Better Collective, the affiliate marketing specialist based in Denmark, has outlined an ambitious strategy for the US market with a reboot of its existing bettingexpert.com site and the introduction of new portals including us-bookies.com and bet-nj.com/. The company will also have a physical presence in the US in 2019.
News of the firm’s US plans, and the revenue streams being generated there, featured prominently in its Q3 trading update for the period ended September 30 2018 which revealed a 68 per cent year-on-year increase of $31.7m.
CEO Jesper Søgaard explained in the report: “In Better Collective, we have been preparing for entering the US market for quite some time and we already have US-focused products in place which generated the first revenue streams late in the quarter.
“While we do not expect organic growth to do it alone, we believe that Better Collective has a unique offering in terms of technology and know-how in order to find attractive business in this new and potentially very big market. My expectation is that we will create new business organically as well as through collaborations and acquisitions.”
Talking in more detail about the US strategy during the firm’s Q3 investor conference call, he noted: “The US market is definitely a priority for us that we continue to monitor closely. We have products available in the states that are currently open for sports betting. Since it is a new market, we are being cautious in how we approach it to ensure that we are always compliant, yet we have definitive plans to build an organisation on the ground over there during 2019.”
On the company’s American bettingexpert.com site, he added: “Even before PASPA was repealed, the USA was one of our top 5 largest traffic sources on bettingexpert.com. The traffic was never monetized due to regulation, but our users over there enjoyed the community aspect of tipping on sports. Now that we can monetize bettingexpert.com state-by-state as they regulate, we are making sure that our products are adapted to the American betting culture.
“We’ve taken extensive measures to make sure that our sites are approachable to our American users. This includes sending our product experience team on missions to the US to do research so that we can apply their findings to our products. The American betting culture is very different from ours in Europe, and we want to make sure that our users are given the best guidance possible in a language and experience that they understand.”
According to Søgaard the organic growth in the US market has so far been built on new US-focused products that have been developed within the firm’s current framework and cost base. He said: “In addition to the ‘organic approach’, we are seeking different kinds of ways to generate business in the US market, both through acquisitions and collaborations.
“In preparation, Better Collective has incorporated a legal entity in the US, Better Collective US Inc. Currently all US business is driven by a dedicated team from Better Collective in Denmark and Paris, however we expect to establish a permanent presence in the US in 2019.”