Betsson reschedules US sportsbook launch for Q1 2022
Operator to use Colorado unveiling as “showcase” for future operator partners but will keep marketing to a minimum
Betsson is intending to launch the long-awaited version of its US sportsbook by the first quarter of 2022.
The reveal caps a two-year development process, which kicked up a notch during an “intensive period” in Q3, in which the firm focused on fulfilling regulatory requirements and shoring up its platform technology.
More than 120 employees are working exclusively on the US sportsbook roll-out process.
“From a customer perspective, several preparations have been made to ensure that Betsson has an attractive product for the US market and development of so-called native apps for the market is one example,” Betsson said.
A central pivot of this process has been the integration of the US sportsbook onto the Strive platform, which has now completed.
Next on the agenda is a testing and certification phase, which is expected to take up to four months to complete before the company’s US B2C sportsbook formally launches in 2022.
Betsson began discussions with B2B partners in the US in 2019, kicking off its preparations a year later with the announcement of the Colorado launch in June 2020.
Over the remaining months of 2020, the firm carried out extensive research on the B2B market, as well as assessing compliance requirements before triggering the first phase of development in November of 2020.
The Colorado sportsbook was originally supposed to launch in Q1 of 2021 but the process has been beset by delays.
Betsson’s strategy in the US will see the firm launch a B2C sportsbook in Colorado with local partner the Dostal Alley Casino before offering Betsson’s proprietary sportsbook as a B2B solution to operators in other states.
Discussing this strategy during Betsson’s Q3 financial results webcast, CEO Pontus Lindwall said: “As we start this consumer launch process in the state of Colorado, that is where we will mainly concentrate our marketing investments.
“We will start off from zero and build upwards. We don’t plan a huge launch campaign that will have a huge impact on the group’s P&L.
“We have to remember the purpose of our launch in Colorado is to serve as a showcase for the sportsbook that we will sell to other operators in the US,” Lindwall added.
The operator’s US push was cited by Betsson’s board of directors as a key reason to reverse their decision to controversially end Lindwall’s tenure as CEO.
Lindwall suggested he was surprised by the board’s decision to terminate his leadership but was now “very happy” his future at the firm was assured.
At a wider group level, Betsson reported a 3% year-on-year revenue rise for Q3 2021 to €173.4m.