With Betting On Sports less than four weeks away, SBC continues catching up with the event sponsors as we sat down with Keith O’Loughlin, SVP Sportsbook and Platforms at SG Digital.
He talked SBC through on one of Scientific Games’ showcases as well as reiterating his excitement at moderating a CEO panel discussion.
What are you looking forward to at Betting on Sports?
I’m really looking forward to moderating the CEO panel discussion on “What is the future for sports betting.” We’ve got some quality speakers involved from a variety of operators and am keen to explore how they envisage the sector evolving in the coming months, whether it’s through product innovation or further M&A activity.
Betting on Sports is also the perfect platform to find out how innovation is shaping the future of betting, and I’m interested to see how others have been creative to improve the landscape.
What are you promoting at Betting on Sports?
Betting on Sports presents us with another opportunity to showcase our OpenSports proposition, which was unveiled earlier this year. The launch of this new offering marked the evolution of our sports betting offering, allowing partners to pick and choose the right products to meet their specific needs.
Our modular portfolio now consists of:
- OpenBet™ – The world-renowned sports betting engine which has a proven track record for its robustness and scalability.
- OpenPlatform – Full player account management, including promotions, responsible gaming, wallet, as well as full payment and authentication mechanisms.
- OpenTrade – Powered by Don Best, the service provides full risk and liability management, pricing services and trading tools across the full range of U.S. sports and more.
- OpenEngage – Offering full turnkey front-end user interface solutions for the first time, across mobile, web and retail.
- OpenAccelerate – Delivering experienced, daily sportsbook operations, including marketing, product differentiation and trading, enabling operators to drive revenues and gain market share.
What industry innovation will capture the most attention in 2019?
Personalisation – it’s an area of sports betting that is constantly being reviewed and improved, with suppliers such as Scientific Games identifying new ways to enhance the user experience. As technology advances, we’ll be able to sharpen the way in which traditional bettors and sports fan can wager on sporting events, making it more relatable and easier to understand.
Particularly as the U.S. market evolves, the personalized UX will become increasingly important as competition grows and user expectations change. That’s why more operators are following the examples of digital giants like Amazon, Netflix and Spotify, by introducing new features such as recommended and popular bets, as well as highlighting the latest sports trends.
Which sports betting operator has impressed you the most in 2019?
We’ve really enjoyed working alongside our long-term partner Caesars Entertainment and launching the operator’s sportsbook offering across multiple U.S. states. It’s been great to see their customers become really engaged with sports betting since launching, whether it’s through the retail betting solutions or the mobile apps we have provided them.
Caesars were also the first to go live with our new Match HQ scoreboards feature, which gives bettors access to real-time data in order to help them make informed betting decisions. The data, displayed succinctly in a scoreboard widget, includes current score, play-by-play animations, commentary, and in-play team and player statistics.
What sports betting partnership has stood out in the past 12 months?
The content partnership between Caesars and ESPN that was announced earlier this year is intriguing and represents a general shift into how operators and media companies will work together in the U.S. sports betting market going forward.
If you could attend one sporting event, what would it be?
I have always wanted to go to the Masters at Augusta. It has magic about it. (Or follow a stage of the Tour de France in a team car!)
Which parts of the conference agenda have caught your eye?
As you’d expect, there are plenty of panel discussions taking place that will look at the current state of play regarding the U.S. sports betting market, and they’re sure to be of interest. Last year’s event provided some great insight into how the U.S. market would differ from the European environment that we’re all familiar with, and I expect there will be some interesting debates as to how sports betting will evolve stateside.
#boscon, held 17-20 September at Olympia London, is the world’s leading sports betting industry event, with this year’s conference set to boast 300 leading industry speakers across 50 sessions, with 120 exhibitors displaying their latest products.
Delegates will be treated to world-class hospitality with plenty of business and networking opportunities at some of London’s most iconic venues including the Natural History Museum. For more information about the event, please visit the Betting on Sports website.
