iGaming Daily

Andrew McCarron (00:00.588)
Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of the iGaming Daily Podcast. We're bringing this to you from the last day of ICE. We're just going to do a bit of a recap of the event so far, what our experience of it has been. Of course, before I get into the meat of the conversation, should mention that this podcast is brought to you by OptiMove, the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market. So as I said, we're here live from the last day of ICE. It's been pretty busy. We had the SBC Barcelona baby party last night.

And I'm joined today by Ted Memier, SPC News Editor, I should say, and making his podcast debut live from ICE, Joe Beale from the SPC Media Marketing team. And I'm Ted Orme Clay, one of the other SPC editors. Should also add that it Ted Memier's birthday yesterday. So happy birthday to Ted, 22 years young. Thank you. Looking fresh as ever. I'm wearing the sunglasses.

We look like we're live at the Brit Awards backstage and I'm waiting for my birthday cake. But the only important thing is that guys, we're freshening up and we're bringing in new blood, stepping up Mr. Joe Beale. I know. What an absolute pleasure to be here with you guys. I feel like I've been on the back end of things for so long that it's kind of come full circle finally. I've worked on 400 odd of these and now I'm finally in front.

It doesn't make any sense. It's great to be here. Andrew and Raz have got a very kind of Guardiola Catalan philosophy. like the Meseo of podcasting. I feel like an under-18s player finally getting his first team debut. Right, mean, I'll start with you, Joe. How have you found Ice Barcelona? So it's sort of a little bit different for me from, I guess, what you guys...

would experience. I'm sort of situated at the SBC media desk for most of my time and a lot of what I do isn't, it's kind of intuitive. So a lot of people kind of walking past the stand asking questions about, you know, our products, what we do, how we can help them, that sort of thing. It's been really interesting. kind of, we've been put into a really interesting area here in

Andrew McCarron (02:26.252)
in Media City where it's kind of like a main strip here. Everyone seems to walk through and everyone seems to be able to catch, catch eyes with us. And we've had a lot of traffic, so it's been really good. Yeah, it's been quite positive to see, hasn't it? And I think I've noticed as well, quite a few people expressing a lot of interest in the new iGaming expert brand as well, I think, following our relaunch of that and obviously the change around for the SBC Summit in Malta. So that's been quite positive to see, I think.

We've had quite a good chance for us to really showcase what we're doing and for Joe Streeter to put his face onto that as well as obviously the lead on that one. Ted, what about you? can imagine you've been here, there and everywhere for the past couple of days. Don't remind me. I it's funny because every time ice changes, you kind of reflect on the past. And I actually agree with Joe. One thing that stands out now is the importance of the media.

I think when SBC started there was about five media stands. I think now you're looking at about more than a hundred now. It's even got its own section within a big hall next to sports betting. And then the other thing that I'm catching from going to the halls, I've been to all halls apart from the land-based one and just haven't had time yet. So that's my mission today. But especially in hall five with the sports betting and payments, I think you kind of seeing a diversification of units and of offering.

And the other thing is very much going to rearrangement of how they're presenting kind of core platforms and services to the industry. So that kind of caught the eye a lot. You know, I think the way they speak about the products is changing. And especially I think that's been kind of driven by the need for kind of new markets and also kind of the new functions that are coming in with crypto and the new generation of customers. Yeah, solid breakdown there from what you've been up to,

What have been up to this week? have I been up to? Well, obviously, as from a B on payment expert, we're mainly going around a lot of the payment standards. Ted said there's been quite a lot of visibility for crypto at this. there is at most ICES, but it's been quite noticeable here. And it's quite an interesting time for that sector as well, with obviously the new administration, well, the second Trump administration coming in in the US. That's part of some of the conversations I've been having.

