GMB - OpenBet is a giant in the market with a robust, innovative and constantly growing sports betting platform. How have you achieved this success and what is the differential of your services that lead to be leaders in Canada, the United Kingdom and now in the United States?
Marc Crean - OpenBet’s proud heritage and industry leading position is underpinned by three important factors – an unrivalled product offering, world-class performance and long-term partnerships.
Our modular product suite includes all the features you would expect to see in a competitive sportsbook and more, covering a vast range of technology, content and services. On top of this, the platform’s ability to scale and take huge volumes of bets on the largest sporting events at peak times is unrivalled in the industry. This reliability and stability is critical for our partners to spend more of their time on marketing activities around the most prestigious sporting fixtures, safe in the knowledge that the platform won't let them down.
Finally, something I believe that also really sets us apart is how closely we work with operators. We have teams in all the major markets we participate in, and these are often collocated with operators. We work hard on our partnerships, which is why so many of our customers entrust our services for the long term. In fact, our ongoing partnership with Flutter Entertainment stretches over an incredible 20 years.
Brazil is a country of 200 million inhabitants, fanaticism for sports and an Internet and mobile penetration of the highest in the world. Is it a desired and key market for OpenBet?
Absolutely, once fully regulated Brazil is likely to become one of the most important markets for OpenBet. As you say, the size of the country’s population, their passion for sport and growing internet penetration makes it extremely exciting for us and the sports betting sector in general. Over the previous 15 years or so, Brazil has been an early adopter of technology and trends, while the consumption and use of social media here is unparalleled.
Beyond its huge potential to becoming a great sports betting market, we think it could become a very interesting territory for innovation. As we have seen in the U.S., regulation and business growth opportunities have sparked renewed focus on how the end user consumes sports betting entertainment. Evolving the user experience can be tricky to implement in mature markets, but Brazil’s emergence provides the perfect platform to introduce innovative concepts and attract a wider audience of bettors.
What particular characteristics of the Brazilian bettor did you find in when analyzing the market? Is BetBuilder a product that can be easily adapted to the Brazilian market?
Football, football and Football! There are plenty of football crazy countries in the world but Brazil is something else with back-to-back seasons running all year. This will suit operators with similar product-market experience and there’s an opportunity here to use football to innovate compelling experiences, similar to what happened in the UK a decade ago.
Certainly, BetBuilder is ideal for Brazil. The pioneering product developed by SportCast was originally born in soccer markets and is extremely well suited to the nation. As we have seen across North America, Europe and other regions, the full BetBuilder experience that allows players to build multiple outcomes into one bet is hugely popular. We also believe the pre-canned version of BetBuilder will be highly beneficial in attracting newcomers, with a selection of the most popular pre-built bets presented to the end user seamlessly. BetBuilder is ready to go live as soon as the regulated market opens.
Do you consider that the Brazilian market can reach the size of the American one or those leaders in Europe in its maturity?
From a consumer point of view, there’s no doubt that the appetite is there. Conditions look ripe for Brazil to be amongst the globe’s biggest sports betting markets. Of course, there will unquestionably be headwinds in the form of new business conditions and product requirements, but this will not be a significant barrier to market growth. The demand is strong and OpenBet is ready to support regulated Brazilian-facing sportsbooks with the content, technology and services they require.
One of the reasons that the Brazilian legislators put forward to convince about the advantages of legalizing the gaming activity is the number of employment that this industry can create. Is OpenBet one of those companies determined to settle in the country and add local talent to the business?
This is definitely the case for OpenBet and really important to us. Our intention is very much to create a new development hub here in the region. To some extent, this is because we know the advantages of being close to customers and players, but also Brazil has a solid reputation for hosting good universities with a focus on technology. In the long term, that should provide us with access to more talent and offer graduates and exciting opportunity to begin a career within sports betting entertainment.
Do you see important talent in Brazil with the necessary experience and knowledge to join a company like OpenBet? Especially in the technological sector, which is the most required by you.
Innovative, passionate technologists are the heart of our business across every location that we operate in. In Brazil, there is significant regional investment in entrepreneurship and technology, while many of the top universities for computer science in Latin America are based in the country. We are really excited about the potential for a Brazilian workforce to become an important of the OpenBet team, bringing fresh and intriguing ideas to the table that will enable us to push the boundaries of sports betting.
What OpenBet products and services are the most successful for the Brazilian public? What do local operators require most?
The full modular suite of OpenBet, which encompasses our sports betting technology, content and services will be offered in Brazil. The portfolio has been hugely successful all over the world and offers the most compelling sports betting experiences to players. From our highly robust and versatile sports betting engine to a sophisticated player account platform, and dynamic front-end user interfaces to a market leading sportsbook Managed Trading Service (MTS), we have everything at our disposal to provide the support that operators in Brazil need.
The potential of BetBuilder in Brazil is something we’re really excited about, along with the huge range of in-house and third-party sports content that we build and distribute. For football crazy fans, BetBuilder has the capability to provide a deeper and richer betting experience.
What place does Latin America occupy in OpenBet’s expansion goals? Beyond Brazil, what growth strategy do you propose for the rest of the markets?
The whole continent is crucial for our long-term expansion strategy. We already have deals in place in other countries and are in the process of facilitating new launches, which we’re excited to share more details on over the coming months. Expect to see major activity from us in all the major LatAm markets over the next 18 months at least.
OpenBet has a proud heritage of delivering significant growth for operators worldwide, helping to build their operations at scale and taking their business to the next level. Through our world class platform technology, content and services, we have strong ambitions to power the next generation of sportsbooks in Brazil and beyond, turning them into world leaders within sports betting entertainment.
What are OpenBet’s goals for the remainder of the year and what can we expect from the brand for the Qatar 2022 World Cup?
Extending our international footprint across the Americas is a top priority for us. With even more U.S. states set to introduce legalized sports betting, as well as Brazil edging closer to embracing regulation, these are exciting times. We very much want to be at the heart of driving sports betting entertainment for the masses across this huge region.
This year’s World Cup will be intriguing given it’s taking place in November and December. Our platform along with BetBuilder processed record numbers of bets during last year’s Euro 2020 tournament and we expect even more engagement for football’s biggest showpiece event.
Source: Exclusive GMB
