22 minute read
Sports Betting
by SBC Global
JETTE NYGAARD-ANDERSEN: BUILDING THE NEXT GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT PLATFORM
BY ANDREW MCCARRON
SBC: You’ve been in the role for six months now. How have your previous roles in the media, entertainment, sport, digital sectors shaped your leadership style today?
JNA: As you know, I’ve been a nonexecutive director for a little over a year. I knew that there was a unique opportunity for us to really build the next global customer-led entertainment platform. That’s really how I see the business and how I believe that we can revolutionise sports betting and gaming entertainment.
Throughout my career, I have always worked in businesses or areas where it’s all about understanding the ways that technology enables new consumer behaviours. I really believe that technology is creating new experiences, ecosystems and expectations, but it also enables you to meet the changing customer needs as well as provide customers with new and exciting entertainment experiences.
So when I think about our business, I really think about ourselves as an entertainment company. I think about how we can leverage the fantastic platform that we have created at Entain for our customers to create moments of excitement in a safe and enjoyable environment.
I knew this when I came into the business, so of course this has been shaping the ways that I think about Entain and our opportunities going forward. It probably also impacts my leadership style, because when you work in the media and entertainment sectors for as long as I have, there are a few things which just become a part of who you are.
One thing is, that it’s always about change. The industry is changing all the time. So you need to have that passion and curiosity around new technology and be able to think about how you want to shape the industry.
SIX MONTHS AFTER HER APPOINTMENT AS ENTAIN CEO,
Jette Nygaard-Andersen speaks exclusively to SBC Leaders about taking the reins in the midst of a pandemic, why technology is an ‘enabler’ for player entertainment, and why she is hugely excited about new opportunities for the operator across the world
I’ve always worked in an environment which has a lot of diversity - diversity between corporate and creative people, between established businesses and entrepreneurs, young and old, men and women. I think it’s hugely important for a business, not least for one of our size and global reach to be diverse.
I think this has all shaped who I am. I am extremely passionate about the opportunities that we have in really offering a new and exciting approach for our customers. As I joined, I was attracted to the culture of Entain. We’re
acknowledging that we are a big FTSE 50 company, but we are also preserving that entrepreneurial spirit within the company.
SBC: When you first joined Entain, one of the things you really wanted to highlight was International Women’s Day. What other events have also stood out for you?
JNA: There have been so many things that stood out! But you mentioned the pandemic; I have to say, it is quite unusual to take a CEO role in a global company in the middle of a pandemic.
When you take a new job, you are so dependent on being with your colleagues, actually meeting people and also being able to story tell around what your vision is. All of this just works best when you’re in a room together.
But I’ve had to work like everyone else has had to do through the pandemic, communicate over the phone
and via video calls. That requires you to be much more on-point with your story telling. You need to be able to come through the screen and show your passion about joining the company, the team, and being so proud of what you do - all through the screen.
On the positive side, I have been blown away by the ways that everyone in Entain has come together during the pandemic and continued to deliver great things for our customers, our colleagues and our shareholders. As a fast paced business we went into the pandemic with many big projects underway and without missing a beat our people kept not just the day to day running like our customer service centres, but also delivering new products to our customers, migrating Ladbrokes onto our tech platform and launching in a few US states. I’m also proud of the way that people just stood together. It hasn’t been easy for everyone to juggle being at home, maintaining a private life and then communicating with your colleagues. For good or bad, this has probably been what has stood out the most for me on a personal level.
When I came on board, I had a very clear vision of where I would like to take Entain - and I have been so encouraged by everything that I have seen. I truly believe that we have the best people in the industry. We then have our capabilities, our experiences and our technology - it is all of these together that form the Entain platform. This provides a powerful and unique competitive advantage that will enable our ambitions as we look to grow into new markets and revenue streams.
I guess you can say that I have really been encouraged by the ways in which everyone is embracing the wider vision. Besides the word pandemic, I think ‘opportunity’ is a word that you could
really put on a headline to describe my first six months here!
SBC: You said earlier that you see Entain as an entertainment company, however you’ve also just suggested that Entain is also very much a technology company. How do you balance the two? And which do you think best describes Entain?
JNA: When you are running a digitalfirst entertainment company, I think there are two things that are absolutely critical: understanding technology and understanding your customers. These two things go hand in hand. So I don’t really set them apart from one another, but I do view technology and the platform it creates as an enabler.
SBC: How do you get Entain into the mindset of being ahead of everyone else in terms of innovation and player experiences?
JNA: I think there’s a DNA in the company which is quite entrepreneurial. It is still quite a young company. Some very smart leaders spotted an opportunity to build a business which acquired really good teams and companies around the world. So when you are becoming a certain size, you are understanding that the more companies you acquire, you need to build a platform that constantly supports that growth.
