Kaizen Gaming secured a total of three awards, including Innovation in Sports Betting and Best Native App for the second consecutive year.

 Kaizen Gaming, one of the world’s biggest GameTech companies and owner of the Betano online sports betting and gaming brand, has been honoured with three awards at the prestigious EGR Marketing and Innovation Awards 2025, held in London on June 19^th. Kaizen Gaming was awarded with “Brand of the Year – B2C” for its premium brand, Betano, “Innovation in Sports Betting” and “Best Native App”.

The past year has been especially significant for Betano which unveiled a new brand identity, brought to life globally through sponsorships of major international football tournaments, such as the UEFA EURO 2024™, the CONMEBOL Copa America™️ 2024, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League, alongside prominent local competitions, like Brasileirão Betano (Campeonato Brasileiro Série A) and Torneo Betano (the Argentine Primera División).

Furthermore, the award victories in the “Innovation in Sports Betting” and “Best Native App” categories highlight Kaizen Gaming’s ongoing commitment to customer-centric innovation, delivering highly engaging gameplay and mobile-first experiences that continue to set new industry standards. Notably, this is the second consecutive year that Kaizen Gaming has been distinguished for developing the “Best Native App”, a testament to the excellence of its in-house technology, product, and innovation teams.

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Pablo Puertas, Marketing Director of Kaizen Gaming said: “The past year has been a defining one for Betano. We didn’t just refresh our visual identity; we reinforced Betano as a modern, premium and trusted brand, radiating confidence, playfulness, and artistic flair. Through bold 360° campaigns and landmark sponsorships we connected with millions of people in meaningful, localized ways.

But this is more than branding. It reflects our broader commitment to delivering the best, most innovative, and most responsible gaming experiences possible. Winning ‘Best Native App’ once again, as well as ‘Innovation in Sports Betting’ shows that we are pretty successful at it. We are now at a stage where we can confidently say that Betano is a truly premium global player, able to compete for leadership in any given market. A big thank you to the award organizers, but more importantly to the ‘Kaizeners’, who are the driving force behind our success”.

Building on last year’s momentum, the first half of 2025 has been a remarkable period for Kaizen Gaming and Betano, highlighted by multiple high-profile global sponsorships – including the most recent partnership with FIFA for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ for South America and the long-term principal and front-of-shirt partnership with Club Atlético River Plate.

The EGR Marketing & Innovation Awards reward the most innovative and creative companies in the online gaming industry, celebrating commercial success, game-changing innovation, leading customer service and marketing prowess over the past 12 months. This year’s ceremony took place at The Mermaid, London, on 19^th June 2025, and was hosted by Greek comedian George Zach.

Kaizen Gaming secured a total of three awards, including Innovation in Sports Betting and Best Native App for the second consecutive year.

 Kaizen Gaming, one of the world’s biggest GameTech companies and owner of the Betano online sports betting and gaming brand, has been honoured with three awards at the prestigious EGR Marketing and Innovation Awards 2025, held in London on June 19^th. Kaizen Gaming was awarded with “Brand of the Year – B2C” for its premium brand, Betano, “Innovation in Sports Betting” and “Best Native App”.

The past year has been especially significant for Betano which unveiled a new brand identity, brought to life globally through sponsorships of major international football tournaments, such as the UEFA EURO 2024™, the CONMEBOL Copa America™️ 2024, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Conference League, alongside prominent local competitions, like Brasileirão Betano (Campeonato Brasileiro Série A) and Torneo Betano (the Argentine Primera División).

Furthermore, the award victories in the “Innovation in Sports Betting” and “Best Native App” categories highlight Kaizen Gaming’s ongoing commitment to customer-centric innovation, delivering highly engaging gameplay and mobile-first experiences that continue to set new industry standards. Notably, this is the second consecutive year that Kaizen Gaming has been distinguished for developing the “Best Native App”, a testament to the excellence of its in-house technology, product, and innovation teams.

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Pablo Puertas, Marketing Director of Kaizen Gaming said: “The past year has been a defining one for Betano. We didn’t just refresh our visual identity; we reinforced Betano as a modern, premium and trusted brand, radiating confidence, playfulness, and artistic flair. Through bold 360° campaigns and landmark sponsorships we connected with millions of people in meaningful, localized ways.

But this is more than branding. It reflects our broader commitment to delivering the best, most innovative, and most responsible gaming experiences possible. Winning ‘Best Native App’ once again, as well as ‘Innovation in Sports Betting’ shows that we are pretty successful at it. We are now at a stage where we can confidently say that Betano is a truly premium global player, able to compete for leadership in any given market. A big thank you to the award organizers, but more importantly to the ‘Kaizeners’, who are the driving force behind our success”.

