Strong product and a flexible approach will be critical qualities for those companies looking to gain the advantage in the event of a newly regulated betting market in the US. That view was echoed by Max Meltzer, Chief Commercial Officer of the Kambi Group, during the recent SBC Global Betting on Football event in London.
Addressing a panel dedicated to examining the potential of the US market, he used Kambi as an example of how product will be massively important going ahead. “If you were to compare us with the offshore bookmakers right now we are already especially well placed in terms of providing a competitive sportsbook. At the same time a lot of people say you have to be better than not just them, but better than the likes of Bet365 when they enter the market. And then you get others that say not only are you competing with them but you’ve also got to make sure that you have a Kambi lite version which will enable you to introduce people (to betting) in a way where perhaps they are used to betting in a certain way or haven’t yet learned to bet.”
One of the biggest things Kambi is currently trying to achieve, added Meltzer, is to ensure that the company has sufficient capability and flexibility to enable any operator to narrow down their offer as much as they want. He said: “They could take an API (application programme interface). Mr Green, for example, has a tennis app just purely for instant betting tennis which was built out of a Kambi API. If someone wanted to that in the US with, say, an NFL app covering a certain amount of games they can do that with Kambi. I think that you’re going to have to have a very strong product and a flexible solution from a supplier perspective, regardless of what happens with regulation.”