At ICE London, Gambling Insider turned its N1 stand into a live studio, where some of the industry’s biggest and most influential CEOs, executives and consultants took part in GI Huddle video interviews. Svensson joined us to reflect on his executive of the year victory at the Global Gaming Awards London 2023 – and more.
Hello viewers, I’m here with an old industry friend, Jesper Svensson, CEO of Betsson Group. At this year’s Global Gaming Awards London, you were named Executive of the Year; how did that feel and how did you celebrate?
I felt very humbled and honoured. I think these are the right words because it was a jury of about 50 different C-level Judges in the industry. So to be voted by that group of people is quite amazing and I was very happy. How did I celebrate? Let’s say I had a pint or two...
On a previous GI Huddle, one where we both wore a Liverpool shirt – better times than the start of this season, as we had just won the league – there was actually a comment from one of your staff saying you’re the Jurgen Klopp of iGaming. How does that make you feel?
I’m far from that! But what an amazing comment. I wish I was that; for someone like me, who is a lifelong Liverpool fan and really looks up to our club, I think it is amazing. Even right now, though we were in bad form, he’s a fantastic man, a great coach and an inspiration for everyone. If I was even close to a little piece of that, that’s an amazing comment – I have to find that person and thank them.
The questions will get more challenging, don’t worry... but I think you might find this a welcome one. You’ve won the Executive of the Year, Betsson has delivered some very positive financial results, so clearly Betsson’s doing a lot right. What is it exactly that you’re getting right at the moment?
Well, what we see today is the result of decisions that were taken many years ago. That’s always how it works in this industry. We are growing fantastically well in Latin America at the moment. I think we are one of the fastest-growing companies there and I would say LatAm operations are the driver of our growth. But we have been focusing on this region for a long period and we are now starting to see the benefits of that.
Being live in so many different markets across Europe and Latin America also means we’re not too exposed to one single country. And that’s a good space to be in today when there are a lot of regulatory changes. So I would say the reason for the growth we see today is very much driven by Latin America.
“The customer experience is challenging, and you never want to be falling behind on customer experience because then it’s over”
Okay, a more challenging question – as promised. It’s, in fact, the same question but from a different point of view: what can Betsson do better? Are there any areas where you feel you’re not where you want to be, and you need to improve?
Yes, there’s a lot, always a lot. We believe in what you call incremental gains in many ways: to try to be a little bit better in all the different areas where we’re operating and the totality of that should have a good impact on the business. I think the challenge we have is what most companies face today. We have more than 20 different local licences and there is a lot of demand from regulators for compliance, and this takes a lot of resources product-development-wise.
To juggle all those things and also drive the customer experience is challenging, and you never want to be falling behind on customer experience because then it’s over. So far, I think we are managing it well, but that is a space I would like us to be much better in; so that we can drive both the customer experience and easily enter new markets, managing all our demands from regulators.
You mentioned Latin America and it’s something a couple of other interviewees this week have discussed in terms of huge potential. There’s a lot of growth, but as individual markets within LatAm become more competitive, what kind of pressures will that bring for a brand like Betsson?
I think it’s very competitive already and it probably always was, and I think you need to look at it like in Europe – it’s market by market. There are similar traits, of course, when it comes to content and how it works; but if you take the fundamentals, for example, payments are different market by market, then money in and out is still key over there.
So if you do that well, you have a great opportunity. I think we established ourselves in that region many years ago and that is the advantage we’re having. It’s really about understanding the local nous of the markets we’re going into and the fruits of that labour.
On Latin America, I’ve just realised that, when we spoke a few months ago, you tipped Argentina and Lionel Messi to win the World Cup. Well done!
Thanks! Many people tipped the same, though, but what a beautiful World Cup it was for Argentina and Messi. I was always a Messi fan and I know there is a divide out there between another player [Cristiano Ronaldo] and him, but how suitable, you know? He truly deserved it, so well done to Argentina.
A word on the World Cup for betting – because we have heard a couple of operators say it was a good tournament but, taking place in winter, it could not replace the Premier League; meaning it wasn’t as lucrative as it would have been in the summer...
I disagree with that, actually: we had a really good World Cup. From an activity point of view, we saw really, really strong numbers and a World Cup is still a World Cup – it’s so much bigger as a single event than any other competition will ever be. It has a more visible effect when it is in the middle of the summer when there is nothing else. But if you take the end of the year – November, December – they are usually good months for gaming and I think this gave that an extra boost, so we’re happy.
As we often do at the end of these interviews, our final question will look ahead. What are your goals and main focuses for the rest of 2023?
I keep speaking about Latin America, right? But we do invest a lot into the region and we hope and expect continued growth there; that’s a big focus for us. We keep building a really strong sportsbook and we’re going into the B2B space, as well. That’s also a big, big focus, of course, but it is a lot about juggling between all the different jurisdictions and driving the customer experience. That is probably the biggest challenge we face now.
As always, thanks very much for joining us!
