The betting and gaming industry has been growing at a rapid pace, prompting Spotlight Sports Group to conduct its BetTech report into industry trends and challenges. 

Outlining the scope of the report at the SBC Summit North America in a conversation with SBC Senior Media Executive Erin Gallagher, Spotlight’s Head of B2B Marketing, Alan Davis, disclosed the three main conclusions of the study.

“The first is all about the opportunities, both in North America and the European market,” he began. “We believe that the speed of change and pace in the North American market specifically, including M&A, is going to create unprecedented opportunity.

“That will be a huge excitement for people in North America, but hopefully that will progress and reinvigorate the European market.”

The second takeaway from the report, Davis continued, revolves around the importance of content. In North America in particular,  betting companies have been increasingly acquiring content businesses. 

“That has highlighted how important content is becoming as part of the overall experience customers want from sportsbooks. It’s been part of the European product for a while, but in North America we are really starting to see how important independent, quality, verified content is going forward.”

The third and final take away from Spotlight’s report concerned the complexity of the betting ecosystem and how individual companies interact with each other across it. 

“It’s really important – especially for people in the emerging markets, especially in North America with the speed it is accelerating – that everyone understands how each individual company works across the individual subcategories across the ecosystem.

“It can be daunting when you first look, but once you start to take it in and digest it, it is a really valuable tool in a number of different ways, and that can be whether you’re new into the industry, have experience with it or are just starting out.”

Due to the speed at which the sports betting industry is evolving, Spotlight hopes that there will be numerous iterations of the BetTech report in the future. 

Davis added: “It was always our intention for this to be an annual piece. Having now completed the first edition, we appreciate that generating a report such as this takes time so we are already planning our next edition for 2022. 

“The industry is moving at such a fast pace that I think it’s important to make regular updates to this report. But one of the great things about the BetTech report has been that it’s pretty viral. We’ve already had lots of lots of companies come to us, wanting to be included in the next edition.”