compliance

BtoBet’s Alessandro Fried: Tackling the compliance conundrum for European operators

The concept of a tournament hosted by multiple countries across Europe bodes well for the sports betting industry, writes BtoBet Chairman Alessandro Fried. However, bookmakers are facing significant challenges, primarily in terms of compliance. 

Compliance was a key focus in our recent industry report ‘The Euro 2020 Challenge: Retaining your market share’, as well as the unique opportunity to increase market share across the continent.

The evolving nature of technology has been met with the introduction of various rules and regulations governing the sector, especially from a payment gateway and responsible data usage point of view, with local governing bodies keen to strengthen their responsible gaming policies, as well as AML and data protection procedures. 

Whilst innovation is particularly important in an environment where differentiation is key and has a direct impact on the operator’s market share, the European industry has become ever more stringent from a regulatory perspective. 

Many regulators are committed to reducing this burden, and to working with the industry for effective regulation, because uncertainty, changes and conflicting demands on iGaming operators and suppliers adds both cost and confusion to businesses, as well as the associated negative impact on profit margins.

The general consensus is that whilst the introduction of strong regulations is a move in the right direction for the whole iGaming industry – with both operators and players gaining significant benefits from a regularized scenario – the legislative frameworks implemented on a national level are becoming ever more distinct from each other, contributing to this confusion. 

In essence, the online gaming regulatory measures drafted and adopted by countries in the same region are so different from one another. This makes it harder for operators with a multi-national footprint relying on their own in-house technology to comply with all the different requirements.

BtoBet believes that meeting compliance demands can be worse for those larger operators still relying on legacy technology. The adaption of this technology to new and continuously changing regulatory requirements is no easy feat, and will ultimately translate itself in an increased time-to-market solution at a risk of losing market share. 

The lack of technological dexterity manifested in their approach has resulted in them prioritizing their efforts on those markets they could adapt to quickly depending on the regulatory framework.

Meanwhile, our report also looks on aspects how operators could differentiate themselves and improve the user experience by offering the best and most diverse product portfolio

This is especially important now there is such a big focus amongst platform providers on improving the efficiency and scalability of their own product to seamlessly expand to different markets while still meeting all the necessities required by the local frameworks.

For more insight, please download the full report HERE. 

Fried will be speaking at this week’s Betting on Sports conference. He will be joining a panel on ‘UX – revolutionising the customer journey’ as part of the second day ‘Technology in Focus’ track.

SBC News BtoBet’s Alessandro Fried: Tackling the compliance conundrum for European operators

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