SBC Digital Summit Africa is underway, and we’ve been continuing to chat with our event sponsors to find out what they’re expecting from the virtual event.
Speaking to Bobby Longhurst, Chief Commercial Officer of Pronet Gaming – who are platinum sponsors and registration sponsors of the event – he discussed how COVID-19 has proved very challenging for the betting and gaming industry as a whole. However, providing a brand new UI/UX that has been designed specifically for African operators, as well as maximising flexibility and choice, Pronet Gaming continues to strengthen its position in markets across the globe.
What are you looking forward to at the SBC Digital Summit Africa?
We are proud to be both Platinum sponsors and registration sponsors of SBC Digital Summit Africa. As we have learnt from previous events held throughout this virtual era, is that SBC have definitely gone above and beyond in their pursuit of a seamless and all encompassing digital event platform which allows companies like Pronet Gaming to really showcase our products as best as we possibly can, to an unrivalled number of attendees in Africa.
The lineup of speakers is also second to none, with some very prominent attendees that will be sure to give us some further insight into the exciting and fast paced African gaming market.
What would be your biggest bit of advice for betting and gaming businesses trying to mitigate the impact of COVID-19?
Stay vigilant and be prepared. History suggests that what has happened in the last 6 months can be debilitating and a real threat to businesses who weren’t best placed to ride out this period of uncertainty. We can also see that Covid-19 is very unpredictable in its nature as the governments and powers that be find a balance between safeguarding millions of lives and keeping the industry afloat and at a minimum, functional.
Pronet Gaming learnt so many valuable lessons during the last lockdown, and we have worked tirelessly to further cement ourselves as a safe haven for operators to be flexible enough to maintain their positions and market share in their chosen markets. Both from an operational and a product perspective.
With new content providers continually being brought into the Pronet Gaming livery, we know where to focus our efforts and we are now best placed to maximise our response times to what is soon to be Covid 2.0 and any further restrictions that may be introduced.
What are you promoting at SBC Digital Summit Africa?
In the last 12 months we have been focused primarily on expanding our presence in emerging markets, Africa being the jewel in our crown. We have a brand new UI/UX that has been designed specifically for African operators, maximising flexibility and choice to effectively deliver a bespoke solution, deployed in as little as a week, further positioning our product as the market leading turnkey platform provider in emerging markets.
Not only have we designed and launched this across numerous countries in Africa in the last 12 months, we have combined it with the addition of Opera Mini Compatibility, custom jackpots and a host of other new features and player retention tools to help drive our partners revenues.
What industry innovation will capture the most attention in 2020?
Innovation can be very subjective, so I don’t think there are any right or wrong answers to this, we have been placed in a slight predicament this year with the fight against covid and survival being at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
However, I am impressed with the continual rise of esports and virtual content, and the constant upgrades to the product to a point taken a liking to computer game standard graphics.
Which operator has impressed you the most in 2020?
This may be quite an obvious answer, and one to avoid too much criticism, however bet365 I feel have really upped their game to another level, they have launched a many new features over the last few months and recently launched a new UI/UX that will surpass most on the market today.
What partnership has stood out in the past 12 months?
Rather than focus on the thousands of new partnerships we see in the industry every year, I’d have to look at the Evolution, Netent/Red Tiger merger as a huge deal. Normally we’d see a lot of sports betting providers and b2c operators joining forces to be able to power their own growth in new and existing markets, however not much is spoken about casino.
The deal to see Red Tiger absorbed into Netent for it then to be bought up by Evolution just goes to show the true formidable force the trio would become. So I’m keen to see what the future holds for Evolution and where its next prospective merger will arise on its march to becoming a behemoth.
Which parts of the conference agenda have caught your eye?
As with all the virtual events now, I am constantly surprised by the strength and depth of the industry panelists and the expertise they bring to the discussions. It is always a pleasure to listen to some of the region’s industry operators and providers alike to gain some further insight into the nuances of each of the markets across the continent.