David Bretnitz, Kambi: “The importance of conferences like G2E should not be understated”

In an exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News, David Bretnitz, Kambi’s senior director of sales, shares insights ahead of G2E.

Exclusive interview.- David Bretnitz granted Focus Gaming News an exclusive interview where he discussed Kambi‘s upcoming attendance at G2E Las Vegas, the company’s innovative sportsbook solutions, its unique position in the industry, recent awards, and the transformative impact of AI-driven trading. 

What are your expectations ahead of G2E? Are you going to present any innovation that you can tell us something about?

Attendees visiting booth 2230 will find a large team drawn from across the Kambi Group, with extensive representation from our commercial, technical and product teams available to talk delegates through the technology and expertise which have seen Kambi become the sportsbook platform of choice for ambitious operators throughout the Americas.

In addition to Kambi’s cutting-edge sportsbook, Kambi Group also offers market-leading UX and UI capabilities powered by front-end specialists Shape Games, and is also a global leader in the provision of esports data and odds with Abios. 

Representatives from all three Kambi Group companies will be on hand to discuss how we can help them discover the missing piece of their sportsbook with our Complete, Flex and Select services. 

What importance do you give to the opportunity to meet with all those who are part of the industry at this and other events?

G2E is a consistent highlight of the sports betting calendar, and with good reason, offering fantastic opportunities to engage with partners and colleagues from across the full breadth of the industry. 

The importance of conferences like G2E, ICE and SBC Barcelona in giving operators, suppliers and regulators alike a chance to meet, collaborate and share best practice should not be understated. 

“G2E is a consistent highlight of the sports betting calendar, and with good reason.”

David Bretnitz, Kambi’s senior director of sales.

What sets Kambi apart from other sports betting companies? What do you think that partners find in your company that attracts them?

Our vision is to be the pioneer of next-generation betting entertainment that players demand, and operators can’t compete without. We have a singular focus on sports betting, and providing a Complete sportsbook service with a depth and quality of offering that few can match, empowering partners to grow faster than the market. 

Alongside offering the world’s most trusted, revenue-driving full turnkey sportsbook in Kambi Complete, we also offer tailored solutions capable of meeting specific needs. Kambi Flex is built on Kambi’s open platform with a mix and match of Kambi and third-party products, while Kambi Select enables sportsbooks to enhance their existing platforms with a selection of high-quality modular services such as Kambi’s AI-powered odds feeds, esports odds powered by Abios and front-end UX powered by Shape Games. 

The expertise across our 1100-strong global team and our proven record of swift and superior delivery in the online and on-property arenas has helped to establish Kambi as the industry’s preeminent supplier of sports betting services. 

“Our vision is to be the pioneer of next-generation betting entertainment that players demand.”

David Bretnitz, Kambi’s senior director of sales.

Kambi won two prizes at the EGR B2B Awards 2023. What do these distinctions mean to you?

We were very proud to take home the awards in the ‘Sports Betting Supplier’ and ‘Innovation in Sports Betting Software’ categories at the EGR B2B Awards. We work diligently to ensure that our product and technical capabilities exist right at the cutting edge of what is possible in the sports betting industry and are always thrilled when our peers in the industry recognize the efforts of our global team to ensure Kambi is the industry’s foremost, trusted provider of sportsbook technology. 

One of those awards was for Innovation in Sports Betting Software for your pioneering AI-driven trading capability. Is Artificial intelligence changing the landscape of the industry? Are you working on other projects that include this development?

The buzz generated by AI has been unmistakable over recent months, and the betting and gaming industry has been no stranger to this. The potentially transformative power of AI and automation has long been heralded throughout the sports betting sector, but practical and meaningful applications have been limited, largely deployed to enhance aspects of the business such as marketing, risk and customer relationship management as opposed to the core product.

Our AI-driven trading represents a genuine step-change in how sports betting markets are priced and traded, harnessing the power of AI to remove the barriers that exist to product creation and sportsbook combinability.

Developed entirely in-house and enabling the pricing and trading of odds without human intervention, this true automation enables us to increase the number of available bet offers, fuel the creation of new products and expand the breadth of the combinability we can offer through the Kambi sportsbook. 

End user expectations are increasingly moving towards the kind of products and bet offers that only complex algorithms are capable of delivering. AI-driven trading removes friction for players, as underlined by the 50% increase in offering size and 75 per cent increase in our Bet Builder offering since the product was launched.

How would you assess the work carried out in 2023 so far and what are your objectives for the medium and short term?

We have built real commercial momentum over the course of 2023, signing several partnerships with leading operators and securing a number of important renewals with existing partners. 

Agreements with renowned operators including Svenska Spel and Bally’s in 2023 are a real testament to our commercial strategy and quality of product, as are the on-property partnerships we have signed with the likes of Potawatomi Casino Hotel, WarHorse Gaming and Prairie Band Casino & Resort. Coming alongside renewals with partners including ATG, BetPlay, LeoVegas and Rush Street Interactive, this underlines the strength of the company’s long-term trajectory and we are excited at the prospect of continuing to build on this in the months to come.