Partnerships are central to the betting industry, whether they be with data or odds providers, sports teams and leagues or software developers, to name a few.

Speaking to GamblingTV for SBC Americas, BetMakers’ Chief Operating Officer, Jake Henson, outlined what he believes are essential requirements for a successful partnership, whilst also offering his take on the US horse racing industry. 

“The first one is always the team you are dealing with. Over time the market will change, solutions will have to change and you’ll have to adapt. Inevitably, you need a partnership-type with who you are working with,” he explained. 

“There’s an element of trust that goes into both parts of a deal, from commercial and account management to the integration, product and technical team. You want to have a good feel throughout that process that the team you’re working with is knowledgeable in that space.” 

The knowledge that team members have ‘should shine through’ throughout the partnership process, Henson argued, with this factor playing a critical role in whether companies can ‘surge ahead’ or face problems. 

Beyond ensuring that the right team is in place to guarantee the long-term success of a partnership, the BetMakers COO also observed that companies should carefully consider how they deploy their time and resources into partnerships in order to ensure the right integrations are chosen which will exhibit long-term value.

As a company with a presence in and understanding of the North American sports betting space, Henson also offered his views on how fixed-odds wagering can broaden the audience of horse racing in the US and result in a “significant increase in returns to all stakeholders”.

Operators must ‘get the economics right’, he argued, in order to maximise opportunities from the US horse racing scene. In particular, firms should find a way to ‘get their product on the shelf’ in order to establish horse racing as a major sport.

“Obviously, the technology and user experience that the largest sports betting operators will deploy will be second to none in the wagering space, but will also far exceed what the current horse racing punters in the US are used to – especially for things like promotional spend and product innovation. I would say that this will also create a lot more curated content for punters. 

“So if you like betting at Aqueduct and Belmont, then I expect that you’ll get promotions in that field. The bigger operators will really leverage what they’ve done in other markets with racing, and curate a product that will be popular in the states over time. 

“For racing, if you look at companies such as DraftKings and FanDuel, they have monthly active users in the millions. For racing to be able to tap into millions of new potential punters is obviously a huge opportunity.”