Interviews

Exclusive Q&A w/ Atlas-IAC CEO Sergei Efimenko

Published

2 years ago

January 25, 2023

George Miller

Exclusive Q&A w/ Atlas-IAC CEO Sergei Efimenko

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Just a few weeks till ICE London 2023, what are you looking forward to at the year’s defining industry show?

As you say, all roads and flight routes, at least to start to year, now converge on the ExCeL Centre in London for ICE in early February. We can’t wait to set up shop at this must-attend event, and unpack our latest plans and progressive product portfolio at Stand S1-120. Needless to say, it’s a timely tradeshow which invariably sets the tone for the remainder of the year. The Atlas-IAC team will be on site, walking the floors to greet old friends and meet new clients all week. As ever, it should be a lot of fun, but also a hugely informative summit at a time when the industry needs to put its combined minds and shoulders to the wheel to confront and navigate some pressing headwinds.

As such, ICE London represents a consequential think-tank as to how the industry can best provide operators and bettors with engaging, innovative betting experiences across some tent-pole, revenue-driving events this year. Add to that some excellent networking opportunities with senior peers to debate many of the most topical and pressing issues from panels and talks to the bar and tables of the Atlas stand. Whatever’s on your mind: looming recession and the cost of living crisis, affordability checks, player profiling, the unfolding scene across the Americas or Africa, regulation closer to home, player engagement, retention strategy, acquisition and bonusing alternatives – it’s always helpful and often illuminating 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 and overcome the headwinds.

Atlas seems to be making some great strides in emerging markets of late. Is that your exclusive focus and what’s coming next?

Ultimately, Atlas offers the sector’s most scalable, flexible, and efficient sports betting and gaming platform. If that makes us the go-to platform for emerging markets, like LatAm and Africa (where we’ve done some excellent recent work and are just about to announce another deal with a Pan-African powerhouse) then so be it! But we plan on gaining traction across established, mature and new-regulating markets over time with our highly modular and agile solutions. Driven by live data, Atlas’ highly automated software helps traders focus on value-added risk management decisions and eliminates the manual labour required to run most legacy systems, which you see more of in mature markets, as the result of entrenched deals. In time, those deals will end or evolve as more and more customers come to realise and value the provision of flexible and modular solutions to support any customer’s bespoke operational strategy. On top of which, the Atlas CRM System also offers a fully automated marketing solution that allows operators to manage all of their marketing and communication activities with your customers from one place. These efficiencies of cost and scalability will win out over time, no matter where you set your scene on the global stage.

What are the unique challenges in Africa?

Quick or immediate access to funds, from deposit to withdrawals, is vital to making your brand the preferred wallet of any customer. That’s a universal truth, not restricted to Africa. Instead, Africa differs in that more nuanced payment systems are required than in more developed countries, and the customer trust in any operator really hinges on their capacity to payout in timely fashion. Especially because customers heavily favour the BetBuilder / accumulator model of small-stakes-big-win scenarios. You have to localise your payment methods in many cases country-by-country in a patchwork assembly of needs across Africa which isn’t too dissimilar to what you’re seeing state-by-state in the US. That calls for unparalleled agility if you want to service Pan-African multiplicity as Atlas is already doing.

In essence, though, as with South America, you have to localise on Customer Support too. That’s one area where automation can’t currently help you too much. African players want to speak to a human, fluent in their native language and preferably dialect. And the User Experience of your site has to be familiar, so you can’t reinvent the wheel for UX if you want to take on the leaders in any given territory. Ultimately, and again like LatAm (where the sleeping giant of sports betting in Brazil is soon to spring to life) Africa is a football-mad emerging market that is rich with possibilities and presents us with opportunities to build on our international expansion. As we continue to grow Atlas’ incredibly modular B2B software division, deals like this highlight how our breakout proprietary technology is fit for purpose in emerging markets all over the world.

You’re big on automation. But is machine learning genuinely a thing in sports betting? Are we still light years behind other tech-driven industries and if so how do you see us catching up?

I’m happy to say, though, that even our sector, which has traditionally been glacial in adopting the advances in tech of other industries, has made huge strides in the past 18 months – and happier still to relate that Atlas’ innovation in this area has us at the forefront of disruption in what has historically been a copycat space, too often tied to cautious thinking or legacy systems.

