Breaking into the relatively young US iGaming market can be quite a daunting task, especially when operating with highly intellectual CRM tools.
However, FSB have made their presence felt in the US market after making several successful roads in the UK.
Speaking to SBC Leaders, FSB’s Bob Akeret, VP of Operations, and Mike Van Ermen, VP of Business Development, discussed their expansion into the US and how their experience in operations has helped shape their leadership abilities.
“With both of us being on the operator side of things, it was very important to us to have a deep understanding of what FSB wanted to achieve. It was a big move for us to jump on to the other side of the counter,” stated Van Ermen.
“We wanted to be a part of a company that shared our vision, and that really leveraged our expertise and our passion for quality and operator-based software in the United States. So we both joined in late 2020 and we’ve been really helping shape the United States strategy ever since.”
Akeret followed on: “There is a huge opportunity for the switcher market – those operators who are frustrated with their existing technology, many of whom have been promised the world which has been underdelivered really.”
One facet of FSB’s expansion into the US is the need to provide sportsbooks with a more ‘bespoke’ product that can prove pivotal, as more states open their doors to iGaming.
Akeret delved into how FSB are helping other US sportsbooks to ‘future proof’ their product, explaining: “Something that our Head of Marketing, Chris Graham, says is that FSB is ‘curating the win’.
“We’re not taking a product off the shelf, we don’t have an infomercial and it’s not a 1800 number that you can call for some hodgepodge, standard technology. We’re sitting on the other side of the table, we’ve been in the operator’s shoes and we fully understand what can be frustrating you.”
Van Ermen added: “If you look at the sports betting industry from 2018 to now, we’re coming up on the four year anniversary of the first state going live. The industry looks completely different, right? So, in the summer of 2026, the industry will also look completely different than what it does now. None of us can exactly tell you what that difference is going to be.”
