SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
SIS (Sports Information Services) is on a mission. The firm, which provides racing, live fixed odds numbers draws and live esports betting content, seeks to become a ubiquitous figure in the gaming industry, with its presence felt on multiple continents.
Not only this, but the firm continues to be the supplier that never sleeps. That is, it wants to provide betting content 24 hours per day, seven days a week, so that no matter where a player is, they can place bets on its events.
Speaking to SBC Media from Lisbon at SBC Summit 2024, SIS’s Head of Commercial Partnerships Andy Kelly notes that the company is making significant strides towards its aims. The firm has rolled out its esports product SIS Competitive Gaming throughout 2024, which showcases its esports range including eSoccer and eBasketball events.
“We’re now on the verge of having 200,000 SIS Competitive Gaming events annually,” Kelly tells SBC at the FIL. “This is about providing short form betting opportunities on a 24/7 basis. The product itself is extremely engaging for bettors and always offers the highest level of integrity.
“We’re the only provider to hold the ESIC gold standard certification for the product, ensuring the highest level of integrity for operators and betters alike, whilst ensuring the margin is consistently between 6-8%+.”
The SIS Competitive Gaming suite of products has been SIS’ primary focus throughout 2024, heralding the attention of operators and distributors alike. SIS has garnered highly skilled gamers who compete around the clock in SIS’ H2H Global Gaming League to ensure that bettors in regulated markets in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia can all place bets at a reasonable time.
And the response from the market has been overwhelmingly positive. This year, SIS has penned deals with the likes of Superbet in Romania, Codere across Latin America and bet365 in the US.
While onboarding new operators is a key part of Kelly’s Head of Commercial role, he has also distributed the products through other means. Additionally, SIS has fully integrated with other B2B providers throughout the last year, including the likes of Playtech, Genius Sports, Altenar and EveryMatrix.
This, Kelly explains, was a strategic decision to widen SIS’ global footprint with fewer integrations. With the platform providers having and extended reach across dozens of markets with established relationships with operators of all sizes, SIS sniffed the opportunity to get its foot in the door in a much more efficient manner.
“Outside of having a product that is built for betting and trusted worldwide, the golden nugget for any supplier is to remove as much effort as possible on the integration side to allow you distribute your product to as wider audience as possible,” Kelly explains.
“The deal with Genius Sports makes a lot of sense in so many ways. They are one of the biggest suppliers of live soccer and live basketball products, so we’re almost piggybacking on the back of those integrations by rolling out eSoccer and eBasketball.
“It allows for a seamless integration for their customers, as opposed to having to undertake a direct integration. It’s very much about expanding on the great work that’s been done on a direct basis with these platforms, allowing us to strategically reach new customers.”
But it isn’t just SIS Competitive Gaming that is propelling their global ambitions. The company’s heritage is borne out of its passion for horse racing and, in that regard, nothing has changed. The firm distributes thousands of races from tracks across the world, again ensuring that bettors have access to races all around the clock.
It has races from fixtures from all corners of the world, from the US to South Korea and its packages come fully equipped with pre-race data, race-day data, early prices, and derivatives, as well as low latency streaming for every race.
These features, Kelly notes, can help plug racing’s demographic-related woes.
He remarks: “There is something there for every type of bettor. One of the big things for the racing industry at the moment is to encourage new bettors, and we feel the derivative markets that we offer help simplify what can be a complicated sport for people that aren’t close to it.
“The derivatives and the ProFORM™ data that we offer, which provides statistical detail around the sport, allows for anyone new to betting on racing to understand it and enjoy it as much as those that are more experienced.”
After a year defined by global expansion, SIS still has ambitions to grow further – particularly in the US. Though it works with “the biggest operators in the world” on racing, it still aims to enlist those operators on the esports side of the business – which Kelly believes has untold amounts of untapped potential.
“On the horse racing side, we work with the biggest operators across the world, and we are now following suit with our Competitive Gaming and live fixed odds numbers draws products as well.
“We’ve got four, 24/7 streams of eBasketball in the market in North America and three for eSoccer with a fourth to follow soon, which is obviously significant progress against our strategy. These are exciting times in North America. SIS are obtaining more licences and being added to more product catalogues across the US and we’re now starting to see some great momentum in this territory.
That further growth is incoming, too. Kelly tells SBC that deals are in the pipeline and announcements are due in the coming weeks as SIS continues on its path to 24/7 coverage on multiple continents. Meanwhile, it persists with its strategy of engaging with suppliers and aggregators to build upon its momentum gained in 2024.
As Kelly neatly rounds up: “The take up and engagement that we’ve seen from customers so far and the reports we’ve had back have been fantastic. It’s absolutely key for us to provide engaging products for bettors, be it through racing content, live fixed odds number draws or our esports product SIS Competitive Gaming events alike.”
