Emerging Markets: How to Ensure a Successful Market Launch

Launching in new and emerging markets can be a very challenging, resource-draining process, especially if you don’t get it right the first time. Regardless of whether you’re launching in Latin America, Africa or any other emerging region, there are a few key points you need to consider to mitigate risk and ensure a successful launch. Sportingtech’s Sales Director Jack Smith talks us through some of the main points to consider and how best to approach these industry-related challenges in emerging igaming territories.

The opportunities that emerging markets hold have been well-documented, but these gains are far from a certainty if proper preparation is not taken. Market demands are fluid by their very nature, so a one-size-fits-all solution is no longer enough. To ensure success, it is essential to understand local markets and relevant consumer trends, customising your product to suit their ever-changing peculiarities. Localisation, and by extension player profiling, is what sets an offering apart from the competition, and this is something that Sportingtech prioritises and has extensive experience in.

The potential gains are endless, but it is a mistake to think about LatAm as one market. Rather it is a vast collection of varying jurisdictions all with differing cultures and preferences. Some will favour their own parochial leagues while others will want the excitement of the Premier League, World Cup and the Super Bowl – as well as Major League Baseball.

The power of personalisation

As well as a broad range of sporting events, customers the world over are coming to expect a more personalised betting experience. With the World Cup in Qatar fast approaching and incredibly popular across emerging markets, it has never been more important to deliver upon this.

Supporting a more personalised offering is Sportingtech’s innovative Popular Bets and Popular Events widget. The module collates the top 10 bets and top ten events across an operator’s platform. Our team worked hard to produce these widgets allowing operators and their players quick access to matches, group betting, outrights and specials across both mobile and desktop and that same work ethic is in full flow as the World Cup looms.

To complement this, we introduced our new bet stimulation tool, Bet Assist, which has been incredibly well-received across a number of emerging markets. Based on live score and AI analysis, the tool generates automated betting tips across more than 100 popular betting markets – both pre-match and live – with complete bet slip integration.

Meanwhile, our award-winning Quantum platform is built from the ground up to be modular, handing operators the control to differentiate themselves from the fiercest of competition.

Compliance and regulation

Then there is the constantly changing issue of compliance and regulation. The key is to have flexible solutions available that can be quickly localised and deployed at short notice. Each market presents its own challenges and barriers to progress, so choosing the right platform is critical – well-designed software, such as Quantum, offers an accelerated time to market with true product localisation, allowing quick and seamless integration.

This is because Sportingtech’s knowledge of these markets is second to none. We have consistently helped operators effectively navigate newly regulated regions for years. As a licensed platform provider, it is also worth stressing that we work to the highest standards in terms of customer data protection and segregation.

Payments

Important among the array of variables an operator needs to contend with when entering an emerging market is the issue of payment methods. Whether cash, credit card, online vouchers or mobile money, every jurisdiction has its own preferred method of payment.

With the proper support, an operator can not only identify what combination of methods is best suited to their players but also prepare them to minimise the ever-increasing threat of fraud with top-tier ALM technology.

The right partner

There are significant portions of both Latin America and Africa where land-based is still preferred over online gaming. However, the inexorable move towards digitalisation continues as customers realise the advantages of igaming. Operators looking to deploy such an offering in an emerging market need to make the experience as seamless as possible for customers that are not yet used to digital gaming.

There is a huge list of suppliers and partners in every market that could potentially mitigate these issues. However, it can be an impossible task to sift through these and find the diamonds in the rough. With Sportingtech as a platform provider, operators also get access to our varied selection of partners that are tried, tested and trusted.

Establishing relationships with local operators requires an in-depth knowledge of their individual requirements, which simply isn’t possible to do from offices in another continent. With the right partner, this all becomes far more achievable