This week’s Betting on Sports Europe (BOSE) event saw a diverse gathering of delegates from across every vertical of the betting and gaming industry, with a huge range of topics discussed and insights gathered.

Kickstarting the event was the SBC Leaders – Corporate Stewardship 2030 conference, sponsored by Sportradar, which saw Pinnacle Sports CEO, Paris Smith, Nederlandse Loterij CEO, Niels Onkenhout and Coolbet CEO, Jan Svendsen and Napoleon Sports CEO, Tim de Borle, shared their views on engagement with regulators, industry self-governance and diversity and inclusion policies.

“There’s a lot of emotion around gambling, a lot of emotion with the regulators and politicians, and so indeed, educating them and informing them well is a good idea,” Onkenhout remarked. “Secondly, I think there’s a huge importance of self regulation.”

Smith, meanwhile, observed that there is a ‘constant lack of understanding’ with regards to legislative and regulatory knowledge of the betting and gaming industry, requiring greater collaboration across the sector.

A separate panel on the opening day saw Onkenhout’s Nederlands Loterij colleague, CMO Arno de Jong, and Peter-Paul de Goeij, Managing Director at the Netherlands Online Gambling Association (NOGA) provide insights into the Dutch market, where the recently launched online gambling vertical continues to roll out.

“There is a risk currently in the Dutch market that we have been flagging with the other trade associations, that Dutch consumers are not inundated with gambling advertising,” de Goeij commented.

“Currently, the market is open. There is advertising for gambling and what we see in Parliament is a concern and members of parliament are starting to complain and ask questions to the Minister, with some MPs even hellbent on banning advertising for online gambling, which would really be a disaster.”

On the sporting side of the three-day extravaganza, the opening panel of the second day featured five specialists in sports wagering, who examined the impact of the UEFA 2020 European Championship and looking ahead to the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

The general consensus saw William Woodhams, CEO at Fitzdares, Billy Cook, Sportsbook Director at ComeOn Group, Anthony Cousins, Head of Sportsbook Commercial & Control at Kindred Group and Marco Blume, Pinnacle’s Trading Director, laud the positive effects of Euro 2020, whilst predicting that the 2022 World Cup would be disappointing for sportsbooks.

Additional panels saw analysis of the future of the retail betting industry, with participants underscoring the importance of omni-channel operations for the sector’s future stability, and the international side-effects of the burgeoning US market, among many more.