“As an industry, we can always innovate more than we do”
(Exclusive interview).- Focus Gaming News speaks to Simon Westbury, Head of Sales at omni-channel iGaming solutions provider, Digitain.
Focus Gaming News caught up with Digitain’s Head of Sales, Simon Westbury, to find out as the company celebrates retaining its Best Skill Games Provider award at this year’s EGR B2B Awards.
“We’re the world’s sportsbook but obviously with no live sports that becomes a challenge,” Mr Westbury recognises, and yet through joined up working between the product department, marketing and sales, Digitain has achieved its best three sales months in history.
Mr Westbury highlighted the success of the provider’s The Show Must Go On Campaign when sports suddenly came to a halt, followed by its Game On campaign that welcomed back live events.
“We managed to innovate and future proof Digitain going forward”
Simon Westbury, Head of Sales at Digitain.
He says the pandemic led Digitain to refocus, carry out a gap analysis and create a road map for the future. It also allowed the company to focus on innovation and development.
“As an industry, we can always innovate more than we do but I think we need to understand innovation over invention.”
Simon Westbury, Head of Sales at Digitain.
Mr Westbury says the industry sometimes confuses innovation and invention, and stresses the importance of innovating to adapt existing ideas, highlighting Digitain’s launch of the world’s first live table football feed.
“That’s innovation to me,” he said. “It’s something that resonates with everyone because everyone’s played table football. We’ve taken an existing product and adapted it, working with international known bodies to bring a new product to the market that filled a void when there was no live sport – because table football is a sport.”
He notes that Digitain grew its virtual sports product portfolio with Golden Race, expanded with Globalbet and Kiron and developed its own esports product.
He says operators should also be looking to innovate, particularly retail operators.
“Anyone who works in retail and isn’t looking to grow their online presence or future proof their product for online, I would say, is neglecting their customers,” he says.
“Digitain will expand putting the player and entertainment at the core of what we do.”
Simon Westbury, Head of Sales at Digitain.
Mr Westbury is concerned new regulatory measures in Europe may be counter productive and could contribute to a flurry of M&A activity, which could hinder innovation and customer experience, but says Digitain is looking to expand, appointing a Head of Regional Sales and opening regional offices in Malta, LatAm, Asia and Africa.
It is also looking to increase its product portfolio with exciting new in-house games.
“We focused on momentum and expansion as a company and we’re coming through this,” he says.
“It is looking at bringing retail on line, looking at increasing the online product portfolio, it is looking at geographical expansion and it is being aggressive and that’s not looking to exploit an opportunity but to serve the market we work in and the customers we work with.”
Check out the full interview with Simon Westbury above or on the Focus Gaming News YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe!
