TMI Helps Top 3 US iGaming Player Close the Gap With Established Competitors
The Client
BetMGM was formed in 2018 when MGM Resorts International and Entain Holdings created a joint venture aimed at revolutionising the online gaming and sports betting industry in the United States. Today, they are one of the major players in this highly competitive space.
Summary of Our Initial Targets and Final Results
| Initial Targets May 2019 | Final Results May 2021 | |
| Domain Authority | ⬆ 20% | ⬆ 66% |
| Domain Rating | ⬆ 20% | ⬆ 47% |
| Trust Flow | ⬆ 20% | ⬆ 250% |
| Referring Domains | ⬆ 100% | ⬆ 797% |
| External Backlinks | ⬆ 100% | ⬆ 3126% |
The Challenge
One of the main objectives of the campaign was to create a new and improved hub for our sport and casino content. The purpose of this was to provide a place where users could access exciting content that inspires them to become fans and sign up to BetMGM.
We were also looking to grow the BetMGM website so that it would be at the forefront of the entertainment and betting industry in the United States.
Targets
These were the objectives set at the beginning of the campaign:
- Domain Authority (DA): From 33 to 40 (20% Increase)
- Domain Rating (DR): From 49 to 58.8 (20% Increase)
- Trust Rank: From 12 to 13.2 (20% Increase)
- Ranking keywords: From 3,688 to 7,732 (100% Increase)
- Referring domains: From 503 to 1,000 (100% increase)
- External backlinks: From 92,700 to 185,400 (100% increase)
The Intervention
This was how we aimed to make BetMGM’s objectives a reality:
Strategy
To ensure that BetMGM grew in rankings and appealed to our audience, our strategy was split into stages. The first stage was to rebrand the website and create the new casino and sports blogs. The brand was initially known as PlayMGM but was changed to BetMGM to speak more to the target market.
The sports and casino blogs were used as a hub for all blog content. We also worked on sports events and created engaging content around sports- and casino-related topics that our users would find organically on Google.
Creative and Content
By using an innovative approach, our campaign ensured that we were appealing to our target audience of sports and casino fans over the age of 21+. We utilised our research and knowledge of the entertainment sector by rebranding the blogs, and creating custom infographics and blog content, based on various topics, including lifestyle, sports, games, and casino themes.
For example, we created a piece on ‘The World’s Richest Athletes’ (screenshots below) to specifically engage with our target audience, whilst also including many high-volume keywords from the sports industry. For this piece of content, we applied our creative flare and created a custom infographic which listed the athletes and their earnings with links to each athlete’s personal profile page. This blog post provided an engaging user experience and managed to gain 19 natural backlinks.
Example of Custom Content: The World’s Richest Athletes blog post
The Results
Below are the rankings for PlayMGM key metrics and keywords and then BetMGM from May 2019 compared to May 2021. We achieved this within 2 years after the campaign began.
In short, we reached and exceeded our targets in all areas. For example, we blew past the target of achieving a 100% increase in ranking keywords. Instead, we achieved 24,707, which means we outperformed our client expectations and our target to achieve a 539% increase.
This campaign catapulted our client into the top 3 tier of the hyper competitive US iGaming sector.
Key Metrics
| May 2019 | May 2021 | |||
| Metrics | PlayMGM | BetMGM | Difference | Overall Percentage Increase |
| Domain Authority | 33 | 50 | 17 | 66% increase |
| Domain Rating | 49 | 72 | 23 | 47% increase |
| Trust Flow | 12 | 42 | 30 | 250% increase |
| Referring Domains | 503 | 4,510 | 4,007 | 797% increase |
| External Backlinks | 92,700 | 2,990,000 | 2,897,300 | 3,126% increase |
Top Keywords
| May 2019 | May 2021 | |||
| Top Keywords | PlayMGM | BetMGM | Difference | Overall Percentage Increase |
| Top 3 | 45 | 390 | 345 | 767% |
| 4 – 10 | 95 | 707 | 612 | 644% |
| 11 – 20 | 290 | 2,019 | 1,729 | 596% |
| 21 – 50 | 1,495 | 9,354 | 7,859 | 525% |
| 51 – 100 | 1,941 | 12,236 | 10,295 | 530% |
| Total | 3,866 | 24,706 | 20,840 | 539% |
Backlinks
| Domain Rating | Domain Authority | |
| Yahoo.com | 92 | 90 |
| Medium.com | 94 | 95 |
| Businessinsider.com | 92 | 94 |
| Usatoday.com | 91 | 94 |
DA – Domain Authority by Moz – predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engines.
DR – Domain Rating by Ahrefs – shows the strength of a website’s backlink profile compared to the others in our database on a 100-point scale.
From Unknown to Major Player in the Highly Competitive iGaming Industry
BetMGM was a completely new player in the online casino and online sportsbook space. Using a content-first approach over two years, we closed the authority gap between BetMGM and their competitors and helped to position them as a leading competitor in the iGaming industry.
