One-stop shop: LiveScore Group on the benefits of a "sports media ecosystem"

“Could we have done anything differently? I don’t think so,” argues LiveScore Group CEO Sam Sadi with the confidence of a man who knows the industry like the back of his hand. Having cut his teeth at bwin in a series of director roles, Sadi made the shift to Gamesys where he rose to CEO of sports before the business divested LiveScore Group in 2019, seeing Sadi become CEO in the process.

With the spectre of Covid-19 looming in 2020, Sadi oversaw the growth of LiveScore, the group’s sports media arm, and two challenger sports betting operators, LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet. The continued success of well-established media brand LiveScore, coupled with rapidly growing tier-two operators, are successes on Sadi’s CV but, he notes, it came with a price.

“It’s probably been the most challenging three years of my entire career but, at the same time, probably the most satisfying,” he says. “We emerged from Gamesys with around £10m in annual revenue and in the first two years we brought that up to above £80m. This has continued to grow strongly into our third year. We’ve also grown from 200 to 700 people. We did all that during the pandemic and now a war in Ukraine, which is having a severe impact on our business. It is a very short period to assess with so many external factors, but it’s been a great three years so far, given the circumstances.”

Balancing act   

One of the major successes of Sadi’s reign has been the closer meshing of the group’s media and sports betting businesses in line with his own vision of how to derive greater customer acquisition, retention and, ultimately, revenue. Sadi’s anecdote that there was a wall within the office separating the businesses of Virgin Bet and media brand LiveScore, which was torn down following the demerger from Gamesys, sums up his holistic outlook for the group.

The sports media and sports betting brands, while operationally distinct businesses, are brothers in arms in the 52-year-old Italian’s eyes, with traffic driven towards LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet from the huge number of eyes that use LiveScore every month. Sadi notes that LiveScore attracts 35 million active users worldwide on a monthly basis. The UK audience grew by 20% in 2021. That is a lot of potential cross-sell for a group that has the bait, the hook and the boat.

Sam Sadi, CEO of LiveScore Group

LiveScore has also recently undergone a brand refresh ahead of a packed domestic football season and the World Cup in Qatar this month and into December, while the platform also offers live streaming of European football, including the UEFA Champions League in Ireland, which, Sadi notes, boosts brand recognition in addition to helping grow its user base in Ireland by 35%.

He says: “LiveScore carries a huge legacy and heritage with sports fans and specifically within the football fan community. We’ve had to keep that in mind and just look to modernise the brand a little bit. [Streaming] points to us that our focus is not on increasing reach but to engage the existing reach with more content that users are looking for because they are already looking for us. We will always look for opportunities to grow our user base, as we have done in the UK and Ireland.”

Anarchy in the UK 

“Impossible. It’s not hard; it’s impossible,” Sadi insists when talking about the chance for smaller sportsbook operators to snag significant market share in the behemoth that is the UK online gambling industry. In a battlefield dominated by giants bet365, Flutter and Entain, the hopes for smaller brands begin to look ever slimmer, especially when counting for impending legislation set to bring the biggest change to the market in 15 years since the Gambling Act 2005 came into force in 2007. The likes of Novibet and bet-at-home have pulled out of the UK in recent months, with the fierce competition proving a tough test. Nevertheless, LiveScore Group remains committed to the market, and Sadi is banking on the uniqueness of the Virgin Bet and LiveScore Bet brands, combined with their products, to allow them to flourish where similar-sized operators have faltered.

Sadi says: “If you own a sports media ecosystem and bolt on a quality sportsbook, those users will give you a chance. It’s then up to you whether you take the chance and retain them as good customers. Our business model is very different. We don’t need to continue to spend to acquire new users or even retarget users. We have our users in our ecosystem, and we are adding more content and products to engage them.”

He goes on to argue that while entering the UK now without something to separate product or customer reach is “not feasible” for operators, he remains bullish on LiveScore Bet’s chance in the market. The looming changes coming from the white paper into the Gambling Act 2005 review, which remains in a constant state of flux following the political chaos that has seen three Prime Ministers, three ministers overseeing gambling and two Culture Secretaries named this year, will be more manageable for LiveScore Bet, according to Sadi, for this very reason.

He continues: “We’ve launched with very strict and rigid compliance regulations. We want to build a business with sustainable revenues. And being a small and new operator puts you in a position where you can’t make any mistakes. So, we went well beyond the required measures. It’s easier for us to adapt to the changes we think we will see when compared with larger operators. Are we happy more regulations are coming? No, but there is an opportunity for us to be more agile and take advantage of it.”