So when we acquired bwin, the technology there became the platform
If I look back at the last 25 years of my career, every time that there was a new development in technology, or convergence between technology platforms, we saw changes in consumer behaviour. Sometimes that change was slow or gradual, other times it happened overnight!
If you just think about streaming, there were several years where there was latency, picture quality was bad, products were outdated, you couldn’t search, there was no recommendation. But then in 2011/12, everything changed really quickly.
Today we see technology improving through 5G, reduced latency for streaming platforms. At the end of the day, all of these things will enable us as an entertainment platform to bring you exciting and engaging products. and that has really been the foundation. For every leader in the company, it’s also hiring the best people. You have to find those people with the best cultural fit - something which I think Entain has been really good at! I think we have passionate people, the best in the industry. And we have team members who are really passionate about our business and technology.
Technology is all about what it can do to the player experience, how it TECHNOLOGY IS ALL ABOUT WHAT IT CAN DO TO THE PLAYER EXPERIENCE, HOW IT GENERATES EXCITEMENT AND EVEN THE SOCIAL ELEMENTS THAT IT CREATES
generates excitement and even the social elements that it creates. For customers that I speak to, whether it’s the lady playing bingo in her spare time, or the semi-professional poker player, they highlight the social elements.
SBC: Entain is the biggest operator in the UK, which is currently going through a review of the Gambling Act. What role can Entain play in speaking to regulators and politicians?
JNA: I think it’s so important that we as an industry, and certainly us at Entain, are supportive of regulation - which we are. But we’re also engaging in real dialogue with the regulator.
If you look back over the years, the relationships may not have been so cooperative. But my aim is that we are cooperative and have positive engagement with our regulators. A key thing for us is that we’re able to share with the regulator what we’re doing to improve safety because we fully support balanced regulation.
Regulation should be there to protect the very few individuals that come in harm’s way. We are protecting the individuals that get into trouble. We should not be imposing draconian measures for everyone; the worst thing we can do is view legislation as a onesize-fits-all system. You and I need to be treated differently, our needs are different and we need different support mechanisms.
Our biggest role here is to really engage with the regulators, talk to them not only about what we’re doing today, but also how we see the future. We need to discuss how technology can actually help build a platform which protects our players. We don’t want to take money from any players that cannot afford it. Instead, we’re all about building long-term relationships with customers. That’s what a sustainable company does.
SBC: Entain has so many different CSR and player protection initiatives at the moment - including ARC and then the Entain Foundation. How important is it to be seen to be doing these things, as well as actually doing them?
JNA: It is very important! It’s obviously important for the politicians and the regulators, but it’s much more important for our customers and employees. And it’s expected of us by our shareholders. When we did our last employee survey,
more than 80% of our colleagues said that they were really proud of what Entain is doing. It’s about putting customers first as well as how we’re building a sustainable company.
Last November, we launched our new Sustainability Charter which talks about CSR and player protection – being fully regulated, building our foundation and we’re really putting our money where our mouth is.
Every one of my colleagues, myself included, has a 15% of their bonus entitlement measured on responsible gambling. I think we may be the only company which does this, ensuring everyone is incentivised to help deliver our safer gambling strategy. So it’s really important that we’re not just talking the talk, but also walking the walk and WE DEFINITELY HAVE OUR EYE ON THE PRIZE AND WE’RE DELIVERING THE STRONGEST IGAMING PRODUCTS AND AN EXCITING SPORTSBOOK TOO
communicating what we’re doing.
SBC: Looking at the US, how do you see that market developing?
JNA: We’re hugely excited about the opportunities in the United States. We are now live in 12 states, so that just tells you that it’s still early days. We are taking a leadership position - overall, we are number two in market share. And with our gaming offering, where we are only live in four states, we are a very clear number one.
We’re following all the states as they regulate, truly understanding what it takes to enter each individual state while also understanding the variances in legislation - because all state regulations are different. That does make things more complicated, but it is also where our platform shows its strength.
With our game studios, we actually produce our own exclusive content for the US markets which has proven to be extremely successful. That has been a part of the reason why we are now going to double our investments into producing exclusive content.
The US is built on our global Entain platform and I’m equally excited about the significant opportunities we have for our business outside of the US. We are leaders in 27 markets and are actively looking to expand into other markets either organically, like Colombia, or through M&A, as we have done in Portugal and across the Baltics
SBC: And do you think that the rollout of sports betting in the US has made regulators a little less scared about igaming?
JNA: It will take time; the process is much slower around gaming. I think there are only five or six states at this point which have regulated - or are currently regulating - igaming. But if you look at the opportunities around igaming, it is of course huge!
You could also say there is a definite economic motivation for states to legalise igaming. Look at New Jersey and Michigan! The more success we’re seeing in the states that are opening up, the more likely that other states will follow.
