Sports Interaction 2.0 launches as gambling industry continues to embrace content
The Entain-owned operator unveiled its new digital platform overnight while Genius Sports raised the curtain this week on BetVision. Also, Rivalry opens the vault to Cash and Dash.
In this issue:
A new look for Sports Interaction
Rivalry unveils Cash and Dash
Q and A with Better Collective’s M&A director
Murray, Sulsky rejoin Gaming News Canada Show
Sports Interaction unveils a new look, and more
It’s been a good week for the “content is king” advocates in the business of sports betting.
On Tuesday morning, Genius Sports raised the curtain on its BetVision platform, which will allow NFL fans (and bettors) to watch and wager on the same app. Coming out of the gate, BetVision will be available to customers of Fanatics, Caesars and BetRivers in the U.S. of A.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, during an appearance on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast with Andrew Marchand of the New York Post and Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, covered a wide range of topics including the future of sports betting.
And, on the latest Gaming News Canada Show presented by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, FanDuel’s Conor Murray spoke about the tight relationship between the sportsbook’s traders and the editorial team at TSN with their partnership.
Yesterday, Sports Interaction bid adieu to its platform of some 20 years, and unveiled this morning its 2.0 sports betting and igaming platform.
“We want to launch the best-in-class (online) casino product, and the best-in-class sportsbook product,” Leon Thomas, Entain’s managing director for Canada, and the CEO of Sports Interaction, told Gaming News Canada yesterday. “When we bought Sports Interaction last year, the business had been in a silo as an independent business. You plug it into Entain, which has centralized product development that understands sports and casino, and can support that with data analytics.
“We’ve injected some of our product expertise, and our leading talent from Entain.”
A big piece of Entain’s SI strategy will be creating content for social media channels and video platforms, especially with regards to the National Hockey League, featuring original content from the seven Canadian markets.
“The future of media consumption is becoming more bite-sized and fractured, so pursuing a content strategy seems smart,” said Thomas. “We will have a new (product) feature that will enable people to view us whilst they’re viewing the game,” Thomas said. “Our investment in a studio that can speak with Canadian fans is something that in time will pay off for us.”
The company has created its own studio in the city below Newmarket and will host The Locker Room, a live watch party which can be viewed on the Sports Interaction website and app.
“The Locker Room will be a differentiator in the market,” said Michael Zitney, SI’s director of brand and content.
Sports Interaction has added Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl to its roster of brand ambassadors. Draisaitl joins Toronto Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner and Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger, who, in his latest ad appearance asks “Why bet your money with those American companies who don’t know (rhymes with spit) about your city?”.
Thomas said the operator will make some news around the start of the NHL regular season in the second week of October.
“We’re going to leverage some local partnerships that nobody else will have in the marketplace. We (also) have a big partnership to announce shortly.
“We’re doing a lot of exciting things, and we’re in it for the long term.”
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Rivalry’s Nogueira dishes on new Cash and Dash game
Your collegial correspondent felt a jealous pang or two as we logged off a Google Meet call with Andre Nogueira on Tuesday afternoon. Nogueira - a games industry vet who has worked for Microsoft, Hyper Hippo Entertainment, Ortiz Gaming and other companies with stops in Sao Paulo, Vancouver and Toronto, is these days the senior product manager of games at Rivalry. His job is building new games and making changes to those games while holding focus groups with young people (who aren’t his children looking for a ride to the mall) and playing with data.
The online wagering and gaming company yesterday released its latest online casino game, Cash & Dash. The game, targeted for Rivalry’s core customer base of GenZers and millennials, is a 3D game where players must infiltrate a high-security bank and avoid a series of booby-traps in order to steal the treasure and escape. C&D also features the company’s playable characters, including the popular vuvuzela-wielding man in the chicken costume (yes, that’s correct).
“We want to make use of our original IP,” Nogueira told us, referencing the characters that have been used for both product and marketing purposes. “Down the road there may be an opportunity to play with another character. The eagle is famous in the Philippines.”
Before Rivalry launched in Ontario’s regulated industry back in April 2022, the Toronto-based business was best known for its esports betting product. That began to change with the launch of its Casino.exe platform in March, and the release earlier this month of eight new games.
While Nogueira and his six-member product team continues to work on creating new games, they also are focused on continually updating the existing ones.
“That’s what motivates us. . . Cash and Dash is not a boxed game,” Nogueira said. “You want to create an experience that’s dynamic and changes every month.
