SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Acquiring Rekatochklart was a ‘natural step’ towards Better Collective becoming the leading sports betting media group in Sweden according to Casper Lind Jensen (pictured below), Head of Better Collective Stockholm.
For this month’s Better Collective Spotlight, Lind Jensen explained how adding the Rekatochklart brand to its portfolio can help create a better product for punters, while also allowing the Danish affiliate to capitalise on the long-term growth of the Swedish market.
SBC: Firstly, can you tell us why Rekatochklart.com is the perfect fit for the Better Collective group?
CLJ: Rekatochklart was founded in 2008 and today is a leading sports betting media brand in Sweden. The platform provides users with daily betting tips from well-known tipsters, gives users the ability to track their own betting performance with the product “Spelboken” and lastly has the forum “Klotterplanket” where users discuss betting tips and other betting related topics supporting other members of the community to place knowledge-supported tips.
In light of this, and with its strong market position and community of players, the acquisition supplements our Swedish brand portfolio greatly.
SBC: This year, we have a jam-packed sports calendar – including events like the rescheduled EURO 2020 and the Olympics. How will the acquisition of Rekatochklart.com help Better Collective tap into new audiences of bettors?
CLJ: Rekatochklart.com has a pool of really loyal users and we will use this as a foundation to further develop the products offering.
The offering of betting tips is already good and we want to not only improve it by thinking of new, creative ways to reach the bettors but also how we present the content to them – e.g. taking more advantage of social media platforms.
SBC: How will this latest acquisition help to strengthen Better Collective’s position within the Swedish market?
CLJ: We want to be the leading sports betting media group in Sweden and in light of this, this acquisition was a natural step for us.
With the previous acquisition in Sweden in 2018, we got some really strong organic products added to our portfolio, e.g. the sports betting media brand Speltips.se. The acquisition of Rekatochklart.com now gives us another well-established brand in the market that we can further develop – firstly for the users so they get an even better product, but also for our partners that will get closer to the sports betting customers in Sweden.
SBC: Sweden has been under the spotlight after the government announced a series of new restrictions due to the COVID pandemic. How have these regulations changed the landscape for affiliates?
CLJ: Studies show that the channelisation rate in Sweden is decreasing which is an issue from several angles – especially when it comes to protecting the Swedish customers. Unfortunately, we can also see that Swedish users increasingly are searching for operators without bonus restrictions and weekly deposit limits outside the licensed system.
Generally, we welcome regulation of markets as it provides for sustainable growth of the market, more predictability and a larger consumer protection. However, the numbers presented in these reports represent a negative trend which is an issue when looking at the objective with the re-regulation to ensure that players play within the regulated system.
What we can do as affiliates is to offer products and services that support the users to choose to place their bets with operators that have a Swedish license.
SBC: Looking to the future, what does the future hold for companies such as Better Collective? Can we expect an even stronger presence in Sweden?
CLJ: We believe in the long-term growth of the market and are pleased to have added Rekatochklart.com to our Group securing us an even stronger position in Sweden.
