Gambling Insider: Sports Betting Focus H2 2022

EDITOR’S LETTER

Growing up, my mantra was ‘sport is life.’

Today, even though I begrudgingly admit there are more important things out there, when my favourite team is playing, little else matters. From the kick-o to the final whistle, the sport in question – whichever it may be – may as well be my life.

Since the overturning of PASPA in 2018, such has been the focus on sports betting in the US, you could argue ‘sports betting is life’ for our industry right now. It’s the iGaming and casino volumes that bring the higher margins and revenue – but it’s definitely sports betting that draws players in en masse and has gotten the whole of North America (now including Canada, of course) talking.

That’s reflected in this US-facing Sports Betting Focus magazine, which you might be reading in your office, over a morning coffee – or at G2E Las Vegas. In this issue, we speak to Kambi about all things NFL (page 7), Simplebet about all things micro-betting (page 40) – tipped as the future of sports betting by YouTube star-turned-investor Jake Paul – and XLMedia about all things US regulation (page 34).

With the 2022 soccer World Cup around the corner, we look at things from the Canadian perspective (page 28), while also assessing what US states could have legalised sports wagering in time for the next World Cup in 2026. Finally, in terms of the Americas, we have LatAm – where we zone into Brazil in particular (page 30), and Amelco’s Brandon Walker speaks to us about LatAm, the US and South Africa (page 46). Three for the price of one, so to speak.

However, for any US-based readers looking to glean more from international markets, fear not. Outside of our North American content, we speak to Sportradar about its new Orako solution (page 42), Digitain Founder Vardges Vardanyan sits down with me in Southern France (page 36) and Parimatch Tech provides an insightful interview from wartorn Ukraine, where the company is operating under an understandably unique set of circumstances (page 44).

As ever in our Focus magazines, we provide a who’s who of the sports betting industry with our company pro les. And, in our Roundtable, we’re similarly giving you a ‘who’s who’ of esports betting, as four panellists assess the past, present and future of the vertical (page 20). Again, we can’t resist asking whether it will ever overtake traditional sports betting – and the overall consensus these days is perhaps leaning towards ‘no.’

Elsewhere, Khalid Ali, International Betting Integrity Association CEO, speaks to us about the organisation’s industry plans (page 14), while I look at why two sportsbooks have done so well in the ever-competitive UK market (page 10). See if you can guess which two.

TP, Editor

Julian Perry, COO, Editor in Chief

Tim Poole, Editor

In focus: Evoplay

What was the motivation behind developing the following football -themed instant games?

We have always strived to broaden the iGaming audience by developing cross-play games that provide our partners with an additional audience from other entertainment verticals. Moreover, iGaming and sports betting are two major revenue generators that have a 74% and 40% share of the whole gambling industry respectively. Uniting these two audiences for us is both a product and business-related experiment.

Sports bettors are a very intriguing and hyper-perspective audience, as they have the same psychological gambling background as iGamers. This means they may be drawn to casino games with familiar functionality.

With this in mind, we developed a suite of cross-channel products that provide two audiences with what they want: a football event and the opportunity to bet on it. That sounds extremely promising ahead of the next World Cup, which will draw millions of bettors and football enthusiasts watching and searching for betting opportunities.

And our multi-channel games, Football Bet, Penalty Shoot-out, Penalty Series and Football Manager, are all ready to enhance sports bettors’ experience and enjoyment

of the upcoming World Cup. Online casinos and sportsbooks will benefit greatly from the global attention of the football event.

Can you tell us more about how betting features work in online casino games and what it takes to include one in a title?

Choosing a canvas for such a difficult-to -create and familiar game, we settled on instant games since they provide a good technological framework for implementing betting features, as well as demonstrating a full-screen sports event for gameplay.

Moreover, instant games ‘fix’ the existing inconvenience of traditional bets, where you need to wait for a specific event to bet on and for the final result of your bet. Here, no one is dependent on a particular sports events schedule. Players can get a portion of wagering excitement at any time from the comfort of their own home or anywhere else.

In usage, the game is also easy to understand and play. Of course, the process depends on the specific title but, generally speaking, a player just needs to place a bet, click on the spot to push a ball and the RNG algorithm determines the outcome. Or, in other cases, they can play the role of sports analysts and bet on a national football team winning – like it is in original sports betting.

What about external tools for attracting sports betting audiences to come and try these games? Where and how will Evoplay ‘capture’ this audience?

We rely on data-driven marketing to show the quickest path to sports bettors. Compared to the B2B sector, the B2C audience requires an entirely different approach and channels. Like consumers from any other industry, gamblers heed influencers and tune in to trends they follow. In total, 61% of people trust recommendations they get from influencers, with 80% of them purchasing the promoted product.

Influencer marketing holds an excellent capacity for engaging the sports betting audience. We maximise our collaboration with streamers, sports bloggers, football YouTubers and other types of digital content creators who have a connection with the audience we are focused on. Based on research and analysis, social media has shown to be one of the most effective mediums. Paid campaigns tailored to deliver the right message and image of our product pay off with a surge of interest in it.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to how you talk about it, how you present it and who you present it to. A perfect formula does exist. We’ve unlocked it for our cross-selling products, which are cut out for spreading the word about using a diverse range of channels.

Vladimir Malakchi

Vladimir Malakchi, CCO of global iGaming provider Evoplay, discusses the launch of cross-channel games that will allow casinos and sportsbooks to reach a wider audience

“Compared to the B2B sector, the B2C audience requires an entirely different approach and channels. Like consumers from any other industry, gamblers heed influencers and tune in to trends they follow”

The NFL, Massachusetts and Tom Brady

As the new NFL season kicks off in September, Gambling Insider speaks to David Ball, Head of NFL Pre-Game at Kambi, as he discusses favourites, new markets and the strength of fan loyalty

As the new NFL season gets underway, Gambling Insider speaks to David Ball, Head of Pre-Game NFL at sports betting supplier Kambi, about the new campaign. In an interview that covers a range of topics in regard to the NFL and other US sports in general, Hall gets across the ideas that Kambi are pursuing, as well as giving his own opinion on which teams will stand out during the season.

During the conversation, Kambi’s Head of Pre-Game NFL also speaks at length on the new markets the provider wants to expand into; the competition the company faces as the US market grows bigger; state betting statistics and the money sportsbooks lost to Tom Brady over the past decade – prior to the recent legalisation of sports betting in Massachusetts.

Are you excited for the new NFL season?

It’s a lot of build-up and work to prepare but now we’re getting actual games, so you start to get a bit of excitement. Seeing a lot of the player news, it’s starting to get real.

Who are the favourites this season among bettors?

The Buffalo Bills are the favourites, there’s a lot of love for them and for Josh Allen as MVP, too. I think they were arguably the best team last year, but they just didn’t get the run of things in the Playoffs. So, they’re coming back stronger this year. They’re a very popular bet.

For the new season, what kind of betting statistics are you seeing state by state? Do most back their home team or who they think will win, regardless of affiliation or loyalty?

It’s interesting. I find the best way to look at it is by the season win totals for each team, and you’re seeing the most popular overs are with the Steelers and the Eagles, teams where there’s a big local following. The Eagles definitely feel good about their off-season and their chances. The Steelers have a seven-and-a-half win line, and Mike Tomlin – their head coach – has never had a losing season, so they feel they can cover that. It’s the same for the Lions in Michigan; everyone’s backing them there. Then, on the flip side, you’ve got one of the most popular under bets in the Chicago Bears – that’s a big market for us, and you may be seeing some local pessimism there. We’ve seen that in the past because New Jersey’s always been big. When we first opened there, we took a lot of bets on the Giants and the Jets from people who lived in that state and followed those teams; then you kind of saw it reverseonce they had some bad fortune in their teams and it quickly turned against them.

Obviously, Massachusetts gave the go-ahead to sports betting recently; is that a new market for you now?

Absolutely, that’s the plan. Kambi is always ready to go into these new states and has a great track record when it comes to being

online on day one. We see a lot of value in Massachusetts, it’s a really big sports town and, from an NFL perspective, you’ve got the Patriots; so that will be a great addition to our offering. We’ll be making sure, from a trading point of view, that we’ll be working with our operators on local team specials – stuff around that is always popular when you launch in new states.

Do you wish Massachusetts had opened up earlier, with the success of the Patriots over the last decade? Well, sportsbooks lost a fair bit of money to Tom Brady without betting being legal in Massachusetts, so it may have made it even worse. There’s a lot of luck involved in launching places at the right time, because you launch in a state and one of the first bets people want to make is on their team to win a championship. But, over the long run, we feel it evens out. We don’t worry ourselves too much about that now, and it helps that we’ve got a much more diverse spread of states now. It’s not the same as when we first came here, where it was only New Jersey and Pennsylvania – we

“ There are a lot of sportsbooks out there to compete with, but we’ve really focused on partnerships that can be market-leading”

“I’m going to say the Baltimore Ravens will bounce back this year, they had a rough year with injuries last year and are a very well-coached team. Currently, that would be my pick”

were a little concerned about those local teams winning the Super Bowl and getting a big payout from us.

Do you find it difficult when a new state opens up and introduces its own set of bespoke regulations?

There’s a lot to look at there, but it’s something we’re well-prepared for. We’ve got really good at offering a regulatory compliance team here who deal with most

of that; and they’ve got a complicated matrix on what’s allowed in different states, ensuring we’ve got a great record of staying compliant there. As a trader, we’re working with them to give our full offering, and they’ll look through it and check everything is compliant with each state’s rules. We’ve got a good system in place for that and it doesn’t create too many issues, because our team is well versed in doing that from all the previous launches.

Whenever you launch in a new state, the competition you face must be huge?

Yeah, there are a lot of sportsbooks out there to compete with, but we’ve really focused on partnerships that can be market-leading – whether it’s more nationally or just leaders in the state where we open. We’re all about finding those strategic relationships where we can be a strong force in every state we go into.

What is the biggest sport in the US in terms of sheer bettors?

Overall our big ones are the major US sports, alongside soccer and tennis.

Actually, with tennis, because it’s an all-year-round thing with big tournaments all over the globe, it makes it a key sport for us. But soccer is obviously big in a World Cup year, so that’s going to be fantastic for us. In terms of US sports, obviously football is massive and, looking

at turnover per game, the NFL is really king in the US. That said, basketball has a lot more games, and with March Madness that’s the biggest challenge for us as an event.

Finally, what two teams do you think we’ll find in the Super Bowl this season? I’m not just going to give you the favourites. On the AFC side, I’m going to say the Baltimore Ravens will bounce back this

year; they had a rough year with injuries last year and are a very well-coached team. Currently, that would be my pick. In the NFC, I’m going against some of the old heads of Brady and Rogers, as good as the Rams are, sometimes it’s difficult to repeat.

I like the 49ers and, despite the uncertainty over the quarterback, the rest of the team is so strong. So give me the 49ers vs the Ravens in the Super Bowl.

“IN TERMS OF US SPORTS, FOOTBALL IS MASSIVE AND THE NFL IS REALLY KING IN THE US”

The gold standard

Product is almost everything when dealing with online technology and software. That’s especially so in a market that offers a homogenous product. Online sports betting is one such sector – it doesn’t get much more homogenous than dozens of recognisable brands offering the same markets on the same events, with marginally different odds. So when it comes to choosing between these multiple sports betting brands, it’s the best product that usually wins out.

In the ultra-competitive UK market, two brands do this exceptionally well. But we’re not an affiliate looking to generate leads for these two operators – nor is this a piece of advertorial. Instead, we’re interested in exploring why they are so successful, and how others can try and emulate it. While a series of sportsbook suppliers, many of which grace the pages of this publication, are not to be underestimated for their UK-based products, there are certain market leaders that truly produce the gold standard.

Naturally, these brands have major financial backing. They can therefore afford to go big on welcome offers, bonuses and free bets. Yet it is the simpler things these two operators do that the rest of the market should aspire to. Many of the factors that make them the UK’s go-to sportsbooks do not rely on greater resources, but rather a shrewder use of the resources available to everyone. A huge part of standing out, meanwhile, involves retention – something the industry at large has been accused of focusing too little on, instead devoting large portions of its resources to new customer acquisitions...

will forever be associated with the brand and, if there is a big horseracing meet or football match, it’s sure to be front and centre. If it’s the Champions League final, moreover, and there’s a super boost or free bet special on offer, it’s guaranteed to be either a first or second banner for all customers. Admittedly, homepage layout and content banners are nothing groundbreaking.

All major operators utilise them and have big teams operating them behind the scenes. But can every brand out there really claim it conducts this simple process as well as the industry’s top operators?