Building on last year’s momentum, the first half of 2025 has been a remarkable period for Kaizen Gaming and Betano, highlighted by multiple high-profile global sponsorships – including the most recent partnership with FIFA for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ for South America and the long-term principal and front-of-shirt partnership with Club Atlético River Plate.

The EGR Marketing & Innovation Awards reward the most innovative and creative companies in the online gaming industry, celebrating commercial success, game-changing innovation, leading customer service and marketing prowess over the past 12 months. This year’s ceremony took place at The Mermaid, London, on 19^th June 2025, and was hosted by Greek comedian George Zach.

By Maria Emma Arnidou, Event Marketing Director at HIPTHER, for the European Gaming Media

During the recent EveryMatrix Media Day at the company’s opening of their new London office, Co-Founders Ebbe Groes (CEO) and Stian Hornsletten sat down with press to share key insights into their strategic vision. In this exclusive Q&A, we explore their views on the European Market, the evolution of EveryMatrix’s business model, leadership philosophy, and the company’s experience in the ever-evolving U.S. market.

Europe is filled with local heroes. It’s far more fragmented than most people think.

You discussed emerging markets in your presentation. What about Europe – is it considered saturated, or are there still areas of growth?

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Ebbe Groes: I really don’t think Europe is saturated at all. In fact, big parts of it are still underdeveloped. Take France for example, it doesn’t allow online casino. Germany has effectively banned it. That’s two of Europe’s three largest economies where casino is either outlawed or nearly impossible. So yes, there is still plenty of room for growth.

Stian Hornsletten: And the market is getting more concentrated around a few bigger players, but even then, it’s not as centralized as in the U.S.

Ebbe Groes: Exactly. Europe is filled with local heroes. You won’t find many players dominating across the board. Kindred, Betsson – they’re strong, but when you go country by country and look at market share, the picture is very fragmented. Even with the economies of scale in marketing – say you sponsor a Premier League team – you’re still not getting the full return unless you’re present across multiple markets. That’s what makes Europe so different from the U.S., where a few big players hold all the cards.

We started with a sportsbook. Now we’re building an ecosystem.

EveryMatrix today operates across multiple verticals with a deeply diversified portfolio. Was this the vision from the start, or did it evolve as the company grew?

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Stian Hornsletten: The vision definitely evolved quickly as we grew. We started with OddsMatrix, a B2B sportsbook product that was meant to be an off-the-shelf, managed solution – something that didn’t exist back then. Within a year, we had already expanded into turnkey and PAM solutions. By 2010–2011, we had launched the CasinoEngine and started specializing in product verticals.

We’ve always been very innovation-driven. We keep developing new products – some of which are still under wraps – and R&D remains one of the most exciting parts of what we do. Today, most of our top 10 clients are turnkey. While we still offer standalone modules, our growth has come from cross-vertical synergy.

Despite this scale and complexity, you both remain deeply involved in the company’s day-to-day operations. How do you manage to stay on top of everything across products, people, and processes?

Ebbe Groes: It helps that we’ve been here from the start. I wouldn’t want to be hired into this role now and try to learn everything from scratch – but I’ve had 18 years to absorb it all. We’ve built the company in a way that each vertical operates almost like its own business. For example, the sports division has its own CTO, product team, trading team, and even its own support function. That independence gives us breathing room.

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It allows me to focus on high-level strategy, like acquisitions – take FSB, for instance. That required a lot of focus at the start, but eventually it will transition into the core business and require less direct involvement.

Stian Hornsletten: Over the years, we’ve also developed strong planning, reporting, and KPI structures across the business. That consistency makes it easier to monitor everything and integrate new divisions. Whether we open a new office or onboard a new team, we already have the systems in place to support them.

Ebbe Groes: And the same goes for finance and HR. When we opened the London office, the HR team already knew how to handle it – we’d opened three the year before. That kind of maturity allows us to move fast without creating chaos.

“In Europe we have 150 competitors in content; in the U.S., maybe 10.”

And what about the U.S. – a market many see as the holy grail of iGaming? What’s your current position there?

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Ebbe Groes: To be honest, the U.S. was a tough lesson. We entered hoping to provide a full turnkey solution, but the market didn’t evolve the way we expected. Many well-funded B2C operators pulled out, and that left little demand for companies like us to offer the full stack. We pivoted to focus on one thing: our own gaming content.

Stian Hornsletten: We’re now live in four out of five regulated U.S. states for our own content, and we have agreements with all the major operators. Some new games from SlotMatrix are set to launch by summer, and they’ve already shown strong performance elsewhere – which gives us hope. If we manage to capture even 1–2% market share with our own content, that would already be meaningful.

But it’s been a long and costly process. Every state has its own regulatory requirements, separate hosting, and certification needs. And if one state’s not ready, operators won’t promote your games nationally. It’s frustrating, but it also reduces competition. In Europe we have 150 competitors in content; in the U.S., maybe 10. So if we can endure, there’s long-term potential.