Interview with Mark Blandford, Founder, Sporting Bet

What can you say about Betting on Sports 2018?

For me, it’s a must-attend event.  Sports betting in the wider online gambling industry is a huge segment these days and it just continues to grow.  Both in terms of volume per country and with further countries regulating.  There’s also a lot of product development going on in the industry, a lot of technological advancement as well and everything in here under one roof and they’ve got a great stream of panels going the whole time.  For me, it’s a must-attend.

How important is it for everybody in the industry to be involved in an event like this?

Well, I think if you’re not here, quite frankly, you’re missing out.  Because there is so much happening, you need to see suppliers, you need to even sometimes, glean a little bit of information from the panels, from competitors.  But I find that the quality of the speakers on the panels to be very good and it’s surprising how much real valuable information they do give.  For anybody who’s in the industry or researching the industry, you’d be missing out not to be here.

Why is the Sports Betting Hall of Fame such an important event?

Well, I think it’s nice to recognise people who’ve given a lot to the industry.  In fact, I was lucky enough to be honoured in the first lot and to me, it was quite humbling because obviously, the people who are deciding this are your peers.  So, it’s both very humbling and it’s a great privilege to get an award like that.  I know others feel the same and quite frankly, it’s fantastic that somebody’s doing it.

What do you think about the opportunities that are currently presenting themselves in the US market?

Well, of course it’s exciting times.  It’s going to keep rolling on.  Obviously, the way in which the regulation is going to occur with PASPA having been repealed and with states opting in on a state by state basis to regulate sports betting, I think the minimum timeframe we’re looking at before all the states that are likely to regulate come onstream is five years.  Towards the backend of that timeframe, some of the bigger states like California.  It’s not only an exciting time now.  It’s a market which has the potential based on the estimate of market size, to be the largest regulated gambling market in the world bar none.  Anyone in this industry has got to be taking the US opportunity seriously. 

How much are you looking forward to Betting on Sports America 2019?

I think it’s going to be huge.  There’s already a huge amount of interest and I cut across this industry in a number of segments of the industry who are seeing a lot of interest from the US.  Taking a show like this, over to the states, I think you’re going to see a huge attendance and I think there’ll also be the potential for an awful lot of business to be done between the European suppliers and the American operators as well.