Q&A: New mybet CEO Zeno Ossko
Recently appointed chief executive discusses the firm's major overhaul of its online operation
Last month, mybet CEO Sven Ivo Brinck stepped down from the role citing personal reasons. Brinck had overseen an aggressive expansion of the firm’s digital operation after a slow start on the channel.
Brinck’s replacement, Zeno Ossko, has been at mybet for around a decade, carrying out a number of roles across the firm including consulting, business development, affiliate marketing and retail. “I’ve seen and done pretty much everything,” Ossko said. “It comes in handy.”
eGaming Review caught up with Ossko following his first full week in the new job to discuss the firm’s online outlook, the differing demands on digital and retail, and the prospects for a regulatory breakthrough in Germany.
eGaming Review (eGR): How happy are you with mybet’s position online?
Zeno Ossko (ZO): At the moment I would say the online product is around 80% of where it should be and we’re busy changing that right now. I would think we’ll have the product where it should be by the beginning of next year. We’re one of the smaller operators but we’re actually quite bullish. I really think if there’s ever been a good time for one of the smaller guys to show some strong growth and be quite aggressive towards bigger operators it is now.
eGR: In May you handed Amelco the task of overhauling your sportsbook. How has that been progressing?
ZO: So far it’s been going very well. We’re expecting to launch at the end of this year and that will be not only an overhaul of the sports betting product but the entire platform, so we will see improvements in casino as well. It’s actually quite an exciting time.
Part of the platform project is an overhaul of the entire look and feel of mybet. The next step will then be mobile. The desktop product will be finished sometime in December and then for the next year we’ll focus fully on ramping up our mobile offerings. We’ll continue to see more growth and we’ll also launch a mobile casino product, which is something we don’t have today.
eGR: Are you having to shift focus from retail to digital to succeed online?
ZO: Mybet is a company that has been around for a while but we want to become more agile again. There’s a growing interest in the UK for what is nicely called the omni-channel strategy, but that is something we have done for years. I think with some of the changes we’ve seen in technology, lots of products have become commoditised.
When we started up we had to build the entire platform from scratch ourselves, and that’s something you don’t need to do today. It’s a change within the company but it doesn’t necessarily have to do with a shift in focus from retail to online because we’ve always done both. I think the difference is that the retail product is not as demanding as digital. Our retail product has been 100% of what it needs to be for quite a while, and now we’re doing the same for online.
eGR: How optimistic are you for regulatory progress in Germany?
ZO: I find it very difficult to say. Do I see change in the next couple of months? I wouldn’t necessarily say so. It’s a bit of a back and forth. There have been some rulings and there are some things happening not on a federal level but on a case-by-case level. I think in the big picture we’ll see positive change in the coming months. The politicians have understood that they need to do something. There is pressure from the European Union. Something will happen and we see that as positive.