US opportunities
US MARKET
THE SMART EUROPEAN OPERATORS ARE THOSE ASKING THE QUESTIONS CHARLES COHEN, IGT PLAYDIGITAL VP SPORTS BETTING, highlighted US
market opportunities for Europeans at this year’s ICE London. He also told SBC Magazine why the casinos as ‘hosts’ need to learn a new business and how all operators - for online and retail - should not be taken for a ride by a “thicket” of different suppliers
SBC: Hi Charles, thank you for talking to SBC Magazine. Just to set the scene for European operators; what are the key differences to look out for in the US? CC: The US is a completely different market, in pretty much every respect you can imagine. For starters it's not really one market, there is currently a dozen or so, soon to be 25 or 30 markets. Each one of the states is going to be run in a completely different way. The economics are different, the technology is different, the players are different, the sports are different, the root to market, marketing - everything about it is completely new. The smart European operators are those asking the questions before they jump in and get themselves into trouble. SBC: What has IGT learned so far about regulated sports betting for the US market? CC: We're fortunate because we've been in the market for about five years already given our presence in Nevada. We had our platform certified there in 2014 so we learned a huge amount
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