VISIBILITY

On the best-performing sports sites in the UK, it’s striking how obvious the biggest events to bet on – and biggest offers currently available – are. Presentation -wise, an effective homepage is simple yet memorable; something as simple as the colour

BREADTH OF OFFERING

Another simple yet vital factor is an operator’s range of bet selections. Leagues you may have never heard of in countries you didn’t know your sport existed in? The best operators have these covered. And, in the age of personalisation – an area the industry is admittedly well documented to still be behind on – whole new markets are created by users themselves. If a huge darts

Gambling Insider Editor Tim Poole looks at five key ways to stand out in the ultra-competitive UK sports betting market

match is about to take place, rather than only offering highest checkout, total 180s and match winner, customised markets can go into the hundreds. The same applies for football, tennis and other sports. You would think offering as many markets as possible

is sports betting 101, but there are still plenty of big-name brands who don’t pay anywhere near enough attention in this area.

responsible for players. When it comes down to it, certain brands just do CRM better than others.

RETENTION

Welcome offers can make the difference for new customers choosing which sportsbook to sign up with but, in the long term, they can’t keep a player loyal. With so much brand hopping in sports betting, loyalty is hard to come by full stop. The biggest brands, however, manage to keep players coming back regardless – because they aren’t afraid to focus on retention. An easy example is a free bet offer that’s available to both existing customers and new players. Another is a retention tool that offers a free bet at the end of each week, only if a certain deposit value has been met the previous week (perhaps with some added but minimal odds restrictions). Both of these cases give players a reason to keep coming back and – unlike many other industries – do not leave new customers with an unfair advantage.

SMART OFFERS

Finally, exactly which promotional offers and free bets are on offer make a huge difference to players – be they savvy or casual. Big brands do have an advantage here in terms of cash reserves and liquidity, but ultimately a good offer will always be more attractive to a player than something that feels like it was cobbled together at the last minute. Offering odds boosts on the right markets will attract players – but won’t mean a win for the player every time, occasionally turning that large draw from total wagers (handle) into cold, hard revenue. Similarly, too many brands out there only offer a free £5 ($6) or £10 bet in exchange for £20 wagered. How can an offer like that appeal to the casual bettor, let alone the battle-hardened veteran, when there are much better offers already on the market?

CRM

On a similar note, there’s a subtle skill to not bombarding players with notifications, text messages or emails. But the leading operators find this balance while ensuring that, if there’s a major sporting event or major price boost, everyone who needs to know... does know. CRM systems can, again, be third-party or in-house, but how effectively they are used is up to the operators and the teams they hire to run them.

If players are kept in the loop and engaged, they will always come back for more. At the same time, not overdoing it keeps things

The above factors may sound simple enough to industry experts – and there definitely isn’t anything approaching rocket science behind them. But if you stop to think for a second, you realise just how easy it is to fall short in these key areas. While we haven’t named any names, we’re willing to bet two brands in particular have jumped straight to the top of your head as the best of the best in these five areas. Indeed, they are the gold standard setters – but anyone looking to challenge them need not look any further than these key factors. It’s far easier said than done.

“Anyone looking to challenge the gold standard setters need not look any further than these key factors. It’s far easier said than done”

“In the ultra-competitive UK sports betting market, two brands do this exceptionally well”

In focus: Enteractive

transparency and control. With the ability to deploy to new markets in less than a day, it’s the only scalable tool to truly personalise the player experience in a secure, GDPR -compliant manner.

The best thing about Enteractive’s service is that it’s pure revenue generation. The team works on a hybrid commercial model with new clients so there’s no financial outlay, just better results and more LTVs from a larger number of active players – making the system a win-win reactivation process. It’s risk-free because you’re only paying for players that deposit.

RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING AT ITS CORE

All of the teams at Enteractive are accredited by G4 to deliver a responsible approach to gambling. And because they are making tens of thousands of calls each month to an operator’s customer base, they can also help identify players who might need aid with gambling-related problems, ensuring that the gaming and entertainment sector remains fair, fun and safe.

WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE

Mikael Hansson founded Enteractive in 2008 to help iGaming operators reactivate churned players that proved unresponsive to standard CRM practices. The company has seen exponential growth in the market due to its innovative approach to reactivation: a unique platform dedicated to highly personalised one-to-one interaction directly with lapsed players. The team now consists of 130 talented individuals across two office locations in Malta and Romania, with an office in Miami set to launch in the fall.

TURNING CHURN INTO RETURN

In the US, large numbers of customers across a variety of sectors are left frustrated by businesses’ current approach to customer service, with menu bots and pre-recordings that make communicating with a brand much more difficult than it could be. Research supports these findings: when asked about their experience of contacting customer service departments, 90% of US respondents explained that they would prefer to speak with a real person rather than be in an automated queue, with 89% seeking to speak to someone in their own language.

Most CRM practices these days can be just as impersonal. While digital CRM provides one-way player engagement, some player segments do not respond well to such a

one-sided approach.

Providing a human-led solution to this problem, Enteractive delivers results with reactivation services that reach out to players on their own terms to make them feel heard, valued and cared for. They offer native-speaking agents for each market where a client operates, and they understand the unique cultural differences between players in different localities.

This is how the firm turns this segment of seemingly lost traffic into a revitalised revenue stream. Its approach leads to not only undeniably impressive conversion rates – an average 265% increase in ROI for clients – but also a healthy base of loyal, active players that form the foundation of a sturdy bottom line for operator clients.

REACTIVATION CLOUD TECHNOLOGY

Enteractive’s unique (Re)Activation Cloud software was developed by its in-house IT department to optimise the way clients connect and benefit from Enteractive’s services. The innovative custom-built platform can be integrated with an operator’s player databases seamlessly and securely via API; mixing the ease of a digital approach with the more personal, emotional connection of a human touch. Every step of the way, the (Re) Activation Cloud keeps the operator in the driving seat with a dashboard that ensures full

In 2021, Enteractive was ranked in the top four revenue generators for the global online gambling industry. The tireless hard work of its teams resulted in just over 100% year-on-year increase from 2020 in player deposits for operator clients.

In 2022, the firm is expanding its services to new markets. With recent wagering legislation in 20 states across the US, gambling brands are signing up thousands of new players during important sporting events like the Super Bowl and March Madness, but losing a large proportion of them due to a poor approach to loyalty and customer service standards. Enteractive’s truly personalised approach to CRM helps increase retention for these audience segments.

HOW TO LEARN MORE

If you’re interested in generating more revenue from your iGaming brand by unlocking those lost segments of your player databases, have a chat with the team at Enteractive. Once you see how easy it is to increase your active players through its unique CRM approach, you’ll never look back.

Mikael Hansson

Integrity: The global perspective

So what’s on the agenda for the IBIA right now?

We’ve had a surge of applications in the last few months and that’s partly been driven by what is going on in North America, with more states beginning to open up, as well as Ontario. Now there’s a betting framework in the province of Ontario, a number of operators are seeking licences there because the framework in Ontario is actually very

favourable towards them. That’s one of the great jobs the regulator there has done, they’ve actually listened to the operators and developed a framework that should yield a high channelisation rate for the market. That’s really what you need to aim for when you’re creating a sports betting market.

Last year, we launched a report called the Optimum Betting Market Study, which looked at what you need to do to create an optimum

framework for sports betting. From what I’ve seen of the market in Ontario, they’ve actually adopted quite a lot of what we would like to see. So I think it’s been pretty positive, to be honest.

Moving away from North America for a moment, what are the main development trends elsewhere?

We are international, looking at all markets, which is quite challenging, of course, but LatAm

Against a backdrop of sports jerseys in his Brussels office, Khalid Ali, CEO of the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), speaks to Gambling Insider Editor Tim Poole about worldwide regulatory and integrity trends

is obviously the other key area for us right now. We’ve been monitoring developments in Brazil. It’s on, it’s off, it’s on and I think it’s back off again now because of elections taking place there. We also just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Colombian trade association, Fecoljuegos.

That’s a strategic partnership, so we can talk to their operators about sports betting and also hopefully open up channels of communication in that market. Of all the LatAm markets, Colombia is the one that is maturing the fastest, but now we’re beginning to see other markets starting to open up. There’s now discussions in

Peru, so we’re keeping an eye on that.

But then, closer to home, we have what’s going on in Europe and we’re following those developments, as well. Obviously, it’s not our role to get involved in national discussions, that’s left to the trade associations; and again, we’re only focused on sports betting and integrity. So we will work with a number of trade associations we have agreements with.

For example, we recently signed agreements with NOGA, the Dutch Gaming trade body, BOS, a trade body in Sweden, and we signed an MOU with the Betting and Gaming Council in the UK last year. So we have built relationships with trade associations, not just in Europe but also in North America. For example, in Ontario, we have a relationship with the Canadian Gaming Association.

What about Asia?

Asia is a lot more challenging. We obviously look at Asia to see the developments there and we are in contact with the Asian Racing Federation, which is one of the arms that is really fighting against illegal operators in Asia. But right now, I would say our focus is really on North America, LatAm, Europe and now we’re also looking at Africa.

BetKing, an African-facing operator, recently signed up to the Association. They have licences in Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana. BetKing is actually part of the KingMakers Group, which is pretty much the leading sports and digital entertainment platform in Africa. They joined very recently, at the end of May.

We conduct a pretty intensive due diligence of all the operators to make sure they are credible, can fit into the values of the association and that they respect the code of conduct. That’s really important for us and our viability.

What’s your take on these emerging markets?

Africa is definitely developing and emerging. But going back to Asia, it is not forgotten, we just have other priorities right now we need to focus on. We will come back to Asia. And we have already got some of our members linked up in Australia. For example, Ladbrokes Australia and bet365 are members who feed

into our global alert platform.

But I think one of the challenges we have is also what the Optimum Betting Market Study looks at. It actually ranks jurisdictions. We looked at 20 different jurisdictions and gave them a ranking; it came out last year and it’s quite comprehensive. It looks at a number of different things from an integrity perspective. So, for example, what are the optimum foundations to create a betting market?

We listed 10 things such as making sure betting is available through land-based and online channels; markets maximising licence numbers; making sure licence fees reflect regulatory costs; ensuring betting taxation is between 15 to 20% of gross gaming revenue; making sure there’s a wide product offering; not significantly restricting any bets; and making sure there are betting integrity protocols in place.

These are the pillars of creating a viable sports betting market. And then, when we took these pillars and looked at 20 different jurisdictions, we wanted to see where they all rank. Those jurisdictions included quite a few in Europe, Australia, India, a couple in LatAm and then also North America. Top of the list came the UK. It has a channelisation rate of almost 99%, a really good regulatory model, a pretty decent taxation model and the product offering is very good – with the right kind of integrity provisions. But then if you look at India, for example, it came bottom of our list. There’s no regulation, taxation is very poor and there are just no measures for integrity. Except for India, we didn’t look at any other Asian countries; but maybe in a future study, we will look at those jurisdictions.

A lot of commentators in the UK say the black market threat is a red herring, given that high channelisation rate you just mentioned. Why do you think this is? I think people probably say that in the UK because they’ve heard it so often. But the bottom line is the internet is borderless. You can stop operators from advertising, you can impose product restrictions, you can do X, Y and Z; but the punter, if they want to bet, will just go on the web, find somebody in a non-regulated environment and place bets with them.

There’s very little anyone can do to prevent that from happening and that’s why it’s better to have a robust sports betting integrity framework, like the one I’ve just mentioned with the 10 pillars, to keep your customers onshore and safe. That is really key.

When we looked at Canada, we looked at it as a whole country and it came second to bottom in the study. Canada had a channelisation rate of 31% because it didn’t allow single-event sports betting. But interestingly enough, with Ontario opening up its market, I’m quite sure if we did the study next year – or within two years – the province would probably be in the top five or seven.

Ontario has actually listened to the industry

“Top of the list came the UK. It has a channelisation rate of almost 99%, a really good regulatory model, a pretty decent taxation model and the product offering is very good”

and taken its advice on board. Of course, the industry has not got everything it wants and there’s always room to complain but, overall, I think the structure is there. And that is evidenced by the number of operators wanting to get licensed in Ontario.

How far behind are the US and Canada compared to somewhere like the UK?

The UK is a very mature market. It’s been doing this for a number of years and has pretty much got all of the provisions in place. The UK is actually a model for a lot of other jurisdictions. When a number of US states began to open up their markets, they were speaking with the Gambling Commission and taking notes from them. But if you look at North America, the challenge is that things are not being done at a federal level, they’re being done at the state level and every state has its own requirements. That makes it very, very challenging.

However, if you take a state like New Jersey, they actually came sixth in our ranking and Nevada came fourth. So they were ahead of Spain, Italy, France and a number of other European jurisdictions. One of the things the US market has done is take the issue of betting integrity very seriously. In many states, it’s a requirement to be part of a monitoring body like the IBIA.

