Haydock Entertainment Is Bodog's Asian Brand

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Recently Haydock Entertainment acquired the license to operate the Bodog brand in the Asian market. Rebecca Liggero interviewed Ian Dunning, the Managing Director of Haydock Entertainment, to find out how they acquired the Bodog brand and what their plans are for the future.

Haydock was already operating in the Asian market before acquiring the Bodog brand. It had developed and launched a brand from scratch that went by the name of 9play. However when it was known that Calvin Ayre, the owner of the Bodog brand, was looking for an Asian licensee, Haydock saw merit in the proposal and went ahead. Bodog was a trusted name in the regions it was operating and in the online gaming industry trust is everything. Also the Bodog tag line "work hard play hard" found resonance with the work ethic at Haydock Entertainment.

In Asia the Bodog brand operates as Bodog88. The number '8' is considered lucky in Chinese culture. Despite synergies within the Bodog group, Bodog88 is different from the American and European Bodog brands. In the Asian market the Random Number Generator games are not trusted. Incidentally 15 years ago this was the situation in the then nascent western market. Therefore Bodog88 focuses on Live Dealer games. The casino is offered in English and Chinese. The young male Chinese is the target customer at the present. This segment has a growing disposable income and a passion for entertainment and hence is an ideal customer base.

However Haydock is looking beyond China for the future. Dunning said, "Haydock objective is to be the largest on-line provider of betting and gaming in Asia." No time frame as been set for this but Dunning believes that with the backing of the Bodog brand they will eventually achieve the objective. Immediate plans include new casino products and many improvements in the Live Dealer offering. There are also plans to release the software in other Asian languages.

The biggest challenge before Haydock is advertising. In Asian countries there are many more constraints on the media and the advertising is non-provocative. Therefore Haydock will have to rely more on the attraction of the Bodog brand image. A lot of information is available on the Bodog brand on the Internet and the Asian players usually check out such information before wagering. Therefore this is a big help. It will be imperative for Haydock to operate Bodog88 in a manner that is consistent with the global image of Bodog if it wants to take advantage of the brand equity.

The latest arrangement in the Bodog group is that all players can enter through a common portal Bodog.com and will then be directed to the North American, European or Asian brand. This will enhance the common brand equity and yet give each of the brands their own space in the online gaming industry.

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