Machine-learning is increasingly introducing generalizable tools that can adapt and improve their own programmatic code, giving operators the edge on the competition and a deep understanding of their customers. For instance, there’s an old saying in trading that the further ahead of an event you bet, the shrewder you are likely to be as a punter. Needless to say, that’s a generalization with many exceptions, but it does explain why operators relax their limits closer to the start time of any event (when most unknowns are known) so it’s harder to steal an advantage. That said, the latest AI tech can probabilistically drill down on these “tells” (e.g. time/size of the bet, location, gender) across the board and effectively profile your customer within a few trades. It’s a similar story with marketing and trading tools. Bonus abusers get weeded out, high rollers who got lucky early on get accommodated. You get the idea.

After all, we are creatures of habit. Whereas AI is simply a bigger-brained animal. As the trading algorithms kick in, the client-specific marketing strategy must inevitably follow, paving the way to a truly personalised experience for the punter. For any operator, the dream is to know their consumers from log-in. With Atlas’s unique AI-powered platform and its accompanying tools, that dream is now a palpable reality. After all, personalisation in the sports betting industry is a word that has been used for a long time but has never become a reality. Now it’s our ambition to steward the industry’s evolution towards delivering personalised player experiences.

Does the trading desk still have in the future?

Yes. However, its role will necessarily change in step with the ground it concedes to automation. Essentially, though, its position as the nerve centre of a trading operation need not alter that much. It can still prove the assembly point of all these progressive feeds: advanced pricing, accurate modeling, scoring data, team and player updates, the weight of money, even opinion. Corralling all these inputs and distilling precise answers for risk management and trading strategies remains the challenge – whether a human being is at the controls, or merely overseeing the machine-learning equipment. Indeed, fresh services can sometimes emerge unexpectedly out of lightning progress. Verifiable tracking is one such new test for the trading desk, but it’s also given it a new job as an integrity tool. Think of the data specialists or the sensitive market-models that now sit behind the tennis tours to guard against match-fixing – or at least flag it. Refining these tools and counting out the vagaries of human misdeeds and misinformation is the task for the brightest minds allied to the finest AI systems.

Why and how is well-placed in this domain of expertise?

We provide our own MTA (Managed Trading Service) and strongly believe in its advantages over any competitor, be they established or challenger. Our highly experienced trading team are backed up by a powerful and configurable Trading Platform which takes into account thousands of factors and data-points across sport, event, market, time (and much more) to deliver the best MTS available. Our in-depth MTS algorithms and associated tools are then cross-referenced with the data/profile of each user to ensure that we are serving the most appropriate odds at any given time. Not only can we set different pricing strategies per competition/event, we can also fully customise individual sportsbook instances to highlight/order key competitions and events all from the same back office system. Automation of our evolving algorithms constitutes the cornerstone of our MTS but we also understand a partner may desire anything from total outsourcing of management (cue our “risk free sportsbook” solution, already popular in emerging markets, where we underwrite any downside) to specific elements of control over the sportsbook. We seamlessly achieve this versatility with event/market odds and limits configurable per partner from our back office.

How about marketing and CRM – can AI tools be as effective in this domain?

The Atlas CRM System offers a fully automated marketing solution that allows operators to manage all of their marketing and communication activities with your customers from one place. As for Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM), our rules-based flows help create specific personalised communications with marketing targeted based on customer profiling and segmentation. Customers can be grouped into profiled segments based on site activity, betting behaviour, deposit regularity

and a host of additional characteristics. Typically suspected fraudulent users (arbitragers) and bonus abusers are grouped at one end of the spectrum and VIP users on the other. The Atlas-IAC platform allows for a different customer segmentation number to be assigned for each specific product vertical as well as an overall rating for each customer. Bespoke customer segmentation rules can be implemented for each client.

The heart of every CRM platform is the ability to drive the desired behaviour from individual consumers. This is done with a campaign management tool that allows our licensees to target specific customer segments with bespoke promotions. Unlike most sports betting services where one- size-fits-all campaigns are offered to the entire customer base, Atlas’ advanced marketing campaign tool helps to maximise ROI on marketing investment by allowing for pinpoint accuracy to deliver generous promotional offers to the good quality customers while ensuring lesser-value clients do not receive offers that they could abuse.

Can you succinctly break down Atlas’ areas of provision and their integration?

Sure. Firstly, the Atlas Seamless API is a service for existing gambling operators who need to bolster their product range to increase business performance. Whether you need a Sportsbook, Casino, Live Casino, Virtual sports or any other product, with one simple integration we can provide any product into your existing platform. Once integrated, an operator has full control over the look and feel of each product. Each product comes with a multifunctional back office, with an intuitive customisation module and CMS. One seamless API integration allows an operator to take advantage of all of the functionality within the Atlas CMS such as our powerful risk management and CRM tools.

