Editors Letter

As we head to press for this issue of Gambling Insider’s Sports Betting Focus, the roars of the Cheltenham Festival are so raucous they can be heard all the way over in New York. At the same time, sportsbooks in the Empire State are so busy taking bets on March Madness, the American Gaming Association has projected over $3bn in legal wagers during the NCAA college basketball tournament in the US.

Certainly, at this time of year, sports betting is the talk of the industry. And it’s fascinating to see how horseracing bettors and bookmakers alike have fared at Cheltenham. Likewise, operators in key US states like New York, where just under $4bn in sports wagers have been placed within two months of mobile sports betting being legalised. During both Cheltenham and New York’s launch, free bets galore were handed out and seemingly no expense spared by operators’ marketing departments.

Yet long-term questions can be asked across both sides of the Atlantic Ocean here. Will next year’s Cheltenham Festival offer the same experience if the UK’s upcoming Gambling Act review offers new restrictions to British bettors? And can US sports betting operators sustain splashing out on such lavish advertising and new customer offers? Caesars Entertainment’s curtailing of its advertising in New York – and the immediate loss of market share that followed - suggests otherwise.

Amid all these discussions, however, one salient fact will always remain constant in sports betting: that the football World Cup guarantees huge betting volumes around the globe. It won’t just be in the UK or US that sports bettors flock in their droves to a retail outlet (but far more likely their sportsbook app of choice) this November, including in what the industry terms emerging markets, such as Brazil, Argentina and Nigeria.

And that’s why we’ve dedicated this issue’s cover story to previewing the biggest event in world football, featuring interviews with Pronet Gaming CEO Alex Leese, Betsson Group CEO Jesper Svensson and Digitain Founder Vardges Vardanyan.

In most years, of course, a November World Cup would be dismissed by our readers as a typo. But it is not most years – and this winter’s showpiece event in Qatar has created distinct talking points among our interviewees.

How will the new timing affect betting volumes? Which regions will be most lucrative? And will results favour the bookie or the punter? Read this and more in our in-depth interviews, as the Sports Betting Focus zones in on some of sports betting’s foremost executives.