partnering with sports brands like some that we worked with are MLS Olympics things like that to help activate sponsorships and partnerships and then also on the property side um worked with brands like coca-cola at &t a few others a lot of smaller ones as well um but definitely kind of kind of got that love for you know solving the puzzle of uh like a partnership like where where do these two brands interact how do they kind of work to jointly reach customers and consumers um to help reach joint goals there and really enjoyed that um when i kind of eventually made the next step in my career, I wanted to jump to the brand side, help kind of build something from the ground up or help build a brand and help them grow.

4:14Anders Figueira:Ended up being kind of right around the time that sports betting was legalized in the U.S. So I ended up making the jump over to BetMGM, which is a sports book and casino in the U.S. here, which is looking to compete with DraftKings and FanDuel, which are kind of the two powers and still are here. um so and again kind of back to what i said at the beginning like what's another way and kind of the ultimate way that now sports brands interact with their customers that's uh or their consumers rather and that's uh sports betting so ended up making the jump there worked primarily on my sponsorships and partnerships on that side as well um kind of had a few more steps in in growing as a marketer there before um like my my bet on gm boss uh ended up making the jump to this startup.

5:02Anders Figueira:It was called BetHog. And he originally came from FanDuel, where he worked under the original co-founders of FanDuel and now are founders of BetHog, who are Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones. And, you know, my former boss is now our CMO, Kyle Wachtel, kind of had to sell me a minute on the name BetHog. But once he did so, kind of got me in on the opportunity to make the jump and kind of start building something from the ground up over here. So we overall as our team, we got us from BetMGM, FanDuel team and the like there, kind of bringing that U.S. sportsbook and casino experience, now hoping to grow and build something in the more global sector of the crypto side of things with BetHub.

5:48Tyler Axon:Wow, that is amazing. And the previous one that you were at is MGM, if I heard correctly. Yep, that's correct.

5:56Anders Figueira:And that is not a crypto casino.

5:58Tyler Axon:It's a regular online casino that just has like normal money.

6:03Anders Figueira:Yep, regular online casino. None of the U.S. sportsbooks. This was well before some of the sweepstakes stuff where like stake.us got involved in the light there. But nope, just regular old casino. We were building the app there. And it was a kind of joint venture with MGM Resorts. They were invested in it. So that's where the name comes from. And also we had the arm of our business that was the land-based casinos.

6:28Tyler Axon:Okay. Wow. Cool. And Tyler, is there or have you noticed any difference about like the growth marketing in a crypto gambling website versus a traditional online gambling casino? Oh, yeah.

6:41Anders Figueira:It's been a huge learning curve. That's been a lot of fun. I mean, it's essentially like the crypto customer is totally different. I mean, never mind the fact that, you know, where a lot of U.S. experienced people now kind of looking more global. But yeah, I mean, if you consider using some of the terminology, like it's like Web 2 versus Web 3. I mean, the people that we're reaching through some like older methodologies with BetMGM, whether that be, you know, just like TV commercials or radio ads or the like there. That's certainly not where we want to reach the people on the cutting edge of the internet in crypto.

7:17Anders Figueira:Nevermind. Like some of the data stuff, I mean, you can reach people through wallet information and on-chain activity. It's just a whole new world in terms of the traditional marketing channels and mix there. And then also the data capture side.

7:31Tyler Axon:Now, I can only imagine. And I also think like I'm a big crypto fan. Like I love crypto and everything it represents. I think it's just so cool. But when I think about casinos, I know that marketing for gambling has a lot of restrictions. But when you pair that up with crypto, I feel that you got to find even more obstacles in how you can or are able to market what you guys do. Do you have any kind of stories or experience that you can share with us in that regard?

7:58Anders Figueira:Yeah, I mean, it's definitely interesting. I think from like an approval standpoint, there's still a big kind of hurdle to get over with crypto. wallets I mean in a lot of ways like the reason kind of the thesis behind crypto being like all public information all trustworthy based on kind of that everything that goes into that like the same can be true for casino like we don't have to you're just as long as you trust us and what we're doing like it's your money directly to our wallets and back there's no third party like credit cards or banks or anything like that that requires approval so in many ways it can be and should be considered like an even more trustworthy way to operate.

8:38Anders Figueira:Of course, that requires trust on our part. So there is a big hurdle there. And that's a big piece of our marketing too, is trying to get people to, you know, see our faces, see that we're a trustworthy team that you can send your crypto to. As far as like the actual approval side of things, while on the global scale, maybe licensure is more independent to like different markets. It's certainly like a struggle and challenge for some of those more traditional channels that we might want to participate in, whether it's display ads or advertising on different social media apps. There's still a pretty big restriction around advertising crypto and advertising gambling.

9:17Anders Figueira:So put the two together and it's really pretty difficult to get approved on a lot of those sites. So as much of my time is dedicated towards trying to be creative or trying to figure out what's next for us and where we're going to advertise. A lot of it also has just been working through the legal side of things and showing, you know, we're a legitimate business and we should be allowed to advertise on social media site X.

9:42Tyler Axon:No, it's just that that's what I think as well. It's like it's crazy how much regulation you guys must face. But I love I love how you mentioned that it's it's like you have to trust your clients and they have to trust you. And in that regard, how have you been able to create that trust and cultivate it with your players and with everybody through BetHog.

10:04Anders Figueira:Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, that kind of goes all the way back to like the original, our founders, Nigel and Rob and our other founder, Ryan, kind of their thesis in putting this together was that there was a gap in this space. Like there's obviously big players like Stake, which everybody knows them. They're kind of best in class. they're such a legitimate business now that people can kind of have that trust piece but there's so there are infinite numbers of little crypto casinos and online casino websites that pop up where you know you don't even know who's behind it you don't know their faces you don't know their names you don't know where they're based that sort of thing so with us like we have maybe not so much myself but in our leadership like the refutability within the u.s.

