Sky Betting & Gaming: Doing the right thing

Completing our countdown, the number 1 position in the SBC Leaders magazine most-read stories of 2024 chart was an interview with Steve Birch, Chief Commercial Officer of Sky Betting & Gaming from Issue 29. 

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“We want to do the right thing for customers. We want to do the right thing for staff. We want to make things better – we’re about making things better.”

As mission statements go, the one offered by Steve Birch, Chief Commercial Officer for Sky Betting & Gaming, is very good. Partly because it sounds great, but mostly because it is the philosophy that has led the company to the very top of the UK’s gambling industry.

The Flutter-owned business can boast both the largest customer base for a UK sportsbook with its Sky Bet brand and the country’s most popular online casino in the form of Sky Vegas. However, it soon becomes clear when talking to Birch that he views the number one spot not as a ceiling, but as a platform for further growth.

“On gaming, Sky Vegas is a very big brand. It’s very popular, but it’s still got a lot of headroom in the marketplace. So we’ve got big growth aspirations for Sky Vegas. It’s a big entertainment destination and we will continue to grow that,” he said. 

“Sports is very saturated. It is tough, in that every proposition is getting to be more and more similar across the whole market. Everyone has copied each other to the point where everyone’s waiting for all the next things. Our job is to find the next big thing.” 

Part of his confidence that the Sky team will find that next big thing comes from the possibilities offered by working more closely with the other brands in Flutter’s UK portfolio, which includes Paddy Power, Betfair and Tombola. Not many businesses get the chance to see in detail what works for the opposition, and Birch regards the access as a fantastic opportunity for all the businesses. 

“It’s a privilege that you get to look at what a competitor does. To take learnings and share learnings is a privilege,” he said.

“We want to make sure we’re being smart around how we’re coming to market and targeting the market, that we are overlapping on purpose, we are different on purpose.

“Ultimately, we want to create a big advantage by having multiple brands in the marketplace.”

The close working relationship between the Flutter brands has limits though and punters should not expect to see Sky Bet indulging in any Paddy Power-style guerilla marketing stunts or Sky Sports pundit Roy Keane popping up in a Tombola ad anytime soon. 

“You’ve got to be careful, because if we share too much, we just become the same thing – and then you lose the power. It’s a careful balancing act of sharing, but choosing where you need to be different,” said Birch.

“We’re lucky that we’ve got four amazing brands. They’re all different, and they’ve all got very different personalities and tones of voice. So 100% they have to remain separate. That’s in part why the customers who pick those brands like them.”

Change is the law of life

One thing that has cast a shadow over the industry in the UK in recent times is whether the next iteration of the Gambling Act will restrict growth opportunities, but Birch appears less worried than most about how the new regulations will look.

“It will change things. But there’s an excitement about it changing things, because there’s an opportunity when there’s a change. If you’re good at what you’re doing, variance is good,” he said.

Perhaps the reason that Birch is so upbeat about change is that he has seen a lot of it during his time with the operator.

When he joined as just the company’s second analyst 16 years ago, betting via the red button on digital TV was still a big thing, along with desktop and telephone, while WAP betting was still in its early days. 

As mobile betting took off and the company grew, Birch’s career followed the same upward trajectory. In 2015 he became Marketing Director and then stepped up to Managing Director, before taking on his current role leading the Sky Betting & Gaming business as part of Flutter’s UK&I division. 

It is not just the technology and Birch’s job title that has changed, as his single-employer career has involved working for four different owners. 

The operator was part of the media giant Sky when he joined the business, before private equity firm CVC Capital Partners purchased a majority shareholding in 2015. It was then acquired by The Stars Group in 2018, before becoming part of the gambling global giant Flutter two years later.

That back story has given Sky Betting & Gaming a unique culture. 

From the Sky-ownership era, the most obvious thing it has retained is the brand name and a strong relationship with Sky Sports, which sees it continue to work with on-screen talent to this day. However, those are far from the only things to have survived from those days. 

“The brand is important, our relationship with Sky Sports is important to us,” said Birch. “There are also cultural things in the business which have come because of our Sky days. Sky’s tagline is ‘Believe in Better’ and we carry that in our DNA. It’s partly why the business has grown. There is a thirst to make things better for customers, to make things better for staff.”

He continued: “Definitely from private equity, we’ve kept a start-up mentality, wanting to deliver at all costs and deliver things quickly, to be aggressive in the market and really focus on customers.

“Then as we’ve transitioned into bigger corporate ownership we’ve got better at being more efficient in how we run things, thinking about how to make our processes grow and do a better job of managing our scale.”

Growth through innovation

The big company feel is certainly present at Sky Betting & Gaming’s stylish modern offices in the centre of Leeds. 

Look in one direction from the building and you will see the city’s Russell Group university, where so many crucial scientific developments occurred. Look the other way and you can see the roofs of the twin Headingley sports stadiums, where Kevin Sinfield and Garry Schofield became local legends, and the Australia-confounding antics of Ian Botham and Ben Stokes became seared in the English national psyche.

Sandwiched between a crucible of innovation and a scene of sporting greatness is an appropriate location for this unique business. Not only is it intrinsically linked to the sporting world in the eyes of the public, it has also consistently pushed the boundaries to improve its products and customer experience.

