EGR Power 50 2019: 21-30

21. Betway (21)

Founded in 2006, Betway has become one of the online gaming market’s most recognisable brands, due to its sponsorship activity in sports, such as West Ham’s main sponsor. In racing, for example, the operator continues to sponsor a plethora of meetings including the Aintree Top Novices’ Hurdle and the Midmay Novices’ chase, while one of Betway’s biggest announcements this year was extending its deal as Aintree’s official betting partner of the Randox Health Grand National Festival by another five years. In addition to an aggressive marketing strategy, Betway also maintains a focus on delivering proprietary technology solutions, powered by its Win Technologies subsidiary. It is also very much international in its reach and is now back in Kenya’s sports betting market after its licence was reinstated, while the operator has yet to show any public interest in entering the nascent US sports betting market.

22. Playtech (17)

A mammoth of B2B gambling, Playtech made its Power 50 debut last year following its acquisition of Italian betting giant Snaitech, adding a new part to the firm’s sprawling B2C division. Snaitech, which in H1 2019 reported a 22% year-on-year rise in online revenue, contributed €396m in revenue to the London-listed company in the half-year period, although much of this is from machines and Regulus Partners estimates online is only 10% of the overall group. Another part of Playtech’s B2C division listed in company reports is its Sun Bingo white-label partnership for which Playtech revised its deal with News UK, extending its contract to operate the brand on a revenue-share basis for up to 15 years. Sun Bingo appears to be back on track following 20% H1 revenue growth, while Playtech’s Winner and Titanbet businesses recently withdrew from the UK market.

23. 12BET (25)

12BET may not grab the headlines on a regular basis, but it remains one of the world’s biggest online sportsbooks, with Asia continuing to account for the lion’s share. Yet while many of its Asian competitors are spending big on Premier League football sponsorships, 12BET has focused more on marketing deals in sports that tie in with its key markets, such as table tennis, taekwondo and badminton. “We just don’t think it is wise to go toe-to-toe with some of the newer entrants when it comes to Premier League shirt deals,” a spokesperson told EGR. Having said that, 12BET is expected to ramp up its Premier League exposure next season with some highly targeted deals while it continues to invest in UX and CRM.

24. Tombola (23)

Tombola has long been one of Europe’s biggest online bingo operators with a formidable position in the UK, Spain and Italy, and was recently rewarded for this feat by winning the Bingo Operator of the Year award at the 2019 EGR Operator Awards. The Sunderland-based company will no doubt have welcomed such recognition, but the fact it also won the prize for Socially Responsible Operator is arguably an even greater achievement given the current climate. With an established footprint in some of Europe’s biggest regulated markets, tombola recently expanded into the Nordic region with launches in Denmark and Sweden.

25. Tabcorp (27)

Australian gambling behemoth Tabcorp notches up a couple of places in this year’s rankings, following some steady growth from the Melbourne-headquartered firm’s digital operations. According to its full-year report, digital turnover from its lottery arm increased 73.5% year-on-year and now accounts for 23.5% of total turnover, while wagering digital turnover was up 7.7% and accounts for 44.6% of total turnover. Tabcorp has been a giant of the Australian wagering market for years and only doesn’t find itself higher up in the rankings due to its limitedgeographic reach and wider market influence. A major aspect of its future digital strategy is honing the clear omni-channel opportunities stemming from its wide-ranging retail presence, while the transition of the UBET brand to TAB is ongoing.

26. DraftKings (29)

A lot has changed as DraftKings enters the rankings for the second time. The Boston-based operator still leans heavily on its DFS business, but its real-money offering continues to take second place in New Jersey despite an influx of competition during the NFL season. It accounted for 33% of Indiana’s nascent market, and recently entered Pennsylvania. DraftKings’ chief business officer Ezra Kucharz has confirmed it is exploring ways to go public, including merging with a special purpose acquisition company. It is expanding its tech operations to Las Vegas and Dublin, with plans to hire 30 new staffers.

27. STS Gaming Group ***NEW***

Polish bookmaking giant STS makes its EGR Power 50 debut after providing its financial statistics for the first time – and it’s fair to say the figures reveal a business far larger than we expected. According to the stats, STS recorded €448.2m in online net gaming revenue for the 12 months to 30 June 2019, up 39% year-on-year on the €321.7m figure it achieved the previous year. Although Poland makes up for the bulk of its revenues, STS has also recently expanded into additional European countries such as Germany, Iceland and the UK, where it seeks to tap into the sizeable Polish community. The operator has also been busy from a marketing perspective in recent months.

28. Coingaming Group (44)

Founded in 2014 and making the Power 50 for the second year in a row, Coingaming Group is the only operator on the list focused on the cryptocurrency space with a portfolio of bitcoin-led gaming brands such as Bitcasino.io and Sportsbet.io. The Tallinn-headquartered company has adopted fiat currency betting to acquire new customers and even launched in the UK this year on a TGP Europe white-label site to ratify its Sportsbet.io shirt sponsorship of Premier League club Watford. Much of the firm’s revenues comes from VIP players in unregulated South American and Asian markets, preventing the operator from securing a higher position on the list.

29. Zeal Network (33)

Arguably the biggest news for online lottery operator Zeal Network was the completion of its takeover of Germany lottery broker Lotto24 in May. It was an intriguing saga that saw Zeal engaged in public disagreement with rival operator, and minority shareholder, Lottoland, which failed in its attempts to scupper the deal. Zeal has since relocated its headquarters back to Germany as a result of the Lotto24 transaction and will embrace the lottery brokerage model rather than the secondary lottery business it had previously pursued.

30. SKS365 Group (31)

As one of the biggest online sports betting operators in Italy, SKS365 is in a seemingly never-ending battle with industry heavyweight bet365 for the top spot. Bet365 may have edged out the Malta-headquartered firm in recent months, but this is only by a wafer-thin margin and the fact SKS365 is consistently ahead of local brands such as Snaitech and Sisal speaks volumes. It’s not all been plain sailing for the operator this year though, after it was forced to reshuffle its senior executive team in the wake of a political scandal in Italy allegedly involving the firm’s Planetwin365 business.