Mark Blandford: crystal ball gazing 12/01/2010

Mark Blandford, founder, Sportingbet

THE EVOLUTION OF the industry means that some things that were once milestones seem relatively insignificant now. For example, one of the biggest milestones in the very early days of Sportingbet was to get online credit card processing working - today that is a relatively straightforward process. 

If I had to list Sportinbet’s milestones going through time, they would be: getting credit card processing in 1998, getting the company Ofex-listed and acquiring Betmaker in 1999; becoming AIM-listed and raising £18m in 2001 and getting the deal funded for the acquisition of Sportsbook; then getting the company to the point where it was profitable. 

Bearing in mind that these were all start-up businesses back then, I would say it was a milestone when we brought truly professional management into the companies as they were growing. 

As the industry has matured, the highlights have moved on to European markets such as Italy and Spain going down the licensing and regulation route, and it looks like France is heading that way as well. 

It is also significant that these days we have moved on a lot from being solely internet gambling – we are interactive gambling, we are mobile phone gambling, we are interactive television gambling. The user experience and the current generation of phones – the latest iPhones and BlackBerrys – have been significantly enhanced. 

If I had my crystal ball out, I’d predict a number of developments in the payments area. Traditionally we’ve just used credit cards but I think there are going to be more integrated payment solutions, such that the operator is offering a quasi-bank service to the customer; this might give them an ATM accessible card so their winnings go back on to their card. 

I’d also say that we will see the emergence of Latin America as a more significant market and I believe that we are going to see a convergence of financial derivatives and gambling. This is already starting, for example with the Paddy Power Trader product. 

We’ve also seen it with binary products being introduced by the likes of IG Index, so the groundwork is there for the leisure player of financial products."

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Posted: 12/01/2010