As for our Atlas CRM System, it’s a fully automated marketing solution that allows you to manage all of your marketing and communication activities with your customers from one place. Rules based flows helps create specific personalised communication with each client, identify and trigger client group communication, boost the numbers of a campaign through powerful tools for in-depth marketing analysis, predict a campaign’s performance, and modify a campaign on the fly.

Its key features include real-time data collection and real-time triggered activities; unique content-creating tool for template management across any communication channel; client segmentation tool with myriad fine-grained triggers for client identification and grouping; messaging hub across all popular means of messaging and social channels

And finally, there’s our aforementioned risk management tools. These make up a wide-ranging toolbox for fully automated identification and restriction of fraudulent customers, and responsible management of your good customers. You no longer need to employ a huge team of risk analysts to weed out the “sharp” or “at-risk” customers. As an operator, all you need to do is create your own policies and rules, setup and manage categories and criteria in the constructor. The rule-flow powered engine analyses the client’s activities, and categorizes them for you. Core components include in-depth analytics which are mounted on over 200 triggers to manage client groups. Its two operational models are based on AML-scoring or trigger-based scoring and ably backed up by dedicated 24/7 support and training.

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Interviews

Exclusive Q&A w/ Radek Pšurný, CEO at Match Hype

Published

1 day ago

November 14, 2024

George Miller

Exclusive Q&A w/ Radek Pšurný, CEO at Match Hype

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Match Hype has just won two industry competitions. Talk us through your product.

Match Hype brings engagement from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram into the sportsbook. Our technology automatically turns raw sports data into short videos full of sports and betting insights. We have the capacity to create up to a million videos daily in more than 30 languages. We also provide hosting and streaming of the videos, and we track everything in the video thanks to our own player. The high level of video experience and the scale make us unique in the market, and we believe that this innovation is extremely needed in the industry—and the judges in the competitions probably agree with us.

What technologies are you leveraging to deliver such a cutting-edge tool/product?

We have more than six years’ experience in developing dynamic video solutions for clients like Microsoft, HBO, and SAP, and a decade in high-end video production for similarly well-known clients. Match Hype is the essence of this. We have developed our own robust cloud infrastructure that enables us to work on a huge scale. We can also leverage the integration of third-party solutions that help us make the video content rich and engaging. The AI boom came at the right time to help us make the experience for the viewer even better.

Who is Match Hype aimed at?

We focus mostly on sportsbook operators, where we think we can bring the biggest value. But we also have clients on the affiliate and media side. Our “competition” at the moment are creative professionals who are able to create one video at a time. To cover hundreds or thousands of events daily, you need huge manpower. With Match Hype, you don’t need that—it’s all automated. Anybody who appreciates this level of efficiency will benefit.

The end users are any sports fans who enjoy engaging videos. So basically everybody.

Has this industry been slow to embrace video content and unlock the potential it offers? If so, why?

It’s hard for us to talk about the whole industry, as we haven’t been part of it for that long. But iGaming feels like a conservative industry where only truly meaningful innovations make it. Fingers crossed for Match Hype being one of them. We are confident because of our track record in other industries, and mostly thanks to the results of our dynamic videos that are already used by significant igaming industry players.

What makes video content so effective at customer acquisition? How can Match Hype be used in this regard?

People just love video content. In the last review, TikTok said that the average user spends around 90 minutes a day on their platform. Platforms like Spotify used to be music and podcasts only; now they are full of videos. You just can’t ignore that. Video killed the radio star, and a static sportsbook is next to die.

And what about retention? How can it be used to keep players engaged and coming back for more?

Imagine that a 30-second video gives you the exact insights to help you make a betting decision without spending dozens of minutes on different resources to gather all the information. People don’t want to read anymore. This is probably an even bigger strength of Match Hype than user acquisition.

What can we expect from Match Hype in the coming months?

We will establish Match Hype as an industry standard for dynamic video content. We’ll bring many more sports like tennis, basketball horse racing and. We are preparing real-time video use cases—for example, half-time updates in football—and new distribution channels like integration directly into streams. The potential is huge. Stay tuned.

Any final thoughts?

For the last year, we have talked with literally hundreds of iGaming experts, investors, and executives. Almost every one of them sees fan engagement as a huge topic in the upcoming months and years. And video will definitely play a key part in it.

Video says more than a thousand words. Give it a go—watch one of our 30-second videos and see for yourself.

