Supplier News

Spain – Second day of SBC Summit Barcelona – Digital to focus on innovation and emerging markets

By Lewis - 9 September 2020

Day two of SBC Summit Barcelona – Digital will feature a line-up of senior executive speakers from major operators, as the focus turns to the technological innovations driving growth in the betting and gaming industry, and opportunities in emerging markets around the world.

Following the opening day of the virtual conference and exhibition, delegates attending on Wednesday 9 September can look forward to three conference tracks.

The Innovation and Technology Track will examine how artificial intelligence can be effectively utilised by operators, as well as evaluate the latest developments in fixed-odds betting, live betting, and slots.

The speakers include Anders Karlsen (CEO, Coolbet), Zeno Ossko (CEO, BetWarrior), Sergey Berezhnoy (Chief Product Officer, Parimatch), Jonathan Cassar (Head of Sportsbook, Betsson), and Edvinas Subacius (Chief Data Officer, Rootz).

There is also a CTO Panel looking at how operators’ technical requirements and planning have changed since the beginning of the pandemic. It features Stanleybet’s Pierluigi Chiusolo, Parimatch’s Grigory Bakunov, Genesis Global’s Filip Berlikowski, and Aris Dimarakis of Kaizen Gaming.

Accompanying the panel sessions is a series of presentations, including Coingaming CEO Tim Heath detailing how the business he founded has used technological excellence to build its market share.

Trustly’s Head of Commercial Strategy Ciaran O’Malley will share his thoughts on innovations in open banking, while mkodo’s Managing Director Stuart Godfree will offer his insights on what the upcoming iOS14 and Android 11 releases will mean for gaming brands.

The Global Gambling Track will look at the latest developments in Africa, Asia, Australia, the CIS, and India to identify where the next big betting and gaming markets will emerge.

The speaker roster includes a host of experts with in-depth experience of those markets, including Tyrone Dobbin (Managing Director – Africa, (Sportingbet), Anton Rublevsky (СEO Parimatch International), Michael Charlton (Asia Pacific Director, GVC Group), Minja Bolesnikov (CEO, MaxBet), and Maxim Afanasyev (CPO, Ligastavok).

As the business day gets underway in Latin America, attention will turn to that region with four panels covering regulation, expanding sportsbook offerings beyond football, payments, and marketing.

The sessions will feature insights from a selection of senior executives, including JD Duarte (CEO, Betcris), Fernanda Sainz (CMO LatAm, Caliente Interactive), Gonzalo Pérez (CEO, Apuesta Total), and Rodrigo Afanador (CEO, Zamba.co).

The Responsible Affiliates in Gambling (RAiG) Compliance Track will examine some of the crucial issues affecting the affiliate industry, with input from the UK Gambling Commission, the Advertising Standards Authority, the Betting and Gaming Council, and law firm Mishcon de Reya.

In addition to the conference content, attendees will have access to a programme of workshops and themed networking roundtables. It includes an in-depth update on the forthcoming regulatory changes in the UK and a masterclass on the art of sponsorship activation, together with networking sessions for the Dutch and German markets, women in gaming, and the tribal gaming sector.

Delegates who missed the opening day will also be able to use the event platform’s on-demand feature to catch up on Tuesday’s conference content, including a keynote session with Sportradar founder & CEO Carsten Koerl and DraftKings Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Jason Robins.

The session saw Koerl predict the opening of new regulated markets as the world emerges from the pandemic. He said: “This will probably accelerate market openings and provide opportunities. We see this already in the US.

“It is still a very painful process state by state, but we see the likelihood that this is accelerating much better than we saw last year. So we see a positive trend here that is very much driven by cash demand and taxes.”

Robins, meanwhile, observed that during the lockdown, stock markets had started to look beyond the next quarter due to the confusion about what short-term results would mean.

He explained: “[They] said ‘alright, which companies could be better positioned than they were coming into this and whenever this ends’. And a lot of narrative started to develop around the potential for states which were going to be facing major budget gaps to potentially look at legalising online sports betting and maybe even igaming.”

Tuesday’s content also included the Sports Betting in Focus Track and Payment Expert Track.