One of the latest SBC Webinars explored the global state of play in sports betting and igaming, particularly in North America, underpinned by a comprehensive report produced by Spotlight Sports Group (SSG).
The report found that content remains the driving force of the BetTech Ecosystem, with actionable sports betting content and insights driving users into, and through, the betting funnel.
Other headline points included the growing importance of business analytics units and analytical insights to the industry, showcased by the large increase of suppliers in this subsection, and the increasing significance of fraud and ID verification services.
Following up the report was a webinar titled ‘BetTech Ecosystem 2023: The state of play in sports betting and igaming globally’, which was sponsored by SSG and featured contributions from its Managing Director Harry von Behr, Camilla Wright, Partner at Red Knot Communications, Wayne Kimmel, Managing Partner at SeventySix Capital, Robin Chhabra, CEO of Tekkorp Capital, and Eric Frank, CEO and Co-Founder of Odds on Compliance.
Frank began proceedings with a response to a question on a supposed ‘slowdown’ on the number of new states entering the legalized market, with only Ohio and Massachusetts launching their online sports betting markets so far this year.
He said: “There’s already been another 20 million US citizens in regulated markets this year, looking at Ohio and Massachusetts.
“Kentucky’s already passed legislation and is in the process of looking to regulate this year, Maine has been in process, so I still think there are states continuing.
“Obviously people are looking at some of the bigger ones that are still standing out there and wondering about those but I think there are less states now to regulate and the process will be a little more methodical, a little more political, so they may take a little more time.
“But we’re still seeing some very big momentum.”
Chhabra, meanwhile, noted the substantial audiences already in jurisdictions where markets have opened up, with 23 states operational in the US.
“Enough states are operational now to allow the operators to focus on profitability. It always takes at least a couple of years operationally to achieve profitability,” said Chhabra.
“If, for example, California opened up this year, that’s a good thing, but it will definitely throw into chaos any plans to reach profitability this year. What it will give the bigger players an opportunity to do is show the markets that these businesses are fundamentally profitable because there’s a lot of skepticism that the market isn’t profitable.
“It also allows operators to focus on products as new state launches are very resource intensive as well, so they can iron out any chinks in their operations.”
Sharing the sentiment of his fellow speakers, Kimmel was also upbeat in his assessment of the market.
“Regulated sports betting is no joke. With sports betting, we need sports. We need games. We need college games, we need pro games. So I think one of the big things that I’m looking forward to is developing more of these relationships. We’re in a really good place here in the United States.”
You can watch the full webinar by clicking here.
