SBK has become the latest firm to embrace a fresh approach to sports betting marketing in the UK by embracing podcasts. 

With the Premier League banning front-of-shirt betting deals next year, and growing scrutiny over club-operator links, operators are looking for new ways to reach fans – podcasts being one of them.

SBK’s deal with Premier Sports, sponsoring the Scottish Football Social Club podcast and supporting LaLiga and SPFL social content, is a clear example. It gives the brand exposure in key communities while offering fans real value.

Podcasts as the new frontier

The rise of podcasts is changing how betting brands connect with football audiences. Adam Baylis, SBK’s Marketing Director, sees them as a crucial way to engage fans.

In an interview with SBC News, he explained that podcasts offer the firm the platform to engage with fans and get its messages across. 

“It’s not just about slapping your logo on the video creative. It’s about having an integrated way in which to get your product messaging across so fans can engage with it and derive some value.”

Baylis also added that podcasts have evolved as such that they’ve really had to kick on and strive to maintain engagement, grow their fan bases and grow their communities. “As betting partners, it definitely challenges the brand to think of more creative ways to integrate and engage while still offering value,” he explained.

Other operators are also investing in podcasts. Sky Bet sponsors The Overlap, BoyleSports backs No Tippy Tappy and Andy’s Betting Club supports Pitch Side. These deals highlight a wider trend – podcasts are becoming a key tool for brands to engage football fans beyond traditional advertising.

In fact, a quarter of the British public are now listening to podcast episodes weekly, at around 7.7 hours each, according to the Rajar Midas Survey for Spring 2025. 

Cutting through in Scotland

SBK is taking a product-first approach to stand out in Scotland’s crowded market. Baylis stated: “We own all of our own technology, we’re solely focused on delivering the best possible sports betting experience rather than trying to cross-sell customers into free spins.

“Whilst I accept that we’re competing for visibility, the product and the USPs are such that it almost does the job for us.” 

Scottish football has been dominated by two teams, Rangers and Celtic, for much of its history, and in recent years it has become much more of a one horse race. However, SBK is striving to make sure its partnerships go beyond the Old Firm to engage fans across the country. 

Baylis added: “Sometimes if you only watch Sky Sports you’d be forgiven for thinking the only two teams playing in that league are Celtic and Rangers. But content partnerships like we have with Premier Sports and Open Goal have to focus on broader topics within the game. 

“We have an existing partnership with Raith Rovers in the Scottish Championship and I don’t know that there’d be many other betting operators whose focus last Friday was the Fife Derby with them taking on Dunfermline.

“Through SBK’s partnerships with the likes of Premier Sports, Open Goal, Hibernian and Raith Rovers, we’re certainly picking up the slack in areas across club partnerships, content and dedicated promotions that others aren’t.”

In the 2024/25 season, the Premier League saw a combined average viewership of 2.52 million per match across Sky Sports and TNT Sports. Approximately 45% of UK bettors regularly place wagers on football matches.

Moreover, Scotland’s top four football divisions had an average attendance of 21.3 attendees per 1,000 people in 2023, the highest in Europe. Over two-thirds of Scottish football fans engage in betting activities related to the sport.

It’s no surprise then that companies like SBK are looking for ways to find exposure in this space. But with the sector being, as mentioned above, highly competitive, standing out from the crowd requires thinking outside the box.

Baylis sums up SBK’s philosophy: “We’re a company of sports fans and we want to give those communities that we work within the engagement they want and deserve.”

Background

SBK built its reputation on horse racing, leveraging its “best price” USP with partners such as Ascot. Football was always the next step. 

“We vastly increased our exposure through football partnerships across the UK and Ireland this year. We were very strong on racing and we were keen to engage football customers as much as possible.”

With challenger brands increasingly active in football sponsorship, Baylis asserts that SBK is leading the way. However, he does note some of the efforts put in by other companies like SpreadEx, which for the most part has resisted the allure of the Premier League for the many widely followed clubs of the EFL Championship.

“There’s definitely been a bit of a change in the football partnership space recently, whereas it was really just the major operators that were playing there,” he says.

“But you’ve seen what SpreadEx Sports have done in the Championship, for example. I think it’s really important that SBK is leading the charge of those challenger brands.”

Beyond logo slapping

SBK focuses on fan engagement, not just visibility. Baylis explains: “We’re not in the business of logo slapping. Of course, any kind of partnership is about raising awareness and top of the funnel activity. But what’s really important is to get out the messages behind SBK and particularly in football.”

The general association between clubs and operators continues to come under increased scrutiny. For example, Aston Villa’s partnership with BK8 revived huge backlash from the club’s Supporters Trust, which highlighted concerns about social and mental health harms.

Similarly, in 2021, Norwich City ended a betting deal with the same brand just three days after it was secured following fan backlash. 

He highlights the brand’s ethical approach: “SBK is a very unique product ethically in so much as we are perhaps the only if not one of the only sports brands in the UK to not offer casino, bingo, roulette or slots… which I think is a really unique proposition for some users.”

This philosophy underpins the Premier Sports podcast deal, which also includes exclusive subscriptions for SBK customers. Baylis noted: “Being part of Premier Sports’ social and podcast content gives us powerful visibility in key communities. It’s all about giving fans more value.”

Building added value

Meanwhile, many betting sponsorships have a poor reputation, Bayliss acknowledged. He added: “In my opinion betting sponsorships in football probably get a bit of a bad rap from fans because of the way they’ve been executed over the years. 

“Bigger brands and some smaller brands have simply used it as an awareness exercise and at times solely a platform for RG messaging”

SBK wants to do things differently and try to deliver a more positive message as a challenger brand in that “we’re sports betting for sports fans”.

“We don’t offer casino, slots, roulette – which are probably the products that have given betting sponsorships a fairly poor reputation in the space.”

He points to the Hibernian partnership as an example: “We’ve done a lot there for it to not just be like a logo slapping sleeve exercise. We did four or five live podcast events up there last year, which is a really awesome way to allow for fans to engage with their club… engaging with former players and current players.

“Yes, of course it’s brought to you by SBK, but that’s because internally we are all sports betting nuts.”

With the aforementioned front of shirt betting deals getting banned next year, are podcasts the new way forward for companies to engage fans?

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