BetVictor’s Head of Engagement James Kennedy Becomes Head of talkSPORT Bet

James Kennedy, who for the last two years has worked as Head of Engagement UK for one of the leading UK betting sites BetVictor, has today announced that he will be the first ever Head of newly launched betting site talkSPORT Bet. talkSPORT bet is the latest venture by BetVictor in partnership with popular media outlet talkSPORT. The website was announced in August 2022 and launched several moths later.

In his latest LinkedIn post, Kennedy wrote:

“Delighted to share that I’m starting a new position as Head of talkSPORT BET! Still within the BetVictor world but leading this exciting new brand, partnered with talkSPORT. Absolutely made up, can’t wait for the year ahead.”

talkSPORT Bet is a “white label venture”, meaning that the betting site uses BetVictor’s proprietary betting software and technology, resources, and systems, however the brand, with its recognisable editorial image, is targeted at UK fans of the established and well-liked sports media outlet talkSPORT.

The new job will see Kennedy work from Gibraltar, where talkSPORT Bet is based. His responsibilities will include overseeing, managing, and leading the company. This is a big step from his current role, which mainly includes web and social media content management for BetVictor. However, Kennedy is a well-known name in the betting and gaming industry and has a wealth of experience with betting sites. He was previously a Betting Consultant at Gaming1, a company which provides customised gaming solutions to online casinos. Before that, Kennedy spent 8 years at popular UK bookmaker William Hill, working his way up from Content Publisher to International Operations Manager.

talkSPORT Bet is an ambitious initiative and is likely to be a challenge for Kennedy, as the company has already showed that it is aiming to carve out a significant spot amongst the popular UK betting sites. The company wasn’t meant to launch until January 2023, but BetVictor made the executive decision to launch 2 months early in order to attract customers as part of the 2022 Qatar World Cup betting surge. The bookmaker therefore hit the ground running and has so far been a success with customers who are attracted to it through the positive reputation of the talkSPORT media outlet.

As talkSPORT Bet uses the BetVictor betting and gaming system, the sportsbook part of the betting site includes all the standard betting options and features that customers expect to find – in-play wagers, bet boosts, enhanced accumulators, bet builder, and cash out. Very importantly, talkSPORT Bet also takes advantage of all of BetVictor’s social responsibility and safer gambling tools and features, which means that the betting site has a massive head start when it comes to ensuring customer safety, responsible gambling, and the minimizing of gambling harm. As BetVictor is one of the most popular and oldest bookmakers, it has well-established and tested policies and procedures in respect of social responsibility and safe gambling.

BetVictor is not new to the creation, promotion, and management of white label betting sites, and talkSPORT Bet joins its existing portfolio, which includes brands such as Parimatch UK, Heart Bingo, and BildBet. Parimatch UK was a franchise from GR8 Tech, an international tech coverage B2B and B2C company, which was previously known as Parimatch Tech. BildBet was a venture with German newspaper Bild, and Heart Bingo is a project between BetVictor and UK radio channel Heart. Experts across the betting and gaming industry are curious to see how talkSPORT Bet will perform, as previous ventures between betting providers and media outlets had yielded poor results. An example was a project between Tabcorp and News Corp UK which resulted in the betting site SunBets. The site stopped operating in June 2018, only after 2 years of taking bets.

talkSPORT Bet however has had a strong start with the World Cup in Qatar, and is now attracting new customers through an excellent introductory offer – “Get up to £40 in free bets”. In addition to its user-friendly, intuitive interface, and a variety of sports betting markets across 28 sports, the site provides casino and live casino gaming options. Notably, bettors benefit from 24/7 live chat support.

Whether talkSPORT Bet will be a success remains to be seen, however appointing an important BetVictor figure to run the betting site is a big step for all involved. It appears that BetVictor has a lot of trust in its new venture and is committed to investing in it in order to make it successful. We will follow talkSPORT Bet’s development with interest and will report any relevant news on our blog.