It’s the same with Ontario and so, when it comes to the issue of integrity, they have definitely taken that seriously. There are probably a lot of historical reasons as to why that is, for example the White Sox game that was fixed back in 1919, so they put integrity front and centre. But, again, the challenge is on a state-by-state level, where each has different requirements.

As an integrity body, we also have to be licensed in a number of jurisdictions. We are now licensed in 10 US jurisdictions and we’re currently in the process of getting more applications. In fact, on 9 February, we announced our launch in the US and that basically meant we had to have a licence.

It’s challenging; I’ve had to give a lot of details about me as a person, including my fingerprints, a number of times.

Your recent integrity reports have flagged tennis quite frequently. What are you doing on this front?

Along with our members, we’ve been playing a very proactive role with tennis. We are constantly in communication with them and work very closely with them because it’s in both our interests. But we cover a certain segment of the market and that is private regulated operators.

We don’t cover the whole market; our membership covers almost 50% of the regulated online market, so that means there’s still a sizable chunk out there we are not seeing. We are

growing our membership but can’t just let any operator come into the association.

They have to go through a due diligence process; the standards are high, and they’re getting higher, but we are trying to do our bit to widen our network.

Lastly, what are your wider-reaching plans moving forward?

We decided at the end of last year to create an Education Ambassador role; and in April we announced that Jean-François Reymond, who was the former Secretary General of EU Athletes and a former basketball player himself, was going to take that role. He’s now officially our Education Ambassador, and we’ve been working with him to develop a new education campaign that we’ll be running ourselves.

“If you look at India, for example, it came bottom of our list. There’s no regulation, taxation is very poor and there are just no measures for integrity”

Khalid Ali

In focus: BetConstruct

BetConstruct is a global technology provider for the online and land-based gaming industry. BetConstruct’s offerings include Online and Retail Sportsbook, RNG & Live Casinos, Esports, Poker, Skill Games, Social Gaming Platform, Sports Data Solutions, Land-based solutions and more. All partners benefit from the company’s Spring Platform with its powerful backoffice tools and all-inclusive services. From stand-alone setup to turnkey solutions, BetConstruct offers its partners an

unparalleled opportunity to succeed.

The developing US market needs providers who can follow all the rules and requirements to protect both players and operators, as well as dare to be different while offering unique and creative sets of products.

Taking into consideration the needs and priorities of local operators and their players, BetConstruct distinguishes three major profiles for the USA region – tribes, casinos and lottery – delivering comprehensive

software packages with dedicated trading, risk management, dedicated support, land-based operation set up and marketing services. Custom packages and requests are available too. With any offering BetConstruct will contribute to the success of any business, be it online operation, land-based or both. The company’s knowledge and experience will surely help many potential US operators succeed and avoid the unforeseen hitches in running their business.

BETCONSTRUCT

In focus: Inspired Entertainment

Inspired offers an expanding portfolio of content, technology, hardware and services for multiple regulated operators across land-based and mobile channels worldwide. The products appeal to a vast array of players, creating new opportunities for operators to grow their revenue across approximately 35 jurisdictions worldwide that Inspired operates in. The company supplies gaming systems with associated terminals and content for approximately 50,000 gaming machines located in betting shops, pubs, gaming halls and other route operations; virtual sports products through more than 32,000 retail venues and various online websites; digital games for 170+ websites; and a variety of amusement entertainment solutions with a total installed base of more than 16,000 terminals.

Virtual sports provide an exciting new revenue stream for gaming providers that can be easily integrated into existing sportsbooks, website or retail venues. Virtual sports’ constant schedule makes a broad spectrum of sports available 24/7, providing a consistent stream of sports betting content, even at times of the year when live sports are not readily available. In general, virtual sports are visually fantastic and easy to play for novice and experienced sports bettors alike.

Inspired recently signed a multi-year contract with the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) for the worldwide commercial use of the names, brands, images, personas and likenesses of MLBPAA members – alongside other legendary players such as Babe Ruth, Cecil Fielder and Mickey Mantle. Inspired’s virtual home run hitting competition, branded “Home Run Shoot Out™ Legends,” will be launching in 2023 and brings the MLBPAA greats to life for both online and retail. Inspired also launched the first-ever virtual sports women’s soccer game to market,

coinciding with the Women’s Euros 2022. It features all the amazing qualities of the V-Play Soccer 3 games: unparalleled graphics, animations and life-like player models that deliver an unbeatable and unforgettable player experience.

With more than 50,000 machines installed, Inspired is an integral part of the gaming world. The products deliver a winning combination of innovative technology, hardware and content, with a product portfolio that offers player-proven features, high-performing multi-games, visually stunning graphics, and G2S and server-based compliant games to please customers and players. Inspired’s wide variety of premium games provides unparalleled experiences and entertaining themes for almost every playing need, from time on device to greater volatility.

Inspired’s premium interactive slots are currently some of the highest-performing content on more than 170 top-tier websites. Inspired offers a diverse portfolio of HTML5 games, built by its three prestigious, in-house development studios: Inspired; Bell-Fruit Games and Astra; producing vibrant graphics and 3D animations, mixed with high-quality gameplay for both online and mobile players. Games include branded content, well-known omnichannel slots, casino titles, iLottery, leading table and number games, scratchcards and a suite of unique virtual games.

Inspired’s portfolio of content is translated into 17 languages and is available in 43 currencies, all varying in themes and volatility, to suit an array of markets and gameplay preferences.

Inspired’s close attention and insights into player tastes have paid off with online and mobile product launches, which have drawn enthusiastic attention from customers and players.

“Inspired’s premium interactive slots are currently some of the highest-performing content on more than 170 top-tier websites”

The next chapter for esports

Gambling Insider speaks to executives from Abios, Bayes Esports, Neosurf and Shadow Esports

It has evolved tremendously, not least as a direct consequence of the pandemic. When sports tournaments were postponed, many sportsbooks adopted esports as a filler product for traditional sports. Being similar to their real-life counterparts, sports simulations such as FIFA and NBA2K proved to be excellent substitutes, not least because of the low barrier to entry for football and basketball fans. Other esports, such as League of Legends, CS:GO and Dota 2, have grown in demand among sportsbooks as well, with the pandemic-induced growth acting as an eye-opener for their potential.

It’s a steady progression. We see more and more betting operators asking how they can get into esports. If we look at the market, we can segment operators into three groups. The esports native – like Pinnacle, GGbet or 188BET – who know the audience. They know esports and take huge market share from competitors. How? Two things. The product is tailor-made for esports – live streams, statistics and a lot of live betting content. And they know how to communicate with the esports generation. 188BET just became a major sponsor of SEA DPC Dota 2 circuit, so its brand will become synonymous with esports betting. The second group has integrated esports but nothing on top of that. And sometimes, those might be disappointed, because they don’t see the benefit esports natives get. The third group are the ones who didn’t embrace esports at all and have given up on the younger generation. So in the last five years, we have seen movements in these segments towards embracing esports betting. That’s a trend that will continue.

The esports evolution is something much older than five years. But it goes without saying that accessibility, growth of games published and advances in technology have driven massive growth in audience sizes in recent years. The esports part of this industry is an elite segment of it and the growth of tournaments and leagues has increased interest as the mass public begins to see it and understand it. If we reflect on the Riot Games League of Legends World final in Paris in December 2019, this experienced an environment of passion, noise and positive energy while two teams of five played against each other in the virtual world destroying their characters and dragons. The number of people watching was higher than the Super Bowl, and the people playing and supporting weren’t necessarily the ones betting. A big point on esports is it has rapidly established itself as a major hobby of billions of people. As the mass awareness grows, it’s the ability to bet on the outcome that will build a world where non-gamers, and indeed some gamers, will look to esports as a chosen market in which to place a wager.

From my point of view, we have had two big changes. The first was in CS:GO when people started moving away from pages that allowed “skin wagering.” This allowed more organised and especially licensed companies to fill this void and helped to professionalise the whole esports betting space. It was also one of the first occasions that allowed traditional sports and esports bettors to share the same platform, granting the opportunity to experience both worlds. The second was Covid-19, which brought a lot of attention to esports and eleagues that stepped in to fill the big void of a traditional sports offering. This gained a lot of attention and new consumers.

Niclas Sundell, Abios, Head of Sales

Andrea McGeachin, Neosurf CCO

Senior Sales Manager, Bayes Esports

HOW HAS ESPORTS BETTING EVOLVED IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS

Niclas Sundell, Abios, Head of Sales

Ondrej Silhavy, Senior Sales Manager, Bayes Esports

Benjamin Riewe, Managing Director, Shadow Esports

Andrea McGeachin, Neosurf CCO

Benjamin Riewe, Managing Director, Shadow Esports

Right now, one of the hottest topics is definitely NFT & crypto. Big esports organisations are getting affiliated with companies from the crypto space like the coinbase & BIG partnership. Esports has a quite young but already monetarily strong audience; 50% of esports fans are 24-44 years old. So it’s a perfect match for the also “young” crypto industry. Of course, there will be challenges, especially when it comes to KYC and country-specific regulations when crypto, betting and esports forge a strong partnership; but I see a bright future ahead of us.

When it comes to betting products, we’ve seen great interest in bet builders for esports. While it already exists to some extent, most products we’ve seen on the market are confined to uncorrelated bets. While it’s trickier to produce, we believe bet builders allowing for same-game combinations will be a true growth engine. When players get to bet on combinations such as NAVI winning and s1mple getting over/under 25.5 kills, it will be a true game-changer. This, alongside bet offers more specifically tailored to the esports audience and an improved supply of player props, are the coming trends that will continue fuelling growth.

One of the biggest trends is definitely mobile esports. Those are games being played on smartphones – you can do that everywhere. The rise of such esports games goes hand in hand with the rising popularity of titles like Free Fire, PUBG Mobile and Clash Royale, who seem to be the front-runners in that field. That also sheds some light on another interesting development from the past couple of years. For Free Fire in particular, a large part of its players and audience come from India, South East Asia and South America. Mobile esports has allowed other countries and regions, that before had little to no connection to esports – which struggled to set up the infrastructure necessary to hold larger scale esports tournaments – to be a part of the global phenomenon that is esports in general. There is one catch, though: all mobile titles are very regional. We already mentioned Free Fire in Latin America. PUBG mobile will be more popular in Europe, while games like Arena of Valor or Clash Royale dominate Asia. This creates another complexity for the “outsiders” to understand esports.

I’d start with something a key person at Riot Games said to me three years ago – learn about the industry. Don’t make assumptions and just add buzzwords into your comms; I see ‘metaverse’ used too frequently but, equally frequently, out of context. Learn and understand the players, the games, the language and the environment. It’s often unique to different game publishers. Trends to look out for? Recruitment of staff that understand the world – don’t place your brand on a shirt and hope. The language and ecosystem are fast-moving and opinionated. This is where growth in game variations comes across. A good understanding of the metaverse is becoming a prerequisite… learn and understand it in context. We have started to embed our knowledge with key additions to our team, new partners and marketing agency expertise.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN ESPORTS TRENDS THAT GAMING COMPANIES SHOULD KNOW

Ondrej Silhavy, Senior Sales Manager, Bayes Esports

Niclas Sundell, Abios, Head of Sales

Andrea McGeachin, Neosurf CCO

Benjamin Riewe, Managing Director, Shadow Esports

I can only say what I hope it will look like. In my mind, gaming companies will put a lot of emphasis on making the data around esports available in a structured and easy-to-consume way. This will be key to helping the whole ecosystem prosper and enable teams, players and all companies acting in this awesome space to take their game to the next level. The only concern of mine is the risk of having an overly fragmented esports data market, which would again slow down the whole space.

We don’t see the “Big Three” of Dota 2, CS:GO and League of Legends changing any time soon. Those will remain at the top of the esports industry. As for other games and genres, it remains to be seen how willing game developers and publishers, as well as existing sporting organisations, are to develop and push new leagues and tournaments to the esports scene. As of now, there is no blueprint on how exactly an esports title can be created. If you look at the story of CS:GO and League of Legends, the path toward the esports behemoth is very different. And the way they are structured is different as well. Is the open competition of CS:GO the way forward? Is it the closed structure managed by the publisher, as in the case of League of Legends? That’s a question that publishers and tournament organisers will have to answer. Maybe those can both co-exist. Whichever games in esports will be the most popular in five years, what we can expect is for the entire industry to diversify even further and for even more titles to be of relevance until then.