Affiliate Industry

Flying high: How RavenTrack is helping operators unlock the true potential of their affiliate programs

Published

3 days ago

November 12, 2024

George Miller

Flying high: How RavenTrack is helping operators unlock the true potential of their affiliate programs

Reading Time: 3 minutes

We sit down with Adam Rowley, Managing Director at RavenTrack, to understand why data, tracking and optimisation are key to a successful affiliate program

Your tagline is “win at performance marketing”. Tell us more about how you help operators maximise their partnerships with affiliates.

It is indeed. RavenTrack is a powerful affiliate tracking solution that allows operators to track, optimise and grow through their affiliate programs. Our proprietary solution offers an advanced affiliate tracking platform built by iGaming experts – this ensures it meets the unique demands of the industry, including the need to withstand the pace and complexity of affiliate marketing in the online sports betting and casino space. RavenTrack has also been designed to be flexible and customisable so that it can be adapted to individual client requirements. This combination of qualities has seen us become the go-to affiliate software tracking provider for more than 150 brands across the world, brands that are winning at performance marketing with the support of RavenTrack.

Why is tracking so important to the ultimate success of an affiliate program?

Tracking is the glue that holds marketing and sales together in the online arena. But effective tracking requires a platform that delivers reliability, accuracy and a seamless UX so that users can easily dig into the data and generate valuable insights. Speed and reliability are crucial so that operators don’t miss a single click or conversion. To track data effectively, operators (and their affiliate partners) need tools such as pixel and postback capabilities and geo-targeting. The former allows affiliates to track customer activity in real time which helps them maximise the revenue of the brands they work with. When it comes to intelligent geo-tracking, it allows users to identify and aim to funnel traffic through specific locations.

But tracking is just one part of the process and success of an affiliate program– online sportsbook and casino operators must be able to take the data they have tracked and use it to optimise campaigns, both internally and those being run by their affiliate partners.

What does optimisation look like? How does RavenTrack help its customers do this?

Traffic source provides a lot of spoke for optimisation, especially when it comes to things like which affiliate is performing best, changes to traffic, ROI and conversion rate optimisation. With RavenTrack, operators have the insight they need to do this. They can also give their affiliates access to data via their own internal reporting systems – this is done via our two-way API – to help determine which campaigns and creatives are delivering the best results. Operators also need to optimise the commercial agreements they have in place with their affiliate partners, and this means being able to offer them a range of options including CPA, revenue share, CPL, CPM and hybrid.

As operators – and their affiliates – get more experienced at using data and tracking, they will want to customise reports to a pretty granular level so that they can optimise to a much deeper and greater extent. Customisable reports (we have more than 20 reports available), marketplace and dashboards are just a few of the tools we provide to help operators and affiliates optimise campaigns and work to the commercials that deliver for both parties.

And how does all of this come together to help both operators and affiliates scale at pace?

Our fixed-cost model means operators can create as many campaigns for their brands as they like without the worry of additional costs. This in turn makes growing their program pretty straightforward. With a long list of commission structures available (which can be customised by the client) for their affiliate partners, operators can ensure the growth of the program is reflected in the growth of the wider business, ultimately allowing them to maximise profitability from affiliate marketing activity while at the same time ensuring their partners are fairly compensated for the quality traffic they send.

Migrating to a new affiliate tracking platform can cause major upheaval. How do you help operators through the process?

We know that moving to a new platform can be a big decision and a significant undertaking, but we have plenty of options to make it a seamless process from start to finish. This includes working with the affiliate program team to run their old and new program side by side to ensure there is absolutely no drop-off in traffic or lost data. Our UK-based account and customer support team is always on hand to assist during the migration process, and once operators are up and running with RavenTrack – this includes helping them get the most out of our platform and tools.

RavenTrack has only been around for a handful of years but has already achieved great things. What can we expect in the months ahead?

We hit the market in 2018 and haven’t looked back. Today, we work with 150 brands, processing more than one billion clicks per month and £2billion in deposits to date. The operators using RavenTrack to run their affiliate programs have generated more than £500 million in revenue and counting. Our numbers speak for themselves and no matter the size of brand or affiliate program, our solution is the key to unlocking the true potential of affiliate marketing. As for the months ahead, expect more platform updates, new tools and some big-name partnership announcements.

