SIS makes digital push in face of retail decline

SIS is looking to reinvent itself as a leading service provider to the online industry as it aims to diversify its product range and build upon its declining but profitable retail-led business, the supplier’s CEO Gary Smith (pictured) told eGaming Review.

Smith, who took over as chief executive shortly after joining the company in 2012, said the decision to change SIS’s strategic direction was based “purely on business economics” with its core retail business coming under increasing pressure.

“The retail market has been a successful one for SIS but it currently has a lot of uncertainty surrounding it, more now than ever before,” Smith said.

“And any business that is fundamentally dependent on one product into one well defined market space is vulnerable – so it makes good business sense to diversify,” he added.

Smith admitted SIS should have made its digital push “three or even five years earlier” but said the firm had instead decided to invest in an unsuccessful and since discontinued outside broadcasting service, which included producing coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games.

The change of direction, according to Smith, is likely to see the firm rebrand in the near future in order to reflect its new business.

“We are rapidly approaching the point where we may have to rebrand as we are SIS – Satellite Information Services – and we increasingly have less to do with satellite,” he said.

Smith highlighted a steady decline in horseracing and greyhound revenues as a major concern and noted that while SIS didn’t offer FOBT services, any regulatory restrictions imposed on the machines could lessen the number of shops available to sell its products into.

According to Smith, this uncertainty prompted the firm to adopt a new business model which for the past three years has seen it develop a range of new products which he feels will see the firm make up ground on rivals in the online environment.

Last year SIS signed an exclusive partnership with the Spanish football league, enabling the firm to record and sell real-time data to online betting companies.

Smith said the official nature of the deal fitted with SIS’s reputation as being “reliable and trusted” and was currently working with the Spanish league to eradicate the number of unlicensed scouts selling unofficial data, which if successful would give SIS a strong position in the market.

Securing exclusive rights deals is a strategy Smith said could be replicated across other leagues and sports with governing bodies “increasing looking to ring-fence the value of their rights and monetise them”.

The firm has also launched a new streaming service which enables customers to be more selective over which sports and events they stream, while it has developed a mobile streaming platform focused on speed rather than quality of picture, which Smith said was essential for in-play betting.

And last week, eGR revealed SIS had launched a new trading division, led by former Ladbrokes in-play head Adam Conway, as it looks to become a “one-stop shop” for online businesses.