In the dynamic landscape of iGaming, the Eurasian region stands as a hidden gem, ripe with untapped potential and emerging markets. Despite its allure, this region often remains overlooked, considers Dmitry Starostenkov, CEO of EvenBet Gaming. He and his team will participate in SBC Summit Tbilisi, which will take place on June 25-26 at the Sheraton Grand Tbilisi Metechi Palace Hotel. Prior to the event, he met with SBC Eurasia to discuss important industry challenges.
Could you elaborate on why EvenBet Gaming chose to participate in SBC Summit Tbilisi? What strategic objectives or opportunities does EBG hope to achieve through participation in the Summit?
Eastern Europe and Eurasian markets are often underestimated by the leading iGaming companies, despite the fact that some of the most prominent vendors and operators have offices in such countries as Armenia or Georgia. But in EvenBet Gaming, we know the real brilliant potential of the region and have numerous business interests here. That’s why participation in SBC Tbilisi has become a good tradition for our company.
Here we may get insights into the market development and player preferences, and what’s even more important, meet our customers and take part in their business development. Building fruitful relationships and strong connections with our clients is a centrepiece of our retention and growth strategy, we invest a lot of resources into customer development. Face-to-face meetings are a crucial part of this process.
What significance does the SBC Summit hold for the Eurasian region (CIS, Eastern Europe, Central Asia), particularly in terms of fostering growth and innovation in the iGaming and sports betting industries?
There are few events targeted to this region, you can count the ones with outstanding conference content and good networking on the fingers of one hand. SBC Summit is famous for its conference, promoting unique insights, case studies, and shared expertise. Quality events like this provide knowledge, productive networking, and numerous relevant contacts for businesses, they are a glue connecting the industry, and without them, every operator and every given market would have to develop as a closed system, which is never good for growth. Eurasia consists largely of young, emerging markets in the early stages of development, with numerous rapid changes, that’s why keeping oneself updated is a priority.
On top of the conference content, SBC Summit gathers the main stakeholders in the region, which is important for B2B vendors like EvenBet Gaming: we can achieve some immediate business goals and even close deals in the course of the event, thus contributing to further region development and innovation adoption.
What business priorities has EBG identified for this region? How do they align with the company’s global vision and future development?
For us, it’s very similar to most of the other actively growing regions: we dig into the trends, learn about the demands, and try to identify the opportunities for our poker and card games platform.
Do you see any particular trends in this region that are very specific to it? How is EBG addressing and capitalising on these trends?
Speaking of the verticals, it’s online sports betting growth that is moving at the speed of light, and yet, a large prospective audience is still unreached by online operators. That causes another product-focused trend: engagement-boosting mechanics relevant to betting and casino projects alike. Recently, we have catered a lot of new features targeted to this very objective, and they are well accepted by the market. I’m speaking of such options as interactive in-game options enhancing communication between players (animated emojis, throwable objects, video chat) and the ones that ease the onboarding and learning curve for the newbies (for example, the double board that decreases the chances of losing all the stack).
The arrival of the new generation of players directly online and the increased access for recently excluded betting and gaming audiences (those who couldn’t afford to visit a land-based casino or were not comfortable with the offline betting shops), which are often vulnerable, inexperienced, and prone to increased financial risks. As vendors, we aim to make their gaming experience safe and engaging.
In marketing, there’s an increasing impact of social media, especially visual-focused Instagram and TikTok, and a trend to use more and more brand ambassadors chosen among sports or pop stars and even social media influencers.
What do you see as the biggest challenge the iGaming industry is facing in the region and in general, internationally?
Undoubtedly, it is regulation. Last year in Tbilisi, the legislation-focused discussions reminded battlefields, and I expect it to repeat this year. It is still one of the main factors withholding online gaming industry growth and causing great uncertainty in Eurasia. The current regulation state varies from mild policy and general acceptance to a complete iGaming ban, with everything in between, and often presents grave obstacles to the companies’ development.
Following the influx of new audiences, responsible gaming issues will arise shortly in most of the Eurasian markets. Balancing players’ risks and business profits is a headache, if the countries in the region start following the example of European responsible gaming guidelines.
In addition, serious payment processing troubles still stand for the majority of markets, and I’m expecting that this year, we’ll hear a great many mentions of payments during the conference.
What news shall we expect from EvenBet Gaming? Shed some light on new launches, expansions, etc
In 2024, we plan a thorough product improvement. Our platform already includes 38 poker and card games created in-house, and this year, we expect to launch two more, rounding the number to 40, and a few new tournament types. All games scheduled for release will be big news: they are actively demanded in some emerging markets where EvenBet Gaming is present. One more outstanding announcement is scheduled for Q3 and concerns club poker games.
New feature development will be focused on three main objectives: improving player and game management (for example, with more segmentation options), increasing safety and reliability with new anti-fraud tools, and providing more engagement and interaction between the players. While prioritising the feature development and UX improvement, we base on the feedback and the demands of our customers, so we can be sure that we deliver exactly the product they need.
One of our strongest benefits is customising our platform for different markets and creating locally demanded games: Rummy and Teen Patti for India and South Asia, for instance. Just before SBC Tbilisi, we will participate in the exhibition in Manila, where we will showcase how our game set can be adapted for almost any Asian market. EvenBet will continue to work in this direction: exploring market preferences and adapting our offer is a strategic objective for our company.
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