Q&A: Sky Bet MD Flint on broadening the operator's appeal
Richard Flint, managing director at Sky Betting and Gaming, discusses the firm's growth and what's next in the coming months
eGaming Review (eGR): How has Sky Bet achieved its 25% year-on-year profit growth over the past six months?
Richard Flint (RF): It’s been a continuation of the story. We’ve done well on mobile, we’ve got a good set of products across Sky Bet and Vegas and we’re also making more strides with our relationship with BSkyB and through the Football League sponsorship. This gives us a big presence outside of the Sky network but it also sets us up so we can work with our colleagues in Sky.
eGR: How has the Football League sponsorship helped the business?
RF: In terms of recognition, Google searches and brand awareness it’s really helped us. We got the deal fairly late, only a couple of weeks before the season, but it’s a five year deal and involves other parts of Sky as well. There’s more to be done but we’re really pleased with it so far.
eGR: How important is the seamless login function between Sky Bet and Vegas?
RF: [The single login] has really helped to cross-sell between Bet and Vegas. We’ve been looking at our gaming performance and, including releasing more games over the period, our focus on mobile has certainly worked. But I still think there’s more work to be done there. Mobile investment across all of our products is something we’ve done well and has driven our growth. Having a lot of those platforms in-house has set us up to improve them going forward.
eGR: Are you looking to roll this single login out across all verticals soon?
RF: That is the obvious direction to go in but we haven’t got a timescale yet. Like the rest of the industry, [bingo and Poker content] is provided by different third-parties and we’d need to work with them. But I would certainly like a seamless login across our four products.
eGR: What’s next for Sky Bet over the coming months?
RF: Ralph Topping said that William Hill was lapping up market share like “a greedy person sticking the bread in the dripping after the roast beef comes out of the oven”. While we are meant to be doing that, we are bulking up in the right places and continuing to grow our substantial market share.
We are now looking to broaden our appeal outside of our core base which is probably one of the biggest active customer bases. However, they are lower spenders, so we’re aiming to broaden our appeal and take share among the more regular gamblers. Part of that is we’ve taken our first major sponsorship at the Cheltenham Festival by sponsoring the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, and that’s a great opportunity for us to build credibility.
eGR: Are you looking to expand into new markets any time soon? What about Italy?
RF: Not really, we’ll maintain our UK and Ireland focus which matches BSkyB’s footprint. With Italy, it’s more different than people outside of Sky realise as it’s a separate company. It might have a brand name and common shareholder but that’s it. Dealing with them is like dealing with any other media company.