today gaming america is speaking with marina bogard the managing director of betson's north america operation they recently launched in colorado and we're here to talk about betson's ambitions for the north american market thank you for speaking with us today marina thank you cameron appreciate the opportunity so my first question is about the product you recently launched in the us could you just tell us what it is absolutely so um we indicated to our investors and shareholders that we would be launching a betsafe branded sports book in the us in the first quarter which we did at the end of march uh a fully functioning uh sports mobile app specific to the colorado market only um and we really focused on the whole player journey experience with a full array of sports that are available to bet on as well as you know future functionality that's specific to this market and we'll continue to innovate and create new features and functionality as we receive feedback from our players to ensure our best in class experience and the betsafe brand [Music] um and just to be uh just to be clear is this a b2c or b2b offering that you have in the us it is a b2c offering in colorado to start um but we will be also expanding our b2b presence here yeah so in looking forward which which you see is more important in the american north american market well we are our objective is really to move into more broadly into the b2b space but utilizing our b2c approach here in colorado as well as canada as a showcase to to really be able to show our b2b potential partners what the experience would look like as well as you know what the all the various support resources that we have to offer from a managed services solution to get them ready to onboard is the turnkey or whatever flavor you know they they want and what they can manage on their own sure sure um i wanted to i wanted to ask a bit about the sort of licensing process uh we've heard other other people especially i know you're uh american but your company is european and we've heard that european companies coming into the us uh they find it a little um disorienting how many uh you know uh how every different market every different state has a different set of protocols and rules you need to follow to go live i was wondering if that has been your experience at betsyn [Music] actually licensing in the colorado market has gone very very smoothly it was definitely you know before my time when i joined betsy but we had external uh resources of council to ensure that we are you know properly filling out the paperwork but um colorado is such a uh you know positive gaming state um and their process went very smoothly and betsyn's been in the business since the 60s so you know in terms of longevity and and uh the kind of reputation besson has has really definitely helped in getting that process to go through smoothly as it did sure sure so did you choose colorado specifically because it's known as a smooth state to open it or was there another reason behind that well it was one of the early states as you probably know in terms of getting sportsbook live um it has a very advantageous tax bracket but it also has a you know a sweet spot of demographics in terms of you know 50 50 gender spread it's a diverse community high net worth high education high income levels so it really kind of encapsulates a lot of what the the sports betting demographic would look like which is why you know 20 plus other type of companies are here doing the same sure um and as far as other other markets are you currently sort of going through that licensing application process uh we're done um in colorado we are opening up uh with the regulated market in ontario so we're going through that process where the best state brand is there today but as you know uh ontario is moving from an unregulated to a regulated market so we're going through that licensing process and expect to be live in that market sometime in the late third quarter sure i'm just wondering and this could be a superficial answer from your end but is there a market difference between uh getting a license in the united states versus canada in your opinion you know every country is different and every state is different as well but um you know in terms of the process it's fairly similar you know different regulations and requirements um and in fact i think in some respect canada is a little bit easier as um you know several individuals would not have to get licenses usually the corporation and colorado on top of the corporation it's also individuals that have to go through that process so you know it just depends but so far it's been relatively smooth for us okay uh i wanted to ask too about uh igaming or digital casino is i mean you hear in the us today it's all sports betting and sports fitting but that i gaming is going to be really big uh in the next five years is this betson's view and do you have sort of big ambitions for your high gaming arm as you move forward into the us and canada yeah well you know i do think i do think i gaming in general uh you know and sports betting mobile sports betting in general will continue to increase uh the american gaming association just recently came out with some statistics on eye gaming and sports betting and it for the first quarter and it's about 2.8 billion dollars um and that's split about 50 50 and it will continue to grow so i think there's tremendous opportunity it's still in really early stages for the u.s market and i do think you know the whole covid um unfortunately covet experience has opened up opportunity for states to look at more of a mobile digital solution for ability to increase revenue for their state that wasn't available before so i think it's just opened up more of an opportunity to take a look at digital solutions for gaming right but would you say it's still too early i mean let's say in five years do you think eye gaming would be a much bigger part of uh betsyn or do you think it'll be pretty evenly split between mobile sports betting and igaming in terms of the services you provide you know at this point just kind of looking into the crystal ball um i'd say it's probably evenly split i think it'll be really interesting to see you know as what at least the numbers i'm seeing across the board from other operators it seems to be about evenly split um so i think i think it just still is going to be determined as the time goes on and as more uh states open up as well sure sure uh okay and i was wondering you you have your products that you uh that are available in in europe do you adapt those significantly for the american market or is it a pretty smooth transition uh we've adapted certainly you know in terms of terminology in terms of you know how odds um are kept are displayed so we are americanizing it or north americanizing uh the the experience to ensure that it is more conducive to the culture here um but overall in terms of the sports we're going to be providing all the sports you know plethora of sports across um the globe and the ability to bet on but in terms of communication and style and how it's presented it'll certainly be more americanized yeah would you say in general you can characterize this whole uh you know since paspa in 2018 this this whole rise of digital uh gambling as european technology coming into the us and canada is that a fair characterization i don't know so much of the technology but certainly the opportunities um you know europe has been doing mobile gaming for decades um without you know significant um you know issues so i think it is you know just the opportunity to have digital gaming for real money is is the ability for the us to expand and really take the learnings of what's happened in other areas geographically and take those learnings into the u.s markets sure sure um now i i wanted to ask uh and i don't know how much you can say but after ontario what are betson's sort of uh strategic plans uh for opening in new markets sure for um well i can't speak to the whole geographical expansion which is which is uh you know something betsys has been doing for decades is to diversify geographically but from a north america perspective on the best safe brand as i mentioned you know we will be looking to really expand our b2b presence and grow through our b2b platform um and then we'll determine whether or not we go b to c anywhere else where it makes sense but really focus our objectives on growing the b2b business unit uh so my last question uh sort of sort of grows out of the one before i wanted to ask in 18 to 24 months from now where would you like to see bets in north america oh certainly i'd like to see our expansion of b2b with the current partnerships that we're in discussion with and i'm sure there'll be plenty more to come so having a stakeholder into the u.s market specifically with b2b partners that are dispersed across the states and more states will be opening up as well so we could look to grow with the with the expansion of those states so you know i am very confident that uh we'll have ability to announce some of those partnerships in the near future super well good luck with that thank you this has been marina bogard of betson usa thank you for speaking with gaming america today thank you cameron appreciate it you