Gal Ehrlich, BETER: “In 2023, we will be enhancing our live casino offering”

Gal Ehrlich, CEO of BETER, talked in an exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News about the ups and downs in 2022 and what BETER expects to reach in 2023.

2022 is coming to its end and companies start to look back and see what they’ve reached in the year. Gal Ehrlich, CEO of BETER, granted an interview with Focus Gaming News in which he recaps the milestones for the company in this special year for them.

What were your main achievements in 2022? Did you accomplish what you expected?

I believe that our company’s biggest achievement of 2022 is the resilience we showed in the face of previously unimaginable challenges, whilst also maintaining rapid growth. Back In January, we had ambitious plans to develop each of our iGaming verticals, but we had no idea that Russia would launch a full-scale war in Ukraine, where most of our assets are located, within a matter of weeks.

I am eternally grateful to our team, whose enthusiasm and professional bond remained resolute even in the face of brutal and unjustified military aggression. Thanks to their immense effort and dedication we have achieved everything we set out to and even more.

In 2022 we have added 3 new disciplines to our esports portfolio (ebasketball, ehockey and efootball Volta), 12 new live casino games to our live casino games library and opened 3 table tennis arenas for Setka Cup, the international table tennis platform powered by BETER, in Europe. We also launched our iFrame solution, which won silver in the “Industry Innovation of the Year” at SBC Awards 2022 and made it even more engaging by adding in-play stats widgets.

However, one of this year’s highlights for us was the expansion of our cooperation with Bayes Esports, the world’s leading supplier of official esports live data. As a result of this, we now work with Bayes Esports as a preferred partner, which means that we now supply them with esports odds for their platform, BODEX.

We were also incredibly active on the network front, attending over 10 industry events, including exhibiting at ICE London, G2E Asia and SBC Summit Barcelona.

Are you planning to launch new products in the next few months?

Yes, we are planning to start 2023 with a bang by adding DOTA 2 in-house tournaments, which we believe will be in demand from next-gen bettors. And there will be other exciting novelties to our esports portfolio, which we will announce quite soon. We will also continue to develop our iFrame solution, which is already one of our best-sellers.

Speaking of important developments in our live casino vertical, it is also worth mentioning that we will be opening our new studio, which will be based in Bucharest, Romania, in January. We will also be enhancing our live casino offering with the launch of the electrifying new game Gravity Roulette, which introduces big payouts and huge multipliers during bonus rounds. 

However, the above is just the beginning of what we plan to achieve in the forthcoming year. In 2023, we will give ourselves more of an opportunity to shake things up so that we can release new, unique products which we’ve been honing for quite some time.

“In 2022 we have added 3 new disciplines to our esports portfolio (ebasketball, ehockey and efootball Volta), 12 new live casino games to our live casino games library.”

Gal Ehrlich, CEO at BETER.

The live sports and esports tournaments market has changed in the last few years. How do you see the business for 2023?

The esports domain is seeing massive growth during the last few years, and we expect to see this trend continue in the upcoming years as well. A major part of our efforts today is to leverage our existing esports assets including our in-house tournaments with 28,000 24×7 events per month, our market-leading global esports tournaments trading and our new esports iFrame solution we launched earlier in 2022 and already deployed across dozens of operators.

Esports bettors are a new demographic, much different from the traditional bettor’s profile. This requires a different approach to be adopted by operators through the whole lifecycle of engaging these players, from the acquisition stage through retention maximizing players’ lifetime value. This requires a different mindset, investment in esports-related domains, as well as being present in the relevant media channels and providing a different, tailor-made user experience. We are working very closely with our customers to support them in their journey to adjust their offering to better target esports bettors. 

“In 2023, we will give ourselves more of an opportunity to shake things up so that we can release new, unique products which we’ve been honing for quite some time.”

Gal Ehrlich, CEO at BETER.

BETER has recently signed new partnerships with WeAreCasino and SoftGamings, what’s the most challenging aspect of the deals? Are you planning any new partnerships over the next few months?

WeAreCasino and SoftGamings are two new additions to our customers base. With WeAreCasino and SoftGamings we are mostly promoting our Live Casino products and the challenge as always in the Casino industry is to get the right exposure among the operators using our portfolio, to have the right prominence above the fold to be easily accessible to players who want to experience something new, something bit different to keep them engaged and entertained. 

When it comes to new partnerships, we have quite a solid pipeline, which is actually in its best position ever, and I’m confident we will publish new partnerships in the upcoming months. 

Which market trends does BETER expect for 2023?

The key trend we can see from both customers and companies in the iGaming industry now is a constant growth of demand, which, in turn, is making iGaming more resilient to economic crises. Even so, companies are always looking to optimise costs, as well as focus on mergers/acquisitions, to leverage cost synergies. 

With regards to the iGaming industry as a whole, I think that we will see significant changes in the near future with big names acquiring smaller-sized providers.

As for the types of products companies offer, some key trends from the previous years, namely fast betting and full-scale incorporation of esports into betting platforms, still have plenty of potential for further growth and, thus, will be of crucial importance in 2023.