Spain haven’t conceded a goal at this World Cup. Five games, five clean sheets, zero goals against. By Wednesday morning, every operator’s content team will have noted that. Most will publish it as a headline stat, pair it with a semi-related insight or graphic , and move on. Few will tell the narrative that is driving the on field numbers.

The stat alone tells a customer nothing actionable. It’s a fact in search of a frame. What makes it powerful is the stories inside it, those stories are what fans are actually talking about. Mikel Merino, scoring a stoppage-time winner against Portugal to send Cristiano Ronaldo home from his final World Cup, two years after doing exactly the same thing at the same stage of Euro 2024. Pau Cubarsí, still a teenager, anchoring the most efficient defence in World Cup history. None of those stories show up in a stat line. A 40-year-old Cape Verde goalkeeper called Vozinha, who went into the tournament with 50,000 Instagram followers and came out of the group stage, after holding Spain to 0-0, as the most followed goalkeeper on the platform ever. All of them give a bettor a reason to engage with Spain vs Belgium on Friday that “0 goals conceded” alone doesn’t.

Listening before speaking

One of the constant problems associated with producing content for an audience is predicted how it will land. Analytics and fan segmentation can help with this, but what is more powerful is hearing what your fans are saying. Imagine a world wherein you can listen to your fans, where you could “drop a microphone in the pub”. 

With the development of AI and Automation technologies, workflows which listen to sporting discourse can now be built. Capturing vital signals which then inform both the content that you create and also to whom it is distributed.

One match, different stories

Take Friday’s quarter-final. Spain’s record meets a Belgium side that just put four past the USA, with Charles De Ketelaere scoring twice and Romelu Lukaku adding a clinical finish off the bench. The no.1 fan conversation on the chatforums is already framing this as a Belgium team coming to form at the right stage of the tournament versus a Spain team that has been consistently performing. With this critical context, we can be certain that content which centres on the Belgium team’s form will resonate, as it is inline with the current discourse. This is vital framing for producing content to serve the fan who needs a bit of context on the futures market, or the fan who is wondering about goalscorers. 

The operators who win the knockout stages commercially won’t be the ones with the most content. They’ll be the ones whose content starts where the conversation already is, and meets each customer with a story that makes them confident enough to act.

If you’re interested in forging deeper connection with your target audience, get in touch at will.Stephenson@twentyfirstgroup.com

Will Stephenson
Chief Betting Officer