SkyBet aims high in UK after NewsCorp-BSkyB merger cancellation
MD tells eGaming Review operator would have looked closer at international markets if deal had gone ahead
SkyBet would have invested in a number of international markets if the News Corporation-BSkyB merger had not been shelved earlier this year, according to its long serving managing director Richard Flint.
In an interview due to be published in the forthcoming January 2012 issue of eGaming Review magazine, the former Flutter.com product director, said that following pressure on News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch to cancel his bid for his remaining stake in Sky in a backlash to the News of the World phone hacking scandal, the 250-employee business has re-focused its efforts on doubling its current 6% market share of Sky Sports bettors in the next five years.
“If the merger had gone through we would have been part of a global media company and that would have increased our international focus. But we’re firmly focused on our core UK market, as we always have been, and would only look at other markets if we aligned ourselves with local media brands,” said Flint.
The decade long serving Sky employee admitted to have been in discussions with various unknown parties and that the Italian and German markets were the most appealing and most in line with the business’s own principals. “For us to enter any market it has to be properly regulated and have a sensible tax rate. Italy is the most appealing and Germany can become appealing in the future,” he added.
Expected future changes in the UK’s taxation and licensing laws, however concern Flint, particularly if the outcome becomes uncompetitive to existing UK-licensed operators such as SkyBet and others including Bet365 and favours offshore sites.
In numbers seen by eGaming Review under NDA as part of eGR Power 50 2011, SkyBet, that is owned, but that has a separate P&L to its mother company Sky, has seen its topline figures double in the last three years. As a result the operator climbed 10 places to number 12 in our list.
The biggest riser has been its casino brand Sky Vegas with amounts wagered in the last financial year climbing by more than 40% in the last 12 months alone, however Flint’s principal goal is to double the operator’s current 6% market share of Sky Sports customers.
“Sports betting still has a huge amount of growth left,” said Flint, “and while we know our customer very well and believe the experience is unmatched for leisure bettors, we will invest a higher proportion in product, technology and marketing to achieve our target. Website functionality is the key.
“We want more than 10% market share of Sky Sports online betting customers and the default brand that Sky Sports customers bet with to be SkyBet.”
In the last year Flint has introduced a new loyalty programme in order to increase the integration between Sky Television and SkyBet customers with players able to exchange points won from betting and gaming activities for discounts on their monthly Sky bills.
Mobile has also been a great product for the newly Leeds-based company with a third of SkyBet’s sportsbook revenues now generated from the channel, up from 10% last year.
For the full interview make sure you read the January 2012 issue of eGaming Review out and online at the end of December.