As the dust settles on SBC Summit 2024, Conor Porter, Senior Journalist for CasinoBeats, was joined on iGaming Daily by Viktor Kayed, Senior Journalist for SBC News, and Joe Streeter, Editor of CasinoBeats, to talk about their key takeaways from the event.

For Joe, it was all about emerging Asian markets, specifically Japan, Thailand and the Philippines. In recent months, all three countries have witnessed significant progress in the establishment or expansion of their regulated gaming industries. 

In Japan, MGM Resorts committed to the launch of a casino in Osaka by 2030. Meanwhile, Thailand’s new Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, showcased her support for three new casinos in Bangkok.

The focus in the Philippines has been on regulation rather than expansion as the country’s regulators reduced fees in a bid to “encourage operators away from the grey markets”.

Talking about changes in the Philippines, Joe said: “There was a consensus that the government isn’t anti-gambling despite the intensifying new laws, but they are anti-bad actors. 

“There was also a warning that quite often the industry will be judged by the worst actor. So if the majority of the industry is doing things above board, there’s still a tendency to judge the whole industry on the actions of the worst possible actors. 

“That’s something that can be learned across Europe and across America as well. I think it’s important to have a clean industry because the bad actors are very much a stain.”

Viktor took a different route, and his focus was what he learnt from a panel session on how operators can use the Olympics to drive betting on niche sports.

Traditionally, the Olympics is an event that operators have struggled to capitalise on and Viktor explained that for this to change there needs to be a focus on using the personalities competing in the games as a way to boost marketing.

At the recently concluded Paris games, superstars of their sports like Novak Djokovic, Lebron James and Steph Curry were all competing for gold. 

“These names carry and brand with them and often that brand is either equal or maybe even surpassing the value and attention to the Olympic brand itself,” explained Viktor. “So there is an opportunity for operators to step into that. 

“The popularity around niche sports is driven by the players themselves, that’s the key solution for operators. They need to localise their offering, they need to target specific markets and see what sports these countries are good in and offer players the personalities to bet on.”

Towards the end of the episode, Joe also spoke about “a change in tone” he noticed around AI as the industry gains a better understanding of its uses for product development.

“There’s a real change in sentiment. That’s not to say it’s not going to be useful, but it’s not going to just completely transform the way we do things instantly,” he said.

“I had a couple of conversations about casinos and the future of slots and the role AI can play and there are limitations on AI, especially when it comes to slot creation and creating new content. You really need that human touch if you’re going to hone down that quality.”

“I think it’s just about learning to know where the ceiling is for now, and slowly raising that ceiling.”