Q&A: Andreas Meinrad, BetVictor CEO

To say BetVictor has been going through a period of change over the past couple of years would be something of an understatement. The exit of chairman and co-owner Victor Chandler in May 2014, along with chief executive Michael Carlton, saw Michael Tabor take full control of the business.

A six-month recruitment process followed as Tabor looked to find the right man to succeed Carlton, a process which, to some raised eyebrows, resulted in the arrival of former bwin.party man Andreas Meinrad.

Upon taking the role, BetVictor was viewed by many to have an over-complicated management structure and Meinrad wasted no time in simplifying the framework and making a number of his own senior hires, while others left the business.

Recent additions include head of casino and poker Emma Tompkins, who previously worked for some of the biggest brands in the industry including bwin.party and 888, while former Gala Coral and 32Red staffer Kris Marshall joined as head of BI and analytics.

Speaking to eGaming Review after clocking up his first year in charge, Meinrad says these changes have led to “improved lines of communication and performance management” which have subsequently resulted in the operator posting results ahead of expectations. The firm certainly feels like one on the up.

eGaming Review (EGR): You’ve just completed your first year in charge at BetVictor – have you managed to change the company in any way during that period?

Andreas Meinrad (AM): We are clearly more focussed, more results orientated and I’m delighted how we are executing the clear plans we set ourselves. Everyone is now pulling in the same direction and what is even more encouraging is that we have outperformed our aggressive revenue and profit targets.

EGR: Has anything about the challenge surprised you?

AM: The UK is our core market and its ultra-aggressive nature meant we had to put extra efforts into meeting our growth targets. What was very much easier was the way the business took me on board, embraced our new strategies and was able to overachieve against our aggressive targets.

EGR: A number of people have left the business while others have arrived – is the restructuring now complete?

AM: Yes we are almost complete. The new appointments complement our existing senior management team and bring with them a number of skills we identified as being essential as we look to grow the business to the next level.

Changing a company culture takes time but we have built on existing strengths while becoming more open, more results orientated. We now have well-defined company values and improved lines of communication and performance management that will allow us to accelerate the development of our own people.

EGR: You’ve overhauled the marketing team and installed a more data-led approach. Can you offer more detail on the strategy?

AM: We have increased our marketing spend across all channels but there is a shift in emphasis away from TV towards digital marketing. The development of our customer insight teams will improve ROI; we have introduced a new real-time customer marketing team with responsibility for content, social and CRM to improve customer management and are investing heavily in new CRM tools which will help drive conversion, retention and cross-sell.

One of the roles of the customer insight team is to deliver the data to enable us to provide the customer with a personalised betting experience; communications must be relevant and this data-led approach has changed the way we communicate with customers. Our expectation is that by giving the customer a betting experience that meets their individual needs we will substantially grow customer value.

EGR: Sportsbook is often criticised for a lack of innovation but this year we have seen PokerStars’ BetStars release Spin & Bet and Betfair launch Acca Edge. What is your general view on these products and innovation in the industry?

AM: We are in a product commodity industry; everyone is trying to capture the attention of customers and users. We need to be clear just exactly what the customer really wants from us. Innovation is good but it is often too complex; we want to keep it simple.

We are increasing the number of sports and markets we offer cash out around, we are introducing our own partial cash out and developing other innovations such as Lengthen The Odds and our football Price Promise which we have planned to launch on 1 February. Our Price Promise message is simple; the customer looking for value and insurance from his football acca need not look any further. Simple As.

EGR: Your above the line message appears to have changed with a more measured, sober approach than previously. What’s the thinking behind this?

AM: We identified the industry is saturated with companies offering cheap promotions in what we have constantly referred to as “the race to the bottom of the barrel”.

Betting is not only about demographics but about attitude too. We are focussing on what the sports bettor really wants and cutting through the noise by offering customers the best value and a great overall betting experience through simple messages.

The full Andreas Meinrad interview can be found in the lastest issue (no.142) of EGR magazine.