Dimitris Konstantakopoulos of INTRALOT, talks to eGR about the rapidly shifting sports betting industry

Sports betting business is going through a series of changes, driven by technology advancements, an increasingly competitive environment and most importantly the formation of government regulated, licensed markets. Until recently, dot.com operators swarmed the global market in an uncontrollable environment based on white label business models and quantity prioritising solutions, whose customisation was limited to offering sports content in the local language. However, successful operation in regulated jurisdictions requires a market specific product strategy which can adapt to the local legal frameworks, comply with responsible gaming and positively affect all customer segments.

This newly shaped regulatory environment has presented operators with a number of challenges, not necessarily tackled with the widely popular white label solutions. Legal related boundaries and various taxation schemes result in different targeted profit margin per jurisdiction, while various sports content and player limitations define customised offering and risk management strategies. Furthermore, multiple levels of internet penetration and sports betting maturity call for a variety of sales attraction techniques and different levels of competition – from intense to non-existent – play a key role in all aspects of the everyday betting operations. All the above have created the need for each jurisdiction to be handled separately, contrary to the industry’s common practice.

INTRALOT’s trading model is flexible enough to adapt to any specific environment, while operating under several different partnership schemes, including fully managed trading services and mixed models with clear responsibility frontiers. Each jurisdiction’s regulatory parameters, betting trends, competition status and all other particularities are taken into account to apply tailor made services in order to maximise profitability under the specific profit margin and ensure operational excellence. Serving customers in multiple countries, covering four continents, INTRALOT’s trading stays fully operational 24/7 throughout the year. Trading is operating in such a way as to fulfil all necessary certifications and remain cost effective, while fully covering all required trading services. The traffic of transactions is constantly high because of the different time zones of our jurisdictions, demanding a rotation of traders of equal experience at all times. Moreover, the variety of popular sports in each jurisdiction calls for extensive cross-sports knowledge, country specific content and risk management techniques per sport, irrespective of the local HQ time zone.

Top quality services are applicable to the result settlement and pricing process, areas to which we give top priority. While using several sources to receive initial resulting info, our trading department safeguards accurate and fast settlement following always the four eyes policy. This process eliminates the chance of wrong result settlement and the subsequent frustration of the customers ensuring a top quality service. The same amount of attention is given on accurate pricing. In-house experts compile odds based on match information and global benchmarking; then they localise the product according to different targeted margins and expected betting patterns.

In general and irrespectively of the nature of the project, our experience in managed trading services has shown that customer satisfaction is of utmost importance for running a successful business. Providing a customised, market-specific strategic approach under a multi-operation trading department, has proven to be our unique advantage which we consider the key step towards maximising the potential of each market and staying a marquee player in the sports betting world.

Bio: Dimitris Konstantakopoulos is the head of trading in the Betting Department of Products and Services Division at INTRALOT. He has almost 12 years of experience within the company and has previously held various trading related positions within the Betting Department.