The road to SBC’s Casino Beats Summit 2019 continues, and with less than three weeks to go, we caught up with event sponsor EvenBet Gaming.
We sat down with their CEO, Dmitry Starostenkov, who discussed his excitement in forming part of a panel at #CasinoBeatSummit as well as telling SBC about EvenBet Gaming’s reinvigorated poker solution.
What are you looking forward to at CasinoBeats Summit?
The inaugural Casino Beats Summit last year proved a brilliant success, and we were pleasantly surprised by the number of visitors and senior delegates in attendance. The “twin-faces” gazes of Casino Beats Summit and Betting on Sport now converge on every aspect of igaming, leaving no stone unturned in their varied and topical daily agendas, key-note speakers and panel discussions. I’ll certainly be towards the front of the queue for many of these, while I am also a participant myself on the Thursday schedule. I can only see the combined stature and success of CBS and BOS growing with each passing year.
Aside from the obvious in showcasing the rapid progress of EvenBet’s market-leading products and partnerships, the conference also provides a timely think-tank at which to discuss some of the unique opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for the industry’s top players (be they more established or up-and-comers) at the halfway point of what has been a pivotal year. I can’t wait to shine the light on the developmental gains of our technology over the past 12 months, catch up with old friends, existing partners, and network with other seasoned campaigners.
What are you promoting at CasinoBeats Summit?
The exhibition is the ideal venue for us to showcase our world-class poker solution, which has been reinvigorating the vertical for our partners this year. Its flexible integration and constant flair for innovation (particularly in the arena of mobile-first solutions) has been providing a deeper dive for player-engagement, not to mention enhancing the cross-sell purposes for operators worldwide.
Our world-class poker platform is a truly refined gaming product. As we have been developing it for almost 15 years, it now delivers a market-leading choice of games, innovative features, and is very easy to manage and integrate. EvenBet provides lifetime support and bi-weekly updates to our customers, which is another aspect that sets us apart from most companies in the industry. Ultimately, our varied and deep experience as a seasoned developer enable us to tailor exclusive features and standout games.
What industry innovation will capture the most attention in 2019?
With mobile players ramping in conjunction with smartphone accessibility, gross revenue figures are growing each year, operators are looking for better and faster ways to process deposits and withdrawals for those playing across any hand-held device. In view of which, if you’re looking for one domain of industry innovation, I’d have to say: M-commerce.
Which casino operator has impressed you the most in 2019?
With so many promising partnerships the past year, it’s really difficult to pick a winner. However, I think 9stacks, an Indian poker operator that has recently won some top industry awards acclaim for their creative and responsible marketing campaigns. Needless to say, we are closely monitoring the Indian poker market – particularly with its likely regulatory bias towards skill games such as poker and rummy – and are truly impressed by what 9stacks are doing to satisfy the needs of their customers. After all, knowing your customer has never been more important. In fact, we’ve already seen that gaming software vendors who develop or integrate these KYC and AML solutions are managing to draw a significant competitive advantage.
What casino partnership has stood out in the past 12 months?
I’d say that the recent news of 1xBet, sport betting and online casino operator, sponsoring Chelsea and Liverpool, are truly groundbreaking. That will certainly help the company grow its market share in UK and throughout the Europe. We are looking forward to see how this partnership will affect the industry, and of course we are extremely excited with such a success of the company that originated in CIS.
If you could attend one sporting event, what would it be?
As a proud Russian, I was disappointed to miss out on last summer’s World Cup 2018 in our own back yard. Say what you want about Putin – and plenty do! – but the Russian authorities ran a tight ship for football’s showpiece event. Fantastic football, a great nationwide atmosphere, packed stadiums, the home nation flying the flag for the underdog until we were cruelly knocked out on penalties by Croatia in the quarter-finals! Now add in more triumphs for infrastructure and policing: no clashes with riot forces, no public arrests for supporters and revellers, no burdensome bureaucracy, no strong arms exploiting the weak. In short, Russia opened its arms to the world and the world embraced it. It was a joy to see. At EvenBet, our suite of prominent CIS-facing operator-partners also took the chance to migrate their poker players across to sportsbook over the World Cup – and vice versa. This often arrived via our multi-poker-variant client, fostering extended user dwell time, and an engaged audience throughout a compelling tournament. Of course, that was sadly no substitute for actually being there!
Which parts of the conference agenda have caught your eye?
As ever, the panel sessions timetable is filled with experienced individuals who will provide excellent insight into current trends and challenges from within the marketplace and on a variety of pressing industry subjects. For a highlight – somewhat self-servingly! – I will be speaking about poker’s renaissance, and how best to harness it, on the Thursday after lunch (2pm; Conference Room 6).
I look forward to debating the merits alongside my fellow CEO panellists, Andrey Kuznetsov and Manuel Lopes, and highlighting exactly why this re-emerging vertical presents a huge opportunity for operators looking to expand their offering with engaging digital content whose social component is second to none. Not to mention also assessing some of the challenges that the fragmented regulatory landscape currently poses, and how poker’s powerhouse can negotiate them.
Moreover, Casino Beats Summit also offers some fantastic networking opportunities with senior peers to discuss some of the most topical and pressing issues. Whatever’s on your mind: one year on from PASPA milestone repeal stateside, regulation closer to home, player engagement, retention strategy, acquisition and bonusing alternatives, leveraging responsible marketing across social channels… it’s fantastic to trade thoughts on broad plans and specific innovations with other industry leaders, in order that we can collectively converge on the best path forward.
The CasinoBeats Summit is running alongside the wider Betting on Sports Week, which takes place from 17 – 20 September at Olympia London.
The conference boasts 75 leading industry speakers across over 25 sessions, with 30 exhibitors displaying their latest products.