This is likely to be stronger but still in its infancy. We will begin to have regulations introduced, initially potentially around advertising in the players’ arena, which for instance could impact betting advertising. There are likely to be winners in betting, specifically the ones that respect the industry, the publishers and their players. These will be those currently focused on smart UX and use of language. Horseracing and gambling sit side by side and provide supportive insights of knowledge to the player. The same will evolve in esports, with the form of individuals informing predictions and teaching the players wanting to bet to fully appreciate what it is they are betting on.

We believe esports will be exceedingly distinguished from traditional sports in terms of UI and bet offers. We believe the perfect product-market-fit hasn’t really been found in terms of a sportsbook nailing a truly engaging esports offering yet. Bet offers need to reflect the consumption habits and community patterns of esports fans. When they do, we might very well see another inflection point in the growth of esports betting.

Niclas Sundell, Abios, Head of Sales

WHAT WILL ESPORTS LOOK LIKE FIVE YEARS FROM NOW, ESPECIALLY WHERE BETTING IS INVOLVED

Ondrej Silhavy, Senior Sales Manager, Bayes Esports

Andrea McGeachin, Neosurf CCO

Benjamin Riewe Managing Director,

Ondrej Silhavy, Senior Sales Manager, Bayes Esports

Benjamin

Benjamin Riewe, Managing Director, Shadow Esports

Benjamin Riewe, Managing Director, Shadow Esports

The question is not if it will take over but rather if we can achieve a consistent user experience no matter if it’s “traditional” or esports. I don’t see this as a rivalry where one party tries to beat the other. For me, it’s more about learning from each other and delivering the best possible products and entertainment experience to the people.

I will rotate back to my previous answer. Look at the age groups and look at what they watch, how they spend their time. Ten years ago, the average tennis fan was 40-years-old.Today? He is 50 years old. I’m not saying traditional sports will disappear, of course not. But the potential for esports betting to overcome traditional sports betting is real. I can speak from my own experience. When I was younger, I could be considered a football fan. But once I started to watch League of Legends, football was just boring. I will not be sitting here for an hour and a half to watch a 0:0 game. The fast-paced action and complexity that esports offer is like nothing else on the market. If esports continues to develop a competitive structure and integrity, it is a force to be reckoned with. No other discipline is showcasing such fast evolution.

While I don’t necessarily think it will take over soccer soon, it will definitely continue surpassing many other traditional sports. In-play betting on sports has been around since the ‘90s. Esports hasn’t been around for as long, but is already generating revenue for sportsbooks with a gross gaming revenue expected to amount to $960m in 2026. While it sounds like a lot, one has to remember that esports is a bundle of several games. Betting on singular esports is still significantly below traditional sports and it will probably take time until League of Legends or CS:GO become as large on their own as hockey or cricket in a sportsbook. With that said, I think it definitely will happen. When the younger audiences who’ve grown up with video games come of age, they might bet on esports instead of traditional sports. That’s when it’s incredibly important as a bookie to be there and have a competitive offering.

The experience enjoyed by being at major outdoor events will ensure that traditional sports betting continues, but esports will take some market share. The quantum will depend upon the evolution of the gamer numbers themselves and the quality of the elite esports events. Sponsorships and professional training are already as intense as seen in traditional sports. So it is inevitable that the seriousness of the competition will drive mass interest. Betting interest will follow as the games’ popularity grows. It’s down to the publishers and gaming industry as a whole to carefully consider the plans for the future and the metaverse world. It’s these market influencers who we will look to, to create the perfect bridge between the two industries. The strategic developments among service provision will also be a major influence on the share of the market across traditional sports and esports.

Niclas Sundell, Abios, Head of Sales

FINALLY, THE AGE-OLD QUESTION: WILL ESPORTS BETTING EVER OVERTAKE TRADITIONAL SPORTS BETTING

Ondrej Silhavy, Senior Sales Manager, Bayes Esports

Andrea McGeachin, Neosurf CCO

In focus: Gaming Innovation Group

Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) is a leading platform and sportsbook provider built on passion for crafting nimble and agile technology, reinforced by a wealth of knowledge and personalised services for online and land-based operators with digital aspirations, worldwide. We power the iGaming and sports betting industry with a full end-to-end solution and service offering from our iGaming platform to our agnostic sportsbook, leading media agency, realtime data platform, omnichannel solution and tailored managed services.

Our sportsbook solution is set up to deliver sports trading through our dedicated trading team, combining automation and human expertise to deliver the ability to absolve 100% of the risk management, ultimately driving value for our partners. Operators are able to localise their content and adapt to their target market, delivering a premium user experience through customisation. The capability of personalising features allows for our partners to focus on expanding their brands and maximising their profitability.

Our trading team of experts has dedicated margin management adapted to our operators business model; a 24/7 trading team that guarantees players relevant odds and updated offers around the clock, instant reactivity and constant proactivity throughout ongoing games to adapt and ensure reliable odds, personalised risk management for financial and regulatory security, all together

with a 24/7 dedicated customer service to be able to answer your queries within minutes.

Our sportsbook is available through our award-winning platform that is at the core of what we do, built to provide a top-class customer experience and user journey. Fueled to deliver in regulated markets, our platform is integrated with the leading payment providers and is configurable with the major content providers. The flexibility of our platform allows us to ensure rapid time to market, providing a vital advantage in highly competitive markets. Our partners can look to benefit form our services and expertise, whether you are looking for help with your acquisition strategy, for faster payments, increased customer lifetime value or advanced responsible gaming and player protection tools – our turnkey managed services solution has it covered, available from pre-launch throughout our partners’ business lifecycle.

In this booming industry, increasingly rigorous regulation is playing an ever-more critical role in maturing markets. Our dedication

to both the operator and the regulator helps leverage the value we can offer both existing and prospective partners. At GiG, we are here to guide you and ensure you are fully informed on the requirements for a speedy and successful launch in new markets. We understand that, while entering new markets is important for our partners’ growth, this can be a daunting and overwhelming process. There is a lot to consider. That is why we have a global dedicated team of experts with a great deal of experience in building iGaming solutions that comply with regulatory requirements.

At GiG, we are now pioneering the multiplatform era for businesses looking to expand their online presence. Navigating the myriad of regulatory requirements needed to access desired markets is becoming more and more complicated. There are a few aspects operators looking to expand into new, profitable markets, need to consider to attain a competitive edge. Through utilising a multi-platform strategy its inherent agility provides considerable rapid time to market and market access, with easier integrations with third parties and defeating bottlenecks through shortening delivery time. Through providing a multi-platform strategy we are revolutionising the industry, streamlining and maximising your business.

We are proud of what we’ve built at GiG, powering our partners into new and lucrative markets, focused on quality, growth and driving value worldwide.

Welcome to the future of online gaming and sports betting. Welcome to GiG

In focus: Sportradar

Can you provide a summary of Sportradar’s latest updates?

As a B2B company, we have been focused on supporting our clients as they address the opportunities being presented with more states legalising, the Canadian market opening and betting becoming mainstream entertainment. We have invested significantly in the US, as we scale to power one of the world’s largest sports betting markets.

regardless of size or maturity in the market. This is alongside our vast and unmatched portfolio of AV streaming content, and best-in -class ad:s marketing service, which helps clients effectively and efficiently engage with sports fans and bettors.

What makes Sportradar stand out from its rivals?

Simply, our size, relationships and position in the sports industry are what make us stand out. Sportradar is the backbone of the sports ecosystem in the US, providing critical data infrastructure and content to the betting and media industries.

industry as the number one provider of sports data, and in many cases as the sole provider to operators who manage nearly every legal sports bet placed by the US.

Finally, via our Integrity service, we monitor the data to detect critical patterns that show everything from potential match-fixing to problem gambling.

What are Sportradar’s plans for the rest of 2022 and 2023?

We’re seeing the US market shift from predominantly pre-game betting to more in-game betting, which is the norm in the rest of the world, along with mobile sports betting accelerating as the fastest-growing channel. As a result, it has been a priority to support our customers during such a dynamic period of time.

We have also been focused on the growth of our ad:s platform, which has grown nearly 40% year-on-year, as operators seek more efficient customer acquisition and retention solutions. Additionally, our managed betting services saw revenue increase 65% year-on-year, and we estimate we are on track to handle between €17bn ($16.98bn) and €20bn worth of transactions this year, which would make us one of the top five bookmakers in the world.

What will the company be showcasing at G2E Las Vegas?

With the betting marketplace growing at a rapid pace in the US, the Ontario market establishing itself, and the needs of operators and other stakeholders continually evolving, we are excited to showcase a wide range of our offerings; including our Managed Trading Services, which meets operator needs

As the sports, betting and media industries converge, we are the company enabling leagues to expand and form direct relationships with their fan bases. We are enabling media companies to develop compelling, deep narratives on sporting events and players, and betting operators to reach and engage fans in a rapidly transforming landscape.

Critically, we fuel the US sports betting

Massive secular tailwinds are driving the growth of the industry and as a company positioned at the centre of this ecosystem, we will continue to focus on developing innovative products, and delivering high-value solutions that solve customer problems and help them grow their businesses. We’ll also further leverage our relationships with leagues, operators and media companies to create an amazing world for sports fans; as well as support the goals of our industry related to establishing a betting environment that is easier for fans to access while being more exciting and engaging.

“As the sports, betting and media industries converge, we are the company enabling leagues to expand and form direct relationships with their fan bases”

Sportradar talks through its latest moves in the industry, and what the company will be showcasing at G2E Las Vegas

Canada eagerly awaiting Qatar 2022

Like many sporting events this year, the 2022 World Cup has certainly not been short of controversy. Even the Canadian Men’s National Team hasn’t been exempt from such drama, with the players going on strike not so long ago in a dispute over prize money. More negativity followed as the nation fell five places in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings to number 43 after a turbulent June international break.

But the overall feeling in the country is undoubtedly one of joy and excitement,

with Canada qualifying for soccer’s biggest competition for only the second time in its history. Canada’s first and only appearance to date on the big stage was at Mexico in 1986.

With three losses from its three group matches in that tournament (all those years ago), it may not have been the greatest time on the pitch for Canada, but it was still a fantastic achievement for a country whose roots are certainly not in soccer.

The current group of players have, however,

ensured that the country is back in the big time, and that the previous feeling of elation has returned. It has now had another bite of the cherry in Qatar, with tricky tests against Belgium, Croatia and Morocco awaiting it in Group F. And that elation can undoubtedly be translated to the Canadian gambling industry, where sports betting has truly taken off, much like it has south of the border in the US. While a long list of US states can take credit for helping spread sports wagering, it

FansUnite President Darius Eghdami talks Gambling Insider through the latest developments in Canadian sports wagering, and previews an exciting time for the nation ahead of its appearance at the 2022 World Cup

is Ontario that can take the plaudits for the current situation in Canada.

Ontario marked the first time a Canadian provincial government welcomed third-party online operators into the fold when it launched its new iGaming market on 4 April 2022. At the time of writing, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has approved 26 sportsbooks and 45 total gaming operators as of 20 July. This includes big hitters DraftKings, FanDuel and theScore Bet. Moreover, there are more than 30 online sportsbooks and betting sites that have applied to operate in Ontario.

Speaking in June, BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt noted that the operator recorded 70 million transactions in Ontario during May alone, in what was the group’s second month of operation in the province; while some days after, PointsBet Canada announced a partnership with ClubLink, an owner of golf courses in Ontario.

Three days later, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and Major League Baseball announced a new partnership between the two organisations, which was shortly followed by a partnership between the National Basketball Association and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.

But perhaps the most significant moment of the month was witnessed when theScore Bet announced it will exit the US sports betting market with its theScore Bet app and focus on Canada.

In July alone, FanDuel announced it expanded its partnership with the NFL to include Ontario, the AGCO registered Bally Bet as a sportsbook operator in the province and PointsBet announced a partnership with the new curling team, Team Bottcher. Just about every sport is attracting attention in some form or another.

To this end, Gambling Insider spoke with Canada-based FansUnite President Darius Eghdami, to assess the current situation in Canada, and gauge operator and customer excitement ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

“It’s exciting for Canada to be there, it’s been a few decades now since we’ve been at the World Cup,” said Eghdami. “There is a lot of buzz. We’re a Canadian company, but we do focus most of our business globally, although we have got our supplier licence here in Ontario to find a partner to go live with.

“Anytime you have a major event like the World Cup, there is a lot of interest, so I think we’re going to see a lot of action on our UK platform. With England in the competition, it’s a big marketing opportunity for us in the UK.”

He also pointed to the fact that North America will have its very own World Cup in just four years’ time, with the US, Canada and Mexico set to co-host the biggest football event

on the planet in 2026. Importantly, it will be the most-populated World Cup in history, with 48 teams and 80 matches.

