Chris Nikolopoulos, Chief Commercial Officer at BETBY, reviews an exciting year for the sportsbook supplier, and looks ahead to what could be a landmark year to come.

What do you think has been the key to your commercial success in 2021? And were there any highlights that stood out?

I think it’s all about our open approach to critical thinking and the way we treat existing and prospective partners. Time and time again, we see providers in the market that are afraid to think like an operator, which keeps them grounded in old-school practices and approaches. In business, just like in life, you can’t take nothing for granted and you must act fast and efficiently, which is why we constantly try to evolve and listen to our partners’ needs.

The sports betting industry is one where without constant innovation, flexibility and the desire to deliver on your partner’s needs, a business can become outdated very quickly. At BETBY, we are doing our best to achieve this goal, starting of course with the product itself, which we always keep front of mind and we constantly act to improve it. We have signed deals with over 25 new partners in 2021, and the feedback has been extremely promising.

Are there any products in the roadmap for the year ahead that we should look out for? Will you be targeting any markets in particular?

The development process never stops. Looking ahead, we will continue expanding our Betby.Games series while also focusing on delivering extra functionality of our core business and our fully managed sportsbook solution. That includes extra data feed integrations, more front-end layouts and various other specific functionalities that I would like to keep confidential until we reveal them to our partners. With regards to markets we are targeting, we have a lot of different regulated jurisdictions on our radar, both in Europe and across the globe, and by the end of 2022 we will certainly have expanded our international reach.

What industry trends, if any, have you noticed in 2021 and how has BETBY responded to them?

2021 has been both interesting and challenging, mainly because of the pandemic. We constantly try to analyse trends and remain connected with the industry, and we have been able to identify several trends in various aspects. For instance, the increasing focus on the US market is a trend among most of the established European providers. On another note, we have certainly seen a growth in supplementary betting products such as Esports, virtual, and various products that fall in between. Betby.Games itself is the most glaring example of that.

Lastly, do you have any predictions for trends or developments that we will see across the industry in the year ahead?

I believe that operators will be focusing more and more on operating within smaller, flexible teams with modern software and fresh ideas, as they will be able to cover parts of the business more efficiently than with old, legacy platforms which are trying to provide full turnkey solutions. There is no one-stop shop that can deliver everything anymore, we have already seen this for some time, and I believe it will continue to be the case in the future.