“For us, ultimately, ease of use and an interesting product is really important to customers,” Birch said. “We’ve been lucky enough to find some things which are interesting to customers, to have the technological capability to build those out, and to keep improving those things until they’ve really been taken up in the marketplace. RequestABet is a great example of that.”

He continued: “Bet builders obviously came off the back of RequestABet. If I’m being honest, we were slow to market with the bet builder product because we had RequestABet. If I had that time again we would be quicker. 

“We now have a good BuildABet product and the innovation there will come from how easy it is to use, the information that we give customers and also the market varieties that you can put in it.”

Bet builders may be the current product du jour, but Birch believes the industry will find the next big thing, and then another and another. 

“Logically there has to be. I have no idea what they are yet, but everyone can keep innovating. And someone’s going to find some innovation from somewhere. You have to hope it’s you that’s going to find it.”

That change may, however, be driven by sports and broadcasters, as much as by the betting and gaming industry. Birch cited football as the prime example of this, as the evolution of the sport and the available data have created new betting opportunities and driven the development of new products – such as the increasingly popular shots on target markets –  while Sky Sports’ innovative broadcasts have helped to educate punters.

“Ultimately, people want to put on a bet that is going to be interesting – and they think is going to win. So particularly bets around data, where players have got some insight into what might happen. Then it’s on us to provide an experience that leverages that,” he explained.

“Our relationship with Sky Sports is a big advantage here and is one that we’ve leveraged. The Sky Sports broadcast will bring some of the data through and we want to try to make sure we’ve got a data-rich, easy-to-use experience.” 

The Northern Powerhouse 

The commitment to innovation – not to mention the bid to stay ahead of the competition – requires a lot of talent. Flutter is one of the biggest employers in Leeds, with 1,800 people based in the Yorkshire city. 

“This is Flutter’s biggest office in Europe. We’re definitely a rarity as a FTSE100 business that’s got a big office in Leeds, which is something to be really proud of,” said Birch. “There’s people in this building who are helping run worldwide gambling products, which is quite exciting for Leeds.”

Finding the right skills to drive Sky Betting & Gaming’s growth plans can be difficult, but Birch believes that the company has advantages in the recruitment market.

“People want to come as they know we do tech at scale, because we’ve got so many customers, we have big volumes and some big problems. We also like innovating and releasing things for customers. It definitely helps that the work is interesting,” he said.

The business also invests heavily in training and runs both a tech graduate programme and a commercial graduate programme every year. These are particularly attractive to ambitious young people, as longer-term the successful applicants have access to opportunities across the entire Flutter group, including overseas. 

All this is backed by a healthy benefits package and a flexible approach, as well as by a little X factor that helps with retention.

“Ultimately we’re an entertainment business, so it has to be fun to work here – otherwise you can’t produce a good proposition for your customers. I massively believe in that,” Birch enthused. 

“There’s not many things that are unique in the sector. How good your staff are is one of the things that can be unique. So we need to have good quality staff.”

A good citizen

One other key part of Sky Betting & Gaming’s identity is its partnership with the English Football League. The deal was recently renewed for a further six years and is now the longest-running sports sponsorship in the UK, something which Birch and his team are “very, very proud of”.

While Sky Sports is best known for its relationship with the Premier League, Birch believes that for Sky Bet, the EFL – which had a combined attendance of 19.8 million last season – is a more suitable partner. 

“Football is part of our heritage with Sky. It’s where we have done well previously. It’s where we will continue to excel. Football is our DNA,” he said.

“The EFL is great because you get such good access to spectators, to viewers, and some really, really great football. Obviously we are only a UK betting brand, so it doesn’t stack up to be the Premier League. The EFL makes sense for us financially.

“It’s also great to work with the league and the clubs, and the stories you get to see. Obviously the Championship is very different to League 2, different to League 1, so the diversity across the leagues is fascinating.”

The partnership also helps to achieve something else that Birch is passionate about, which is to ensure the company is a good citizen.

“Part of what we wanted to do with the renewal was create some lasting good and make sure that we were putting something back. Giving back is part of the DNA of the business and we wanted to make sure that a big sponsorship is no different,” he explained.

“We created the Building Foundations Fund, which sees at least £1 million invested each year for the next six years via the Community Foundations of the 72 clubs. Each Foundation will receive £10,000 to put into something of their choice and then, going forward, they will be able to apply for grants for projects.

“The Community Foundations do great things in their local towns, they’re a massive part of the community. Our contribution will enhance their work.”

The Building Foundations Fund is just one of the ways in which Sky Betting & Gaming is giving back to wider society because, as Birch puts it, CSR is “not just ticking a box”. Staff receive volunteering days, which can be used for any good cause, and are also involved in the company’s Annual Charity Gala. 

“We select a charity of the year, which is nominated by and voted for by staff. Last year our big charity night raised £253,000 for the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund,” said Birch.

“It’s a privilege to be able to do that. The staff love it. It’s really important to the staff, it’s really important to the business, and it’s great that we get to support the charity.”

And there can be no better example of doing the “right thing for staff” and “being about making things better” than that.