“In the US, soccer is continuing to grow as a sport and Major League Soccer (MLS) has really taken off, so there’s going to be a lot of excitement there, especially with the World Cup coming to North America in four years.

“We’re going to have a great opportunity to educate customers and help them sign up for sportsbooks across the US, who are going to want to bet on the World Cup, probably for the first time.”

The understandable anticipation and excitement the 2026 World Cup will bring those fans in North America is explored further on page 30.

However, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is very much first up on the agenda for FansUnite, a sports and entertainment company that focuses on technology for regulated online gaming.

“We’re definitely looking at the upcoming World Cup,” stated Eghdami. “There will be a lot of groups out there watching the US Men’s National Team and of course the other teams. So we’re going to be there to help get them signed up to sportsbooks, and help them start to bet throughout the World Cup, which is obviously a good month-long event for us.

“There’s definitely going to be excitement around the gaming space throughout the World Cup. All eyes will be on sports and gaming, and as a public company, that always helps to bring new eyeballs to FansUnite.”

The group has a strong customer acquisition focus when it comes to the US

market, with its B2C focus mostly on the UK, and its B2B operations alive through its licences in Ontario, Malta and the UK.

One major change to this year’s World Cup is the fact that it will be held in November/ December, the first time the tournament will take place in winter. That, of course, means a disruption to the regular playing seasons of many sports, not just soccer.

“I think it’s going to be interesting because usually the World Cup is during a lull of all the other North American sports, so you get that World Cup focus,” said Eghdami. “So I think it will definitely be different this year with NFL, NBA and NHL all in full swing.

“Maybe in North America it won’t be as watched, but I think any time you have three North American teams in the World Cup (USA, Canada, Mexico), there’s going to be viewership and excitement.

“With Canada kind of itching for the last few decades to watch their team in the World Cup, I think we are going to be very excited and engaged... at least for the first three games.”

While soccer is hugely important for FansUnite, its major driver is the NFL season.

The company is currently gearing up for the September launch of the new campaign. Explaining the group’s focus this summer, Eghdami told Gambling Insider: “On the customer acquisition side, we have digital properties; but also retail, so we meet customers in casinos, at sports bars and in stadiums. Now we’re just working on getting our teams prepped to be able to go into those events when the NFL starts; and meet as many customers as we can to help educate them and get them signed up to start making bets.”

Eghdami ended by touching on the Canadian team itself, a side which has brought much joy to the entire country, ending several years of pain on the global stage. The likes of talented striker Jonathan David will be leading the line, with superstar Alphonso Davies undoubtedly the one the world will be watching in Qatar – if their eyes can keep up with his lightning pace.

For Eghdami, Davies certainly represents “one of the cool success stories here in Canada,” with the national icon moving from Vancouver Whitecaps to German club Bayern Munich in 2018. But for the FansUnite President, the team is much more than Davies himself, and may just have what it takes to turn a few heads in November.

“I think they’re going to surprise many people,” he said. “I’m not delusional in thinking they are going to win the World Cup, but I think they’re going to show up. This is probably the best Canadian men’s team I’ve ever seen in my lifetime.

“I think there’s excitement around them to maybe get out of the group stage. That would be a huge win for Canada.”

Darius Eghdami

LatAm in its sights

How is foreign investment affecting the gaming industry in Brazil right now?

Creating a legal framework that stimulates competition should be one of the main goals of the Brazilian Government. In that sense, foreign investment and companies coming to Brazil to explore the gaming market contribute to a better development of the sector. This is something of paramount importance considering that many gaming activities are currently illegal and hold back developmentof the necessary expertise for national companies. On the other hand, legal gaming activities such as lotteries are underperforming considering international benchmarks, and havea lot of space to grow.

Is Aposta Hub looking into expanding in the LatAm market?

As a company focused on the affiliate market, Aposta Hub is focusing on the development of sports betting, especially in Brazil. The Brazilian sports betting industry has grown exponentially in the last 12 months, but it is still far from its maximum potential. Our expectations lie in the upcoming regulation by the Federal Government of sports betting and the likely approval of the Gaming Act by the Federal Congress. Regarding the LatAm market, Aposta Hub aims to be the largest online betting portal in Latin America; consolidating itself first in the Brazilian market and then expanding to countries with high potential such as Colombia, Mexico and Chile. Our goal is to help both players and companies with our legal expertise and industry knowledge.

What are your expectations of the future for the sports betting market in Brazil?

Online sports betting became legal in Brazil in 2018 but is still pending regulation from the Federal Government, on how this activity will be licensed and explored. The deadline for the regulation expires on 12/12/2022. Obviously, the regulation of sports betting will have an enormous impact on gambling companies and those planning to participate in this market. The Federal Decree drafts of sports betting intend to establish an open market that will allow all serious companies to invest in Brazil. That means every company that proves to have the technical and economic capacity and pays BR$22m ($4.27m) will be granted a licence for five years. The

Federal Decree drafts allow foreign companies to explore the activities but stipulate the necessity of establishing a branch in Brazil. However, the decree is not defined yet. At the same time, sports betting is being developed by state lotteries since it is considered a kind of lottery in Brazil. Some states are authorising companies to operate sports betting, such as the states of Maranhao and São Paulo. The Government has launched public bidding to authorise one operator to explore a state lottery, which includes sports betting in its

territory. However, the bidding is suspended and it is most likely to be revised after federal regulation. The product compliance required from the operators also varies from each state. In most cases, it has been mandatory to obtain international certifications that assure the safety and quality of products. Operators also need to have a compliance program to guarantee that regulations are observed.

What other obligations currently exist in relation to gambling in Brazil?

Well, the Brazilian Congress is discussing the Gaming Act, which can legalise casinos, bingo halls and other gaming activities. It also encompasses online gaming but only to authorise it, delegating its regulations to an executive decree. It does not address foreign companies specifically; these, again, will be further detailed in executive acts. The Law Bill is expected to be voted on at the end of the year, after the elections for President and Federal Congress. So the Gaming Act will definitely affect the market in every sense, and Aposta Hub is closely following its progress.

Aposta Hub Brazil website Co-Founder and lawyer, Ricardo de Paula Feijó, speaks to Gambling Insider about the state of legal sports betting in Brazil, new foreign investment and LatAm expansion

“Online sports betting became legal in Brazil in 2018 but is still pending regulation from the Federal Government on how this activity will be licensed and explored”

In focus: Sportingtech

Sportingtech is a leading provider of turnkey betting and gaming solutions in regulated and emerging markets across the globe, with a focus on developing scalable sports betting and iGaming solutions for a variety of business needs.

Based in six offices around the world, the Sportingtech team has more than 10 years of experience in delivering sports betting solutions to the global betting and gaming industry.

The company has recently utilised its knowledge of worldwide gaming to lead from the front in the realm of regulated markets, placing particular emphasis on key regions in Latin America. Targeting the vast collection of varying jurisdictions that make up LatAm, all with differing cultures and preferences, requires in-depth knowledge of localisation and by extension player profiling; this is an area of expertise that Sportingtech prioritises and has extensive experience in.

Supporting a more personalised offering is Sportingtech’s innovative Popular Bets and Popular Events widget, which collates the top 10 bets and top 10 events across an operator’s platform. The company has worked hard to produce widgets such as this to allow operators and their players quick access to matches, group betting, outrights and specials across both mobile and desktop; it is that same work ethic which is in full flow as the World

Cup looms.

LatAm markets are proven to have some of the most passionate bettors in the world when it comes to sports, and having witnessed first-hand the surge of sportsbooks and casinos embracing the online market following changes in regulation, Sportingtech’s detailed understanding of the omnichannel experience has been vital in its efforts to cater to them.

Fast and scalable, the company’s omni-channel Quantum platform currently processes more than 500 million bets from more than 150,000 unique players each month. Its particular focus is on providing reliability and modularity for partners; the platform is customisable, allowing the product to be tailored to specific needs – by offering such a versatile platform, operators looking to establish themselves in emerging markets and create a player-centric betting experience can do so.

It is this modularity that has seen Quantum reach wider and wider audiences

in different LatAm markets, as customers become attuned to its many benefits. Quantum is an innovative solution that takes into account the specific demands of any particular market, thus solving the ever-present challenge for iGaming companies to remain fluid and adaptable to the industry’s many different barriers to success. It is a constant challenge to set oneself apart from the competition, to gain the upper hand and attend to the ever-changing needs of the player; but Quantum’s flexible nature gives partners the ability to do this quickly and easily. Furthermore, bet stimulation tool, Bet Assist, has been incredibly well received in LatAm due to its ability to generate automated betting tips across more than 100 popular betting markets – both pre-match and live – with complete betslip integration based on live score and AI analysis.

Sportingtech’s knowledge of multiple markets has allowed it to design Quantum with flexibility in mind, giving it the capability to be quickly localised and deployed at short notice. This is especially important when considering the different countries that make up LatAm – each market presents its own challenges, so well-designed software like Quantum is the optimum choice for any size of operator. It allows for an accelerated time to market with true product localisation, allowing quick and seamless integration.

Sportingtech’s success in the LatAm region can be demonstrated in a number of operator deals, as well as through the company’s recognition in Brazil, where Quantum’s strong presence has been key to forging new opportunities and fuelling rapid growth. The company’s agile platform has proven to deliver growth for multiple operators in countries that are experiencing regulatory shifts, as well as increased activity in the digital space.

The company’s knowledge of LatAm markets has consistently helped operators effectively navigate newly regulated regions for years and, as a licensed platform provider, it works to the highest standards in terms of customer data protection and segregation.

With a proven ability to deliver in LatAm markets and a high-quality sports betting offering, consistent growth in the region is all but assured for Sportingtech.

“LatAm - each market presents its own challenges, so well-designed software like Quantum is the optimum choice for any size of operator”

STATES OF PLAY

The World Cup 2022 is fast approaching. For sports betting businesses outside the US, it has always been a gold mine. Traditionally, this has been less prominent in North America – for two reasons. Naturally, soccer is not as big stateside as NFL, NBA NHL and MLB. That is changing.

The other was a lack of regulation. Yet, with over 30 regulated states, along with the District of Columbia, the country’s legal gaming market has also flourished since the overhaul of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018. The last World Cup, coincidentally, took place in 2018, just a month after PASPA was overturned. US sports betting was very much in its embryonic state then. Although unregulated sports betting did, of course, exist pre-PASPA (1992), US soccer interest only really took off after the nation hosted the 1994 World Cup.

The advent of the 21st Century globalised soccer, along with most other things, on a scale not yet seen; multi-million-dollar TV deals,

a revitalised MLS and the rapid spread of sports in social media culminated in soccer underpinning its own online global village.

In 2020, 22% of Americans between the age of 18-29 professed to be fans of the sport, according to research. Perhaps a low percentage compared to other regions worldwide, this represents some of the highest levels of US engagement with soccer. Ever since the overturning of PASPA, the number of US players betting on soccer has increased too. Now, with US sports betting maturing into its fourth year, the upcoming World Cup in Qatar this winter poses something of an acid test for US interest in a globally adored sport.

There’s one difference in 2022, though: the Qatar World Cup takes place in November, which is the peak of both the NFL and NBA seasons – hugely popular leagues of interest for millions of Americans. In fact, this is something Robert Linnehan, Regulatory Writer and Editor at XLMedia, feels will deter potential sports betting interest in the World Cup 2022. “With the World Cup

being a big event, I could see it being fairly popular. However, the main reason I feel the event won’t reach the highs is that it’s not in the summer; it’s at the height of the NFL and NBA seasons. If it were in the summer, I could see there being much greater interest as there is usually a lull in the summer months. The only thing to bet on in the US across the summer is baseball and some NFL bets for the following season. But starting in November, with other events going on, it’s not going to be as popular as it would have been.”

FOUR MORE YEARS

However, where Linnehan holds real hope for soccer betting interest is the 2026 World Cup – set to be staged in the US, Canada and Mexico. He tells Gambling Insider: “I think for 2026 handle will be much greater. Not only because the World Cup will once again be in the summer but, of course, being a home tournament for the US means interest will naturally pique. So I think handle and the popularity of the event will be far greater

Robert Linnehan, Regulatory Writer and Editor at affiliate XLMedia, discusses US sports betting interest in the 2026 World Cup, when it is likely to peak – and the regulatory state of play when it does

come 2026.” These are not the only predictions Linnehan has for 2026, with the US sports betting market ever-expanding. Kansas is just the latest in a long line of states to agree to launch online sports betting, announcing its plans in August 2022. Kansas launched on 1 September, with the likes of FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, BetMGM and more. Linnehan also discusses the states striving for regulation that are set to host World Cup matches in 2026. Below is a list of cities confirmed to host World Cup fixtures. Regions where sports betting is not currently regulated are capped and bolded: ATLANTA, GEORGIA ; LOS ANGELES & SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA; Seattle, Washington; DALLAS & HOUSTON, TEXAS; KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI ; New York; New Jersey; BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and MIAMI, FLORIDA

A number of states set to host World Cup games are yet to regulate sports betting. How many of these can you see being legalised come 2026?

