For the modern operator, the off-season is a relic of the past. As bettors demand 24/7 engagement, the challenge for sportsbooks has shifted from simply providing markets to maintaining high-quality, trustworthy content every hour of the day.
SIS is meeting this demand head-on, evolving beyond its heritage in horse racing to become a digital-first leader in high-integrity esports products. Ahead of the World Cup, the supplier is significantly expanding its H2H Global Gaming League™ eSoccer product. By adding 2,000 more matches across the tournament, totalling 400 matches per day, operators worldwide are presented with even more uninterrupted 24/7 entertainment to bridge the gaps between live fixtures.
Following a successful debut with Hard Rock Digital, the introduction of eAmerican Football has also marked a new chapter in the SIS Competitive Gaming story, leveraging familiar sports mechanics and unmatched integrity standards to capture a global audience that never sleeps.
Having gone live for the first time ahead of this year’s Super Bowl, eAmerican Football is expected to have an ongoing impact not only in North America but also around the world, especially in those markets where the sport really resonates with the public. Similarly, the eSoccer scale-up – featuring an increase in international fixtures from 25% to 50% – ensures sportsbooks can fully capitalise on the expected $4.1bn in handle during the World Cup.
The expanded Competitive Gaming offering reinforces the product’s scalable, always-on betting content designed specifically for sportsbooks.
No sideshow: A strategic pillar for SIS
With its origins in the broadcasting of horse and greyhound racing, SIS was once heavily reliant on racing and the UK retail market.
“Today, the business has evolved into a far more diversified operation, with a growing share driven by international and digital products,” said Managing Director EMEA Paul Witten in conversation with SBC News. “That growth is supported across our three core divisions – racing, live numbers draws and Competitive Gaming, which together deliver round-the-clock betting content for operators around the world.
“Over the coming year, we expect to see continued momentum outside the UK market, clearly demonstrating how the business has internationalised. We are now live in more than 80 countries with an expanding portfolio of digital products, the result of long-term, highly strategic planning.”
Unlike traditional racing, where SIS is part of a wider ecosystem, the company has full control over its Competitive Gaming product. Created as an end-to-end proposition entirely in-house with the highest levels of integrity, it’s a vast and well-oiled 24/7 operation that enables both scalability and consistency, two factors that are increasingly important for operators seeking reliable content.
“Competitive Gaming is a growing part of our business,” Witten added. “We can scale the product as far as is required to meet customer demand. We currently have two streams of eAmerican Football live, as well as four streams of eSoccer and six streams of eBasketball.
“It’s also a genuine 24/7 proposition. Our commitment to quality means that it’s just as important for us to be perfect at 3 o’clock in the morning as it is at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Because 3 o’clock in the morning here is 3 o’clock in the afternoon somewhere else. We weren’t a 24/7 business five years ago and that brings its own challenges because technology and people must evolve as well. We’ve grown enormously.”
Beyond esports: Traditional sports with a twist
The esports boom which coincided with the Covid lockdown saw the sportsbook offering transform overnight. Still, some operators were left behind. Within what are termed ‘traditional’ esports products, which includes the likes of League of Legends and DOTA 2, the game mechanics, rules, gamers, and more, provide a higher barrier of entry as a betting product. For sports bettors, there was limited crossover appeal.
“We wanted to focus on something familiar,” Witten said. “If you already understand how to bet on football or basketball, you should immediately understand how to bet on our eSoccer and eBasketball.
“We ensured that the market types were the same, as was the gameplay and the representations of the players. We wanted to make sure that in the studio; our head-to-head gamers were visible. It’s live, real-time, there’s a human element and there are unmatched levels of integrity. We ensured that it was presented it in the same way as live sport – across a shorter time frame – and available 24/7, in line with our other two product divisions.
“With limited live sport during the pandemic, operators were looking for new betting options to give to their customers. That certainly gave us a kickstart, where operators who might have been reluctant to invest in or try the product, suddenly had to. Even once they tried it, some were thinking of Competitive Gaming as a stopgap until live sport returned.
“But the fact is, it continued to grow within those portfolios. We were a bit lucky in our timing. But luck comes to those who make it.”
Integrity and trust are key pillars of SIS’s strategy.
“At the start, we faced a lot of questions from operators. They were concerned about what they were seeing in terms of whether it looked right,” added Witten.
“Over time, by reacting in the right way and being transparent, those conversations have become much easier. Operators saw us become the first supplier to receive the Esports Integrity Commission’s (ESIC) Gold Standards, and that we successfully gained more esports licences in the US than other suppliers, because that trust and integrity is so embedded in our products. Integrity is a commercial necessity.”
For SIS, the global roll-out of eAmerican Football and the upcoming scale of its eSoccer World Cup offering is less about a single launch and more about enhancing a long-term strategy. By combining familiar formats, robust integrity measures and scalable production, the company continues to position Competitive Gaming as a core pillar of the modern sportsbook.
