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Sam Sadi predicts Fanatics success at Xtremepush iGaming event
Fanatics has the tools to come out on top in the race between the two major newcomers in the US sports betting market, according to LiveScore Group CEO Sam Sadi.
Speaking at iGaming 2024: The Future of iGaming, an event hosted by Xtremepush, the leading omnichannel customer engagement platform powered by a real-time customer data platform (CDP), Sadi outlined his belief that the superior knowledge and experience of the Fanatics team presents them with a significant competitive advantage over rivals ESPN Bet.
Flutter, the parent company of FanDuel, has estimated that the overall regulated sports betting market in the US will be worth more than $40 billion by 2030.[MC1]
“Fanatics has the better chance of winning,” said Sadi, in a fireside chat with Xtremepush CEO Tommy Kearns at London’s Southbank Centre. “ESPN Bet probably won’t, unless they realise the full difficulties they face with Barstool, they understand what’s missing, they’re patient and they invest a lot in technology.
“Why should Fanatics win? Because they already understand it. A lot of their executives, management and engineering team come from Sky Bet. They know what it takes to build a world-class sportsbook and they know that convergence is difficult. They’re willing to be patient and construct an entire ecosystem piece by piece, with every component being best-in-class.”
Coveting convergence
Sadi also touched on the hot topic of convergence in sports betting, such a big area for his company LiveScore and LiveScore Bet, outlining the area in which he sees scope for innovation.
“A lot of technology resources today are spent on remaining compliant,” he said. “We are in an over-regulated industry where margins have been eroded, meaning companies can’t invest as much in innovation.
“Just as we have done, you are looking for alternative strategies and inefficiencies in the ecosystem of sports content and media. If you include this in a fully owned ecosystem, there is margin for improvement. This is the part of the experience where you can start innovating and investing, as opposed to within a sportsbook where you can’t make as much of a difference.”
Player Engagement 2.0 – Turning Visitors into Loyal Players
Other external speakers at the well-attended event, which hosted operators, suppliers and media from the iGaming industry, included Joanna Beaton, Head of CRM at Kwiff, Adrian Căpriţă, CRM and VIP Director at Superbet, and Tom Dyson, Head of Gaming Managed Services at EveryMatrix, who discussed the future of player engagement, retention and loyalty.
Beaton also expanded on the theme of regulation and the consequent need to retain players, with personalised experiences acting as a powerful engagement tool.
“A lot of the attention has been on acquisition, but as the market becomes more saturated, regulation becomes stricter and deposit limits are there to deal with, so retention has to become central. How do you stand out if you can’t bonus your player who is playing with three or four more other bookies through your product?
“It’s really important to know your player profiles and half the job is understanding data. If not, you’re basically throwing money into the wind and hoping for the best. We’ve worked with Xtremepush over the last year and have hundreds of attributes now in terms of player profiles, which have enabled some beautiful onboarding journeys. Because of the level of data that we have access to, we’ve seen tremendous uplift.”
Dyson’s view, meanwhile, was that there are limits to the extent to which brand marketing is effective in the battle for player retention.
“Brand recognition is the only area where I can see marketing being responsible for retention,” he said. “How often can I get my brand in front of someone I’ve had a contact point with? Thereafter, the responsibility is with the product. You have to get players in the door and engage them with an experience that might be different, but which needs to match up with what you promised. That needs to happen in real-time, because tomorrow they might have already been sent to other operators.”
Pushing the positives
For Beaton, the fundamental key to unlocking player loyalty is the provision of a positive initial experience.
“Even though we have a sizable brand, we are in a congested market and looking after players should be a priority,” she added. “When players come through the door, creating memorable positive experiences is what builds the foundation of loyalty. This is especially the case when regulation is getting tighter and bonusing is becoming harder. While acquisition is important, retention and creating that first positive experience is vital.”
Once again, casino and sports platform provider ProgressPlay are ahead of their time with a new wave of technology innovation that has helped the company to attend major shows during 2023 with soaring confidence based on pioneering proprietary technological advances that have featured strongly in annual awards shows.
The company’s future-centred thinking and ambitious AI product development attracted a raft of operators and partners attending last week’s SiGMA Europe in Malta. A raft of casino operators during the show had the opportunity to see firsthand ProgressPlay’s new tech which offers a comprehensive gaming management solution across multiple channels and products.
ProgressPlay’s enhanced iGaming platform provides operators with a powerful real-time AI-driven proprietary flow tool for optimising the performance of an online casino in a dynamic data ecosystem. Real-time player interaction provides compliance teams with the information to manage and interact with players.
Last year, ProgressPlay undertook an ambitious reframe of their technology with new proprietary Responsible Gambling automation and tools at its heart. ProgressPlay’s new platform manages player accounts, payments, bonuses, loyalty programs, fraud prevention and games, using robust tools and analytics.
ProgressPlay Sales Manager Marina Nahhas said: “ProgressPlay’s innovative Responsible Gambling software covers topics like KYC, player activity, affordability levels, and a transparent audit trail. These topics resonate heavily with operators and we were delighted with the level of engagement around this revenue-critical activity during the week we spent in Malta.”