Africa

SmartSoft’s expertise and future vision for the African market

Published

3 weeks ago

October 23, 2024

George Miller

SmartSoft’s expertise and future vision for the African market

Reading Time: 4 minutes

In recent years, the online gaming landscape has witnessed a surge in innovative and engaging titles that capture the interest of players worldwide. Among these, first ever flying crash game by SmartSoft – JetX emerged as a standout game, particularly gaining substantial traction in Africa. This article provides an in-depth examination of JetX, a popular online crash game, and explores the expertise behind its creation. By focusing on the game’s features, the developer SmartSoft Gaming, and insights from an interview with the Vice President Commercial, we aim to highlight the factors contributing to JetX’s success and its impact on the gaming industry.

About SmartSoft Gaming

Founded in Georgia in 2015 by industry experts, SmartSoft set out to create a one-of-a-kind casino games provider that offers high-quality gaming experiences worldwide. By combining interactive features with captivating visuals, we blend gaming and gambling to deliver more engaging, entertaining, and superior experiences. Our mission is not just to attract players but to enhance their enjoyment.

To gain further insights into the development of JetX and the vision behind its creation, we spoke with the Vice President Commercial of SmartSoft.

Rusa Javakhishvili Vice President Commercial of SmartSoft shared insights and analytics from African countries, and outlined future plans. Rusa joined SmartSoft two years ago as Head of Finance and Strategic Projects. In early 2024, she transitioned to the commercial side as Head of Account Management, and is now Vice President of Commercials, overseeing several regions, including Africa.

What was the general concept and inspiration behind JetX?
In recent years, the online gaming landscape has witnessed a surge in innovative and engaging titles that capture the interest of players worldwide. Among these, JetX has emerged as a standout game, particularly gaining substantial traction in Africa. The main concept of the game is that it is easy to play, the player is involved in the decision as much as possible, it is fast and within the fast-paced world we think that it delivers exactly what players need for an enjoyable experience.

How does JetX differentiate itself from other crash games in the market?

At SmartSoft, we appreciate our relationships with partners, it’s very important to us. We constantly think and work to create a valuable product and maintain strong connections with them. SmartSoft’s portfolio includes a diverse range of online casino games, each designed to offer unique features and interactive gameplay but JetX is the literal gem!

JetX is an online crash game that combines simplicity with excitement, offering players an engaging betting experience. This dynamic gameplay requires both luck and strategy, appealing to a broad audience seeking quick, high-stakes action. JetX stands out due to its user-friendly interface, real-time gameplay, and mobile compatibility, making it accessible and enjoyable for players on the go. Its growing popularity in Africa can be attributed to its exciting gameplay mechanics and the potential for significant winnings.

What strategies did you employ to ensure JetX appeals to a diverse audience, particularly in Africa?

When we expanded into the African market, we knew it’s a big and diverse region, so it’s important to understand each country individually instead of seeing it as one market. With our partners’ help, we’re working hard to learn about each country’s marketing practices and what types of games people enjoy. It’s a challenging task, but the African market is a top priority for us, and we’ve allocated resources to quickly build our knowledge in this area.

How has JetX been received by African players compared to other regions? Are there any notable differences in player behavior or preferences?

The African market is one of the most interesting and significant for us, and we believe it has great potential. It is a highly dynamic and exciting market, where players are exposed to a wide variety of games. Their enthusiasm for diverse content gives us inspiration and motivation to create games specifically tailored to their unique preferences and needs. Moreover, they are quick to engage with new releases, eagerly embracing fresh content when it aligns with their tastes and expectations. Although Crash products were introduced only recently, they have quickly become a favorite among consumers. We expect this trend to continue growing.

How do you assess player feedback and incorporate it into ongoing game improvements?
This is a crucial aspect for us. That’s why, in collaboration with our partners, we consistently review key feedback on our games and strive to incorporate it as much as possible into new versions. We strive to bring enjoyment in everything we do – whether it’s in our work environment, or for the end users. Our goal is to delight both the customers and ourselves with our work. Therefore, we integrate gaming’s fun elements into gambling to maximize enjoyment. This approach fuels our drive to innovate and create playful experiences, redefining the gambling industry and making it more entertaining;

What future developments or updates can players expect for JetX?
Our product has undergone numerous changes since its inception, with many more improvements planned. These changes are aimed at delivering the best possible user experience for players while ensuring the product remains of the highest technical quality.

How has the success of JetX influenced SmartSoft’s approach to game development?
JetX, the first Crash game created in 2018, holds a special place as one of the company’s most beloved titles. Its global popularity is evident, and we’re thrilled that players enjoy it. At SmartSoft, having a diversified portfolio is crucial, which is why we release new games every year. As pioneers in the Crash genre, we ensure that we continually expand our offerings. Our goal is to provide players with a wide range of high-quality games they can trust to deliver an enjoyable experience.