Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival is a world renowned festival that showcases thoroughbred racing, fashion, and entertainment at its finest. Thousands of race goers soak up the buzz on and off the track, as glamorous punters and champion thoroughbreds descend on Melbourne for ten weeks of intense Spring Carnival action.
Every year racing enthusiasts and fashionistas alike are gripped by racing fever, and the city of Melbourne comes alive with this celebration of elite racing, elegant fashion, and enchanting social events that the Spring Racing Carnival is famous for.
From Memsie Stakes Day at Caulfield on August 30th, 2014 through until Emirates Stakes Day at Flemington on November 8th, the Spring Racing Carnival provides the perfect platform for all that is great about Victoria, with race meetings staged in both metropolitan Melbourne, as well as at picturesque country racecourses across Victoria.
The holy grail of the carnival is the Melbourne Cup, held on the first Tuesday in November, and known appropriately as ‘the race that stops a nation’. This year’s Spring Racing Carnival is sure to be another exciting affair with 65 feature race days being held through until early November, with the highlight being the 154th running of the time-honoured Melbourne Cup. The $6.2 Million 2014 Melbourne Cup run over 3200 metres (2 miles) will be held at Flemington racecourse on Tuesday 4th November 2014.
However, the Spring Racing Carnival is so much more than just the Melbourne Cup. It includes a number of high profile lead up races including the $3 Million 2014 Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield on Saturday, October 18th, and the $3 Million 2014 WS Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley on Saturday, October 25th.
So, the coming weeks are all about horse racing taking center stage in Melbourne. That means that the news is riddled with reports about Spring Carnival, and the chatter around the water cooler each morning is just as concerned with who’s off to the races this weekend, what designer you’ll be wearing, and who has a sure bet to share.
Even those who are not regular punters will probably think about having a little flutter on these major race meets, whether it’s an each way bet on the favorite, or a little more risk involved, taking a chance on the trifecta or a quaddy. Those who are regular betters take even more of a keen interest in the form guides and tipsters throughout Spring Racing Carnival, and they map out their betting with military precision. All of this translates into increased wagering revenue across the board.
In 2013, the 4 days of racing over the Melbourne Cup Carnival alone generated a record $600 million in wagering turnover across the country. In fact, punters wagered more than $1 billion during the Victorian Spring Racing Carnival from Memsie Stakes Day on August 31st, 2013 through until the Emirates Stakes Day in November. This turnover will no doubt continue to increase during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival, due largely to the increasing popularity of online betting, and particularly the accessibility and convenience of mobile sports betting today.
The growth in mobile betting is far from over as we achieve faster mobile Internet speeds, and greater depth in content, which is provided by 4G technology. Add to this more innovative smart phones, and what you have is dramatic rise in mobile betting as it becomes the choice for punter’s across Australian racetracks.
Let’s look at some figures. In Spring 2013, smartphone searches accounted for 35% of all betting related searches. This figure is expected to jump again this year, highlighting the importance of developing your Affiliate site and making sure that it is mobile optimised. This becomes particularly important to your Affiliate Marketing success across the Spring Racing Carnival, when you consider that one in three punters will choose to place a bet on their mobile device of choice, even when betting in the pub, club, or high street outlet is available.
Mobile optimization is something that DigitalFuel.com.au knows a thing or two about! We can help you with this, as long as you are a registered member of our Network. Engagement in the carnival starts a lot earlier than you would think. Search volumes ramp up from the Caulfield Guineas (October 11th, 2014) onwards, meaning there is a huge window coming up for acquisition. Competition for impressions during Spring is at another level this year with even more online bookies, and the cost of a Horse Racing Click is expected to jump significantly on 2013 (which jumped 42% on Spring 2012).
It stands to reason then that this is also the time of year when Affiliate Marketers who operate in the sports betting arena should be making hay while the sun shines! In fact, let us be so bold as to suggest that non-gambling affiliates can also take advantage of the attractive CPA’s and high level of interest in everything Spring Racing Carnival related.
Perhaps you’re a fashion blogger, a travel affiliate, or operating in the general interest or men’s magazine style affiliate space? Whatever you’re primary focus as an affiliate, there’s a real window of opportunity here to dip into wagering during peak season, and Digital Fuel’s Affiliate Marketing platform can help get you started.
Remember though, the opportunity has a definite ‘shelf life’; this means you can capitalize on traffic that you successfully refer to the many Australian online bookmakers you’ll have access to as a member at digitalfuelcom.au, but you can also walk away, money in hand, to resume your normal business affairs once the carnival wraps. So, jump on this now, or miss out on one of the biggest opportunities you’ll have all year for maximum business growth.
With Digital Fuel in your corner, we can help you maximize your reach amongst the mobile generation, plus, you’ll also have every chance of getting the right message to your customer, in real time, on any mobile device. With our guidance, your business should see a significant increase in conversions…and that’s what we like to call “a sure thing”…unlike your Grandmas early tip for the Melbourne Cup!
Find out more about us, and what we can do for you HERE. One of the many advantages of becoming a member at Digital Fuel, is that you will receive easy and immediate access to many of the major Australian Bookmakers direct from our Affiliate Marketing platform. The obvious benefit to you is you’ll save time and effort normally spent researching the market place. We’ve done all the legwork for you, so you can concentrate on creating content, getting visitors to your site, and “making hay while the sun shines brightly”…also known in Affiliate Marketing circles as making lots of money!
To discuss further, and to find out how we can do business together, contact us at: andy@digitalfuel.com.au