Q: It may sound ironic but come 2019 the iGaming industry is still lagging behind other entertainment industries regarding the impact that its technology has on player experience. Why?

Alessandro Fried: Technologies are the foundation of any type of gaming operation. Many established organisations in the gaming industry came to light a substantial number of years ago, and nowadays they find themselves in a position where they are operating in a market that is driven by totally different criteria from the one that characterised their initial years of operation.

Thus in the immediate future they have to take important decisions, or risk losing their current market position. It is largely a matter of fact that those larger more established bookmakers which have based their operations on legacy technology are nowadays finding themselves constrained by this kind of technology which is not only unflexible, but also inappropriate for todays’ vastly complex and constantly evolving technological generation.

Q: Why the need to change the approach and drift from legacy technology to more flexible solutions developed by tech visionaries?

Alessandro Fried: As our latest Industry Report “Uberizing iGaming with a glocal approach”demonstratesThe factors which drive the market are changing, and the market itself is continuously adjusting to a new reality. The prospect of developing an in-house betting or gaming platform would dishearten any operator, let alone smaller ones or those more focused on the retail channel with little or no knowledge on the online. The cost is elevated, success is not guaranteed, and in most cases operators do not possess the knowledge to back such decision. However, the advent of the new generation platforms from third-party providers has changed this perspective, and highly advanced yet accessible technology is not considered anymore as a chimera. Smaller operators who may have until now limited or focused their activities on the retail channel, now see a shift towards the online as a natural development which is within their reach.

Q: You have always been a strong advocate of the uberizationof the iGaming industry…

Alessandro Fried:In a context where the player is becoming ever more exigent, the industry has in recent times awarded those operators who are nimble enough to identify an opportunity, develop the technology and successfully incorporate this innovation to their platforms in the shortest span of time. And under this aspect legacy technology is not only very complex to upgrade, but also requires a lengthy and costly process.

The uberization process, through the committment and achievement of the industry’s tech visionaries is constantly pushing the boundaries as we know them today. Only such an aggressive development curve could permit the the industry to close the gap to other entertainment sectors – such as Google and Netflix –  put the end-customer at the core of the operations and thus be in a position to truly deliver an outstanding and unique player experience.

Q: And what is BtoBet doing in this respect?

Alessandro Fried: Our main aim is to seal partnerships with individual operators. However, the market consists also of those smaller operators who do not have the knowledge to operate and diversify their business model from the retail to the online medium. During the past months we have launched the first real uberization model of the iGaming industry, the White Label Partnership Program.

Thanks to the WLP Program nowadays smaller operators or startups are in a position to gain access to the most advanced technology on the market no matter the size of their operations or market targeted, with all aspects of their activities being effectively outsourced.

This program is an important step forward for the industry, which makes a simplified turnkey version of the company’s advanced iGaming technologies available to a wider scenario of operators on a world-wide scale with the added advantage that they can rely on the local expertise and know-how of our network of regional Certified Partners, and benefitting from the high level of service of BtoBet’s Certified Partners which is overseen by BtoBet itself.