Strive Sponsorship has been appointed to manage content and editorial services for Smarkets newly launched Smarkets News and SBK Betting Zone sites. 

Services included under the agreement are written and podcast content, editing and content management covering nine initial sports such as football, golf, rugby, the NBA and NFL.

The company will provide Smarkets with sports writers offering insights, betting tips, previews, opinion pieces and trends, in an expansion of a pre-existing agreement. 

Strive’s previous four-year partnership with Smarkets saw the provision of social media content services for the Smarkets Exchange and SBK sportsbook brands. 

“The betting industry is highly competitive and content is playing an ever more important role in attracting and retaining customers,” said Malph Minns, Managing Director of Strive Sponsorship.

“Therefore, to be entrusted with developing longer-form content for both the Smarkets exchange and SBK sportsbook app is a testament to the high quality and versatile team we have and our ability to deliver specialist content management services.

Smarkets News was announced by the company in February, with the premise of leveraging sports writers with a focus on leveraging data from the firm’s exchange and its odds generator as an information source. 

Strive Sponsorship’s team of sports writers will join established football, horse racing, golf and basketball commentators such as Robin Bairner, Brian Keogh, Liz Byrnes, and Mark Woods, as well as tipsters Tom Collins – formerly of the Racing Post – and Matthew Shaddick, Head of Political Markets. 

“We are very excited to be bringing together so many great writers for a new betting content site that aligns with our mission for Smarkets to be a leading information source,” commented Smarkets spokesman Adam Baylis,

“Smarkets News will provide unique angles and fascinating trends from our wide range of betting markets. Strive was the obvious partner to help us deliver this vision given their great team and strong understanding of sport, betting markets, engaging digital content, and their consistently high level of delivery over a number of years.”

The SBK Betting Zone was announced a month after Smarkets News as a content hub for the SBK sportsbook, combining writers, brand ambassadors, podcasts and previews.

Current contributors include brand ambassadors jockey Sean Levey, Nicola Currie, Tom Bellamy, and trainer George Boughey, with podcasts handled by the aforementioned Tom Collins alongside Ross Millar, James Millman and Racing TV’s Jess Stafford.