'The much more significant
factor is how retail will operate once it opens back up. How long will social restrictions be in place? What does that mean
for the number of people being able to gather in our outlets?
Ahead of the crisis, our online casino had experienced a good degree of engagement. We are relatively new to online casino – it is only in the last three of four years we have been developing our online proposition to resonate with customers and this is something we will continue to invest into whilst in lockdown. Online gaming has proven popular with sports bettors looking for an alternative. However, we will welcome the sports calendar coming back despite the performance of online gaming in its absence. How has customer behaviour changed over the past few months with regards to products, playing patterns and affordability?
Our actives are way down. As most operators in the sector will know, a lot of acquisition is triggered by live sports events - whether it be the Champions League, Premier League or the Grand Slams – these are big acquisition opportunities. Given they are not happening, the level of customer activity has fallen, and our actives are well down. We are very hopeful that when the sporting calendar resumes that those people will come back but we are trying not to push too hard as we are confident they will come back. We have done some cross- selling with other sports such as table tennis and esports and have made our customers aware of these channels, but the level of customer activity is way down in terms of the number of actives.
How has Superbet adapted its marketing strategy to promote products in a way that is sympathetic to the situation?
place. We have moved on from the closure of our retail outlets in order to manage the pandemic onto considering what the future will look like and how we can protect our staff and customers whilst adhering to regulations once things are back up and running.
What has been filling the void left by sport?
70 per cent of our online business is in-play. Tere has been some content for people to transact on with esports rising in popularity and table tennis still ongoing as they have been able to play within social distancing guidelines. We have our online gaming business that is operating as normal. You can never fully fill the void left by sport, but we are doing our best to make sure we are giving our customers content to transact on should they choose to.
How has your online casino performed during the crisis?
We have continued to market the brand in line with our latest campaign that began at the start of the year. We have also made a significant donation to the fight against the pandemic in Romania which we have done some marketing around because we think it is the right thing to do and is also important for our staff and customers to know that we have a duty of care to them and the rest of society. While our trade marketing and retail marketing has ground to a halt, we have continued to advertise across TV, radio and digital in the way we did previously. Our brand is a key differentiator and it is important to continue invest in that even with the lack of sports to bet on. Te long-term health of the brand is more important than short term revenue because of the shutdown.
Superbet has a strong presence in Central and Eastern Europe. What potential markets are of interest to Superbet beyond the current crisis?
What is social distancing going to be like for retail sports and gaming? How are we going to make sure our staff have the level of personal protective equipment required?'
Superbet has a strong ambition to be a regional multichannel champion across Central and Eastern Europe. We currently have land based and online presence in Poland and Romania. Our proposition has resonated well with customers and this could work with other jurisdictions in the region. Te Czech Republic, Slovakia and Croatia share similarities in terms of preferences, and we are competitive in price and have products players appreciate. I think markets in this region are the areas we are looking at most.
As well as international diversification, we are trying to migrate as much of our business online as possible. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the more diversified the business you have, the stronger you are likely to be in unforeseen circumstances. Tat was our strategy before the pandemic and will remain so during and after.
How will retail respond to the crisis?
It is very hard to say. Te first question is when retail will open again which will be different across jurisdictions and when they do, we will be ready to go. Te much more significant factor is how retail will operate once it opens back up. How long will social restrictions be in place? What does that mean for the number of people being able to gather in our outlets? What is social distancing going to be like for retail sports and gaming? How are we going to make sure our staff have the level of personal protective equipment required?
We feel positive that retail will return to normal at some point, but it is a question of how long in the future that will be. It is hard to see a future where there are significantly more retail outlets across Europe in two years’ time than there is now.
Tere will certainly be an element of consolidation, particularly from those who are primarily retail-only who may find things slightly more difficult. We will continue to look and assess based on the information we have as things open and decide at that point what our plans are for the expansion or contraction of the retail side of the business. It is too hard to say now until we see what that looks like.
NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA P117
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