Andrew McCarron (04:52.878)
lot of people are very, maybe, excited or eager to keep an eye on it because the value of the sect went up so much after his election. It's going to be interesting to see what policies he brings in, how that impacts it, and potentially what knock-on effect that could have on gaming. Ted, I can see you want to your two cents here. I mean, it's weird because you come to these conferences and it is kind of a bubble scenario and you forget that the world is going on. But it's amazing how things change from day one.

today too, after the administration and after he actually mentioned crypto. mean, there was kind of a perk on that. And even walking around the kind of the iGaming stands and the sports betting stands, everyone's reflecting on, you see what happened in Washington? And how does it, how I think no one can read it. It's too early to kind of really pinpoint at is it a game changer or not? But something definitely is in the air. And

it has been driven by kind of outside elements. So that can kind of create an impact, a trade show. Something else I've noticed in some of my conversations around crypto as well is I think we often just look at the interaction between crypto and gaming on the face of it. You just think of right people placing bets with crypto, people paying to account to crypto. But it does go beyond that a bit and kind of there have been some conversations about just what blockchain technology can do in the industry without

without the element of crypto in there, like how it can be used for the ledgers and player tracking and things like that. there's even outside of the talk around Donald Trump and what impact that could have on the cryptocurrency. It's interesting that the blockchain technology that underpins that, there's still interest in what other uses we can find for that as well. Yeah, it's definitely not just live subject. One of the things that I've picked up is, look, it's been that

kind of at the back of the minds of people, you know, how will blockchain and crypto come out? But I also think that part of that subject has kind of been hijacked by the bad aspects of crypto. There is negativity in the industry, especially when comes to meme coins, shit coins. I don't think it gets helped by kind of Eidon bushing that stuff. There are bad actors, know, bad general actors in that industry, but there is good underlying technology.

Andrew McCarron (07:19.582)
And I think that hopefully this year we get to a better place where we can start to individually look at those technologies and see their viability, see their utility for the industry. And again, I think that's what's kind of been driving kind of this change of view in the industry, but also kind of changing the vision to the prospects of what might actually happen this year.

I don't know, Ted. mean, think just everything seems just up in the air about the big decisions. Yeah, yeah, I think that's I find it hard to disagree with that. I mean, outside of the crypto stuff, though, Ted, what have been some of the bigger talking points around sports betting and the sports book side of things? What have you picked up from that? OK, so it seems like in 2024, lot of resources were put back into kind of rethinking live betting and innovation.

And also that I think that a lot of suppliers and a lot of technology platforms came back saying like, can no longer just push the same stuff, you know, make one or two tweaks, you know, talk about kind of automation, talk about gamification, right? I mean, there's work to be around for that. And now I think that they're going back to building, you know, very kind of comprehensive technology. So one of the things I saw yesterday,

which I think is going to really flip the market. And my God, it's a big product to launch. It's going to be Genius Sports' fan hub. And just that, what it's bringing to the mobile single case mobile viewing for live sports betting. they said that, they've launched it and they're on beaters and the NFL. The returns have been breaking. And I tell anyone, just go to that stand, have a five minute play on that product.

And you kind of see where the next kind of phase of live interaction with sports betting is going to move to, where the player kind of just demands more information to make his bet, but it has to be kind of integrated and engaged with with the audience. That's going to be my kind of one to watch product this year. Do you think that's kind of going to the future of how sports betting goes? Is that the trajectory of it?

Andrew McCarron (09:44.202)
operators are to be having to find a way to bridge the gap more between betting and regular sports consumption, sports media consumption. You see, think the paradox, I'm not sure if Joe agrees with me on this, but what we're seeing is that the tech companies are paying much more to get exclusivity on the tech and to use these exclusive data partnerships, APIs.

these rights, right, to create kind of better products. And I think that's where he likes to genius in sports radar, their battleground is. We paid a shedload of millions for the PGA, for the WTA. Now let's make some really good like front end products because there's been too many kind of like rip and runs where just people kind of just take, you know, the cheaper product, right. And they can't live in these same terms anymore. So I think they're going now much more towards exclusivity. And

You see it on the floor that what they're pushing are they want, they'll spend more on making the technology, but they want kind of a better partnership. And I think they'll agree to kind of tighten terms because we paid for that. Joe, what do you make of that? think as much as the technological advances are really important in the industry, I do kind of look at it, especially myself from a more consumer perspective. What would I want? What would I envisage?