“We’ll have an ice fortress in Iceland, for example, and next month we’ll take something from ancient Egypt and make that the fortress. The more demand there is for new adventures and new content, we’re going to be producing that.”
Nogueira added that in conducting focus groups with customers, ease of play and the social elements that are part of Rivalry’s esports business are priorities with people who play games.
“They want games that are easy to play, and they want simple rules. And, they don’t want another betting game pretending to be a video game. We’re making a video game that people can bet on.”
Q and A with Better Collective’s Rory Raine
Timing isn’t everything, but it sure gives one the warm and fuzzies when there’s a serendipitous moment.
Such is the case this week. The recent M&A activity by Better Collective, including the Sept. 18 announcement that the Danish-based business was acquiring Danish sports media company Tipsbladet.dk, prompted us to reach out to BC with a request to interview M&A director Rory Raine about the recent transactions and the company’s plans for our Canada.
About 24 hours after Raine’s answers to our questions landed in the inbox, this showed up on the Twitterverse from Andy MacNeil, Cabbie’s sidekick and betting expert on Sportsnet/CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts last season:
(This morning, the company announced its plan to dual list its shares on the Nasdaq Copenhagen.)
You can read below to get the gist on the ties that bind CSB and BC. Without further ado, our Q and A with Raine (and thanks to BC comms person Morten Kalum for the helping hand).
Gaming News Canada: Is Better Collective done with M&A for this year?
Rory Raine: We have been very acquisitive this year given our strategy of pursuing sports media brands to realize our vision to become the leading digital sports media group. We will be busy integrating those companies to ensure value creation but will remain agile to act on other opportunities in this area.
GNC: Is Better Collective looking at Canada as a potential M&A market, given what the company has done recently in Sweden, Denmark, Brazil and in the U.S. with the Playmaker HQ acquisition?
RR: We acquired Canada Sports Betting in 2022, prior to the regulation of sports betting in Ontario. We are focussed on acquiring leading sports media brands in local markets as well as global sports media leaders.
GNC: What's the secret sauce for the company in the integration of digital sports media and sports betting content (a hot button issue here in North America that's been more focused on television and has been, for the most part, given a failing grade so far)?
RR: Our belief is that we can actually grow the audiences of digital sports media brands by adding our expertise in SEO and product development. Our margins are generally stronger because of our scale in affiliate marketing giving us the ability to further invest in growing our products and brands.
GNC: "Content" gets thrown around the gambling industry like a toonie in a slot machine. What does content mean to Better Collective?
RR: Content is multi-faceted and very different market to market. What we have seen great success in is with digestible content, delivered quickly to our audience. We place a strong emphasis on understanding how our audience engages with our content and taking those learnings into producing even more engaging content, bringing the readers back to our platforms time-after-time. The key is to have a localised approach and tailor the content to the preferences in the local markets.
GNC: Does Better Collective see specific sports creating new opportunities for the company (i.e. hockey with the Everysport deal in Sweden)?
RR: We love sports so much because they connect cultures and generations, and all produce very engaged communities. Those types of metrics are great for advertisers and we will continue to focus on building and acquiring high-engagement, real media brands.
Sulsky, Murray join Gaming News Canada Show
The latest episode of the Gaming News Canada Show podcast presented by Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP featured conversations with two of the brightest minds in the Canadian sports betting and igaming biz on innovation, collaboration, coordination with some football and curling talk tossed in for good measure.
Conor Murray, the vice president of marketing for FanDuel, gave us some time to discuss the latest bit of product innovation in the partnership between FD and TSN. Murray also answered our questions about what’s tickling the fancy of bettors in the early weeks of the NFL regular season.
PointsBet Canada chief commercial officer Nic Sulsky returned to the show to give our listeners the lowdown on the PointsBet Canada Invitational at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex in Oakville, ON, which started yesterday. Many of the best curlers in our home and native land are competing in the March Madness-style competition, although a two-time world champion is already one and done.
This weekend’s PBI includes a Celebrity Draw To The Button event Friday evening with Donovan Bailey, Doug Gilmour, Darcy Tucker, and Jordan Miller and Eliza Enman-McDaniel from the band The Beaches among the participants.
Sulsky also asked us to pass along if you’d like to witness live the in-turns, draws, sweeping, and the joie de vivre inside The Patch, send him a DM on Twitter (@nicsulsky) or on LinkedIn for a ducat or two.
Also, other obligations means there will be no rendezvous on LinkedIn Audio this afternoon. We will be back next week before heading off to Las Vegas for G2E.
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