SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
When deciding where to open a hub for development and operations, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Look at a map and you will be overwhelmed by the choice of exciting places to call home.
You have probably faced this decision when deciding where to spend your holiday. Those images of golden beaches and sunlit pool bars can be enticing and it is difficult to make a final choice knowing there is a significant opportunity cost.
But finding a permanent business location can be even more daunting. Sometimes one prefers to be more risky and exotic, though on other occasions, it is best to stick with what one knows, that special place that is trustworthy.
For InPlay Matrix, a B2B sportsbook technology company, the choice was simple. The firm wanted a tried and tested location with a track record of being home to many B2B gaming firms and being a hub of English speaking talent.
The firm landed on Bulgarian soil, in the capital Sofia. Known for being one of Europe’s oldest cities and a bastion of Ancient Rome, nowadays Sofia is a burgeoning hub for tech firms and InPlay Matrix is one of the latest gaming companies to enter the Bulgarian capital.
“Sofia attracted our attention for hosting many well-known gaming B2B companies, meaning it is already a proven hub,” explained Kim, General Manager of the new office, in a conversation with SBC News. “As we researched further, we found that Sofia, Bulgaria offers clear gaming regulations that distinguish a B2B business like ours from B2C, a pool of educated and experienced English-speaking talent, and reasonable operating costs. This combined convinced us to make the commitment to invest.”
Opening up a new hub has been a long time coming for InPlay Matrix, which had been looking to meet growing demand since before the pandemic shut down offices globally.
“Demand grew through the pandemic years but we felt constrained to expand due to lockdown risks and travel restrictions. With the pandemic now well in the past, we’re excited to finally establish a new hub in Sofia.”
Though not necessarily a platform for geographic expansion, opening a hub in Sofia offers InPlay Matrix a brick-and-mortar presence in the Balkans, a region that is becoming an exciting gaming market both on and offline.
Primarily focused on ramping up its operational and developmental capabilities in Sofia, the supplier noted that it would be eager to improve its connections in the region and better serve its customers.
“Having a physical presence here in the Balkans will allow us to better network with operators and to learn their needs as well as the specific regulations for serving customers in each jurisdiction. We will of course take advantage of that opportunity.”
Now InPlay Matrix is settled into its new home in the historic city, it will look to ramp up its sportsbook capabilities throughout 2024. The firm’s platform can be integrated as a ready to use turnkey sportsbook iframe product or as an API so operators can build a unique sportsbook UI/UX.
Fully managed and supported by trading algorithms, premium data feeds, scalable infrastructure and experienced trading and risk management teams, the platform focuses on providing two key principles that it will not lie down from: reliability and quality.
“Unlike other gaming verticals which have predictable traffic, sports betting traffic is volatile and that’s challenging to handle the cost effectively. User traffic can spike by orders of magnitude when major events take place. Our customers want a partner who can scale its services with such traffic and deliver worry-free services so they can focus their resources on taking care of their players. Thanks to years of experience, we have built up a battle-tested system to comfortably support such traffic.
“Closely related to service reliability is content quality. Some providers aim to offer as many events as possible. We don’t. We take pains to curate events for which we are confident of its integrity and where fast and reliable data sources are available.
“So that’s what we strive to deliver. A fully-managed sportsbook that offers a curated selection of high-quality events with minimal service interruptions. Sounds simple, but as anyone who has tried will tell you – simple doesn’t mean easy.”
Having completed an exciting move to a booming city, InPlay Matrix is ready to reap the rewards of improving its operational capabilities. The firm has enjoyed significant success in recent years and is ready to spend the next 12 months adjusting to the growth it has embarked on.
With the bright lights and Roman-influenced architecture of Sofia firmly in sight, InPlay Matrix seeks to spend 2024 improving its output to better serve its roster of operator partners.
“The business has grown substantially over the past few years. Fast growth begets growing pains. For us, 2024 is a time for consolidation and for building both our internal capabilities and external partnerships to better deliver our promise to our customers.”
