Business of Betting - Ep 217 - Sam Sadi / LiveScore Group

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hagrinBPR Review Date: 2024-08-01 08:01:36
Rating: 5.00

Notes:
4:00 - LiveScore talk starts. Livescore has been around since 1998 (one of the 1st sites I used). Gamesys acquires 2017, demerged 2019, interesting history. Launches LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet. UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Nigeria are the markets they operate in for betting.

10:30 - Were SBTech, just migrated to Kambi last week (Virgin Bet migrates very soon).

A lot of talk about how they compete with tier 1 operators while also integrating a world class media platform. Very interesting for operators, but not a ton actionable or new here.

15:00 - Explains the basic user flow - Livescore gets the user and user bets somewhere else. As they use Livescore more, can start moving their betting directly with very few clicks to Livescore platforms. "If I can summarize - it's an ecosystem play." "Ecosystem product." "Removing that fractured user experience." Jason mentions ESPNBet's failure of combining media with betting which is a good comparison.

20:55 - "Why not build your own odds engine / not use Kambi?" - Just a matter of priorities. Part of his team actually built Bwin platform.

26:00 - State of Sports Betting: Went from building best product, to in 2024 now almost seeming like a compliance company. "Very heavy regulated, not enough innovation, forced consolidation."

28:30 - Offshore Book: Predictable, but interesting comment about the German market and how the regulators and fees have forced a very high percentage of users offshore.

31:10 - Exchange talk: Both sort of think that exchanges will be what powers sportsbooks in the future. "Right now margins users pay are insane." Jason makes on interesting point here that he once Monte Carlo sim'd a 4% house edge and found operators will start to experience volatility starting around this level which would be a tough margin level to compress to for operators (interesting never heard that before).

More compliance talk that was very similar to the GLI podcast (Ep 216).