BetStars tops sportsbook registration rankings

BetStars has topped a ranking of 45 sports betting sites’ registration processes by form analytics platform Formisimo.

The PokerStars sportsbook’s registration process took just 21.6 seconds to complete, compared to an average across the 45 sites of 77.7 seconds. 45 sports betting companies were analysed.

The Manchester-based company used 52 metrics to gauge performance, with each registration process then ranked to generate market positions. Betbright, Betfair and VernonsSports also performed strongly in the analysis, also being ranked “market leaders” by the Manchester-based company.

“They are likely to see higher visitor to registration conversion rates, and lower marketing cost per acquisition costs, leading to greater profitability”, it said.

ID checks were the main friction point, with users having to enter information into an average of 17 different fields. Gaming forms ask questions that are more personal than a regular form, as most providers need to carry out identity checks.

“This creates a longer process but also a greater cognitive load for the user, both of which have an impact on the likelihood of conversion.”

Back marker Sporting Index took 162.7 seconds, while marquee brands such as Coral, Ladbrokes, Bet365, Paddy Power had registration processes that took longer than the average to complete, classed as “underperforming” by Formisimo.

Fortisimo also found that half of betting registration forms had mobile unfriendly features, 39.2% of gambling processes provided no customer service information and just 16.3% displayed contact details on the page.

“In a congested market, where a small group of brands maintain the majority of brand awareness with the public, having a link to a customer services team builds confidence in the brand“, said the company.

Three key areas of improvement were identified. Gaming forms could be half the length, it found,“with the difference between the shortest and the longest forms being over 800%”, with a reduction in the fields directly impacting conversion rates. “The optimisation opportunities for long forms are significant as there are a high number of elements and areas that can be improved or removed“, said Formisimo.

Moving to radio buttons from text boxes and drop downs would also help new customers to save time by offering immediate visibility of the options, as could more widespread use of inline validation to show success, as well as errors, the company said.