Betsson turns to Italy and Spain to make up for UK drawback
CEO Pontus Lindwall says the operator will never be a big player in the UK market but has high expectations on the continent
Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall has admitted the Malta-based operator will never be a big player in the UK market and is instead looking to Spain, Italy and Sweden to support growth.
Betsson announced it was scaling back operations and marketing spend in the UK last week following its full year results for 2017.
Lindwall told EGR it was not realistic for the operator should to try and take a big chunk of the relatively saturated UK market.
“The market is crowded and there are many companies that have been there for years,” he said.
“But I think by having a good service we should get the market share that we deserve out of running a proper operation.”
However, Lindwall said he is optimistic about Betsson’s performance in Italy which helped power the firm’s 15% increase in revenues for Western Europe in 2017.
“We entered ourselves with StarCasino.it many years ago and built that up over time. It has become quite a nice operation there.” Lindwall said.
Elsewhere, the firm has re-branded its Spain-facing Star Casino to the flagship Betsson brand in the belief that it has good brand value.
“I think we’re going to build up slowly by learning about the market and investing in a controlled manner to gain customers and hopefully gain market share,” Lindwall said.
The operator will also launch a local sportsbook in the Spanish market on the BetConstruct platform to speed up time to market.
Elsewhere Lindwall said he saw reregulation in Sweden as an opportunity to increase Betsson’s market share of the jurisdiction.
“Betsson is one of the strongest brands in this market and with our Swedish heritage we think we deserve and will be able to get decent share here,” he said.