Well, I can’t see them all legalising. I can see Georgia happening. It seems every year they get close, but they never quite manage to get anything over the finish line. I could see them legalising sports betting by 2026, absolutely. You also mention California, which is going to be a big point of contention in the upcoming November general election. California voters will likely have two sports betting referendums that they’ll be deciding on in their November ballots. One would restrict sports betting to California’s tribal casinos, a second would legalise online sports betting; this would bring in all the big national operators, DraftKings, FanDuel etc. They would be able to partner with tribal casinos to offer online sports betting. California could technically be legal next year; they could launch next year. Even if referendums aren’t approved this year, I can see them absolutely trying again. The year 2026 is four years away, so I could see them try again and be legalised.

Every year, Massachusetts gets close. This year they have a bill they’re discussing which is currently in a committee, where members of the Senate and members of the House are trying to reach an agreement on sports betting. There are two bills, one Senate-approved and one House-approved, but these bills are very different in terms of their potential tax rates, and allowances around college sports betting and amateur sports betting. They’re trying to find common ground now and there could be some movement on that before their legislative session is over in July 2022.

It would be almost disastrous if Massachusetts didn’t have sports betting by 2026 in some form or another. Every year it comes up in the state’s legislative sessions, and this is the first year that

it’s had two bills approved by the Senate and the House. It seems like they’re finding enough common ground, where if it doesn’t get done this year, it will get done within a year or two.

Regarding Florida, it’s a big unknown right now. Florida and the Seminole Tribe agreed on a new gaming compact last year. This allowed the Seminole Tribe to offer retail sports betting and online sports betting. However, a federal judge found the gaming compact violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), so the whole gaming compact was thrown out. Right now, the case is in an appeals court, where the State and the Tribe are trying to see if they can overturn that ruling. This decision is still months away (at the time of writing) and in my opinion, it’s unlikely anything is going to happen there. DraftKings and FanDuel tried to get a sports betting referendum on Florida’s November ballot, but didn’t get the necessary signatures. They can try again in 2024, a time some politicians tell me is the likeliest for the state to legalise sports betting. It’s really a waiting game. But again, 2026 is four years away and anything can happen in that time. This would exclude online sports betting which was found to be illegal under IGRA, but retail could legalise before 2026.

not be enough time to get anything done. If I had to guess, I would say there’s a chance a sports betting referendum is approved by voters because it would be the easiest way to legalise sports betting. But it wouldn’t surprise me if we’re sitting here in four years and they’re still discussing it.

Will US jurisdictions slowly start to adopt European-style regulations, which is something Ontario has done from the start?

I think US markets will remain open in comparison to Europe and Canada. If anything, you’ll see other states legal by 2026, aside from the ones we’ve spoken about. North Carolina in particular looks like it will get something done, so minor market states I think we’ll see legalised by 2026. I can’t see the regulations changing all that much; it’s been pretty boilerplate for these states moving forward. There is one thing you may see, and I think you’d only see it in New York over any other jurisdiction. New York has a 51% tax rate right now, which is one of the highest tax rates on gaming revenue in the country. So something may be done around this tax rate, because I don’t think many operators are going to put up with that high of a tax rate in any other market. At the moment, New York is obliterating handle records left, right and centre. Online sports betting handles that have stood since 2018 are being surpassed in six months, which is insane.

Operators can put up with that when they’re raking in millions of dollars, but for how long handle stays high remains to be seen. Overall, I can’t see regulations getting any stricter; I think where they are right now is where they will stay four years from now.

Texas? I laugh, because I can’t see a pathway for the legalisation. It’s always been a very conservative state and those trying to push sports betting have a lot of opposition. The topic comes up every now and again, but its next legislative session isn’t until 2023. I don’t see a pathway to it right now unless something drastically changes. They could try and get a sports betting referendum on one of the upcoming ballots, which would likely be the path that faces the least resistance. But there are a lot of religious groups and conservative views which go against sports betting. I’ve sat in on a lot of meetings and religious groups vehemently reject the idea of sports betting in Texas, so the chances of anything happening by 2026 are very slim.

If Texas were to become legalised it would be a top-three market in the US. Will it ever be legal? I don’t know. I keep saying 2026 is four years away but with Texas, four years might

As US states continue to legalise, can you see many more operators, suppliers and affiliates migrating from Europe to the US? Definitely. I think if and when some of the bigger markets legalise, particularly if Florida and California went legal, it would send a big buzz over Europe that the US is truly alive as a gaming industry. Everyone is going to want a piece of those markets. I think California would rival New York as the top sports betting market easily. Florida would be right up there, too. Regardless, more European operators will continue to trickle into the US – the ones that haven’t already. European operators may bring a unique perspective, providing a one-of-a-kind opportunity for US players they would never have experienced. Better games and technology: these factors would pique the interest of US players too. There are some big operators like bet365 which we have barely seen here yet. So there’s some movement to be had there – and some development to be seen in the US before things become fully clear.

“I think for 2026 handle numbers will be much greater. Of course, being a home tournament for the US means interest will naturally pique”

New partnerships, same game

This summer, Gambling Insider caught up with Digitain Founder Vardges Vardanyan in Nice, at the launch of the supplier’s partnership with new Brand Ambassador Luís Figo. Brand ambassadorships are becoming far more common among B2B gambling firms and, through this latest deal, Digitain hopes to bolster its brand awareness globally. Certainly, as former footballers go, Digitain dind’t exactly aim low in terms of fame and prestige here – as Figo’s recent Netflix documentary attests.

During our exclusive interview with Vardanyan, the Founder discusses the Figo

signing and looks back on 20 years since founding the business in its original form.

Vardanyan also addresses specialisation vs. diversification, how he balances his time as a business owner and where his biggest growth hopes lie geographically.

How has the business changed in the two decades since you founded it?

Digitain emerged as a lottery business in 1999, before we established our B2C operations in 2004. Our focus was TotoGaming, which is a local operator in Armenia. However, around 2015,

we decided to establish Digitain. The knowledge and expertise we obtained when operating TotoGaming pushed us to establish our B2B brand.

How much more competitive is the industry now than when you started the company in 1999?

There is significantly more competition now than when we started. I would say it’s a whole different world now, in terms of leagues, markets, players, quantity of markets etc. But I would also like to say this is nothing for us to be scared of, because when you offer customers flexible solutions, customer loyalty is guaranteed – if you always stand out ahead of the competition. Whenever you attend a trade show, for example, you see new entrants each and every year. But, of course, we believe we stand out and are continually improving our offering, such as improving our iGaming platform with Centrivo – among others.

You also own a winery in Armenia. As a Founder and executive, how do you personally balance your time between projects?

For me, these are two completely different things. Wine is my love, whereas gaming is my business. They are totally different to each other; to the wine I contribute my love, my heart and soul.

To Digitain, I contribute my brain and my mathematical thinking. So I can balance these two projects simultaneously.

“You cannot ever succeed with cheap products or by taking shortcuts. The key to success is a strong product and the best service”

Digitain Founder Vardges Vardanyan speaks to Gambling Insider Editor Tim Poole in Southern France, reflecting on a 20-year journey and discussing a certain Luís Figo, the supplier’s new ambassador

What’s the strategy behind your signing of Luís Figo as Brand Ambassador? Gambling Insider exclusively revealed the story in July – but traditionally brand ambassadors have been more prevalent for B2C companies. They are now becoming more of a trend for B2B firms – why?

Luís Figo is a living legend. I have much respect for him not only as an ex-professional player but also as a high-profile individual and social ambassador. He embodies the values that Digitain aspires to. He played with skill, professionalism and has the same love for the sport we do. He has an exemplary reputation and I believe our collaboration is a major statement that demonstrates the confidence we have with our brand, and as a major industry player. We have significantly grown our geographical footprint over the last year in LatAm and Asia, and our relationship with Mr Figo strengthens this brand awareness in those important areas – as well as globally.

Where do you see the biggest growth occurring for Digitain in the next few years, geographically as well as in which vertical?

Most of all, we are thinking about the Latin American market. In terms of verticals, it’s 100% clear to us that our name, knowledge and expertise is focused on sportsbook. Of course, we are currently transforming more into Digitain Group, with a number of brands. For example, Galaxsys launched this year – our fast games brand – while there may be more brands to come with a greater diversity and direction. Our Centrivo platform also adds value to the iGaming industry. We have a group of companies

focusing on different directions but, in terms of regions, Latin America and Africa are two particular areas where we see expansion.

Finally, what’s more important in today’s market – being a very good specialist in one area, or having an offering across every single vertical i.e diversification? It’s obvious that, in our case, sports betting is where our main knowledge lies. But, in

our experience, business diversification is also the right choice – and this is the key to our strategy.

What I believe is the key for success now is that, with all the increased competition today, you need to provide only qualified and good products. You cannot ever succeed with cheap products or by taking shortcuts. The key to success is a strong product and the best service.

From left to right: GamblingInsider Editor Tim Poole, Digitain Founder Vardges Vardanyan and Digitain Brand Ambassador Luís Figo (holding Digitain’s advert in GamblingInsider magazine)

In focus: DS Virtual

What does DS Virtual Gaming do?

DS Virtual Gaming started its activity in 2003, providing virtual games in Europe. What makes us different in the industry is that we have never used animation to show the final result. We have always believed the effect of presence, and the liveliness of what is happening in-game, is very important for players. Our games are based on real events, which were recorded and edited to show the final result for a more immersive experience.

Over time, we repeatedly made sure we initially chose the right direction. At the moment, we have the following games in our arsenal: dog racing (6 and 8), several categories of horseracing, karting, roulette and kickboxing. All events took place in reality and we recorded in HD format. The games are designed to accept bets in all possible directions. For land-based operations we offer a Web Retail Device to enter the cashier programme, POS Retail Device, Mobile Retail Device, Single Player Terminals, and for online operations we offer the latest web and mobile versions of our games. Operators can easily select the games and solutions they are interested in that meet the requirements of their operating markets.

How has the company grown over the years?

Since our head office is located in Austria, our first steps in the gambling industry took place in the European market, in which we occupied a strong niche. At the moment in Europe, we have licences from Great Britain (GC), Italy (ADM), Romania (ONJN) and Malta (MGA) for legal operation. Next, we turned our attention to the African and Latin American markets, where again we quickly found loyal partners. It is worth noting that we have been cooperating with some of our partners for more than 15 years, constantly striving to attract more players to their operation. These players love our games for consistently high odds, uninterrupted content supply, and crystal clear graphics, which we update with enviable constancy, bonuses and jackpots.

Most of the profits from virtual games come from land-based operations, so the pandemic has become a test of strength for us. We’ve put our time behind closed doors to good use by updating our web and mobile versions to improve the player experience. In addition, we have launched new games, karting and kickboxing, which are already enjoying great success. Despite our victories in the past, we would like to focus our attention on the present to build a prosperous future. At the

moment, we are obtaining certificates and licences for operating in new markets with the largest operators in the industry.

What is DS Virtual’s star product?

In our segment, dog racing is considered to be the most popular product. A large proportion of all bets fall on this game. For us, roulette also shows an significant result, since many players appreciate the opportunity to enjoy the classic casino game at a betting shop. Our game does not fall under the category of a casino, therefore it is allowed by regulation. Odds and margins are fully consistent with European roulette. Our new game is also in great demand among players because, first of all, it captures and, secondly, it has no analogues. Of course, we are talking about kickboxing and have relied on the emotional component of the game. It is no secret that 98% of players at betting shops are men, and the dynamics of what is happening on the screen fully meets their expectations.

At DS Virtual Gaming, we decided to release games that are not yet represented in the industry,

creating our own niche, our own unique style. We believe that, by creating something new, we offer players a wide choice of products, operators get the opportunity to diversify the offer and our colleagues in the segment keep on having a healthy competition.

What are the company’s aims for the rest of 2022?

To answer this question, I will need to tell you about the strategy of our company. Here at DS Virtual Gaming, we most of all value the time and operation of our clients and partners; we sign an agreement only after testing our games at the box office with real players. If the testing is successful and the players are satisfied with our games, then we can start cooperation with a calm heart and a clear conscience. At the moment, our games are being tested by several very large and well-known operators, and we hope to start operating with them soon. Also, our goal for this year is to expand our presence in the Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Panamanian and other markets, which we are actively working on.

