SunBet's CEO Simon Gregory highlights the significance of its parent company, Sun International's, extensive land-based operations in gaining a competitive edge over traditional online rivals in South Africa. SunBet is already operational in both Namibia and Botswana, alongside its primary market in South Africa, where it aims to significantly increase its online market share amid fierce competition from established brands such as Super Group's Betway and Hollywoodbets.
"We're not as big as Betway or Hollywoodbets, but we have a solution that is highly competitive with those, and we can offer more rewards and to harmonise their gambling play between the casinos online," Gregory stated in an interview following the first half earnings report.
He assessed SunBet's standing in the South African online market as likely third or fourth, trailing behind the large incumbents. Betway has been present in South Africa since 2017, while Hollywoodbets entered the online market back in 2006.
Despite not yet reaching the top two, Gregory expressed confidence in SunBet's blended offering, which serves as a strong foundation for competing against market leaders. The company is harnessing its established land-based loyalty program in its quest for a more dominant digital presence.
Sun International holds approximately 50% of the South African land-based gaming market, operating 11 casinos throughout eight of the country's nine provinces. Gregory emphasized the advantageous relationship between SunBet and Sun International's land operations, indicating that they bolster each other through various omnichannel strategies.
"We have certainly benefitted, or both of us have benefitted from an omnichannel solution," Gregory remarked. "We're able to trade off the strong cultural heritage that Sun International has in the gaming space.
"We have nigh on 50% of the casino industry in South Africa, and that certainly enabled us to provide a trusted, branded solution online and allow land-based customers to play with us, get the same rewards and to harmonise that product offering over the online solution."
Gregory’s insights align with comments made by Sun International CEO Ulrik Bengtsson, who noted in May, "Increasingly we’re talking about one proprietary customer ecosystem where we sort of help each other with various sort of offers and manage the customer within that platform or ecosystem."
The online competition in South Africa is intense. Recently, Sun International posted group income growth of 7.4%, totaling R6.58 billion ($400.4 million) in its first half earnings, spurred largely by a 35.5% year-on-year rise in SunBet's revenue to R1.18 billion; its land-based operations also marked a growth return, the first in three years.
During the post-H1 earnings call, Bengtsson identified an opportunity to transition more of Sun International’s land-based clientele into SunBet users. According to Gregory, SunBet's approach to customer conversion relies heavily on Sun International’s vast customer database and its long-standing loyalty program.
"Look, we’re fortunate to have a large database of gamblers," he noted. "We’ve got the oldest loyalty programme in the country, I think, of any industry.
"So we’ve got a large database and we’ve been making sure that Sun International’s land-based customers are aware that Sun International has an online offering that is attractive and competitive."