10:51Anders Figueira:betting space that should hopefully provide those consumers some level of comfort working with us and sending their crypto to our site and back and vice versa. So that's kind of been a big piece there. And we want to lead with ourselves and be outward public facing as a leadership team. And then, I mean, it's kind of just a big piece of our marketing mix as well. Like, you know, we're trying to send our founders on podcasts, on interview circuits and all like there. And that's why, I mean, even when you read it, like our tagline from the founders of FanDuel, we hope that, you know, FanDuel is certainly the market leader in the U.S.

11:29Anders Figueira:here and very trustworthy on that side of things. So hopefully that can kind of extend as well.

11:35Tyler Axon:And when you mentioned your marketing mix, Tyler, do you know or can you tell us about what is working best for you right now in terms of gaining new players and making sure the ones that you do have stayed? You guys have like benefits and prizes and stuff like I don't even know how it could work, but I just want to know more about that.

11:54Anders Figueira:Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, I guess I can start with the latter half of that question in relation to benefits. I mean, that is a huge differentiator with gambling on these crypto sites relative to a regulated book. We don't have those kind of intermediary fees taken off by a credit card company or something there. So we kind of can take that cut and turn it around and give it back to the customer. So the benefits for Bedhog and for someone who's, whether they're winning or losing, what we can give back to them as being a member of our ecosystem. Um, there's so much greater than that, like in my experience back in the U S so, um, you know, it's, it's kind of a fun piece there and specifically with some members of our community and kind of how we talk to them.

12:40Anders Figueira:Like it's really easy to sell. Like, you know, we have best in class benefits on kickbacks on a weekly, monthly, daily basis. Um, you can get additional bonuses on the side there. There's all sorts of promotions that will run as we kind of continue to grow here. And then the other side is the crypto piece. You know, we're eventually going to be launching a native token as well that will have benefits within our ecosystem. And we're certainly going to kick back to like our biggest players and partners and everything there to kind of make sure they're compensated when that's dropped. We actually have our airdrop program going now.

13:15Anders Figueira:So we play on BetHog in addition to all those VIP benefits that you'll get. You'll also get points towards the token when it does drop. Wow, so cool.

13:25Tyler Axon:You guys are making a token. That makes it all the more legit.

13:30Anders Figueira:Yeah, no, have to play in the crypto game. We're all figuring out as we go here.

13:35Tyler Axon:No, of course. And now that you're talking about tokenization and the way that it's a decentralized casino, and I understand how it works, would you be able to explain to us what it is marketing to crypto native users versus traditional casino players where you mentioned like for MGM, you would do TV ads and maybe radio and get another demographic more on board than what I imagine you must be finding with crypto, right?

14:04Anders Figueira:Yeah, no, it's definitely been an interesting kind of adjustment. I mean, on the one hand, you look at crypto, particularly kind of in the most recent cycle where, you know, meme coins were all the rage, like the big overlap in kind of that customer demographic. You know, like you're looking for thrill seekers, you're looking for people who, you know, have built out a strategy and think they can create an opportunity for themselves. Like that's the sport better, that's the neem coin trader. So it kind of overlaps there and where, you know, there is a nice synergy. but it does kind of create an element of you know we we thought with like back at betmgm for example we think we know the channels where we're marketing to a sports better or casino player like now we kind of have to filter that through marketing to a crypto consumer and like if you consider the direction that all digital marketing is going now where you know everything's more internet more social media more influencer driven rather than those traditional channels like for that web-free consumer, it's cramped up to 10.

15:08Anders Figueira:So really, like for us, a lot of those channels that we're working through are, you know, social media and influencer based. There are still some, you know, like SEO affiliates, and like you want to be in those kind of channels as well, display ads and the like there. But a lot of our targeting is kind of totally renovated towards the crypto customer and the data we can get on them. And then, you know, yeah, just trying to adapt with where we're seeing players and learn as we go for where kind of these these types of consumers who are in many ways like the the smartest types of consumers on the internet in terms of these types of ads where we can reach them yeah now i know the what's it called

15:51Tyler Axon:like the crypto crowd or the crypto audience they all know too much for their own good because they know if the coins are gonna go well down they all have a theory they all have a way of looking at things i know it because i was a part of it for a while so i understand what you mean um but um tyler and how many players does bet hog have constantly like playing in and within like your servers do you have that that that statistic yeah um i mean we're still fairly early days uh

16:23Anders Figueira:we've definitely been looking internally uh for much of the year to kind of build out our product to make sure again i'll going back to those principles we shared before like we want to make sure it's safe, it's trustworthy, it's the infrastructure is sound. So we've really been investing internally rather than in marketing so far, where we're kind of getting ready to push the pedal to the metal there. So still like a relatively modest user base. But I mean, we have a really active community. That's the other side of things is like, it's really cool to kind of even anecdotally see how much these customers are bonding with our brand and active.

16:56Anders Figueira:And, you know, we had a telegram group going for a while. Now we've shifted it over to on on-site chat which is really cool and seeing those people be active um they're always reaching out to like you know members of our team our vip hosts myself um so it's it's really exciting to see people kind of get on with the brand early on and you know that was kind of the thesis too was with picking bethog as a as a title is obviously before i came on but um you know a lot of our competitors have pretty standard you know like gambling related names as their domain name pretty like, I mean, obviously they're ones that are doing better than others, but they do kind of blend all together to an extent.

17:32Anders Figueira:Like we absolutely want to stand out. And that's what we've been doing with our branding, with our name, with our characters. So we think it's starting to cut through there.