Being able to use, I think ease of use is important. I think being able to move across platforms, think being able to move across different applications and obviously I think there's a bit of a, and you might be able to correct me on this Ted.

There's a lot for people moving between mobile and desktop as well, as well as using slots or whatever they do as well. So I think having multi-platform and I think the ease of use would be the most important thing for me to consider. Yeah, it's an interesting one to note there, Joe, with the, guess, guess where it's referred to be the, you know, the omnichannel experience, I guess, it's finding...

Andrew McCarron (11:53.134)
It's finding ways to seamlessly bridge the gaps between the different verticals the industry has. Obviously from my side of things, payments is quite a big part of that. Although I'm having like a conversation later today about some of this sort of stuff with Nuve. And I'm kind of interested in hearing their perspective on as the industry becomes increasingly digitized and more online driven, you know, how is that going to take the emphasis away from like the sort of retail side of the omnichannel?

divide? don't know, Ted, you have I just like to add, mean, we're here at a conference and it's been a big change. You know, it's moved from London to Barcelona. That's been kind of the headline here. But what I'm kind of getting back now is, you know, we divided, we split into different halls for different sections. But one of things that's definitely having an impact is what region you're targeting. And I think that...

It's true for sports betting. think it's true for gaming solutions, but it's also very true for payments. And I'm just kind of thinking like, should this do you think that this conference should be split not necessarily by product, but more by region? Wouldn't that make more sense? Because we're now kind of getting like much more targeting towards the African market later. I mean, you can build a whole whole for Brazil. Yeah. Well, what would you make of that?

I think that would be quite interesting. mean, SBC, events have traditionally, you know, often quite focused on a different region per event. You know, we've got SBC Summit Rio is our next one, what, from 25th to 27th of February. Obviously, as the name suggests, that's focusing on Brazil and the wider Latin American sort of market. And yeah, you're right, there are different companies, various different companies.

that have a specific focus, a specific speciality in one region, whether it's the traditional bookmakers in Europe who want to keep their podium spots there, the newcomers in America who've really exploded over the past, well, not 10 years, since 2018, since PASPA, and then, a lot of companies who are now...

Andrew McCarron (14:01.57)
looking at getting involved in Latin America. mean, there's a huge amount of people who are interested in Brazil, wasn't there? Like, well over a hundred people submitted applications for licences under the new regime, didn't they? So, I mean, from your conversations, Ted, do you think, has that been, I know it's been, we've almost been talked it to death over the past year, but has Brazil and Latin America been the big one? I've been in discussions with Andy this week, with partners, and kind of their dedication to just targeting.

one market and being the best there. And we tend to kind of think, yes, iGaming and payments, they globalize worlds, but you forget that businesses are businesses. And if you're top of a region, you tend to want to stay there and build your platforms and build kind of your value chain towards serving a specific customer. again, I think we...

Gaming or the media side of gaming is always going to build by kind of very simple narratives of localization, omni-channel. But actually when you kind of drill down, it's very kind of complicated business partnerships that have incredible kind of interplay between the companies, but also that have structures, critical structures, which they have to maintain and they have to kind of respect. So I think that's something that we might pitch. You have to kind of look at how do you get a fair representation?

or what continent you're in across your portfolio or management of the conference. What I will say about sitting at the media stand for last couple of days is that the array of people that have come up and spoken to me from different regions has actually been really interesting. We have had guys come up from representing the African market.

We have had a lot of people come up asking about Latam. We've had people come over, you know, from the States and they're asking about what's the next up and coming market? What's the most underrepresented market or something like that? So I think from that perspective, and especially at a place like ICE, where it is so vast and there are so many people here, you are representing people, but you just need to make sure that you are catering to it.

