Sports betting and online gaming is now well and truly a global behemoth of an industry, with regulated markets emerging in almost every continent on Earth. These conditions create massive opportunities for operators and suppliers to seize on these markets and create new business.
One company looking to take advantage of global opportunities is SIS, a provider of betting products including horse and greyhound racing, competitive gaming through its in-house produced esoccer and ebasketball matches, and live fixed odds numbers draws. A brand with history on its side, SIS was founded in 1986 and has traditionally been seen in the UK and European markets. That is until the last few years when it has been venturing into new markets in North and South America, as well as Africa.
This strategy has yielded positive results and the company’s commitment to global markets was further cemented recently when it unveiled Harry Heynes in the newly created role of Head of New Business.
Heynes, who has spent over a decade in the industry, is charged with identifying new opportunities globally and generating the commercial gains from those opportunities.
Speaking to SBC News from ICE 2025, Heynes is particularly excited about the potential to take SIS Competitive Gaming into new regions and broaden its audience reach.
Image: SIS
“There’s been a significant change in the industry in the last five or six years, but there’s been an increased demand for our Competitive Gaming product that includes esoccer and ebasketball betting events, and that’s where a lot of my focus and attention is going to be,” he says.
“We’re seeing significant growth in that esports betting arena in the US with bet365 and FanDuel, and we’ve been fortunate enough to partner with both of them. My role is ultimately to lead the team to develop those partnerships further as we continue to expand our influence worldwide.”
As mentioned, Heynes has equipped himself with a wealth of iGaming experience, beginning in the payments sector before joining the likes of Sporting Solutions, SBTech/DraftKings and Inspired.
He tells SBC News that this experience will bring many opportunities to himself and SIS as he can leverage the relationships he has built over the years.
“This industry is massively about networking,” he explains. “The top priority for me is really trying to leverage the network I’ve got, but also perhaps giving a new perspective on certain aspects of the business. Understanding the challenges that content providers have in this industry, I think I can give a different perspective on that and how to navigate complicated sales processes and integrations.”
Key to Heynes’ role at SIS is building on the commercial success of its Competitive Gaming suite of products which include both esoccer and ebasketball. Already live in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and across Latin America, SIS is looking to further cement its position as a strong player in the ‘always on’ content space, and Heynes eyes global ambitions.
He adds: “We have a strong footprint in Europe, but also, we’ve identified key opportunities, particularly in Latin America and in Africa where we’re live in several jurisdictions at the moment.
“But the US is clearly a big part of our strategy. We’re live in 12 states right now with our Competitive Gaming product, and we’re looking to increase that as well as identify new opportunities. It’s really a global focus, but with one eye on each of those individual markets that we’re seeing demand from our operators as Competitive Gaming continues to grow.”
One clear benefit of the Competitive Gaming suite, Heynes divulges, is that the simplistic nature of the games make them popular with players all over the world. The magic, he says, is in building the products specifically for betting.
Heynes notes: “We’re able to cross sell into the standard sportsbook player, and we plan to leverage the popularity of esoccer and ebasketball within regions where their real-life equivalents are huge. From our perspective, we also understand the strengths that both of those products have in all markets, and we know the titles themselves and how popular they are in those markets.”
Looking into the SIS Competitive Gaming commercial strategy, the supplier has individual deals with certain operators, including FanDuel in 12 US jurisdictions. Additionally, it has been penning deals with B2B platform providers and data distributors such as EveryMatrix, Playtech and Genius Sports, which enable SIS to reach a wider audience with fewer integrations, making an effective distribution strategy.
Heynes explains: “Each of these platforms has a strong partner network. Being able to leverage those partnerships significantly broadens the potential for SIS Competitive Gaming to reach new audiences through a multitude of new operators. This is a product that has been built from scratch for operators, to the highest standards of integrity you will find in the industry.”
Alongside Competitive Gaming, Heynes is eager to take the company’s Live Numbers Draws offering into new markets worldwide and build on its recent growth.
The product’s impressive success in Africa over the past year has been particularly influential in driving its global foothold.
Heynes says: “It’s been fantastic to see our Live Numbers Draws continue to excel in Africa, driven through a clean, attractive and engaging front end which has evidently elevated the user experience.
“Now is the time to build on the vertical’s success in the UK and Africa by extending its positioning globally, articulating clearly to operators across international markets where the product presents healthy margins and brings a heightened credibility to fixed-odds betting.”
As the conversation concludes, Heynes is asked to look into the future and outline what SIS and its new business division may look like in 12 months’ time as he gets his feet under the table, delivers on his responsibilities and develops the team.
He comes back to leaning on his vast industry network to grow the company’s commercial prospects, while using his many years of experience to secure high-value deals. He is also keen to emphasise the significant commercial experience within existing SIS teams, with the combined knowledge allowing the products to be rolled out efficiently for the ultimate benefit of all parties.
“We’ve enjoyed a significant amount of success in SIS Competitive Gaming in the regions it’s currently live, but of course, we want to increase that. Working closely with both new and existing customers and our customer growth unit to identify potential areas of development and understand their specific requirements is something that I really want to be at the forefront of. The more customers we bring on board, the more information we’re going to receive, which will ultimately benefit our long-term offering.
“Progress internationally is at the forefront of what we do, and that’s always front of mind. Having a dedicated team split across multiple regions is really going to benefit us, as we continue to expand and provide entertainment to customers across the world.”