But we do have to remember that it is also much more complex because there are many more stakeholders. It’s not just the regulator and legislator, there are the tribal communities and the existing land based operators. So in that sense, I do think the regulation of igaming will certainly be slower than sports betting.
We definitely have our eye on the prize and we’re delivering the strongest igaming products and an exciting sportsbook too. So we are really looking forward to seeing more and more states legalise in the coming years! •
WARREN MURPHY: SCALING UP SPORTRADAR’S SOCCER OFFERING
WARREN MURPHY, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF BETTING AND GAMING AT
SPORTRADAR, speaks to SBC Leaders about the company’s decision to automate Live Odds trading and the benefits this can bring to Sportradar’s partners
BY ERIN GALLAGHER
SBC: Thank you so much for speaking with us! What plans does Sportradar have for the start of the soccer season?
WM: The domestic season gets underway this coming weekend but for soccer fans like me, it’s been one of those summers where we’ve been blessed with back-to-back tournaments. We’ve enjoyed the highs and lows of the Euros, the Copa America, the Gold Cup and most recently the Tokyo Olympics showpiece. It’s the perfect example of the game’s global popularity.
Unsurprisingly, from a sports betting perspective, it’s the biggest revenue generator for operators. And, what’s more, the appetite for soccer content amongst fans continues to grow, hence why we are continually expanding our market-leading soccer offering.
We have an exceptionally talented trading team here at Sportradar, working 24/7 to deliver soccer content from across the globe. To do so requires an incredible amount of resources. To give you an idea, producing Live Odds for 80,000 soccer matches a year requires a minimum of 30,000 trading hours per annum.
In order to scale up our soccer offering ahead of the new season and THE APPETITE FOR SOCCER CONTENT AMONGST FANS CONTINUES TO GROW, HENCE WHY WE ARE CONTINUALLY EXPANDING OUR MARKET-LEADING SOCCER OFFERING
provide comprehensive coverage for an ever-growing list of competitions and tournaments; we’re automating the trading of Live Odds on soccer matches. This will significantly increase the amount of soccer available to our operators and go some way to satisfying consumer demand, whilst also improving product quality.
SBC: What effect will this have on Sportradar, its customers and the market more broadly?
WM: Our engineers have been developing this technology in-house for the last two years. At the start of the process our aim was to double the amount of soccer coverage we were able to offer our operators. To put this into context, our traders were providing coverage of up to four matches at one time.
Following a series of successful trials, the automation process has more than tripled our efficiency rate and provides us with the ability to trade more matches concurrently, all the while maintaining the same number of staff within our trading team.
It’s a game changer for us. Given the volume of fixtures per season, soccer is by far the most resource intensive sport for us to cover, so introducing these automated processes will alleviate some of the pressure on our trading team.
We can reallocate the resource into broadening our sports coverage or scaling coverage for sports that are currently under-served. For example, our traders can now develop their knowledge of cricket and kabaddi in order to advance the quality of Live Odds that we provide for those sports. It’s a development opportunity for our staff as we look to align our sports coverage with the company’s wider strategic aims.
From an operator perspective it’s simple – they can book more matches. The automated processes will help them scale up their soccer offering and satisfy consumer demand. And, with more than 700 million accepted bets in soccer during Q1, it’s clear
that increasing the number of soccer matches available to operators will provide them with significant commercial benefits.
The result for the market more broadly will be increased choice. Given the volume of matches we can cover, there will be an increase in the number of soccer matches that fans can engage with, while there will be a greater range of sports events for punters to engage with as we broaden our Live Odds coverage.
SBC: How will the automated processes work alongside your trading team?
WM: While automating the production process for Live Odds soccer matches will provide significant benefit to Sportradar, soccer is just one of 83 sports we offer and represents a portion of the 750,000 matches annually that the trading team covers.
Some sports are more challenging to model and automate than others. For example, sports that include more periods of play, such as basketball, require more input. With basketball the model needs adjusting for markets such as full time total and handicap, but there are multiple quarter / halftime markets that need addressing as well.
Additionally, for some sports there just isn’t the volume of matches each year to warrant the automation process, like American football which hosts 272 matches a season. Compare that to soccer where you have 380 matches played in the English topflight alone – then consider there are four leagues below that and factor in the number of countries that have a professional league or association. The number is huge.
Our trading team is now more vital than ever. Their expertise in data and their perspective on quality is vital as they have purview of the wholesale production of our Live Odds offering and can ensure that the quality of the output is in line with the standards we have established over the years.
SBC: Have you been able to maintain the quality of the Live Odds offering under these new processes?
WM: While we’ve seen the obvious benefits from an efficiency point of view, for example doubling the number of soccer matches we provide Live Odds for, we’ve also managed to maintain the high quality our operators have come to expect from us. Our already industry-leading error rates have dropped by a further 64%, whilst suspension time has fallen by 27%.
