SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Earlier this year, Gamingtec set itself an ambitious goal of making significant headway in the B2C sector, which doesn’t come without its own set of challenges.
Heading up Gamingtec’s B2C division is Alberto Alfieri (pictured), who will lead the way for the company’s expansion into additional European markets.
Discussing plans for his new role, Alfieri looked back upon childhood lessons learned from his father which he hopes will help him establish an internal culture of continuous research for excellence and satisfaction.
Aims for the new role
“At Gamingtec, we are very close to launching a new exciting locally regulated brand in Europe and will share more news soon,” he said. “We want to be acknowledged by our clients and by the industry for the quality of our products and for the attention to the entertainment service. I also would like to do this while creating and developing an internal culture of continuous research for excellence and satisfaction.
“As in any service industry, when you work to offer something to someone else, I believe that aiming at excellence is the way to win any challenge and achieve all goals. As my father used to tell me when I was a kid, never settle for mediocrity.”
Overcoming challenges
Over the last few months, the gaming industry has dealt with a series of challenges when it comes to limiting the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and increased regulatory activity across the more mature markets. But as the world begins to try to restore a sense of normality, Gamingtec is bracing itself to deal with the longer term impact that COVID-19 has had.
Overcoming these issues, according to Alfieri, requires ‘healthy’ relationships with clients and continual communication between regulators and other operators coupled with the right diversification of products.
He continued: “The latest and biggest challenge is the Coronavirus. The global hiatus on all sport activities for a few months could happen again. And while the online activity in other sectors (media entertainment like Netflix or ecommerce like Amazon) saw an increase in usage and engagement, the online gambling and the sport betting in particular suffered a drastic drop in terms of revenues, while costs were the same as pre-pandemic levels.
“We need to learn how to cope with any similar occurrences in the future and I believe the answer is aiming at offering an always wider range of entertainment options. From specific games to new verticals, which has been particularly evident with esports that has seen increased engagement from users with no previous contact with these sorts of games.
“Another challenge we are seeing is terms of regulation and advertising. I am of the opinion that advertising must be regulated, especially when it comes to protection of under age and problem gamblers.
“Since the sector demonstrated some lack of discipline in certain countries, what has happened is intervention from the authorities. But what happened in Italy, UK, Sweden and more recently to Spain is that regulators made hasty decisions to impose a full ban on advertising, sponsorships and harsh limitations on gaming, which has had a negative effect on the whole of the industry.
“Our sector is already highly regulated, therefore legal and transparent, and should not be penalised when it comes to advertising and marketing. It seems incoherent to say the least, that operators pay license costs and taxes but cannot advertise their activity like any other legal and tax paying business.”
Motivations for joining Gamingtec
Leading Gamingtec, Alfieri will draw upon a wealth of experience in the iGaming industry, having amassed over 12 years in the sector from a range of different operators.
“I joined the iGaming industry about 12 years ago,” Alfieri continued.”I consider myself lucky enough to have had a wide range of experiences, spanning from bet365 to Mr Green, and from Redbet to Bet.pt.
“In the last five years I have held C-Level positions for operators active in Europe and Latin America with both .com and locally regulated markets. I am convinced there is a high compatibility between the ambitions of Gamingtec and mine.”
Discussing his previous experience in the industry and the decisions which led him to join Gamingtec, Alfieri highlighted the ‘very dynamic yet stable technology’ as a motivating factor for joining the company.
He explained: “One of the biggest issues that operators, including the ones I have worked for, have to face when they begin is that they need to use turnkey solutions for their platform. If things go well, after a couple of years the operator is in a completely different situation and the turnkey solution is no longer adequate to the business needs. At that point, a custom-tailored solution is what an operator needs.
“At Gamingtec, thanks to a very agile framework, we can easily implement, adapt and scale our technology for any type of market, including the most complex regulated jurisdictions.
“We have a very dynamic yet stable technology with no legacy, which we can benefit from for our B2C projects and therefore avoid all that painful path that new operators usually go through. This was definitely a key factor for my decision.
“The modern vision and approach to technology of Gamingtec, together with the ambition of entering regulated markets, with all the challenges that this may bring, was the cherry on the cake since there is no fun if there is no challenge for me.”
Gamingtec’s technology, Alfieri says, gives the company a competitive edge when it comes to product, entertainment and expansion across Europe and additional global markets.
He concluded: “Entering a European regulated market with our own B2C project is already a challenge per se, since gambling is a very mature sector in our continent and finding space in the market is always more difficult.
“But thanks to our technology I believe we will have an advantage and we will be able to achieve our objectives, which by the way are not limited to Europe.
“In more general terms the main challenges will be related to product and how to entertain the public, since life and cultures are changing, due to events and also natural shifts in generations. Thankfully, at Gamingtec we also have a good series of creative assets and I am sure we will contribute to the industry in a positive way.”
