The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has fast-tracked opportunities for online and mobile betting across the US, as state legislators look for new ways to generate lost revenues and reboot their economies.
At this week’s Betting on Sports America – Digital, Anna Shahbazyan (pictured), Regional Director of South America at BetConstruct, spoke to delegates about how the enforced land-based closures have turned heads to the growing potential on the online side.
Highlighting that BetConstruct has a focus on five key states – Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Oklahoma and Washington – Shahbazyan noted that this ‘seismic shift’ towards the online sector presents a huge opportunity for those delivering new and innovative products.
“Legislators have seen what is starting to happen in the market and how online betting is starting to grow – they have realised that their legislation will not help to bring new online operators into the market,” she said.
“At BetConstruct, we think we can offer some new, innovative products for this market based on their requirements and the regulations in place.”
With social distancing measures likely to be in place for the long-term, and the further closure of land-based venues a distinct possibility, it’s now more important than ever for betting companies to adapt to what is described (sometimes excessively) as ‘the new normal’.
Expanding on how the last few months have given big-name providers such as BetConstruct a chance to produce new solutions, Shahbazyan gave one key example – iCasino.
“The big providers, including BetConstruct, are starting to evaluate the new products and the new services,” she explained. “It has given us a new perspective on the market. As a result, we’ve begun looking at iCasino.
“We have developed and implemented our new social casino product, and have already signed a very large agreement with a major operator to provide them with a social casino product which we believe will have all of the local casinos converting their players into the online space.”
Shahbazyan concluded: “We’re now starting to look at the revenue stream for sports betting, and how the online revenues are starting to grow.
“It seems to be that the land-based market has started to slow during the second wave of the pandemic, as more revenues are generated from the online market. A lot of operators and providers have therefore started to adapt their products to suit the online market.”
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