SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Ahead of a high-profile panel appearance at SBC Summit Lisbon David Yatom Hay, General Counsel of Soft2Bet, calls for a unified approach from the industry in the face of ever-increasing regulations.
SBC: How much are you looking forward to addressing delegates at SBC Summit Lisbon and what do you hope to achieve from the exercise?
David Yatom Hay: I’m very excited about the SBC Summit in Lisbon and really looking forward to taking part in discussions on a topic that is both very interesting and important: how igaming companies are trying to balance regulatory compliance and commercial growth. In many ways it goes to the heart of our industry’s business model and is a topic I’ve been discussing a lot and quite vigorously recently!
I’ve expressed my own views on the subject previously, and truly believe that regulators should carefully assess the limitations and impositions they apply on operators. There is a crucial balance to strike between protecting players and maintaining AML principles on the one hand and ensuring that businesses remain sustainable on the other hand so that we can encourage more regulated operators in the markets.
In addition, beyond the purely regulatory question, if we do not provide sufficient protections to our players as operators, we run the risk of slowly but surely undermining ourselves and diminishing the industry in which we work in. Nobody wants to continue using services if they don’t receive the minimum protection for their assets or interests.
Therefore, it is our responsibility as operators to ensure our patrons are safeguarded so that they will return to use our services, as well as those of other industry participants. I’ll be happy to discuss these issues at the SBC Summit Lisbon.
SBC: What are the big regulatory challenges ahead for the igaming sector and what is Soft2Bet’s strategy in addressing these?
DYH: The last decade has presented many obstacles from a regulatory perspective as most European countries have regulated their respective online gambling markets. Unfortunately, not all of them have taken a holistic view with regard to the laws they have introduced. Some regulators have taken a very strict approach and applied such hard limitations on operators that it has made operating within the market quite unreasonable and not commercially viable.
For the industry, this means the biggest regulatory challenge is to convince regulators across Europe that they need to allow operators a bit more flexibility. This would encourage more regulated operators to continue operating within these markets and from a technical perspective would help create a more harmonised approach so that one territory does not differ significantly from another. This would help reduce the cost of entering new markets and, obviously, increase the offerings available to players, thereby creating a more competitive environment.
At Soft2Bet, we are committed to ensuring that our platform remains versatile and flexible enough to adjust to ever-changing regulatory environments and new territories. Our Motivational Engineering Gaming Application (MEGA) gamification solution reduces costs for our partners by increasing revenues through player interaction and engagement.
This approach allows us to operate in the most challenging regulatory environments because we are able to generate growth through gamified content that drives traffic to our websites and does not rely on expensive bonuses or free bets.
SBC: What will be your main message to delegates that you’d like them to take away?
DYH: My main message is that we need to present a united front before regulators and explain that placing harsher requirements on operations is not necessarily the best course of action and, importantly, is not the best way to protect players.
Instead, regulators should allow the industry to self-regulate. Imposing stricter measures will simply drive legitimate operators away, opening the door for unregulated and non-legitimate players. We need to be our own advocates and communicate this to regulators whenever possible.
It is crucial to participate in consultation meetings with regulators, engage in conferences and have open conversations to explain these difficulties. This dialogue is a mutual process that will ultimately benefit both the industry and regulators.
SBC: Let’s talk about player acquisition. How does Soft2Bet maximise these opportunities while taking into account the need for an even greater focus on social responsibility?
DYH: Much of our corporate and social responsibility policies are driven by data, which we combine with human elements to reach balanced decisions at key moments. When it comes to data, one of the great features of our MEGA solution is that it provides us with many data points that help guide our product development and responsible gambling roadmaps.
The information also helps us stay ahead of industry needs and get a deep understanding of player behaviours, which allows us to tailor our solutions to the specific needs of our partners.
In addition, since we run our own B2C operations, we have first-hand experience of the challenges operators face when it comes to player acquisition and our gamification solution MEGA is a major asset in enhancing customer acquisition and engagement for our partners.
To illustrate our expertise in this field, over the past 18 months our group net gaming revenues (NGR) have increased 65%, average revenues per user (ARPU) are up 45%, screen time is up fourfold (x4) and deposit amounts are up 50% across all our brands.
SBC: How does Soft2Bet balance the need for sustainable growth, while fostering a culture of trust and player safety?
DYH: One could argue that reaching a balance between all those factors is the perennial equation igaming companies are trying to resolve! For Soft2Bet, this has been achieved in large part thanks to our MEGA solution, which enables us to communicate, interact and engage with our players regularly without the need to worry about bonuses or the impact on our promotional budgets.
Importantly, it fosters a culture of trust between ourselves, our B2B partners and their players, which then drives growth and customer safety levels.
