Martin Collins, CBDO at Soft2Bet: “Soft2Bet to host exclusive workshops experience at ICE London”

Martin Collins, CBDO at Soft2Bet, talks about the company’s upcoming participation in the next edition of  ICE London.

Exclusive interview.- Soft2Bet is preparing for ICE London 2024, which will take place from February 6 to 8. In an exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News, Martin Collins, CBDO at Soft2Bet, spoke about the company’s plans for the show and its challenges.

How is Soft2Bet preparing for ICE London?

We’re working hard preparing for the show, where we will be welcoming our partners at our amazing new stand. We’re also preparing a number of different workshops: I will be hosting one explaining to delegates the full range of platform services we offer and how we structure our commercial partnerships so that they are beneficial to all parties.

Our team will also be running workshops and discussions on Motivational Engineering Gaming Application (MEGA), our gamification platform that delivers highly gamified products and additional entertainment value to players, driving up engagement, volumes, and revenues for Soft2Bet and its partners.

I also would like to introduce David Yatom Hay, general counsel at Soft2Bet, who will also be taking part in the ICE Vox World Regulatory Briefing on Monday, February 5.        

How do you evaluate your previous performances and what do you think is different this time around?

We always strive to ensure ICE is productive for us as a group but one factor that might alter some of our dealings with partners is that our regulatory footprint expanded considerably in 2023, with licenses in Romania, Sweden, Italy and more to come in Germany, Portugal and North America. As a result our approach to client meetings and potential deals may be slightly different to what they were previously.

What are the company’s goals for the show? What are your expectations in terms of meeting with clients and potential deals?

ICE is the largest trade show in our industry and is always packed with meetings, networking and communication opportunities. This year’s event will be no different and our goals will include closing deals, initiating new conversations and from my perspective, I will be pushing to see how we can keep growing our B2B activities.

How do you feel about ICE London 2024 being the last edition of the expo to be held in the UK, and what do you think will change for ICE Barcelona 2025?

London’s loss is Barcleona’s gain. ICE is the second largest trade show at Excel London so the move to Barcelona will have a substantial impact on all the UK-based contractors that have been working off ICE for so many years. I am not sure how the event will change once in Barcelona, but the city’s stand builders, designers and many other contractors will massively benefit from it! And of course, Barcelona is a fantastic city in its own right, I imagine many delegates will be happy at the thought of visiting it in February next year. 

What would you say are the biggest challenges facing sportsbook solutions providers?

Like any digital business, being able to access and make optimal use of data is key. It enables providers to know the customers, personalise their experiences and provide their operators with key differentiators in the products that they market to their sports bettors.

However, from our discussions with peers and contacts, we are seeing that many solutions providers are also legacy-orientated and their ability to utilise user data to build a tailored customer experience, although advancing, is not comparable to other entertainment verticals.

That is what we focus on at Soft2Bet, because we are competing for users’ screen time, not necessarily against other providers or operators, but against social networks, Netflix or sports broadcasters.

The ability to create engagement with customers and drive a stronger loyalty and subsequent ROI is the absolute key to success in any jurisdiction and is what has driven much of our success.

“We are competing for users’ screen time, not necessarily against other providers or operators.”

CBDO at Soft2Bet Martin Collins.

What would you say are the major leaps in technology that are being incorporated in the casino and igaming industry?

Although there are still many monolithic platforms on the market, some driving considerable revenue, new tech stacks are utilising lighter and more modular architecture systems. This not only aids in terms of enabling coupled code, where one module uses the code of another module, it also brings speed benefits from an infrastructure perspective as the weight of data required to process is much less.

This is important because the volume of data available to both operators and providers continues to rise, while the use of AI and machine learning in gathering and modelling this data is becoming ever more important. Therefore, being able to rely on a technical architecture that is flexible, but doesn’t compromise on things like processing power and uptime are going to be key future requirements in managing change and product evolution.

What’s next for Soft2Bet’s Motivational Engineering Gaming Application (MEGA)?

MEGA has undoubtedly worked in driving up all major KPIs for Soft2Bet (and our operators), including screen time (+300 per cent), engagement (+52 per cent) and revenues (+70 per cent) in 2023.

By creating personalised and engaging experiences outside the traditional gambling channels, we are seeing players spend exponentially more time on our offerings.

But as we know, consumers’ attention span is short and today’s fad can very quickly become tomorrow’s scrap heap. Therefore, in order to remain pertinent and attractive to potential customers, we continue to innovate and bring content and engagement that is new and unique across gambling and ultimately pertinent and specific to the audiences of our operators.

Indeed, what is pertinent to a sports-focused customer in New York may be very different to what works to a casino customer in Romania and that is why we’re focused on taking into account all of our customers’ audiences and continue to deliver solutions in line with their expectations.

“In order to remain pertinent and attractive to potential customers, we continue to innovate and bring content and engagement that is new and unique across gambling.”

CBDO at Soft2Bet Martin Collins.

What this means is that of course, we will always have general, off-the-shelf games, but we also work with our partners and customers to build bespoke solutions in line with their brands and audiences.