SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Concluding 12 months of international activity, marked by a series of key partnership integrations, Betby is well positioned to capitalise on opportunities in the new year. 
In this second part of his interview with SBC News, Chris Nikolopoulos, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer offered some insights into Betby’s strategic overview of four key established and emerging continental markets.
The betting scenes in Europe and North America are well established and offer great opportunities for revenue growth. But for Nikolopoulos, the developing markets of Latin America and Africa are of particular interest.
“Most European markets are already well established and much less dynamic than other parts of the world, therefore it is not easy to pick one which will stand out, but Germany will be fascinating to keep an eye on, as the potential is so impressive,” he said.
Adding his perspective on stateside developments, Nikolopoulos observed that the many US jurisdictions have GDP ‘higher than large European countries, so of course as a country it’s incredibly interesting’. But he reiterated that ‘there are many global markets that are showing great potential’.
He explained: “Latin America has been growing for a long time now as is Africa. In the coming decade, online gambling in Africa will change drastically with the continuous growing transition from land-based betting shops to online.”
As Nikolopoulos observed, Latin America is a historically important market for Betby, and the firm has taken steps to ensure this remains the case over the next 12 months.
Just last month, the company signed a partnership with Roobet, a crypto-casino which shares its goal of building up a stronger presence in Latin America, as well as joint synergy of expanding esports operations.
“We are happy with our partnership with Roobet because we see an operator with true vision, great business ethics and a clear business model,” Nikolopoulos said.
“It always feels great when operators like Roobet choose our platform to empower their sportsbook operations and we are looking forward to a long term and mutually profitable business relationship with them, not only in Latin America but in other territories too. LatAm has been one of our top markets historically and I am sure the growth will continue.”
After Latin America, Betby’s CCO turned his attention to Africa – a market that has a population of over 1.2 billion, and has been rapidly developing over a number of decades.
Much of the betting focus on Africa has been on Nigeria and South Africa, two of the continent’s most advanced economies – both of which also have well established betting markets.
However, Nikolopoulos maintained that opportunity for expansion was present across Africa, saying: “It’s not only Nigeria and South Africa who may be pioneers in this sphere but there are many other countries with strong potential.
“The regulatory frameworks are not always clear and that creates some uncertainties but when this gets clarified, which I believe will happen relatively soon, we will see many other countries growing their numbers. And I mean both in Northern Africa as well as in Sub-Saharan countries.”
Offering his predictions for the future growth of Africa’s gambling sector, Nikolopoulos observed that ‘the split is probably 30-70% between sports and igaming products’.
Although he noted that both verticals have huge potential in the region, he projected that igaming will always be the bigger of the two – but there will ‘always be cross-sell potential in every market’.
Lastly, whilst Betby – and many others – are intrigued by the opportunities present in Latin America and Africa, there are of course regulatory and technological factors to address in both.
Nikolopoulos reiterated a lesson highlighted at many SBC Summits this year – that being that a generalised approach cannot be applied to every market on every continent.
“The main challenge is for providers to realise that every market is unique and that there is no ’one fits all’ type of solution,” he remarked.
“Once that educational hurdle is overcome, it is important to design the relevant solution from a product and IT point of view. And of course, you must prepare the right regulatory setup in order to be able to address such markets.
“I am happy to say that Betby has been present in both continents for a long time and by listening and understanding the needs of our local partners we have designed solutions which can give answers to their problems.”
To read part one of SBC News’ interview with Chris Nikolopoulos, click HERE