ProgressPlay’s combo sportsbook and comprehensive turnkey solution, including casino platform, player management, payments module, and affiliate software are designed to boost operators seeking to effectively drive both revenue and efficiency with the latest cutting-edge technology.
Over 150 online casino brands have partnered with ProgressPlay covering a unique combination of casino games and sports-betting. ProgressPlay’s sportsbook offers up to 40,000 live betting markets and services across 20 languages while the latest platform offers a slick AI-driven UI/UX, and extensive value-added services alongside thousands of casino games, including slots, online casino, live casino, poker, table games, and sportsbook, across all devices and currencies.
ProgressPlay CEO Itai Loewenstein said: “Commercial agreements are being driven by our breakthrough technology that enables deployment of our AI tools for greater efficiency and revenue-generation. SiGMA Europe has been the last stop in a busy year and we believe that since we first launched our new technology in London at the beginning of the year our sophisticated Responsible Gambling tool has quickly moved beyond the early-adopter stage.”
Every year, SiGMA Europe gathers iGaming professionals together to connect, share insights, and sum up the year. This year, the event was visited by over 20,000 participants from over 100 countries. The Slotegrator team found the trip to be truly inspirational and is ready to share its insights.
SiGMA Europe was the best place to summarize the results of 2023. For Slotegrator, this year was dedicated to researching customers’ requirements and desires, players’ interests, and industry tendencies. Throughout the year, Slotegrator visited events in four huge iGaming markets – Africa, Asia, LatAm and Europe – to get a clear picture of what those markets are like.
At each of these events, the team gathered firsthand knowledge on how to improve Slotegrator’s flagship products and provide even better service to the company’s clients.
At SiGMA Europe 2023 in Malta, the Slotegrator team presented new features of its turnkey online casino platform and the phenomenal mobile solution – Telegram Casino – which was first presented by Slotegrator in 2017 and updated in 2022.
Slotegrator’s top managers also had plenty of meetings with partners about the company’s APIgrator solution – a unique solution for the fast and seamless integration of online casino games into gambling platforms. The solution incorporates more than 15,000 various slots, card games, live dealer games, and virtual sports from 100 world’s leading developers. In 2024, Slotegrator will present to the market plenty of new partnerships with providers from different parts of the world.
“SiGMA Europe 2023 was a great event for our team, as usual. To gather in such a great place to meet partners, to summarize preliminary results of the year, to outline plans for the future – it was the right decision,” says Yana Khaidukova, Managing Director at Slotegrator.
Slotegrator mentions that the composition of the iGaming world is changing: new companies have already appeared and will continue to appear not only for occuping a part of the existing market, but they form new niches, as they come with new spectacular offers and solutions. It is the reason why the competition increases many times, and it gives the industry new directions of development.
As for providers, their number is increasing very rapidly. Small companies are growing into large ones, which shows the success of their solutions, and new companies come with fresh ideas, games and experience that players like.
One trend that is only going to increase is the interest in crash games. Prominent studios are introducing new examples of fresh crash games. Leaders, who are already successful in this niche, such as Aviatrix, continue to modify their crash game and expand it into new markets and continue to win the hearts of new players by providing them with an amazing gaming experience.
According to the Slotegrator’s observations, many Asian companies took part in SiGMA Europe 2023, which suggests that the Asian vector will be very popular next year.
Here are some additional key insights from SiGMA Europe that the company will carry into next year:
- Responsible Gaming is growing more and more important to players, operators, and regulators.
- It’s essential to embrace innovation. New technologies can let operators offer players more choices and solve problems faster and more effectively.
- Operators need to keep increasing their security and anti-fraud measures. Scammers are always on the lookout for new ways to defraud casinos, so operators need to try and stay a few steps ahead of them.
- Players want to be a part of a community. Platform operators should create a welcoming atmosphere by offering features like multiplayer chats where players can connect with each other.
- It’s essential that online casinos show loyal players their appreciation. Better bonuses can keep players coming back, as well as referral programs where players earn rewards for bringing in new leads.
- Cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and blockchain tech in general are here to stay. Finding ways to integrate them can help you offer your players a better, more modern experience.
- Player behavior should be constantly analyzed in order to identify trends and enhance player retention strategies.
As for the last point, Slotegrator is set to release internal reports on the state of the industry that provide an analysis of player behavior and predictions for the development of the industry in 2024. To be one of the first to receive the reports, subscribe to Slotegrator’s social media channel here.
ABOUT SLOTEGRATOR
Since 2012, Slotegrator has been one of the iGaming industry’s leading software and business solution providers for online casino and sportsbook operators.
The company’s main focus is software development and support for online casino platforms, as well as the integration of game content and payment systems.
The company works with licensed game developers and offers a vast portfolio of casino content: slots, live casino games, poker, virtual sports, table games, lotteries, casual games, and data feeds for betting.
Slotegrator also provides consulting services in gambling license acquisition and business incorporation.
More information: https://slotegrator.pro/
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