Local knowledge, global scale

EveryMatrix has spent years building its position across Europe, but taking that model into new territories has required the supplier to reconsider what international expansion means.

For Group Chief Commercial Officer Arthur Barker, one of the clearest lessons came from Latin America. EveryMatrix initially attempted to serve the region from Miami, combining its ambitions there with plans for the regulated US market. It didn’t work. “The challenge of not having boots on the floor in places like Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and everywhere else where we’d like to do business was pretty much insurmountable,” Barker tells G3.

EveryMatrix subsequently withdrew from Miami and changed its approach. Its LATAM strategy is now centred on people who understand individual markets, have established networks and can provide a direct connection between operators and the supplier. “Having people on the floor is paramount. It’s key. People with a network, a black book, if you like, and people that are able to travel. That’s working much better for us now.”

Buenos Aires is currently providing the company’s regional base, with plans to expand the team there in the short term. Barker also expects EveryMatrix could eventually establish another office in Brazil as its business develops. For Barker, however, localisation begins well before opening an office or translating a product.

“At the point of business development, it’s having a network and having a black book. We’ve tried multiple approaches in various regions, but having people who have grown up there, speak the language, know people and have an existing network is a much quicker route to generating business for us.”
“Having boots on the floor who are able to engage with consumers and operators helps guide product development quite a lot. These are experiences you can only really have if you’ve grown up and lived in these countries for many years, if not your entire lifetime.”

There is no LATAM market

One thing Barker is keen to avoid is treating both Latin America and Africa – as a singular opportunities. “To even begin to describe LATAM and Africa as single markets is almost impossible,” he says. EveryMatrix instead breaks Latin America into individual opportunities. Brazil represents one area, Spanish-speaking South America another and Central America another. Even within those divisions, player behaviour and product requirements can differ significantly.

“The further north you go, there’s more of a US skew to the consumer base. We can see this with the limited traffic we have so far in Mexico and when we analyse our competitors. There’s a much greater propensity to engage in US sports betting. The casino offering also changes regionally.”

The strategy is therefore to select individual markets where EveryMatrix believes its products can support operators rather than attempt to establish blanket regional coverage. “We’ll cherry-pick markets in Latin America that we think are viable for us, where we think we can make a difference and add value to our partners.” Pricing will form part of that approach. Barker says EveryMatrix has established a premium position in Europe but recognises it is less proven in Latin America and can therefore be more flexible while building its presence.

EveryMatrix will also be selective about customers. “It doesn’t make sense for us to engage with operators we don’t think are going to be able to establish a viable market share that makes this a viable revenue opportunity for us in the long term.” The scale of the ambition is nevertheless significant. Barker points to EveryMatrix’s London operation, which has grown to dozens of employees, as an indication of where LATAM could eventually head. “Over three to five years, that’s where I fully envisage we’ll end up in Latin America as well.”

Beyond the ’emerging market’

Barker also pushes back against the habitual description of Africa as an emerging gambling market. While European regulated gaming has a longer history, he argues that the label can underestimate the sophistication of players in established African territories. “Ten years ago, 50-leg accumulators and Aviator may have made the cut for some African markets. That world has gone, particularly in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, which I now call mature markets.”

Players are becoming more demanding and price-sensitive, while casino propositions require a broader range of content. “The consumer base is becoming increasingly more savvy and increasingly more price dependent. They will search for better odds – they always have done. The casino offering also has to come with a greater breadth of content than has previously been the case.”

EveryMatrix’s challenge in these territories is partly one of recognition. While Barker believes the company has reached the point in Europe where major operators looking for a new platform, sportsbook or casino supplier are likely to include EveryMatrix in the conversation, that position has yet to be replicated elsewhere. “In Africa, at the moment, many operators still don’t really know who we are and what we can do.”

The goal is to change that through selected markets where EveryMatrix can demonstrate its products and establish reference customers. “In the longer term, with some market penetration and greater brand awareness, we want to become people you have to call if you’re in the business of procuring a B2B gaming platform in Latin America or Africa.”

What FSB changed

EveryMatrix’s acquisition of FSB has provided one route into markets where its previous presence was limited. Barker says the company expected the deal to open doors in the UK, but it also provided opportunities in Africa. The investment extended considerably beyond the initial purchase price. The experience has strengthened EveryMatrix’s appetite for M&A, although Barker stresses that acquisitions cannot be planned in the same way as organic market entry.

