In January 2019, the New Zealand Racing Board launched its biggest technology project ever - the new Fixed Odds Betting Platform. However, after launch the TAB immediately noticed a decline in play days (active betting days from account holders) from regular. Immediate action was needed to increase play days to a level higher than before the Fixed Odds Betting Platform launch, within a tight 6-week period

Getting to market quickly required a digitally-led approach, including the creation of an online “match and win” game for account customers called TAB Match 3.

TAB Match 3 allowed eligible customers the opportunity to match 3 out of 9 random cards on a daily basis. Players were able to play once per day. To qualify to play the game each day, customers simply had to place at least one bet (of any value or type) through their TAB account on the day prior.

At 10am each morning (7 days), players received a personalised email inviting them to play. The call to action in the email was to click “Play Now”. This took the player to the TAB Match 3 website which was also personalised, showing the player’s name and data regarding the amount of Bonus Bets they had won so far.

TAB Match 3 was hugely successful at engaging TAB customers and encouraging them to bet more often on sport and racing options. It created a 29.31% uplift in betting play days compared to a control group and generated an additional 58,671 play days throughout the six week period.

The email-driven campaign broke previous records for player numbers (44,362) and generated high email engagement with an average open rate of 61.74% and an average click-through rate of 54.78%.

The campaign returned a staggering 1179% ROI, meaning its small budget packed a big punch.