interview

Betbazar: Catered content key for tier-one operators

betbazar, igaming, marketplace

Online betting operators have multiple competing demands: satisfying existing customers, acquiring new ones, expanding into new territories and catering to different audiences to name a few.

Today’s modern entertainment expectations mean that betting operators not only need to have exciting and engaging content, but it also needs to be tailored to the specifics of your audiences across jurisdictions.

This poses a challenge for operators, especially when entering new markets, writes Max Sevostianov, chief operating officer at Betbazar. This is where product flexibility comes in handy.

For tier-one operators who are entering new jurisdictions, there is a level of balancing and complexity required to succeed. Not only will the operator be engaging with a new set of regulatory requirements, but they must also account for the preferences of their new and future customers – what works in Eastern Europe may not work in South America, for example.

This is especially the case when it comes to product and content. Particularly if you are one of several large operators in a market, if you are all offering the same kind of product, the lack of differentiation leaves your customers wondering why they should choose you, and in turn, acquisition costs go up.

Side-stepping the CPA arms race

Rather than solely relying on bonus or promotion-driven acquisition, leveraging a flexible product with catered content that satisfies customer preferences, operators can create and maintain a competitive edge. Genuinely engaging content and managing a learn operations capability are two key parts of the puzzle for starting strong upon market entry and deepening your market penetration over time.

It should come as no surprise that by reflecting local tastes and cultural preferences in the content you offer, you put your business in a stronger position than simply importing your product and content over and expecting success. There are some ‘must haves’ that are the top drawcard in almost every part of the world – like football – but it also comes down to how you present that content in a way that meets your customers at their level.

Brazil is a great example of this. It is a market that all operators are trying to get into, and are experimenting to find the right approach. Football is obviously the most popular in Brazil so you need the best football content, and the lottery comes in second, with esports content also proving to be an engaging and profitable vertical for operators who are investing.

As an operator, not only having this content available but using customer engagement and behaviour data to then shape how you do your marketing is essential. In this way, you can engage with current and potential customers at a local level, building on local trends.

Harnessing the strength of marketplace suppliers

As a B2B product marketplace, Betbazar’s main premise is ‘how can we best help operators?’ This translates to how we as a supplier assess which products or services are available through our marketplace, the partners and content providers we choose to work with, and how content fits the needs of our clients.

We communicate with different providers to find best-in-class products, dig deep into the intricacies and specifics of the content, assess the technology powering it, analyse how engagement and retention are measured and gauge bettor interest in the the content where it’s already deployed elsewhere.

A deep understanding of audience behaviour is an essential criterion for selecting partners and products for our marketplace. Esports is one particular vertical where there is strong interest from operators, but much of the onus of innovation and product market fit is on suppliers.

At Betbazar we’ve invested heavily in understanding the needs of individual operators and the markets they operate in, so we can best calculate how we can help and the best product solution for a given jurisdiction. This is invaluable work that can be done for tier-one operators who have multiple and varying content needs.

Having these products available for operators is, however, only half of the equation. Those products also need to be integrated into an existing environment.

Simple integrations for large, complex environments

Tier-one operators undoubtedly have large technical environments with roadmaps planned out for the next 12 or more months. As a supplier, if you have a complex product that’s difficult to integrate, this can introduce a host of challenges and problems for the large technical teams at tier-one operators who are managing multiple, competing needs.

By building a dedicated data feed solution, operators can benefit from the whole range of sportsbook and esports content options on the Betbazar marketplace – all through one integration.

The Betbazar data feed was built with technical excellence, adaptability and comprehensive coverage as its core ethos, with a simple integration that provides real-time accurate data across a wide range of events, which operators can pick and choose with ease.

We’re always seeking out new potential products based on operator feedback, so we can provide additional value for sports and esports content with high-speed data, catered, localised content for each jurisdiction an operator is in, and engaging, high-value content that uplifts a sportsbook’s whole system.

As markets such as Brazil and the US continue to expand at a rapid pace, so too will the content, engagement and entertainment expectations of bettors. The past several years have proven that a one-size-fits-all approach to a product won’t inherently make you a market leader in a new jurisdiction, and will inevitably drive up your acquisition costs.

The true way to stay ahead of the game and build a competitive edge is through rich, localised content that genuinely speaks to the preferences and interests of a given market. For tier-one operators, seeking out a product with flexibility, adaptability and simplicity of integration is the missing puzzle piece to giving bettors the content and engagement they want, while establishing your offering as the market leader.

Max Sevostianov is the chief operating officer at Betbazar, a leading iGaming marketplace, offering the best iGaming Solutions to accelerate growth to betting operators. Max is a true industry expert, with more than 20 years of sales and business development experience under his belt. As COO of Betbazar, Max is responsible for identifying new business opportunities and building lasting relationships with partners across the globe.