SKS365 narrows revenue mix to focus exclusively on Italian market
Sports betting operator ditches dotcom domains to consolidate Italian presence with shops and online planetwin365 brand
SKS365 has reviewed its international operations with the aim of focusing its sports betting business exclusively on the Italian market, EGR Intel has learned.
The firm was previously present in six European markets including Austria, Serbia and Malta but has chosen to cease operations outside of Italy to consolidate its base and gain market share in the country.
The plan began in July last year, while the last .com site was shut down in January.
The operator’s Serbian office will now be limited to IT, product, trading and service only, while its Malta base will include marketing and commercial functions.
Its Italy office will play host to retail, financial and legal divisions while the operator will maintain a token presence in Austria.
SKS365 have said there was a “minimal impact” on job losses as resources were re-aligned to focus on Italian business operations.
“Before we had half a marketing team sitting in Italy, half a marketing team in Malta and we had different IT functions all over the place that we’ve now centralised in Serbia,” SKS365 CCO Troy Cox told EGR.
“We get better synergies now that we’ve taken that cross section of teams and placed them all in one location.
“With respect of retail, 16 months ago we had an external company working with us in the field with our shops and we cancelled that contract.
“Instead we employed 26 people across Italy led by Luca Grisci [SKS365 director of retail strategy] in Rome, which has had a massive impact in controlling our own network, functionality and results.
“To be blunt, we weren’t getting the results we needed so immediate action was required,” Cox explained.
The SKS365 CCO highlighted German-facing Tipico as an example of where focusing exclusively on one market could pay dividends.
“Spreading our operations around Europe does not benefit us as a business, so we thought instead we would consolidate our Italian presence to be the best we can be in that market,” Cox claimed.
SKS365 has since conducted a commercial realignment of its online and retail businesses, as well as strengthening its compliance structures.
Cox suggested the alignment of online brand planetwin365 with its retail portfolio has enabled the firm to bypass some damaging impacts of Italy’s gambling advertising ban.
“Some of our competitors don’t have the retail presence across Italy so they can’t rely on retail advertising, something which we can use to our advantage and bringing our commercial footprint for retail and online together is very beneficial,” Cox claimed.
The bookmaker finished third in August’s Italian online sports betting revenue figures after beating off competition from Eurobet and Sisal to record revenue of €8.6m.
Only bet365 and Playtech-owned Snaitech generated more revenue in August.