CCO Bobby Longhurst discusses what we’ve learned from the previous lockdown with SBC
What was the key lesson that your company learned from the shutdown of live sports earlier this year?
Staying vigilant and dynamic in our response to the loss of live sports was key for us. There was a real need to keep players engaged and playing, so being able to fill gaps by utilising the strength and depth of our offering was very important. A lot of players quickly switched to eSports, virtuals and even fantasy sports, so having a casino offering involving over 60 providers also helped as there was a real upturn in those revenues. I think we can be particularly proud of the speed with which we were able to help our partners to refocus their front-end designs to dial into these betting verticals. We remain in a ready state of alert and are focusing on maximising returns for our partners whilst we have the chance, all the while remaining proactive in our approach to what may lay ahead.
Should live sports be suspended, how can operators best prepare themselves to ensure they don’t get caught out again?
It is fundamental that we remain on 24/7 alert for any unexpected changes to the availability of live sports. We are in the hands of governments around the world, which is daunting, but we are prepared. We learnt a huge lesson about player behaviour last time which will stand us in great stead for any future suspensions. We know how to cross sell eSports, virtuals and casino. Just as importantly, we can re-order front end-designs to suit these events and verticals very quickly with over 6000 casino games and thousands of events across other available betting verticals not affected by Covid-19, we can definitely deliver on our promise to keep players engaged and satisfied. Hopefully, if governing bodies and the players follow the rules, we will continue to have live sport. We can only hope for the best but plan for the worst with our own content and its presentation, after all, suspensions are out of our hands.
