SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
In this week’s second ICE 2015 feature interview, Team SBC talks to SBTech CEO Itai Zak about creating and developing multi-content/ multi-product services for the igaming and sports betting sectors.
An online gaming industry veteran, Zak previously served as an executive vice president of eGaming products at Spiral Solutions and as the general manager and executive vice president of eGaming products at Spin3, the mobile division of Microgaming. Zak gives insight on delivering quality products in a competitive and more demanding field, and what key factors suppliers and clients have to consider in 2015
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SBC: What new product features, capabilities and mechanisms will the SBTECH team be displaying at ICE 2015?
Itai: On the product side we will present a new set of tablet and touch screen offering – SBTech Touch. This will include a new line of products designed specifically for tablet and touch screen terminals and new generation of our HTML5 smartphone application with much more customizations, personalization and improved user experience with a unified user experience and single sign on across all gaming products and all channels.
SBTech will also reveal its new turnkey gaming platform – Chamleon360 which is designed to provide a comprehensive single gaming management console for online operators and to provide them with the best and most efficient tools to manage their gaming operation.
On the sport side, we will reveal a significant upgrade to the sport product with an improved live betting offering, much more bet types across different sport. New innovation fast market bet types which allow players to bet on certain events during the game and see their bet settled in minutes
On the capabilities side we will show the way we do trading & risk management and how it can significantly benefit every operator, we will also show our B2C marketing capabilities and how they can fit operators that qualify to our managed services package
SBC: SBTECH runs a multi-content / product service for igaming and sports betting, this can be no easy task! Can you give SBC & ICE readers further details on how your team develops and innovates for multiple product services and offerings?
Itai: The idea here is to have all content fit into any vertical in a way users can easily browse through it and find their bet with as less clicks as needed as well as have a unified experience with similar functionality over all verticals, players can find their preferred betting experience anywhere with adjustments to best fit the specific device without hurting the experience or their preferences
We have invested a lot of time in creating a common wallet system which provides players with a seamless and intuitive user experience and single sign on across multiple gaming products from multiple providers and across all channels: web, mobile, tablets and terminals. In addition, we invested a lot in developing the right back office supporting systems which will allow the operators to manage their gaming platform in the most efficient way and introduce innovative promotions and campaigns.
Naturally web would present the ultimate experience but operators and players would be surprised to lean mobile and tablet are not far at all and present great and sometimes even better experience
SBC: What new services and product demands are your clients requesting? What customer trends/needs do you feel are your clients are trying to address?
Itai: Product direction is strongly towards mobile still with the focus of user experience enhancement on the way of making mobile the main vertical for any player, strong live betting offering and user experience, seamless user flow across sports and casino, great tablet application and true multi vertical experience is where the chase is targeted at, SBTech is ahead of the competition in all related fronts with big investment further ahead to implement our vision of mobile betting and gaming experience
Operators demand premium and high quality content so in addition to a great sportsbook product we also provide our operators with a premium casino, games and virtual sport content from industry leading providers such as: Microgaming, Net Entertainment and many others.
Services we offer and had always strong demand is our trading and risk management package, this is a true money maker because its ability to save costs and grow revenue so the benefit is clear and our proven results speak for themselves, a new service we have launched and currently sees strong demand is our marketing services package, our dedicated B2C marketing operation that have brought outstanding results for our biggest clients in the last 3 years, the team have true capabilities of generating value to any size and type of operator on the acquisition, retention and content ends, clients that have unique advantage in a specific market and wants a professional marketing team to make the most of it should be highly interesting in this cost effective solution
SBC: How should B2B platform developers look to work with B2C customers in order to ensure long term business and growth. What are key factors in igaming partnership?
Itai: B2B platforms should focus on providing the platform and tools for its B2C clients to build a business and grow it over time, we at SBTech carefully choose the partners we know we can generate true value for, every business is different and we want to be able to give the right focus and attention to strengthen our partners product and offering with the key specifics for their target market, audience and operational structure, this is the only way to create true partnerships
We are building join product roadmap with our leading operators in order to ensure that we are focusing on developing the right tools and functionality that will help them to perform better
SBC: SBTech will be displaying at ICE 2015. What key dialogue, context and agenda should drive industry discussion in 2015?
Itai: I hope the following is considered and discussed as key industry criteria
- Regulation is one of the most important elements that must be on the agenda of every operator and service provider. As a leading provider SBTech is putting a huge focus on regulated markets. We make sure our software meet the high standard of relevant regulators and we are focusing on expanding our presence in various regulated markets. The new tax in the UK will shape the industry and will force operators to look for innovative ways to increase their profit and reduce their costs. This is where SBTech is coming into the picture with a state of the art turnkey offering which provides operators with means to reduce their costs dramatically and offer a premium product.
- Mobile development & innovation – Mobile is responsible for 50% of the revenues (and sometime more) for major operators but still most of the mobile applications are not providing a real differentiation. Players are spending more time on their mobile and tablet than on their PCs. Operators must invest much more in creating an appealing mobile offering for smartphones and tablets and across HTML5 and native channels, including proper players’ messaging and communication tools. This is another area where SBTech is ahead of competition and introduce a new and innovative line of mobile products – SBTech Touch
- In play – In play is responsible for 70% and more of the operators turnover. Operator cant afford themselves to have mediocre in play offering which is not offering an ultimate coverage of events and bet types. SBTech is highly regarded for its in play offering which power more than 18,000 monthly live matches and provides more than 200 different bet types per match including several unique and innovative ones.
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Itai Zak CEO SBTech
