SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
As one year ends and another begins, a series of reflections and predictions are to be expected. However, despite the optimism that encompasses many as January commences, numerous challenges remain and emerging trends continue to provide various opportunities.
In the conclusion of a two-part SBC News special, a selection of these, including player retention, emerging tech, markets of promise and much more, will be examined in detail.
Continuing the conversation are Ross Parkhill, CEO of Rhino Entertainment, Andrew Foster, CBO at Enteractive, Simon Lidzen, CEO and Co-Founder of Fast Track, and Sam Brown, CEO of Rootz.
SBC News: Emerging tech will continue to be a major talking point, but what significant developments, if any, are you expecting to witness during 2024? And why?
Ross Parkhill: I’d bet against 2024 being the year we see the explosion of players utilising VR headset or making a casino in the metaverse their go to site.
During 2023, AI tools and products have become much more accessible and with the current rate of advancement I expect many more companies in the gaming space to embrace AI in 2024 for things like content production, enabling increased tech development throughput and to support many operational efficiencies.
We recently launched our Customer Support chatbots which are now constantly evolving and making a significant impact on enhancing the player experience. They not only allow us to streamline our interactions and efficiently handle peak traffic, but they are continuously improving so we will get even better results over time.
Andy Foster: 2023 has been the year that we all felt the impact and opportunities AI presents in our lives let alone in gaming as an industry. I do not think we have seen half of what is available when it comes to AI, and it will not be something that disappears any time soon.
With AI’s ability to consider so many complex factors and deliver easily understandable trends or outcomes which we can now set triggers on, personalisation can be taken to the next level.
AI opens up the true ability to provide personalisation at scale, which has been limited previously due to the complex factor considerations one needed to do for each and every person individually.
I think this is the area where we will see the most significant development and advancement in our industry in 2024, and ideally this will aid in player retention and maximising player experience and LPV for the operator at the same time.
Simon Lidzen: Every online business relies heavily on a multitude of third-party platforms for their day-to-day operations. In 2023, we witnessed a surge in AI-focused enhancements within these tools, a trend that is set to continue, making our everyday tools even more sophisticated in 2024.
The introduction of new operational capabilities will alter the configuration of our teams and future needs. As a result of recent advancements in AI, a new range of platforms and services will become available.
I believe the focus will be primarily on streamlining processes and removing operational bottlenecks, which will, in turn, accelerate our capacity for innovation and allow us to concentrate more on building a better customer experience.
Sam Brown: AI isn’t going away as a talking point, but what will be interesting to see is who is actually leveraging it in a tangible way, and who is just talking about it!
Elsewhere we expect more developments in the live and streaming sectors to continue to offer more immersive experiences, and also a resurgence in the demand for onsite community features.
SBCN: Related to this, should we expect any further notable trends to have a major impact on the industry during the coming months? What do you believe these will be and why?
AF: Considering the nature of AI and the opportunities it presents across all facets of our industry, I think we can expect to see some incredible areas of implementation in the near future.
Things that are very niche, an example for us is the ability to do sentiment analysis and pick up feelings towards one’s brand or just analysis based on what is said in the call and the players propensity to deposit thereafter, will provide us with optimisations which enable a lot more efficiency in our service.
This is one example and there are hundreds of such examples across our industry alone, which is why I think this will be a huge part of where things will change in the year ahead for us all.
SL: The industry is witnessing explosive growth in the adoption of AI products – something we’re also experiencing with Fast Track’s product, which has proven to drive phenomenal results. The degree of innovation resulting from this will be very interesting to observe over the next few months.
SB: It will be interesting to follow the impact of the first Bitcoin ETF approval. This obviously has potential to further legitimise the currency / technology. The once booming demand for creating crypto gambling products looks to have the fuel it needs for the second wave!
RP: Although I think it’s still going to be relatively niche compared to the overall market, I think we’ll see further growth and exposure for live streaming products, especially where you can interact by betting on the streamed content, and more products where you can bet along with friends. For some players this adds an extra dimension and entertainment value, and operators are likely to want to embrace that.
Crypto is now obviously very much established in gaming, but as the adoption of using crypto currencies gradually increases I think our industry will see a bigger increase in usage relative to many other industries.
It can take away many of the payment barriers and pain points in pre-regulated markets and is a very fast and efficient way for playing in reality.
SBCN: To conclude, are there any up-and-coming markets that you expect to explode onto the scene through 2024?
SL: With a number of jurisdictions regulating, it will be interesting to see how LATAM evolves this year.
SB: Sweepstake Casinos! The market is proven, competition until now is really limited (one operator has 90% market share) and the barriers to entry are low. As such, there are many exciting supplier and operator start-ups entering this space, and it will be interesting to follow in 2024.
RP: It’s already a big market, but the Brazilian regulation could be very interesting due to the potential size of the market.
I think we’ll see continued focus and a level of excitement for other parts of LatAm, South Asia and parts of Africa, however I think this will be more of a continued steady growth due to the challenges you typically face in those markets.
AF: Are there any markets left to explode? I believe there are always markets that rebound after regulation and we see big changes and operators retargeting them once the regulation is more established.
Germany could well be one of these markets, although I still believe the black market in Germany makes it tough for anyone trying to follow the regulations to the letter.
Netherlands will continue to grow and is a very exciting market for us in general as the databases for operators mature, and we are well positioned to assist with the retention side of the player base and maximise the LPV for the operators.
USA will hopefully see some more speed in the way igaming is rolled out as the speed of this has been very underwhelming over the past few years and I would say has been a surprise to many.
Africa is always a talking point for operators, but it is such a different market that one needs to understand the nuances before entering the market in order to capitalise on the opportunities.
I think you will start to see some of the bigger providers pushing into Africa with some acquisitions for market access to position themselves for growth opportunities with their clients.
