SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
On the eve of next week’s Betting on Football conference at Stamford Bridge, Peter Woodfine – Business Development Director at Vermantia – says in-shop betting is changing. But he is a firm believer that retail will always be detail.
There’s been a lot of talk in the media about the death of retail, but to paraphrase Mark Twain – it’s been greatly exaggerated.
While online giants like Amazon have changed how we buy things forever, when it comes to the betting industry there will always be the four walls of a betting shop.
Customers thrive on live action, and when you put a television on the wall, you instantly cross into the world of shared entertainment, something which will never be achieved in the solitary world of online betting.
While we can be confident that these shop-goers will always relish the thrill retail can provide, this is not to say change isn’t needed. It is. The retail industry needs to adapt to survive against the competition of online. There are many ways it can, of course, both by meeting the evolving demands of the new generation of customer and by reducing the cost of operation.
For retail betting the digital experience is both a threat and an opportunity. The tech-savvy customer of the new generation is far different to their predecessor. They want the same convenient, digitised, and cashless retail experience that they are used to in other areas of life, with a user experience that is personalised to them.
If retail can provide the benefits of digital while also offering the thrill that physical betting provides, the future will certainly be bright, and more exciting than ever before.
Supplying customers with the right live pictures and data and giving them an incentive to engage with exciting live action is going to be an essential proponent of that successful retail offering. Live content is what draws them in, and the better the quality of data and content that we can provide operators with, the more engaged the customer will be.
As any of our partners will tell you, the holy trinity for customer engagement is good quality data, readily available markets, and live pictures. Content-driven technologies, like ultra-low latency have a big part tο play here too.
However, this trinity isn’t enough on its own to compete with online. Delivery needs to be around the clock, instantaneous and tailor-made for every corner of the world. We’ve created an end-to-end solution to provide for this, with a complete odds service, adaptable data feed, automated channel production platform, and the latest in broadcasting and streaming technologies.
But there’s one final piece missing from retail’s evolutionary jigsaw: the sale itself. The digitisation of retail betting needs to be a complete ecosystem, and as part of the next generation of the retail experience, the SSBT will have a key role to play.
As we already know, younger customers want their user experience to be as simple, convenient, and frictionless as possible. Our new breed of self-service solutions V-POS and FLAVOR cater for that demand by merging premium gaming content with cashless payment options.
By remodelling the player journey, our award-winning FLAVOR offers infotainment and a self-contained betting environment, while V-POS, our complete betting ecosystem, will act as a shop within a shop for businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Unlike the larger cabinet-based SSBTs, our solutions offer a compact desk top self-service with a complementary printer, integrated bank payment POS and mobile app, as well as a decoder, with which to coordinate the on-screen live action in-shop. This unique combination of retail solutions is here to unlock a cashless and cardless world full of opportunities, bundled with both card and mobile payment solutions.
The future of retail is far brighter than many think – and as the key provider of every aspect of the physical betting experience aside from the walls themselves, we’re excited to be there to meet that demand.
From our modern SSBT solutions that provide customers with the convenient, digitised and cashless retail experience to our expansive content portfolio that ranges from our ultimate live racing and sports channels, we’re here to deliver on a localised, content and data-driven future that is customised for every corner of the world.
Held from 19-22 March, Betting on Football is the only trade conference that brings together decision makers from international operators to address the recent issues and opportunities in the sports betting industry.
Stamford Bridge provides the perfect setting for 200 expert speakers across 40 sessions, including high level business and networking opportunities for key suppliers, top affiliates, sports clubs and organisations to meet with the operators.
For more information about Betting on Football, please click HERE.
