SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
As player tastes evolve and diversify, it has never been as important for sportsbooks to cater for these needs. Ahead of SIS participating in SBC Summit Barcelona, Commercial Director Paul Witten explains how operators can add value to their offerings through the integration of key products.
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The increased interest in esports and the engaged audience that it brings has presented an invaluable opportunity for suppliers to provide a new stream of compelling content.
In Eastern Europe in particular, the potential around esports betting is substantial. The statistics in the region are very impressive, with audience figures and revenues highlighting the popularity of esports content.
Estimates of the number of online gamers in Eastern Europe are roughly 3.5 million, with digital games revenue in the region growing by 7% year-on-year, generating over $2 billion each year.
In seeking to tap into value-adding propositions, the key for operators is to find solutions that are comprehensive and that can draw in not only esports enthusiasts, but also mainstream bettors. Substandard esports offerings -those that are potentially risky from an integrity point of view, difficult to understand for the uninitiated and sporadic in terms of how often matches take place – risk leaving money on the table.
At SIS, we have seen through our work with partners across Europe the potential within a high-quality, high-integrity round-the-clock esports betting product. Across both traditional esports and sports simulations like ebasketball and esoccer, it is in this area that sportsbooks can gain a true edge over the competition.
Benefits
Through our Competitive Gaming product, operators have benefited from clear cross-selling opportunities for sports betting customers. Our product brings familiarity to bettors, who can wager on the most well-known teams and players in esoccer and ebasketball contests, as an alternative to betting on lower-league football or minority sports.
This ties into our overarching 24/7 strategy, of offering highly-competitive live betting opportunities available to end customers, irrespective of location or time zone.
The biggest strength of Competitive Gaming is that it is built end-to-end with betting in mind. With integrity at its core, the product has visible ESIC-trained integrity referees for every game, live-caster commentary, and on-screen graphics that include unique betting prompts to maximise engagement and in-play betting opportunities.
The benefits of our approach to esports content are reflected in partners reporting that our sports sims have added up to 10% to a sportsbook’s revenues, especially when positioned alongside their live equivalent.
Away from esports, our core racing content has also continued to deliver for operators. The regularity of betting opportunities across short-form events means that, even in those countries where racing is not traditionally a core element of the sportsbook proposition, in offering easy-to-digest markets this content is proving popular with operators and bettors alike.
Our 38,000+ annual races are supplied to sportsbooks as a complete, end-to-end solution, including live-streamed pictures, data, commentary, and on-screen graphics with betting triggers, along with an extensive range of markets and prices.
Live draws
As well as esports and racing, live Numbers draws can add significantly to operator revenues. Lotteries and live Numbers draws are huge across the globe, and with the growth we have seen with our own Numbers offer, we are certain that momentum will continue.
Avid fans of live draws turn to social media and online forums to take their experience to another level. There is a significant community of bettors who enjoy interacting with each other, which helps to enhance the overall spectacle that traditionally comes with a live draw.
Because of the varied tastes of bettors, brands need to make significant enhancements to their sportsbook platforms. This is to help tap into current trends and provide a wide-ranging offering to ensure they cater for the diverse needs of the audience; a standalone sportsbook simply is not enough to generate a loyal customer base.
Paul Witten will be in attendance with SIS at SBC Summit Barcelona 2023, located at stand SB80.
