How Kaizen Gaming became football’s favourite bookmaker

Our countdown of the most-read stories from SBC Leaders magazine in 2024 reaches number 5. In a feature originally published in Issue 31, Kaizen Gaming CCO Julio Iglesias Hernando explains why technology, branding and football are key elements in the ambitious international expansion plans of Betano’s parent company.

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Kaizen Gaming is clearly very serious about living up to the Japanese etymology of its brand name – to continually improve. And nowhere is that more apparent than its successful bid to become the first bookmaker to gain approved-partner status for the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euros and CONMEBOL Copa America 2024. CCO Julio Iglesias Hernando, tells all.  

The new custom-built Kaizen Campus is really impressive. It takes vision to push ahead with something of this size and design. How did it influence your decision to become part of the Kaizen family?

I bought into a vision. I joined Kaizen almost three years ago, in January 2021. I had this nice conversation with George Daskalakis, the Co-Founder and CEO and we got to really know each other. We had very long, open, and I would say completely transparent, brutally honest conversations about the expectations. What would be my role? What was the ambition of the company? 

I think in a way, it’s a bit of a parallel with the building. The building was a huge bet, because it was commissioned in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the moment, when you have to decide if you’re going to be conservative and believe that the world will go terribly bad and stop, or that the world will continue spinning and that you need to move ahead, show your vision and try to build something ahead of the rest.

In Greece you’re running a dominant brand with Stoiximan, and then you’ve achieved a great expansion with the Betano brand. What have you learned from running Stoiximan in Greece, that you’ve been able to apply to Betano, making it a front runner in some of these international markets?

I think the number one differentiator and the number one success criteria is product. I think Stoiximan was able to develop an extremely good product that had the potential to become competitive on a global scale. They always had a vision to expand internationally, but it took them a while to find out how to convey the uniqueness and the superior quality of this product outside Greece. 

There were also some failed experiments, because you need to try first. You have to try, fail, stand up and try again. This is what led us to our first successful expansion in Romania with Betano. Then, of course, Portugal came, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, and the biggest LatAm markets followed next, proving that our product is unique, very much appreciated by our customers and can become successful in every market we’re trading. 

One of the more standout advantages that Kaizen has got as a company is that you’ve obviously built your own technology; you’re working off your own platform. How much adaptability does that give you?

It makes us masters of our own fate. This is the result of being focused on the product from day one. Starting with some external partners, because you cannot do everything on your own, but then having a clear vision that at some point you will be in control of your own destiny. 

Having our fully-owned tech stack was a clear mandate and vision long before I joined. The moment this vision materialised and we had our own platform, everything came together and clicked. We had the product, and also, that’s critical, we had the brand. You need a brand to place your product in the mind of your customers, and to make sure you offer an experience they want to try and then hopefully, and in very high numbers, continue being part of.

Recently, you’ve broken ground, securing agreements no other gambling operator has managed to make. You were a sponsor of the last World Cup. You are sponsoring the UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany and the CONMEBOL Copa America 2024 in the United States. How useful are those deals, when it comes to showing what Kaizen Gaming can do?

First and foremost, we are committed to operate in regulated markets. This means that we are committed not only to be fully compliant, transparent and responsible operators, but to make sure that we are accepted as a legitimate operator by the society. 

That means that when you go to talk to internationally prestigious institutions, you are well-researched, you are well-accepted, you are understood. And when they are looking for partners to do ground-breaking deals, they don’t want the skeletons in the closet. In this case, we have been going through extended due diligence with these companies. 

You need to ensure that you are getting a deal that works for you, works for them, and reassure them that you are marching towards the same direction, that you are the right partner to build the future of the sport with. This is also a reassurance that we’re doing things the right way. Because when you go to FIFA, UEFA and CONMEBOL, you don’t just tell your story, but you show them what you’ve done. 

We have been working with leaders in the sports industry every year for well over a decade. We have been the longest-standing partner of Olympiacos for nine years now. To have this relationship with a leading football club is not easy. 

And part of that is not just the marketing you get out of it, it’s investing back into the sports.

That’s the main thing. It’s about ensuring that we have a business that is based on sports and it’s our ultimate interest to protect sports so it can continue to be such an exciting and engaging experience. We want to provide back to the industry, so that they can keep growing together with us. This is the main point. We are interested in the prosperity of sports.

Going back to the commercial side of things. From your standpoint, what are the things that are most important when entering a new market? 

When you are entering a market, the first thing you need is to convey your brand to audiences interested in sports, betting and gaming. We are positioned as a bold, touching, premium brand. We need to understand that we are looking for activities or partners or assets that will convey that image to our partners and to our potential customers. 

It’s about carefully selecting what few things we want to do very well in that market to ensure that we can stand out and showcase our product in the right light. It’s more about finding who can represent Betano in those markets and then ensuring that once we get them, the product is painstakingly adapted to the local needs. We truly believe in localisation of our products. 

With regards to LatAm, it is obviously a huge market for the Betano brand. What is the plan? To go into as many LatAm countries as the regulations allow? 

I think that in the end, probably yes. Probably the order will vary in terms of attractiveness and the interest on our side and accessibility to the market. We will be very interested in entering any country with a normal regulatory framework.

People forget how fast this industry can change. So you have to think on your toes and be humble and respectful. There’s a lot of great companies out there doing amazing stuff and this is also probably what becoming a truly multinational company brings: you are suddenly exposed to great competitors with big ideas. And you have to be open and able to understand what they are doing better than you and then try to see if you can improve while at the same time spotlighting your strengths to make sure that you convince some customers that it’s worth trying your product. 

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UK launch marks first stage in vision for 26 countries by 2026

Kaizen Gaming has a target for its international expansion, which it underlined when it announced that its Betano brand was entering the UK market just as this issue went to press. Hernando explained the scope of the company’s ambition.

“Our vision is called 26-26. Operating in 26 countries by 2026. For us, organic growth is the name of the game in the foreseeable future. We will be pretty busy getting to the 26 mark in the next two years. LATAM is a key region for us, Europe too. Then we launched in Africa & North America, so we will see what’s coming out of there. We are testing, trying new things, learning.

“I expect the company to change dramatically in the next two years, similar to what has happened in the previous two years. We plan to do this by mainly focusing on the customer experience overall, making sure that our product remains top-notch as it is today. That means a lot of work to keep improving and changing and making it better. 

“It also means building a brand that resonates with our customers – not only in terms of bigger sponsorships or attractiveness or sexiness, which is important –  but also on the responsible gaming and the sustainability side of things, making sure we cater to stakeholders and the society’s overall needs.

“When you see growth, it’s very exciting. It also requires people to be double vigilant because that’s when the complacency starts to grow, which is the worst enemy. 

“If there’s one thing that’s crystal clear to me is that we have just started. This is really just the beginning. We haven’t made it in any way, shape, or form yet. We are very aware of the areas where we are lacking and the areas we definitely need to improve to continue growing and that’s what we are planning to do.”