The world’s most popular sport is proving a highly effective promotional opportunity for Kaizen Gaming as it looks to grow in multiple markets around the world. In Issue 31 of SBC Leaders magazine, the Betano owner’s CCO Julio Iglesias Hernando explains how the brand became football’s favorite bookmaker.
In a revealing interview, he details the importance of football, technology and branding to one of the betting and gaming industry’s most ambitious expansion plans.
“Our vision is called 26-26. Operating in 26 countries by 2026,” he explains.
“For us, organic growth is the name of the game in the foreseeable future. We will be pretty busy getting to the 26 mark in the next two years.
“LatAm is a key region for us, Europe too. Then we launched in Africa and North America, so we will see what’s coming out of there. We are testing, trying new things, learning.”
The Betano logo is a familiar sight to football supporters as it features on the shirts of numerous clubs, and fans can expect to see more of it this summer. Having made history by becoming a partner of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the brand is a sponsor of both Euro 24 and the Copa América 2024.
Describing the background to those partnerships, Hernando identifies operating in regulated markets as the key to being taken seriously by football’s governing bodies.
“That means that when you go to talk to internationally prestigious institutions, you are well-researched, you are well-accepted, you are understood,” he says. “And when they are looking for partners to do ground-breaking deals, they don’t want the skeletons in the closet. In this case, we have been going through extended due diligence with these companies.
“You need to ensure that you are getting a deal that works for you, works for them, and reassure them that you are marching towards the same direction, that you are the right partner to build the future of the sport with. This is also a reassurance that we’re doing things the right way. Because when you go to FIFA, UEFA and CONMEBOL, you don’t just tell your story, but you show them what you’ve done.”
Elsewhere in the magazine, SBC Leaders readers will hear from Stake.com’s CMO Akhil Sarin about the crypto-first operator’s F1 team, from Betfred’s Head of Digital Compliance Norma Campbell about the bookmaker’s Positive Play campaign and from Jackpocket Founder Peter Sullivan about the deal that saw his company acquired by DraftKings.
There is also a real focus on the world of igaming, ahead of this week’s CasinoBeats Summit conference in Malta. In addition to interviews with Casumo COO Tim De Borle, Livespins COO Michael Pedersen and a feature examining the impact of AI on operators’ human resources team, there is an in-depth look at the cannibalization debate that is currently taking center stage in the U.S.
For all this and much more, you can read Issue 31 of SBC Leaders here or pick up a copy at CasinoBeats Summit, which takes place at the InterContinental Hotel in Malta on May 21-23.
