“ICE always sets the tone for the rest of the year”
(Exclusive interview).- Andrew Cochrane, Chief Development Officer at SBTech, talked with Focus Gaming News about ICE London 2020.
The upcoming edition of ICE London will gather the whole industry at ExCeL from February 4-6.
Andrew Cochrane, Chief Development Officer at SBTech, talked with Focus Gaming News about the company’s 2019 and its plans for the show and this year.
2019 was an important year for the sports betting industry, reaching new heights in Europe and North America. What are your expectations for 2020 and this new decade?
2019 was a record year for the business securing the industry’s most significant sportsbook and platform agreements with some of the largest tier-one iGaming and lottery operators.
The reason why so many operators choose to work with us is because we enable our partners to go to market quicker than anyone else. Our technology is flexible and we are consistently certifying the platform, so when regulation allows either one of our existing partners to enter a new territory, or for us to take on an entirely new partner, that is something we are able to manage, as we saw in several US states last year.
This will continue in 2020, as our global strategy will see us enter new markets such as South Africa and Latin America, along with further expansion in the US.
As a B2B-focused technology provider, we are fully committed to our partners, ensuring that we can help them further increase revenue through our flexible, customised and secure platform. We have always been a global company and will continue to innovate in new markets, such as Latin America, where we’ll work closely with both new and existing partners supplying products that understand and align with customer behaviour in this region.
Our global strategy will see us enter new markets such as South Africa and Latin America.
Part of this global strategy means our casino offering will include localised content targeted for these specific regions, and we’ll continue to work with many games providers to ensure we continue to offer a quality product.
How can ICE London help you achieve your goals considering that the sports betting segment is gaining both momentum and space on the expo floor in this event?
Sports betting is one of the most significant segments of the market and arguably the fastest growing across both established and particularly emerging markets. You only have to take a look at how big the stands are at ICE and how much space sports betting takes up to realise its significance. It’s also a prime segment for innovation with more disruptive technology than any other area of our industry and we have been at its forefront for the last decade.
Sports betting is one of the most significant segments of the market and arguably the fastest growing.
Our join #thebigleague messaging this year reflects how far we have come as a business, the scale of tier one operators we partner with, and how far we have taken and can take our partners, propelling them to record revenues across global regulated markets.
What can we expect from SBTech during ICE London 2020? Are you planning to introduce new products at this year’s event?
This year’s show will see us showcase our entire multi-channel product and platform offering, including our full iGaming platform and advanced sportsbook that include regulation-ready, localised products and responsible gambling tools that can be used across a vast array of regulated markets.
Our flexible, advanced platform and sportsbook product suite can be tailored to any market and, as a result, we have become recognised as the multi-channel sports betting supplier of choice, having been integrated by more than 50 tier-one operators across more than 15 regulated markets.
You’ve been named Sports Betting Supplier of the Year and Sportsbook Supplier of the year in a number of major events in 2019. Does your performance at ICE London help you set your strategies for other events?
ICE is the first major event in the calendar and always sets the tone for the rest of the year. Our ‘Join the big league’ campaign for 2020 will do just that and showcase how we can maximise our partners’ revenues with our world-class technology.
ICE always sets the tone for the rest of the year.
Delegates at this year’s show will see first-hand how leading sports betting and casino operators around the world enjoy significant growth when working in partnership with SBTech. They will see and experience how our innovative sportsbook, integrated management platform, extensive library of casino games and omni-channel retail solutions can take their gaming business to the next level.
How does the company evaluate the development of the industry around the world? What are the plans for SBTech’s sports betting section in 2020?
The industry is expanding rapidly around the world with new markets opening every year including in Latin America where we see huge scope for growth and a huge appetite for fast, flexible, innovative and highly regulated and responsible technology that can offer players with the safest and most entertaining experience.
Emerging and rapidly growing markets such as Latin America, Africa and the US, where more states are choosing to regulate, will be our focuses for 2020 and beyond and we will be announcing more within those markets as the year progresses.
