How Sportsbet Supports Career Growth

This article was written by Senior Relationship Manager, Shaun Bellizzi.

My journey at Sportsbet started way back in 2014 - and at the time, I thought it would be a short stay. Coming from a sales background and being a huge sports fan, I jumped at the chance at a 3 month contract in Customer Service during the Spring Carnival.

That 3-month contract turned into 3 and a half years (and a full time contract) in the Sportsbet Finance team. In this role, I worked in the Credit department servicing our customers Australia-wide who had a credit facility on their account. My day-to-day consisted of managing credit limits and processing credit applications, all while making sure our customers were active and enjoying their Sportsbet accounts responsibly. It was in the Finance team I started to make some real connections inside Sportsbet, dabbling in Revenue Insurance responsibilities as part of my personal development and liaising with various teams across the business - all still maintaining my relationship with Operations where it all started.

After the credit product was removed, I moved into the CRM team - sending marketing communications out to our customers, while also working closely with our Operations team to look at outbound communications via the telephone as another way to reach our customers. This included outbound scripts and improving on current ways of working, which lead to me being asked to use my leadership skills in a new outbound team that had been created to service Premium customers who currently didn't have a Sportsbet Relationship Manager. After establishing the foundations of that team, I moved into the Premium team as a permanent Relationship Manager looking after my own portfolio of customers. I am currently the Senior Relationship Manager of the Vic, SA and WA teams, managing a smaller portfolio of customers. This opportunity came about as part of my personal development plan with my people leader. It’s my team’s job to look after our Premium customers to enhance their betting experience with Sportsbet. This is done through unique promotions and hospitality events, and 24/7 service.

From the day I walked in the door and said I wanted to be here full time, Sportsbet has supported my journey every step of the way.

Sportsbet runs several initiatives throughout the year to help every staff member work on their development. DevFest is an initiative where one day a year every team around the business will run a session on what they do and how they came about doing it. Every staff member can attend these sessions to not only learn what is required but to network and meet people around the business.

On top of DevFest, Sportsbet runs online training courses and sessions throughout the year that staff members can sign up for in order to improve various skills. Mentorship is also something that is encouraged throughout the business, and the first thing I did when I started at Sportsbet was sign up for the mentorship program. Before I knew it, I had a senior employee in the business offering to help.

We also have our annual goal tracker called 'Smash It For 6" where we list some ideas outside of our core role that we can then take away and get help from other departments from the business to gain some more experience. The best part about Sportsbet are the people - everybody is always willing to give up their time and pass on knowledge.