Araksi Sargsyan, Head of Business Development

Micro-betting for the masses

Micro-betting is not such a familiar term in the industry, but Simplebet CEO Chris Bevilacqua – along with his ambitious colleagues – is aiming to make sure it becomes everyday talk in the near future.

It’s been over four years since the overturning of PASPA, with many different states opting for a different approach towards the legalisation of sports betting. By his own admission, Bevilacqua believes the company perhaps arrived too early with its micro-betting focus, but now it has a real advantage in this innovative sector. Simplebet is already heavily involved in the US-centric sports of Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association, but the more global sports of soccer, tennis and golf could soon be explored. Bevilacqua tells Gambling Insider about the journey so far and future plans.

How has Simplebet progressed in the last year?

It was pretty much exactly one year ago that we went live with DraftKings to bring our high-availability version of “micro-betting” to the masses. You learn fast when you get your product into users’ hands so we have certainly been battle-tested. We’ve made great progress improving our initial offerings – the NFL, NBA and MLB – while also expanding into college football and college basketball. Additionally, as we look to leverage our technology for wider fan engagement, we launched a single-screen free in-play experience with Yes network, where we overlay our micro-markets on top of live streaming in their app for fans to engage with during Yankees and Nets games.

What new updates are there regarding the company?

After proving our product at scale with DraftKings, we are approaching the next wave of partners looking to take micro-betting to new levels.

In the coming weeks we will be going live globally with a long-time leader of in-play, who we expect to apply proven best practices to the sports we offer. We have also partnered with my former co-founder, Joey Levy, who

is launching a DTC Sportsbook called Betr with his new co-founder, Jake Paul. They aim to reimagine the user experience for the next generation of consumers while focusing predominantly on micro-betting.

This wave will continue into 2023, where we have a leading DFS (daily fantasy sports) company expanding into OSB and building various micro-betting games, an established season-long fantasy company integrating micro-betting into a more social experience and more operators looking to get our markets live and iterate from there.

We were probably a bit early with our micro-betting focus, but we now have a considerable first-mover advantage with the race to create engaging experiences on top of our enabling technology finally about to take off.

basket of every game in real-time. This is very different from standard offerings where you pick a team to score some basket in the future – like the 20th point when the score is 10-5. So we will have “always-on” availability for the NBA this upcoming season.

Can you touch more on the MLB progress so far this campaign?

Baseball has always seemed best suited for micro-betting and that is exactly what we’re seeing this season. In addition to our pitch result and plate appearance markets, our new half-inning and pitch speed markets are fueling growth throughout the season. We estimate our micro-markets account for around 40% of our partners’ MLB in-play gross gaming revenue, but this is just the beginning.

It’s difficult to grow a product without marketing and so far there has been very little around micro-betting. Unlike soccer, micro-markets for US sports align with how casual fans already engage. “Aaron Judge goes deep on this next pitch” or “Patriots will definitely stuff ‘em on 3 and 1 here” are opinions fans talk about in real-time. We’re pleased with the volume from existing players, but we expect significant growth as our partners begin marketing pushes very soon.

Baseball and football have been extremely successful, while basketball has been challenging given its fast-paced action. Our micro-markets accounted for a highly incremental 20-25% of in-play handle on DraftKings during NFL Playoffs and college bowl season, while micro -markets account for less than 3% of in-play handle for the other large operators (based on direct feedback from them).

We saw success in college basketball with our “always-on” Next Field Goal markets. In February, we began to offer markets for which team and type will score next for every

You also have to take into consideration that existing sports betting apps were not built for micro-betting. Our high-availability markets are the first step, but the current experience is still far from frictionless. Discoverability needs significant improvement, especially for micro-betting where users don’t have time to search around in the app to find markets. Soon enough, we will start to see more personalisation with operators surfacing the right bets to the right users at the right time.

The past few years have been very slow on the product side as operators have had their hands full trying to scale. I think the large operators are finally shifting focus to product and this next wave of entrants I mentioned earlier should help accelerate that. As marketing and user experience around micro-betting become a priority for operators, I’d expect micro-markets to make up the majority of in-play volume; and

“The past few years have been very slow on the product side as operators have had their hands full trying to scale”

Simplebet covers the likes of MLB, NFL and NBA – has one of these sports enjoyed more success or attracted more interest than the others?

Simplebet CEO Chris Bevilacqua discusses the latest developments for the company, its plans for the near future, new regulations and more

for MLB specifically I think that will be as soon as 2023.

How has Simplebet been impacted by regulations and are there any new regulations you have encountered?

There are a couple of states that have not approved the majority of our markets, but in general we are live everywhere our partners are live.

What are your thoughts on the New York market, particularly the high tax rate?

On the one hand, it’s by far the state with the highest volume and most interest by users, and it’s clearly a market that has high visibility from a media perspective. On the other hand, the way the regulations were set up, including the 51% tax rate, it is difficult from an operator perspective to make it work financially over the long term. Over time, however, we believe the market will sort itself out.

Does Simplebet have plans to enter any other markets in the near future?

We are live with DraftKings in over a dozen international markets, with more on the way through our new partnerships. We see significant opportunity for growth through international distribution, particularly if/ when we expand our offering to include more global sports like soccer, tennis and golf. Unfortunately, we have not been able to gain access to the official data needed for our micro-markets, as exclusive data rights-holders have thus far refused to consider licensing us any of the necessary data rights; which is clearly antithetical to the leagues’ strongly stated goals of driving engagement and revenue.

What does the rest of 2022 and early 2023 have in store for Simplebet? We are expanding our NFL and NBA offerings into micro player props. Will Steph Curry make or miss his next shot? Which player will

get the next reception or will Derrick Henry’s next carry be over 3.5 yards? US sports fans are obsessed with individual players and their stat lines. Combining that with the excitement of micro-betting is a no-brainer. Perhaps a less obvious benefit from these types of markets is that they are somewhat latency-proof when it comes to watching the game on TV. With most of these markets you are not necessarily betting on the “next” play, but rather queuing up some bets that will likely result in the next few minutes.

Additionally, we will be leveraging our real-time data capabilities to expand our product suite to include low-latency game

tracking visualisers for our partners to embed in their app, starting with college football. It’s amazing we had so many users betting on plays and drives when there is no way to see the current down, distance and yardline in the app. Some sports have game-tracking visualisations but they are generally 7-10 seconds behind the betting markets. We think this is a huge missed opportunity with the current live-betting experience.

Finally, in 2023, we will be expanding into a new category that we are probably the most excited about: micro-parlays. Here, we plan to bring that single-game parlay experience to micro timeframes like at-bats, half innings, drives, etc. For example, while the Bengals are on defence you can start crafting your next drive parlay… Burrow will complete three pass attempts for over 40.5 yards, Mixon will have under 1.5 rush attempts and the Bengals will kick a field goal. This is where we’re headed and the possibilities are endless.

“Baseball and football have been extremely successful, while basketball has been challenging given its fast-paced action”

Chris Bevilacqua

From Optima to Orako

Sportradar director Jacob Lopez speaks to Gambling Insider about the future of the sports data company – as well as Orako, Sportradar’s new project, after the business acquired his prior company Optima in 2019

You founded Optima – which Sportradar acquired – and you’ve overseen the Orako project. What was your personal role in its development?

I think my role as Managing Director of the sportsbook services is really to ensure that the technology, which we developed in terms of platform, is done in a way that permits the best integration of service from Sportradar. And also to provide the quality, performance and stability a sports betting operator requires today. But, more importantly, the strategic overview to take the sportsbook forward; bringing together all the different views inside Sportradar.

How did the project come about from start to finish; when the merger happened was it very much set out as a roadmap?

There was always a plan from the start to get there; obviously we have had a very unfortunate situation with Covid-19 and that’s had an effect on how quickly we were finalising this initiative. But it’s always been the view that when Sportradar decided to have their

own sportsbook service end-to-end, it required the project to put together all services as soon as possible; and that was a priority. However, as always, we didn’t only consider our internal initiatives, we also considered what our operators require to keep them competitive, and if we needed to delay given whatever situation. But ultimately the plan from the start was to use all the managed services from Sportradar to put sportsbook solutions in place between Managed Trading Services (MTS), widgets, virtual games, etc. together under the same integration, so that we can provide maximum services to our operators but with less integration effort.

You mentioned the pandemic; if it wasn’t for the delays caused by Covid, would this launch have taken place a year or two sooner – how did it impact you?

The pandemic has heavily impacted this launch – but also because the market was very unstable, we didn’t know what was going to happen. Remembering we also work in retail, that environment was very badly affected by the pandemic, which meant we had to rearrange a few things.

I don’t think we’re competing with new competitors; I think our competition is always there. But what we are doing right now is putting new concepts in the market. You get everything from Sportradar, you decide what you want to take from us, if you want integration, you get all services – is that adding more competition or less competition? I definitely don’t think so. It’s better for the operators or partners who have been working with us to continue working with us – both with the sportsbook and their own platforms; obtaining the B2B services with Sportradar isn’t going to change. We believe there will be a range of services we provide together now that before were consumed individually. Where before we were providing just data to our clients, now it’s going to be data, digitalisation, transaction processing; some of those clients may not be B2C operators, they may be B2B service suppliers. They will go to our integrated service to provide more to their own customers – as well as maybe B2B2C

Does this new launch put you more in competition with companies you may have either partnered with, or had agreements with before?

customers. We are facilitating a better service quality and better time to market, and a whole range of opportunities for B2B, B2C and B2B2C clients for Sportradar.

Geographically, in terms of markets and regions, are there any that you’re targeting growth in specifically, for the product or in the industry?

There isn’t a particular region we are targeting, but there isn’t a region we’re not targeting either. As soon as there are regulated markets, our services are available. In terms of regionalisation of the product itself, which we find is a very important point, we at Sportradar provide services in five continents and worldwide. The sportsbook is built with those blocks; so, in terms of personalising for a particular region, we are also there. As soon as there is legal betting happening in the market we are there, and we have all the certifications and licences required.

In terms of the industry as a whole, where’s an area of particular excitement for the organisation?

I think the rate of growth in the market isn’t influenced by what you expect it to be influenced by; where we are operating right now is Europe, Africa, LatAm and the US. So, how those markets are going to grow, we don’t have a particular expectation from the sportsbook perspective in how they’re going to evolve. But where we are present right now, we will continue to bring innovation, we will continue growing and we expect our competitors to grow; that’s what we’re focused on.

Jacob Lopez

Challenging times; new opportunities

Artur, can you give me an introduction into how things have progressed for Parimatch Tech in the last year – since you restructured your organisation and aimed for the B2B market?

If we are not considering the war in Ukraine, overall, things are pretty interesting for us.

Because of the full-scale Russian invasion, we started to find more ways of business development, and I believe our tech transformation was a significant enabler for this.

If we had not implemented that transformation, at least partly, it might not be the case that we would diversify our business model as we have. Presently, we are in the second part of our new era: we are trying to monetise what we achieved as a tech company and diversify the main B2C business, adopting new business models as well.

and asked ourselves: ‘If we do this internally, why don’t we do this externally as well?’ To answer your question, I would say that now we have a solid focus on B2B, especially compared to a year ago when you spoke to CEO Maksym Liashko.

At that point, we weren’t focused on the structure of the B2B model as much. Now, we’re aiming for the first launch next year. Of course, that means a lot of internal changes to redo some of our organisation’s way of doing business.

In terms of the platform, obviously, there are a lot of providers out there already. How is Parimatch Tech trying to stand out?

From my experience, I wouldn’t say there is too much difference between platforms in the market. I have some B2B background, and the history of becoming a B2B company was the same as ours. First, you become a strong B2C operator, then decide to sell parts of the platform to someone else, and then you become a B2B company.

I would say we have our strengths for sure – for example, we have a lot of expertise in high load systems, as well as technical aspects that don’t matter for the end user: we can host cloud and data centres if you need some local operations. Parts of our platform are made up of the best experience that we took from the market. Our casino platform does 30 integrations a month or so – from my experience, this is a perfect time to market.

TikToks more than long reads! From that perspective, we’re really set – as we have a solid casino platform.

It’s interesting you mention TikTok because it’s come up a lot in the industry lately. We even had YouTube personality Jake Paul calling for the ‘TikTokification’ of sports betting. It’s a difficult word to pronounce (!) but will the industry go this way? Obviously, Facebook had its day, then it was more Instagram, and now it’s TikTok…

If we talk about this, I would say even sports betting is changing, with fast markets – and we’re keeping up to those standards on our sportsbook platform, which is going in that direction. We realise we have old-school players who like to follow their favourite teams, know everything about them and it’s easy for them to make a bet. But there’s also a new generation that likes to earn fast bets – on Dota matches or something like that. So, I would say sportsbook is moving towards this… TikTokification, yes!

