Poll: Can 888's sportsbook become a market leader?
After achieving significant growth in its casino and poker verticals, we ask if 888 can breathe life into its Kambi-powered sportsbook?
After bagging a hat-trick of awards including Casino Operator and Poker Operator of the Year at last month’s eGaming Review Operator Awards, 888 now seems to have turned its attention to its previously inconspicuous sportsbook.
Last week’s launch of a new multi-channel advertising campaign, accompanied by the tagline ‘Bet You Can’, was the first public push of a sportsbook platform the operator concedes has always been viewed as an accompaniment to its other more popular verticals.
According to figures for the first six months of the year, 888’s sports betting vertical attributed 2% of the operator’s overall revenues with a 0.3% market share in the UK and CEO Brian Mattingley is targeting growth within the vertical.
In May, 888 signed a deal with Unibet’s B2C sportsbook arm Kambi Sports Solutions as a replacement for previous sports provider Blue Square.
However, with time and money directed towards the company’s three-pronged US launch in recent months, the manpower required to fully leverage its sports offering had largely been absent, until now.
“We were never that focussed on sports before which I would say acted as complimentary to our other products. It is now one of our main business avenues and we see good opportunities for growth in the future,” Itai Pazner, senior vice president and head of 888’s B2C division, told eGR.
The company hopes to gain a foothold in the growing mobile market and its recently launched sportsbook app is heavily featured in the current marketing campaign under the slogan ‘App, Tap, Bet’, while a sportsbook launch in Spain is also on the agenda.
While it has no immediate plans to challenge the dominant sportsbooks of bet365, William Hill and Paddy Power, the operator is confident it now has a sports betting product that can gain a foothold in Europe.
With this in mind, for this week’s poll we are asking readers whether 888 can make a success of its sportsbook vertical? Have your say on the right-hand side of the page.
In other news:
– Romania’s egaming laws to be overhauled
– Betfred names ex-Playtech director as online marketing chief