For our operators this means that there is even greater accuracy and more time to engage with customers, enabling them to improve their margins and increase their turnover.
SBC: What does the future hold for automated odds modelling? Do you plan to roll it out across other sports?
WM: It’s an exciting technology that we’re utilising to add value to our clients’ sportsbooks. In the immediate term our focus is very much on soccer. We’re currently automating the trading of Live Odds on 40%+ of our soccer output. The aim is to apply it to more soccer matches, so we can cover the vast number of leagues and competitions worldwide. It will really help with that heavy lifting.
And, in the longer term, the aim is to apply this technology to more sports. Sports for which there is a high volume of output, like basketball, tennis and table tennis. •
NOVIBET: DRIVING NEW GROWTH WITHIN THE GLOBAL GAMETECH INDUSTRY
AS WE ENTER THE SECOND HALF OF 2021, Novibet reflects on some of the company’s major milestones from this year, including the move to Microsoft Azure
BY ERIN GALLAGHER
Novibet has been operating in the online entertainment industry for more than a decade, employing more than 420 qualified professionals who have been the cornerstone of the brand’s success. With state-of-the-art products and services and its proprietary award-winning technology platform and mobile application, Novibet has been competing among the leading entertainment providers, constantly gaining ground in players’ preferences, across all markets of operation.
Our recent landmark partnership with Microsoft, one of the world's top technology companies, has been a clear demonstration of Novibet's commitment to providing a superior entertainment experience as we continue to adjust smoothly to the new digital age.
Our target for moving to Microsoft Azure was twofold. First, we wanted to address the more pressing needs of adjusting to the growth we were experiencing, as at some point, it was clear that we had outgrown our infrastructure in our shared datacenter.
WE HAVE PEACE OF MIND IN TERMS OF PLATFORM STABILITY WITH RECORD KPIS AND SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVES WE ARE QUICKER TO GROW. WE ARE QUICKER TO SCALE UP OR SCALE OUT
Secondly, as we were looking at the future, we wanted to have exactly this kind of flexibility we are currently enjoying and to be able to spin out different environments in a completely automated way and have the infrastructure work for us and not the other way around. This is exactly what we have achieved with our move to Azure.
What we’ve seen is exponential growth. The amount of growth that we have seen is really significant. Furthermore, we have peace of mind in terms of platform stability with record KPIs and service level objectives. Also, the most important thing for our DevOps teams, is the visibility of the whole technology stack, something that we did not have before moving to Azure.
So now we have a complete visibility of the network stack, of hardware resources, of practically everything. And that enabled us to be entirely aware of everything that is going on in our platform, giving us confidence for our dayto-day operations, as well as for our long term plans. Not to mention the optimisation of our reaction time on different client demands. We are quicker to grow. We are quicker to scale up or scale out.
Moving to Azure was definitely a big milestone for the company as a whole. It was very well received, and the benefits of this migration were acknowledged immediately by everyone.
For our end users, everything was transparent and seamless, and at the end of the day, they were able to enjoy faster and more reliable
services, which obviously contributes to the better user experience that we’re always aiming towards at Novibet.
One of the challenges that we came up against when moving to Azure was that we were doing everything live in the sense that we had operations. We were transferring stuff and we kept everything transparent for our users.
So, judging by the end result it was definitely a huge success story. The participation of Microsoft was really important and the local presence of the Microsoft team, their knowledge and their active participation were really pivotal for the success of this project.
International awards for Novibet
Novibet’s strategic investment in innovation has proved that our strategy can form pioneering products, which have earned the recognition of international institutions.
We recently received a new international distinction for “Innovation in Casino”, which was given in recognition of our innovative and personalised casino entertainment offer. The awardwinning communication campaign for the casino product, under the key message ‘Endless possibilities at your fingertips’, was designed and developed based on a qualitative analysis of customers’ special preferences and was enhanced with a variety of activations and reward plans.
This latest recognition follows last year's consecutive awards, among which the greatest award for “Best Mobile Operator App” at the prestigious SBC Awards 2020, which rewarded Novibet’s technological excellence.
Responsible stakeholder along with Giannis Antetokounmpo
2021 has definitely been a milestone year for Novibet for a number of reasons. One of the landmarks from this year definitely has to be our meaningful CSR partnership with the ultimate basketball player and MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The collaboration with Antetokounmpo first started in May 2021, through the Corporate Responsibility program The GiANT Heart, confirming that Novibet is not just a technology and entertainment firm, but a socially-responsible stakeholder.
Aiming to substantially support vulnerable social groups in multiple ways, Antetokounmpo joined forces with Novibet in an 'MVP Love Alliance’ to implement a series of targeted actions based on the values of social contribution, hope and second chance that will significantly support local communities of Greece, which is Giannis’ birthplace. •
