With a population of nearly 240 million people, the CIS region presents lucrative opportunities for many betting operators.
Speaking to SBC CEO Rasmus Sojmark on the latest episode of the Double Espresso Show, Irakli Davarashvili, CMO at Adjarabet, discussed developments in the region with a particular focus on his marketing experience.
When asked about the impacts of increasing reuglation in the CIS region, with Ukraine recently giving gambling the green-light, Davarashvili emphasised that with new opportunies marketing oversight has tightened.
“Even if it is regulated, in terms of the advertising and in terms of the marketing, there was a lot of freedom several years ago, but over time there have been changes in the regulation,” he explained.
“Editing is becoming more and more strict and at the same time even on a regulation level, the industry is taking on more responsibility to be CSR related – even our decision to cancel some channels – and take care of the population generally, and the perception of this industry – to dedicate more and more of our resources to raise awareness.
“Last year the pandemic started, and the whole market and industry has united and we have made donations to the government, and Adjarabet has carried out many donation projects.
“We are getting closer to people to give a more positive side, because we know that this industry is not often viewed positively, generally, in terms of the population.”
Identifying Armenia and Georgia as well established markets, Sojmark quizzed the CMO on whether Adjarabet is eyeing up any new jurisdictions for further commercial expansion.
“It’s quite a challenging time for us to grow and it’s very interesting to see the other markets, and the opportunities and the changes happening in the industry,” Davarashvili remarked.
Lastly, Sojmark asked his guest on what his firm looks for when analysing and researching new markets in the CIS region, receiving the response that marketing is actually low on the list of priorities.
The CMO detailed: “The decision on which market to expand into is mainly taken from the business development side, but when we start researching what’s happening in those markets, and what kind of channels or projects or acquisition strategies have been used by a competitor there, we believe that our approach is being innovative.
“It’s always a competitive advantage to, even on the new markets, because let’s say we take the Armenia side – when we launched our project there, it was a new project for that market and then we grew in the market in terms of the innovation and being different.
“I believe that with this kind of approach to be the first mover, take the risk and do something differently, gives us good results.”
