SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
In December 2016, professional in-house and third party tipping resource Betting Gods extended its reach in Europe with a successful move into the Maltese sports betting market.
We caught up with Darren Moore, Founder and Director of Betting Gods, to discuss the advantages of operating from a Malta office, the reasons behind the company’s recent growth and preparation for their biggest event sponsorship yet.
SBC: What are the major advantages of operating from a Malta office?
DM: Besides the obvious sun and sea, the big advantage for Betting Gods as a company has been the ability to connect with and work in close proximity to major partners based on the Maltese islands.
At the risk of sounding like I’m criticising the UK Gambling Commission (who ignored our communication on many occasions), we’ve found that the MGA are far much more approachable, friendly and have a genuine interest in enabling and supporting success of companies based in and operating from Malta.
As Director of Betting Gods Ltd, it makes such more sense for our company to operate from a country who welcomes and supports our business rather than a country who chooses to simply ignore us.
Since SiGMA in November 2016, we also co-hosted a meal for 200 c-level executives, opening doors for new partnerships which are now starting to bloom and work in progress on a football betting joint venture with Matching Visions who also operate from Malta.
SBC: At the end of January, you reported 17.27% business growth in just two months; how much of this do you attribute to launching in Malta?
DM: I’d love to make our Maltese partners and the MGA happy with this response and say it’s all down to the Malta move but that would be rather naive of me.
What I would say is that while the business was growing before, the level of growth has accelerated at a rate of over 40% per month since operating from Malta. We find more and more affiliates popping up based in Malta, who, without being rude, we weren’t even aware of until we landed on the island.
At the time of this interview, I’m on a Wednesday afternoon flight out to Malta from the UK and already have five meetings to fit in before Friday lunchtime; all with affiliates to discuss and enhance our existing partnerships for their promotions and marketing of Betting Gods products.
SBC: While the situation in Gibraltar remains unclear after Brexit negotiations, do you expect to see more companies seeking a licence from the Malta Gaming Authority?
DM: Although we’re able to make an impact on them, Betting Gods is small in comparison to the bookies and gaming companies who are the likely candidates to jump ship from Gibraltar to Malta so my views are based on our own situation.
I think at this stage it’s hard to judge what the position will be post-Brexit when we don’t even know the terms of the UK’s departure; it’s all too easy to speculate what will or won’t happen. I think companies need to calm down for a bit – let’s get the general election out of the way and wait until we’re clear of what Brexit actually means.
SBC: Betting Gods has been confirmed as a major sponsor for Betting on Football 2017; having sponsored both MiGS and Sigma in 2016, what have you learned about maximising brand awareness at these big industry events?
DM: We’re delighted to be sponsoring Betting on Football 2017, an event which will see our biggest exposure and sponsorship to date.
On first glance, most people within the industry don’t see Betting Gods as an operator, so a key thing for us is communicating to affiliates that money can be made by promoting our services, and actually at quite a serious level. In March alone, we paid out over £15,000 to our small network of affiliates, and April is set to easily beat that.
We’ll be working on communicating this message to attendees, capturing their interest and negotiating some deals. The beauty of Betting Gods is that we’re big enough to have some top B2B and B2C exposure but still small enough to be able to work with all affiliates on a personal level for custom deals and offers.