Andrew McCarron (16:24.728)
catering to them as well. You need to make sure that you are offering them things that are applicable to their region. So an African market or an African company will not be looking for anything as sophisticated as a European market will. So we get asked about newsletter products, we get asked about website products, we don't get asked about higher tech.

things that we offer. We don't get asked about that and then you know when you move on to Brazil it's a little bit higher up when you come up to Europe it's a little bit higher up. So as long as you're aware that these people are here and you do need to cater to them as well then I think you have all the tools here to serve it. I think the African markets in particular are very interesting. I've always found them particularly interesting to follow. Latin America obviously like we've said has been

It sort of exploded to the forefront of conversation lately, but again, from my beat on payments, find those particularly interesting because of how much appetite there is for alternative payment methods in these markets. And it's very different to what we've experienced in Western Europe where debit and credit cards are still sort of the leading payments and things like that. I'm going to say something quite controversial.

I think think I think payments is gonna be hot this year. I think payments might be sexy Ted like as in I It's a process that a you're gonna have to need to get right To to launch a new markets Yes, there's still got us those Very kind of competitive dynamics those pricing dynamics that always come into play But honestly like getting your I got a payment structure right this year

for launches in Peru, Brazil, Mexico. If you have those ambitions and you don't get your payments right, you know, it's going to be a wide point of failure. And actually, I think it benefits payments, you know, it wants to kind of be a point of kind of critical disruption adoption. It must be that. So that would be my take. think, you know, payments is going to be sexy in 2025. There you go.

Andrew McCarron (18:48.622)
There's our tagline. yeah. 2025 is bringing... Sentences no one ever said. Bringing sexy back to payments. We love it. I think we're coming to the close of this, but just to start wrapping things up. Obviously, we've got SBC, you've got a pretty packed event schedule as always over the rest of the year. Like I said, we've got Rio coming up next month. We'll have the new look Malta conference. We'll have our Americas one combined in.

the former New York event and the former Miami event into one big super event in Florida and of course we'll have Lisbon in September. What do you guys, as they're speaking very generally, what do you think are going to be some of the biggest talking points going on from there? Do you reckon it's going to be similar to ice? Are we going to have some other interesting ones coming in? I think from speaking to a couple of people, I think a lot of people are waiting to see what happens with Brazil.

I think a lot of people are funny enough talking about Finland. And I think a lot of it as well, like you said, with America there and the crypto side of things, I think there's a little bit of optimism slash anxiety about not knowing what's going to happen. So I think we're just going to have to see how it unfolds. think crypto has been a buzzword throughout the year this year. think it's one of pretty much from last, it pretty much took over on Monday.

I think the speculations will be rife till about September, until about the time they present some kind of kind of settlement regulation. And I think that's not even going to calm it down. So that's going to send it another wave. you know, gaming always goes on. I think in Europe, we went through kind of a period of resolution. It's now time to see how the operators kind of react to the new terms of play, especially in the UK.

Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands and Brazil. Man, we've got to see what comes out. 89 brands have launched the market. I think it's always the same play. You soon find out who the real challenges are and who's got kind of market share. So that will kind of come around in the summer. And I think we'll have a very different agenda coming into the

Andrew McCarron (21:11.694)
The latter conferences of 2025, so the ISBCs and the Sigmas, it's gaming. It's always up in the air and you're always waiting for it to land. It's just how it lands. One extra thing that I will say and I'm going to plug some media marketing here. We are going to be talking about everything compliance, crypto, Latam, Brazil, anything you can think of.

on our digital days throughout the year. So keep an eye out for those as they come through because they will be very topical. They'll be exploring everything right as it happens essentially. So keep an eye out for those. Great stuff. Thanks guys. I think that's two very good points to leave it on. Yeah, plenty of things for us to keep an eye out throughout the year. SCVC events, both physical ones and the online webinars. Like you say, Joe, we've got plenty of those lined up. And yeah, please keep an eye out.

For more episodes of our gaming daily and for the content on our different sites so at Ted Joe Thanks very much for joining me today guys, and we'll see you all on the next episode of our gaming daily