FSB’s move to Slovakia has added a whole new market and also brought on its first client. David McDowell, the chief executive of the sportsbook specialists discusses their plans to expand in the coming year.
FSB, a sports betting and igaming provider has achieved a few firsts with its SZRT supply agreement.
The Betring agreement marks FSB’s first foray into the Slovakian sportsbook market. This is also the first partnership with SZRT, the Hungarian State Lottery.
This follows the investment of PS23m by private equity group Clairvest Group in 2019 in the company. The deal at the time was hailed as an engine of growth. The injection of money helped FSB move away from being a British-focused supplier to one that had plans for international expansion.
David McDowell, chief executive of McDowell International, explains that in the last 18 months they have established divisions across North America and Europe. We’ve created strong delivery and development teams focused on these regions, and invested heavily in scaling up technology resources and delivery models to get more sites online.
SZRT is a natural step in this regard. McDowell explains that we are at a stage in our development where we can target major opportunities of tier 1. Securing this partnership felt like the next stage in that journey.
We have the vision to become the number one supplier in sports betting and igaming. “I think that we have already established ourselves as the industry’s number one challenger brand, so this deal I believe is just another fantastic step on our journey.”
Local Heroes
McDowell says that the product’s strength is what makes him confident in FSB. This product has been built on an agile framework, which he believes is perfect for localisations and regulatory market conditions.
The FSB has been able to create a tailored solution for the Slovakian Market, including localised hosting and Know Your Customer (KYC), payment solutions as well as local sports coverage such as Floorball, a variation of indoor hockey.
McDowell says that working with SZRT will help ensure Betring’s continued success.
He explains, “What we do and what we did for SZRT is that we work in collaboration with SZRT to curate the sports betting experience we believe is right for the market.”
The combination of their vast offering, our expertise in-house and our agile technology makes for a great winning combination.
FSB faces a number of challenges as well as new opportunities in the Slovakian marketplace. The company’s dealings with the UK have exposed it to bonus abusers, customers that only want a bonus and don’t intend to play further.
McDowell thinks the FSB Slovakia and SZRT are equipped to handle this problem.
How do you attract new customers and get them to test your brand, while also weeding out those who abuse bonuses? Our excellent marketing CRM and risk management tools are a great asset.
We’re using proprietary AI models in order to identify bonus abusers and ensure that marketing promotions are targeted at the correct customers. SZRT Slovakia uses our managed trading services, which means that our risk management team has been crucial in helping to navigate through the teething problems of trying spot and combat bonus abusers.
Once you move beyond the technical aspects of services, it is about building strong relationships and ensuring you have a solid partnership in order to thrive together on the territory.
Start something
SZRT, its first WLA customer, is a brand new market for FSB. It is important to do it correctly, especially since this will be SZRT’s first venture outside of Hungary.
McDowell argues that FSB can meet its goals.
The hard work begins after the launch of the product when working with a WLA and tier one operator. We scaled the organization to ensure we had the correct operating model, and the cadence for communications, not just across the C level team, but also a solid working relationship with the trading, marketing, and compliance teams.
The WLA sector is very supportive of the FSB’s efforts to build trust and transparency through open dialog at all levels.
Should it be successful, he is confident that SZRT Slovakia would become the first of many WLA clients. McDowell emphasizes that this deal is just the beginning of a number of high profile deals that are already being worked on, and not merely a test case to attract more.
He says, “It’s exciting to know that there are more Tier-One operators on which we have been working in delivery. We’ll announce them in the next few months.”
“2021 has been a transformative year for our organisation, and I believe 2022 will be a year of explosive growth in revenue.”
