In focus: Sporting Solutions

Andy Wright, CEO of Sporting Group, the market leading supplier to the global sports betting industry, discusses what makes Sporting Solutions, the Group’s B2B division, a pioneering provider of software services

Sporting Solutions has been very active in North America. After launches with Alberta Gaming Liquor & Cannabis (AGLC) and Ontario Lottery & Gaming Commission (OLG), what are your longer-term ambitions for this market?

Those two very successful integrations were launched within a week of each other and create a great platform for us to promote our products and services further in the North American and Canadian market. We see the North American market as a key priority for us in the future, as we continue to focus on our managed services platform and our market leading trading services.

As a sports betting technology supplier, what’s the question you are frequently asked by operator partners and how do you answer it?

There are always questions about the time to market and requests for a tailored offering. Our recent launch in Alberta is an excellent example to demonstrate how Sporting Solutions meets such demands. In this instance, not only did we deliver the solution in record time, but if you compare Ontario and Alberta’s offering, it’s clear how vastly different they are. So, we’re confident that with our highly configurable front-end widgets, we can satisfy the most differentiated offer on any operator’s whiteboard. Our nautral trading capabilities enable partners to determine their own pricing strategy and attitude to risk management.

In what ways has the rapid growth in sports betting across the US changed the way Sporting Solutions does business?

We have expanded our sales force to get in front of our potential partners and are now looking at additional offices in North America to house our growing presence there. There’s no doubt about it, our development pipeline has a more stateside feel to it. However, the main point for me, seeing how the market is maturing and the requirements from local operators, is that each state essentially represents a new territory, a new country, with separate localisation, personalisation and regulatory needs. We’re also hearing a certain level of dissatisfaction from operators regarding third party platforms and services. In addition, we are uniquely placed for larger lottery providers with sport licences and can leverage the reputation of Française des Jeux (FDJ) as a trusted omnipresent operator to capture that new business.

What does partnering with a nationally recognised operator like FDJ bring to the table?

First and foremost, trust and reliability. As a top 10 gambling company globally, partnering with FDJ provides immediate credibility, through reputation alone. Also, the pre-existing relationships it has opens many doors for us. Additionally, the sheer scale of FDJ as a company has provided Sporting Group with a lot of support for our staff through a very difficult time over the last couple of years, particularly with the pandemic. We are very fortunate to be associated with them.

What do you consider to be the most under-exploited areas in sports betting technology and how are you working to take advantage of this?

Certainly risk and compliance tools and services are under indexed in the supply space. You only need to look at the gold rush of acquisition in the US. As that matures, the regulators, on a state-by-state basis, may start looking in the rear-view mirror in terms of how these customers are acquired. Any operator should be able to stand up to scrutiny in the future and be able to say it is operated responsibly, to avoid huge penalties or anything worse. We’re working on tools where operators will be able to demonstrate this with confidence and continue to compete in acquiring customers. We aim to get closer to existing and new partners by building true collaboration and a better understanding of their needs in this space in the future.

What for you is Sporting Solutions’ key differentiator from its rivals?

Obviously, there are a lot of suppliers very established in this space, but I believe Sporting Solutions has a different blend of what operators require across the full value chain. We’re not interested in competing in the data rights space, but instead are fully focused on our market-leading reputation in pricing and risk management to win business. Plus, we’re able to demonstrate the reliability of a platform demonstrated by FDJ in France and its stability to progress our platform and our managed services strategy.