SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The betting and gaming industry is putting in its final preparations before descending upon London for the final time for ICE.
Ahead of the final edition of ICE London, SBC News caught up with Simon Westbury, CEO of Sport Generate, a Digitain Group company, to discuss the supplier’s product showcase at the show as well as gain some insight into the esports betting industry.
Westbury chats all about both Sport Generate’s front-end and backend products, telling his staff to “smell the money in the room” and how the nascent esports betting space can grow in 2024.
SBC News: How do Sport Generate’s services benefit existing operators?
Simon Westbury: Sport Generate’s product suite reflects the young dynamic nature of the company, adding a fresh and exciting take on existing product types in the market. Our mix offers companies in the igaming space the opportunity to increase engagement both internally within their teams and externally with the end user, resulting in increased revenues.
Our fully-managed esports API combines market-leading design with multiple views that a player can customise to their preferences with official data and streaming. This will offer 24 of the most popular esports combined with official streaming powered by Digitain Group’s trading team of over 1000 traders. I am sure that combining the new product with our proprietary Cyber Masters Cup content will be a disruptive force for the good in the esports market place. Of course, imitation is the highest form of flattery and I am sure our competitors will look to replicate our product in the short to medium term.
The second product launch for us at ICE will be our odds-feed product; we have developed a new user-friendly back office with a high level of functionality. As I have said previously, developing a back-office tool may not be the most sexy product on the market but we are very proud of what we have developed. We worked with external consultants using their insight and knowledge to deliver a feed with extremely low latency, 130,000 monthly events, customisable margins with a sophisticated but intuitive booking system, all integrated through one API.
Our young and exciting company is ready to start making waves in the industry at ICE and I promise it is a coincidence that our company brand colours are the same as ICE London.
SBC: Commercially, how are Sport Generate’s integration models superior to other third parties?
SW: Flexibility is our watchword here – and I do not mean discounts. We have designed products that are flexible and intuitive for our customers. We are starting a journey of personalisation and customisation for both the gaming operator and their end user. As I told SBC News in 2019, without wishing to sound like Martin Luther King, we as an industry should have a dream to create a highly-personalised experience for the player, a term that was coined as creating the “Netflix of Gaming”.
We take this flexibility into our commercial discussions, to understand our customers needs and how our products can benefit them, resulting in bespoke commercial packages that meet our customers needs. We are not “Del Boy Trotter” market traders selling our products to everyone. Instead, we are offering bespoke boutique products based on customised commercial models to exceed our customers needs and in doing so bringing benefit to the end customer, which in terms drives increased revenues for everyone.
I am sure our stand (S4-538) at ICE will be a hive of activity and discussion before and after the visit of the Digitain Group Brand Ambassador Luis Figo and his fellow Galactico, Michel Salgado.
SBC: Can you outline your growth plans for 2024?
SW: You have answered the question for me by mentioning growth. 2024 is about growth, growth and more growth for Sport Generate. The products we are launching at ICE are MVPs. Although, I believe these products even at MVP stage will be market-defining, we have an exciting development roadmap for 2024.
In addition to product growth of course we need to bring revenue in order to drive the business forward, so we expect a large amount of deals and after a year of product development, the team will be dusting off their passports and hitting the road to spread the news about Sport Generate.
SBC: What trends in Esports do you see happening in 2024?
SW: Esports is still a growing product in the entertainment vertical that has yet to reach full market maturity. The nascent demand amongst males and females in the age range 25-45 shouldn’t be dismissed, as the viewership and participation numbers are comparable to, if not more significant than, the Super Bowl.
What is needed is an appreciation of the needs of the gamer community and providing an inclusive experience in the same way as product channels for fixed odds sports betting, virtual sports, casinos and now live casinos have evolved, and indeed continue to evolve.
Therefore, from a product user perspective, this will be a step-change instead of perceiving esports as just part of the 24/7 fixed odds betting menu, which should be considered a standalone product experience.
Technology and socialisation will drive this as we already see deeper integrations of social peer-to-peer chat features within traditional sports betting interfaces. Esports is a very involved activity, not just about the betting transactional flow.
We expect to see an evolution, and I’m confident Sport Generate can help operator partners on that growth journey as esports comes of age.
SBC: How do you expect your first ICE show to be for Sport Generate?
SW: I think we have to put the question in context. This is the eighth ICE for Digitain, the third for Galaxsys and the second for Relum and Imagine Live – all Digitain Group Companies. So, yes, this is the first ICE for Sport Generate but the 17th ICE I am personally attending.
I think expectations are always about doing business and I always tell the team on the first morning to, “smell the money in the room”. Yes, Sport Generate has delivered, in a short time frame, an exciting product range but that is nothing unless we close some deals and bring some revenue to the company.
It would be remiss to mention that this is the last ICE London, an event that spans many years going back to the halcyon days of Earls Court. This will be my 17th ICE and I am sure there will be many memories, stories and emotions recounted in The Fox pub. It is testament to the industry that the event has grown from humble beginnings at Earls Court to becoming an industry behemoth that has outgrown ExCel meaning we are moving to Barcelona in 2025.
The team is excited to get the message out that peers, visitors, friends, and we look forward to welcoming everyone to our stand at S4-538 and be assured of a warm, friendly and professional greeting from team as we celebrate not only the achievements of Sport Generate, but also the industry.