“You can’t plan to buy something. You can go and kick the tyres and you can look. The moment word gets out that you’re desperate to buy something in Q2 2027, invariably you lose the value piece because the price goes up.” Instead, EveryMatrix is pursuing both routes simultaneously: conventional business development alongside potential acquisitions capable of accelerating its entry into specific markets.
At the time of the interview, Barker says EveryMatrix was looking at around 12 potential transactions and was active with two or three. “In each of those instances where we’re close, there’s a geographic distribution advantage to that deal that also underpins the value proposition of the transaction.”

Moving up the RFP list

The company’s changing position can also be seen in the number of tier-one RFP processes it is entering. EveryMatrix has created a dedicated RFP team within Barker’s commercial function, bringing in specialists to manage increasingly complex procurement processes from state lotteries and large listed operators.

Existing relationships with organisations including OPAP, the Hungarian state lottery, Norsk Tipping and Danske Spil are helping build that track record. “Once you have this reputation, some of this lands at your door,” says Barker. While many of the questions contained within RFPs remain familiar, he has noticed one change: operators are increasingly interested in acquiring source code. “We’re getting asked quite often: is there a source code acquisition? Do we have an option?”

EveryMatrix has responded by developing a model that can begin as a conventional B2B supplier relationship while providing an option to acquire the underlying source code. This potentially gives operators a route towards ownership of their technology and greater control over their roadmap, while still beginning with the support of an established supplier.

Using AI to pick markets

EveryMatrix has also changed how it decides which markets warrant investment. Barker’s commercial function now includes a dedicated commercial operations team headed by Carmen Raicu. AI-assisted analysis is increasingly being used to accelerate work that previously required significantly more people and time.

The team can examine the size of a market, determine how much activity is onshore or offshore, split the opportunity between sportsbook and casino, identify operators and their technology providers, and estimate the amount of GGR that could realistically be addressable by EveryMatrix. “We can make a qualitative score on a single given market and say: that’s interesting for us. We believe there’s ‘X’ million of addressable GGR which we can service, and we believe we have the product that can service this market.” This analysis then informs whether EveryMatrix enters at all and, if it does, how much it is prepared to invest.

New Zealand provides one example. EveryMatrix identified the regulatory changes taking place in the market, assessed where it saw product gaps and moved early, signing SkyCity ahead of the introduction of the new regime. The same process is being applied to Finland, while Barker says the company is also monitoring potential developments in Austria. “The playbook for market analysis and our appetite to invest is still the same. It’s the value proposition to us – how much we’re prepared to put in against what we believe we can get out.”

Is there still a European product?

As EveryMatrix expands, Barker rejects the idea that there is a single European product that can simply be transported elsewhere. “I don’t believe there’s a standard European product anymore,” he says. Geography continues to shape betting preferences even within Europe, while globally recognised sports can cross those boundaries. The Premier League, for example, remains an important betting product across African markets as well as Europe.

Rather than selling a fixed product, EveryMatrix therefore pitches the configurability of its technology. Its platform is live and licensed across 27 regulated jurisdictions, while its casino operation can adjust content and presentation for individual customers. Front-end technology and third-party integrations provide further differentiation.

“We pitch the flexibility of the platform. It’s highly configurable and highly malleable.” Barker believes that gives EveryMatrix the foundations it needs for Latin America without rebuilding its entire technology stack for every country. “We think we’ve proven this in Africa – there’s work to do, but we’ve proven it – and we will prove this in Latin America. We can take the products we have and, with relatively minimal adjustments and effort, make a compelling consumer proposition for our operators.”

Asia is the exception. Barker says the region is not currently on the immediate roadmap because the differences between EveryMatrix’s existing products and what operators there require remain considerably greater. For now, the focus is on consolidating Europe, continuing to grow in Africa, establishing the business in Latin America and developing its position in Oceania.

The playbook stays, the product changes

EveryMatrix is attempting to solve a familiar problem for any international technology company: how to scale a repeatable commercial model without imposing the same product on every market. However, Barker separates those two challenges. The first part of the playbook – analysing the addressable market, identifying where EveryMatrix can add value, understanding product gaps and employing people with local networks – can be repeated.

“Having boots on the floor, having local expertise, having people that know the market, live there, have a black book and speak the language – these elements of the playbook are pretty agnostic and we’re pretty sure they’re set in stone.” What changes is the proposition built on top of it. “The products and services that we offer will need to adjust as we move forward. The front-end differentiation, product configuration and our platform’s capability to do that are absolutely paramount.”

For Barker, scaling EveryMatrix internationally is therefore not about making each deployment look like the last. “We’re not cookie-cutting – quite the opposite. We invest a lot of money, we sacrifice a lot of development time and we sacrifice a lot of bottom line to make sure that our products are differentiated on an operator-by-operator basis.”