Running a successful sportsbook is a highly technical task and one that few operators attempt entirely in-house. Most use third-party providers to supply some or all of their platforms and products.
For many years, Turnkey solutions were the default choice, but they tended to result in a one-size-fits-all approach, diminishing the unique elements of different sportsbook brands and making it hard to stand out. The only alternative was multiple bulky integrations from various third-party products and providers—an inefficient and cumbersome process.
The landscape has now changed as providers like Kambi have risen to the challenge and solved the problem by bringing new modular sportsbook services to market. This approach provides a diverse range of products and allows operators to select the best fit for their needs while remaining in control.
In this iGF Q&A, we’re talking with Sarah Robertson, a seasoned professional in the industry and the Senior Vice President of Sales at Kambi. With her extensive experience and knowledge, Sarah provides invaluable insights into how Kambi’s modular products can help operators stay competitive and adapt to changing demands. Read on.
As the iGaming industry continues to grow and evolve, staying flexible is a critical success factor for operators. How can new modular-styled sportsbook platforms such as Kambi’s help with this?
“Flexibility has long been a cornerstone of Kambi’s product strategy, as demonstrated by our expansive range of operator empowerment tools, which ensure each partner can deliver a unique and engaging user experience tailored to their specific audience. Partners can, for example, offer differentiated pricing, control the front-end experience, and, more recently, build pre-packed offers themselves using a dedicated self-service tool.
“The modularisation of Kambi’s sportsbook was a natural progression, empowering operators even more by giving them control over their product with an array of standalone services. Today, Kambi offers a range of products beyond its renowned turnkey sportsbook, including odds feeds delivered via a single API integration that seamlessly replaces multiple third-party feeds to provide a new level of flexibility for operators. Within the Kambi Group, innovative user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) capabilities are delivered through Shape Games, while comprehensive esports data and odds are provided through Abios. Additionally, our standalone pricing unit, Tzeract, is setting a new standard for sports betting through AI-powered odds, trading and product creation capabilities.
“Kambi’s modular service suite enables operators to choose specific elements that best fit their strategy and operational needs, delivering revenue-driving solutions that can be tailored to the technological strategies of various operators. If an operator seeks near complete control over its sportsbook technology but still wants to integrate specific high-quality components, Kambi’s modular platform offers the necessary flexibility to stay competitive in a fast-moving and competitive industry.”
How can operators gain a competitive advantage in the market through leveraging partnered content?
“Leveraging third-party sports betting products and services is critical for operators looking to gain a competitive edge in the market. Building, managing and operating a high-performance sportsbook is no easy feat.
“The complexities of running a sportsbook require a robust technological infrastructure that can handle intricate operational processes, diverse offerings and stringent regulatory management. Given these challenges, no operator in the world operates 100% of their sportsbook in-house, and so the real strategic decision is not whether to insource or outsource but to select which elements to outsource to enhance their offerings while maintaining control over the areas each particular operator does best.
“Outsourced elements could include platform, odds compiling, risk management, sportsbook front-end, or player account management platforms, to name just a few. Partnering with third-party providers such as Kambi enables operators to enhance their sportsbook offerings without the need for extensive in-house development in such areas and frees up operator investment and resources to focus on the areas in which they truly specialise.
“For instance, top-tier operators often seek to retain control over certain elements to ensure they can differentiate their product in the market. In Kambi’s case, a good example is our partnership with LiveScore Group, which maintains its in-house tech teams, controls the front-end experience and operates the LiveScore app, which enables them to drive customer acquisition and engagement effectively. Kambi supports such strategies by providing tailored product improvements that align with the operator’s specific needs.”
What role does an expansive and flexible odds feed play in the success of a successful sportsbook? What can operators do to ensure they are creating the most value from their odds?
“Robust odds feeds are crucial for the success of any sportsbook. Successful operators need to ensure that their sportsbook provides a strong product across a wide range of sports, from popular leagues like the NFL to more niche sports like table tennis. Achieving this balance is challenging, as it requires significant resources and expertise to develop and maintain high-quality odds across all sports.
“Specialist third-party providers play a vital role in helping operators manage this complexity and ensuring the sportsbook remains competitive across the board. By outsourcing certain elements of their odds feeds to experts, operators can focus their time and investments on sports where they already have vast expertise and where outsourcing may not make strategic sense.
“Kambi’s product strategy reflects this approach. While our premium turnkey sportsbook offering remains our core focus, we also provide standalone odds feeds – which differ from the competition as they benefit from the power of our global partner network – to enhance specific aspects of an operator’s sportsbook. Additionally, Kambi’s odds can be complemented by feeds from our AI-powered pricing division, Tzeract, which offers advanced auto compiling and auto trading capabilities to provide margin-driving pricing solutions at speed and scale. This is particularly valuable as bettors increasingly seek complex bet offers and combinations that are difficult to price and trade manually.”
Operators are often forced to integrate with multiple suppliers to ensure that they have a full range of access to various sports betting services. This can be a drain on important resources. How can Kambi help operators to ease this integration process?
“Integrating with multiple suppliers to access a comprehensive range of sports betting services can be resource-intensive for operators. Each integration requires significant time, effort, and financial investment, often leading to operational inefficiencies.
“Kambi addresses this challenge in a number of ways, not least by offering a turnkey sportsbook capable of not only outcompeting the largest B2C operators but also with the flexibility required to control key elements of the sportsbook where required. With the Kambi Group comprised of specialised product divisions, we can also build a package to suit the needs of each operator, as we saw in the case of Svenska Spel, which includes a Kambi-powered sportsbook with a front-end built by Shape Games.
“For those operators solely seeking competitive odds feeds, one of the key advantages of Kambi’s offering is the ability to provide top-tier products through a single API integration. This approach eliminates the need for operators to manage multiple third-party odds feeds, simplifying the integration process and reducing operational complexity. By replacing numerous suppliers with a single, comprehensive solution, operators can achieve greater confidence and control over their odds.
“Kambi’s pricing modules, which are derived from our turnkey sportsbook with extensive data, enhance operators’ revenue potential by delivering accurate and competitive odds. Operators can customise their offerings, either by building their own sports and league packages or by adopting Kambi’s full sports offering.”
Editor’s Note:
While their Turnkey sportsbook solution is still the core product, developing modular-style sportsbook products has been a natural progression and has long formed an integral part of Kambi’s product strategy.
According to Sarah, every sportsbook operator outsources something, so the pragmatic choice is not whether to outsource but which areas to outsource to enhance your offering and create a competitive advantage.
This is resource allocation at its best. The beauty of Kambi’s product is that it no longer means a loss of brand identity or multiple resource-intensive integrations. Instead, it’s one simple integration, and operators get to select which products suit them best.
Ultimately, this strategic approach drives efficiency by freeing operators to focus their resources and deliver a superior product to consumers, be it more competitive odds, a better range of betting markets, or an improved user experience. This enhances the customer experience, maximises the bottom line, and improves the chance of success.