Again, it’s a tricky word! But I completely agree. I wanted to ask about the challenges you’ve faced technologically, moving from B2C to B2B, given the internal systems you mentioned earlier. What are the biggest hurdles you’ve faced – a problem you have come across that you hadn’t before?

The exciting part is that, at some point, we realised that Parimatch Tech Holdings is operating as B2B internally. We have our platform, which is the product, and then we have the stakeholders – named hubs – that are features for the platform. We brainstormed

Traditionally, Parimatch is heavily linked to sports betting. In the future, what’s the plan in terms of sports betting and casino – will it be 50/50 between the two verticals?

Things have already changed. If you look at the market, the average proportion between the two – even with colossal betting operators – is 50/50. We are going that way as well – the world is becoming faster, and people want

Our current engineering problems are mostly focused on architecture and design. When you have an ad hoc B2C platform, it’s easy to make these shortcuts when designing systems. You have some deadlines, but you don’t need to worry about whether there will be another operator who uses it. If you have a platform at scale, with hundreds and thousands of microservices, it becomes a pain because you have to analyse whether they are all B2B-compliant retrospectively. We’ll have

“Sometimes, people are scared and stressed, so it’s challenging from a management perspective. You have to care more”

You’ve still got the Parimatch operator brand, so if you were to talk percentages, how much of the business is now B2B and how much is still B2C?

In an enlightening Zoom interview from Ukraine, Parimatch Tech CTO Artur Ashyrov addresses the difficulties of operating during the war, the “TikTok-ification” of sports betting – and the key challenges behind Parimatch’s transition from B2C to B2B

to think about how to redesign certain parts of the platform and make it work for different operators who hold multiple brands. So, I’d say our main challenges currently are in that area.

Thank you for that very specific answer – and it leads me to a thought on the B2B-B2C divide… The first thing that comes to my mind is whether you are now working with companies that were competitors before, and are still your competitors on the B2C side?

We would definitely work with these companies. I would say our B2B model is a bit different from the mass market. We don’t want to go in the direction of specific

companies where the model is based more on getting new clients onto their system. We will use a more boutique approach with companies who don’t have expertise in specific areas to incubate that business and help them develop.

Naturally, as a Ukraine-based company, it has been an incredibly difficult situation for Parimatch Tech and the rest of the industry in Ukraine this past year. How have you coped as an organisation?

It’s very, very challenging because the situation is very stressful; as you may understand, we have a lot of employees in Ukraine. Sometimes, people are scared and stressed,

so it’s challenging from a management perspective. You have to care more. As usual, when people are stressed, they can sometimes communicate irregularly – but you have to be very empathetic here. It’s also challenging for me that the time since the war began has seemed to flow faster for us.

Our standard operations, opening more offices in different countries and diversifying, became problem number one in week one. So I would say it’s very hard and, hopefully, it will get better; we’re having some tough times. However, these challenging times are a new possibility for Parimatch Tech to demonstrate our values and adapt. Hard times present unique challenges, but also new growth opportunities.

Artur Ashyrov

“I have some B2B background, and the history of becoming a B2B company was the same as ours. First, you become a strong B2C operator, then decide to sell parts of the platform to someone else, and then you become a B2B company”

Prioritising regulated markets

We last spoke to you back in February; has anything new developed since then?

Yes, from our perspective we’ve had a big focus on the US in the last couple of years, so that will continue to be our focus. We launched with Saracen in Arkansas a couple of months ago, we’re continuing to roll out in more states with Fubo TV and Hard Rock, and we’re planning on launching our first iGaming solution in New Jersey in the next few weeks, which is exciting. We’ve also launched with Lulabet in South Africa, which is our first South African operator, and is a very exciting space now because a lot is opening up in the South African space quite quickly. You must remember that up, until this year, slots weren’t approved and live dealer was only very recently approved. Only going back to last year, it was just sports betting that was regulated and approved by the gaming board in South Africa. But now it’s an exciting space, everyone is really pushing hard to get the top tier iGaming solutions integrated. Of course, they are all going through their own processes with getting their games approved, but it’s been an exciting year for us so far – and there’s still a bit left to go.

operator. As much as our focus has been on the US in the last few years, we’re still looking at other markets, too – including the European/UK market, as well as the rest of Africa. We have one site live in Nigeria called Premier Lotto, which we’ve been working with for the last seven/

eight years – and, as I said

earlier, we’ve just gone live with Lulabet. But of course, we’re exploring the Latin American space, too. Things seem to be moving fairly quickly down there off the back of the US. So, let’s see. I’m confident in our products and platform. We can pretty much go to any

market at the moment because of the work we’ve done.

Are you heavily focused on the US right now and is that where you want to be? We offer a global product and we’ve worked with UK and European sites in the past. So the product is very much available for the UK; even right now, we’re in talks with a new potential UK

“We have invested so much in the likes of the US, so for us it wouldn’t be worth the risk to dip our toe into unregulated markets for the sake of potentially something happening in the future”

Head of USA Brandon Walker speaks to Gambling Insider about the US and LatAm markets, Amelco’s presence in South Africa and adding new verticals to the business

Brandon Walker

Would you say you have gained a foothold in the LatAm market yet?

Well, we’re keeping an eye on the space, there’s a lot of talk around Brazil and obviously Peru is quite a big populous. I think we’re just keeping our ear to the ground at the moment; it will be interesting to see what happens with regulations. But for the meantime, we’re just watching fairly closely.

How quick was the rollout for the South African market?

South Africa is interesting because it is fairly heavily regulated, which is different for the rest of Africa. In terms of getting the product certified, it took time – as it does for everybody. For us it was a good 12 months to get the product in a position where we could put it through GLI certification, get it approved by the gaming board and have all the relevant integrations. Whether that be payments, certain iGaming or virtual games, things like that. It took us a bit of time; there’s obviously very distinctive and specific reports that need to be done for that particular market. In a way, I’d say it is an interesting space because it is quite tough for software suppliers to get into the country, but once you’re in it’s beneficial. If you’re in Eastern Europe or the rest of Africa, you have hundreds of software suppliers all vying for the same business, which is why we like the South African space. As much as it was painful to get the product certified and through, now that it is we’re happy there is a fairly strong barrier to entry. As soon as they started approving more in terms of iGaming and making it more of a lucrative opportunity for suppliers and operators, we definitely looked at it in a bit more depth.

Is it your first iGaming solution in South Africa?

We’ve rolled out iGaming solutions before, Lulabet has a full iGaming live-dealer, everything is on there. What I was referring to earlier with our first iGaming: that will be in the US. We have a free-to-play iGaming solution there at the moment through one of our clients called SuperDraft. But in terms of real money, there are only four states at the moment which actually offer it. So, that’s quite exciting for us, to have our first iGaming solution live in the states. We’re live in 12 states already with sportsbook and it’s nice to add that different vertical into the mix.

Is that a deliberate push towards diversification in the business, or was that more experimental?

We know it will work; we have provided iGaming solutions globally for years. It’s just now that one of our operators in the US has got an iGaming licence through Caesars in New Jersey, and we’re pushing to get that live as well. As everyone knows, the acquisition cost for sports betting in the

US right now is crazy; to be a mid-size tier two/ three book you’re absolutely burning money, so to be able to add the iGaming vertical to it certainly helps with the damage control these operators are dealing with.

Would you consider acquisitions to get into the LatAm market or concentrate on offering your own iGaming solutions?

Well, we’ve got our own iGaming solution, sportsbook solution, fully integrated solutions. In terms of LatAm, it’s quite a similar market to Africa. Heavy accumulators, standard European look and feel, decimal odds, nothing too crazy; we’ve already translated our sportsbook into a number of different languages, including Portuguese and Spanish. So, the product is ready, we’re just eying out who we thinkwill be a good operator to work with. Whether that is somebody existing armed with a solid player database, or an exciting start-up who have got good funding behind them and have a decent vision about how they want to go about doing things.

In terms of competition, is it a case of getting into a market first, or carefully analysing where you need to be?

Each has its pros and cons, but from our perspective – especially in LatAm or a space like Brazil – it is such a big market and they’re very well versed in the gaming space already. There is a lot of grey market gambling happening. But honestly, it depends on the opportunity; if the opportunity presents itself

and we can get it in fairly early, fantastic, we can have our platform certified and jump through all the hoops quite quickly.

Meaning for us, that wouldn’t be a heavy lift; but if we need to wait and survey the lay of the land, then we will do. It all depends internally on priorities and what else we have on the go. It’s one of those moving targets, we just keep our ear to the ground and see what happens.

Is there any interest from your side about the Asian market?

Not really. It all depends on markets that are regulated; we’ve worked with the Hong Kong Jockey Club before, which is the only regulated bookmaker within mainland China/Hong Kong. As I said, we very much work with regulated markets and regulated bookmakers. If things were to open up in Asia and certain countries, then absolutely we’d look at it. But I wouldn’t say it’s at the forefront of our minds.

Is there any advantage in getting into an unregulated market shortly before stringent regulations come into effect?

From our perspective, no. We have invested so much in the likes of the US, licences and operators, so for us it wouldn’t be worth the risk to dip our toe into unregulated markets for the sake of potentially something happening in the future. That could jeopardise our existing business, which wouldn’t be ideal, obviously. I know other suppliers do that, but each to their own.

In focus: BtoBet

Platform stability, its capacity and a quick response time are among the most important factors that operators place on their list, when it comes to making the key decision of which sports betting platform they should base their operations on. And rightly so… Platform instability and inadequate response time are, among other factors, some of the potential risks operators face; especially when facing major tournaments such as the upcoming World Cup. Issues that not only impact the betting experience negatively and significantly, but which also could carry financial implications for sportsbooks, a loss of bettors, while tarnishing their reputation as a reliable sports betting site.

will directly impact the betting experience. Let alone that in-play odds are heavily reliant on the immediate update of statistics during live games.

The sports betting industry is also characterised by architectural and geographical challenges. It is true regulations open up markets, but at the same time they pose different requirements that need to be adhered to by operators themselves. There are jurisdictions which have in place specific legislations, such as the Wire Act in the US, requiring operators to install on-premises servers in those states where they will be active. Thus, in such circumstances operators need to have a sports betting platform which is able to deploy and scale in many places.

The platform’s ability to deploy and scale according to the regulatory requirements in each jurisdiction is paramount especially in those markets, primarily the US, where operators are running multi-state operations. There is no need for an operator to run different and independent sportsbooks, but more

importantly one sportsbook that is able to scale to meet each state’s regulatory requirements.

characterised by a large volume of bets.

Besides a vast volume of daily transactions from online wagers, operators will face additional spikes of betting activity during these major events, with this culmination of transactions possibly putting the platform under immense pressure.

While operators target major sports events to drive their acquisition campaigns, their intention will not succeed if their betting platform is not robust enough to deal with the influx of new fans and bets placed.

Operators must ensure their platform will not collapse due to a high number of visits or transactions placed. It must be able to do both simultaneously, ensuring all performance goals are met.

Having said this, operators must have a sports betting platform capable of very high performance levels at the core of their operations. It is those operators that will be able to tick all the boxes, be it from a security or scalability point of view,

Super Bowl LV served as a key indicator of how technical issues quickly snowballed into outages, with users of multiple popular sports betting apps being unable to place wagers as kick-off for the match approached. The fact is that technology is at the centre of a sportsbook operation and if the platform features flaws, users will experience delays during important moments in events.

It is with this in mind that at BtoBet we give fundamental importance to the response time, scalability of the product, its stability and robustness. And we funnel a lot of the investment in our product roadmap to ensure our partners do not encounter any issues relating to these key aspects.

A quick response time is quintessential for any successful betting operation. Sports betting in itself being a very dynamic domain is characterised by a huge volume of data, with constantly changing odds. Thus, delays on the sportsbook platform

Making reference to the issues which were reported by players unable to place their bets in the hours preceding the Super Bowl LV last year, one could easily say a platform’s stability is the most critical element for any online bookmaker intent on leveraging a major event’s appeal

to drive acquisition and retention.

It goes without saying that players expect to access a sportsbook and wager whenever they deem fit. And this is especially true for those major events which are

Dima Reiderman

and reap the benefits during major sports events –while establishing themselves as player favourites in the longer term. Players are becoming increasingly more demanding, and bookmakers must respond with the adequate technology that allows them to make quick adjustments in a nimble manner.

“Players are becoming increasingly more demanding, and bookmakers must respond with the adequate technology that allows them to make quick adjustments in a nimble manner”

Dima Reiderman, General Manager, BtoBet, discusses a sportsbook’s key for success