Playtech CEO eyes William Hill Online-style turnaround for Snaitech

Playtech will use William Hill Online’s digital transformation as a blueprint for the supplier giant’s newly-acquired Snaitech business, according to CEO Mor Weizer.

The London-listed firm yesterday announced it had purchased a 70.6% stake in the Italian operator for €846m in a play to bolster its B2C portfolio and expand its reach into regulated markets.

“At one point in the process I had déjà vu because I was there when we did the William Hill Online transaction and it all looked and felt exactly the same,” Weizer told EGR.

“We see similarities because there is an under developed digital arm within Snaitech and a business which is very fragmented- its customer support doesn’t even have a VIP function.

“The business has a number of different systems, it has six different wallets for customers and we believe we can do a lot for Snaitech by contributing a lot of our experience.

“We will tackle each and every dimension of the business, including digitalisation and changing the entire infrastructure over time by replacing Snaitech’s sports system, both in retail and online.”

Snaitech is one of the biggest retail betting companies in Italy but Weizer believes there is enormous scope for online and digital growth if Playtech can introduce a single omni-channel wallet for Italian punters, similar to the Coral Connect card.

Weizer is hoping to ignite Snaitech’s transformation from sleeping giant to online powerhouse by tackling every individual element of Fabio Schiavolin’s Italian betting business, from betting machine software to CRM strategy.

“We want a single point of view and a single point of reference in a one vision infrastructure for the customer, so no longer six wallets, but one wallet, connected to the same infrastructure where our data analysis software can harness our marketing and CRM tools that are best in market and have worked so well with similar businesses like William Hill and Ladbrokes Coral.

“We are going to tackle every aspect, from technology and infrastructure to user experience and marketing,” he added.

Safer in Europe

Playtech developed a shortlist of operators with acquisition potential in several key regulated European markets, including the UK, after the tech giant experienced regulatory headwinds in Asia towards the end of 2017, which significantly affected the firm’s share price.

Weizer said Playtech plumped for Italy to protect its well-embedded UK relationships and for Snaitech specifically because growth potential in the Italian online betting market is significantly stronger than in the saturated UK market.

“We looked at different regulated markets in Europe and elsewhere but outside of Europe is not as stable or mature or developed, so the environment is too risky for us,” said Weizer.

“We considered the UK but we have a very extensive set of arrangements and relationships and partners there and we wanted to ensure that those would remain intact.

“The UK is no longer growing at the same pace as in earlier years- its mid to high single digits and many of our partners exceed that, but it’s still nowhere near what we see in Italy- a market that is underpenetrated, fragmented and primed for growth at an inflexion point.

“It is an unsophisticated, underdeveloped and underpenetrated market from a digital perspective, made evident by the numbers where only 7% of betting activity in Italy is digital- in the UK it is 41%.”

Playtech has acquired a business which last year returned a profit for the first time in 10 years as CEO Schiavolin earmarked online growth as a key priority for 2018.

It was a combination of his digitalisation strategy and SNAI’s 2015 merger with Cogetech that sparked FY17 net profit levels of €27m, and Weizer was keen to compliment Snaitech’s management team.

Snaitech CEO Fabio Schiavolin

“The working relationship I have with Fabio is amazing and I treat him as a partner of mine,” Weizer told EGR.

“He is one of the most talented people I have come across in our industry, and not only in Italy as his knowledge of the international gambling market is unparalleled.

“I have known Fabio for 12 years and we always used to joke that one day we will work together because we have always thought in the same way.

“Both of us are very excited by this transaction,” he added.