Rotterdam (or anywhere)  

Across the North Sea in the Netherlands, LiveScore Bet caused a slight surprise when it became one of the first firms to secure a licence for the newly regulated online market, which launched on 1 October 2021. With the likes of Entain and Betsson waiting on the outside looking in, wallowing in respective cooling-off periods, LiveScore Bet was able to swoop in as one of the first 10 licensed operators in the market. While some may have been taken aback, Sadi says he was not surprised to secure a licence, but the reality of the situation wasn’t as simple as pushing the go button.

In fact, Sadi confirms that while LiveScore Bet’s sportsbook product wasn’t available from 1 October to gain ideal first-mover advantage, it did subsequently launch this year, and so far, momentum is building. However, the chief exec is cautious of the return of the big players (Kindred Group rolled out Unibet.nl in July), arguing there is going to be a “US-style battle” for Dutch market share.

He says: “We had no preparations to enter the market. We wanted to get the licence and give ourselves an option in the long run if we wanted to. We were focusing on UK and Ireland at the time, so we did not manage to get the first-mover advantage. To be honest, I don’t think the first-mover advantage is going to hold. Former operators are going to come in and spend enormous amounts to grab back market share. We’re not going to enter that battle because it is too expensive, and the economics would never make sense.”

The final bastion of LiveScore Bet’s geographical footprint is Nigeria, where the shift in attitudes from retail to online piques Sadi’s interest. While the Nigerian market is heavily dominated by retail due to a combination of a lack of technology and the prevailing attitude of gambling being a social occasion among bettors, shifts in payments and the growth of 3G/4G is due to usher in a new era, one that Sadi is ready to capitalise on. He notes Nigeria remains at around 70% retail but anticipates a change over the next three years that will see the market flip on its head.

“We’ve done all the heavy lifting; we’ve set up our operational base in Lagos and we have all the licences; the product is in the market. We’re kind of in a holding pattern, waiting for the market to shift online towards where we’re positioned to take advantage. I would say that 2023 will be the year where we start investing into Nigeria, and potentially also expanding from that base into other sub-Saharan African territories.”

Expanding the ecosystem

Growth is seemingly set to continue for the recently named rising star of the EGR Operator Awards 2022. The London-headquartered firm netted a £50m investment from Swiss media and technology firm Ringier AG in September, which now values the firm at a whopping £500m.

LiveScore Group will use the capital injection to facilitate a global expansion, beginning with Eastern Europe, as it looks to harness Ringier’s knowledge of the region to deliver growth. Sadi reveals to EGR Intel that the group is planning to launch LiveScore Bet in the region’s first markets in H2 2023, with the firm leveraging Ringier’s media expertise and reach with the aim of snaring 5% market share in each jurisdiction.

“This opens up an expansion path for us that we didn’t have before,” he remarks. “Our approach is twofold in that we improve territories we operate in or go into territories where we have a significant media presence. This now allows us one more layer of potential growth where we didn’t have the media presence, but Ringier does. In close collaboration, we can bring our know-how and IP into new markets and gain a strategic edge against a traditional operator.”

Sadi also confirms that the group had been seeking investment since the end of 2021 and had been inundated with proposals but sided with Ringier due to the added value it could bring to the business, rather than just the capital injection, with the CEO labelling his new partner as an “exceptional sports media business”.

As LiveScore Group continues to grow, with Sadi expecting to maintain a run-rate of 100% on year-on-year growth, it falls into line with the changing shape of the industry. The combined media and sportsbook business gives LiveScore Group a leg up, and with more firms looking to become one-stop shops, such as Entain and DAZN with its newly launched sports betting platform, the sector is shifting to become a holistic destination for all activity, and not merely a place to punt. Sadi argues the shift has started and won’t stop, and operators need to adjust strategy or face being left behind.

“I think the current models are still potentially profitable, but the margins are diminishing,” he notes. “If you have a certain size, you can continue to be profitable. But if you’re a challenger brand, the only way to penetrate a market and gain more share is with a more innovative and efficient business model. On the sports betting side, you can’t count on being able to spend in traditional marketing and retain that user in the narrow context of sports betting, you need to enlarge that ecosystem to cover more adjacent areas.”

Life support

Away from the coalface of managing two operator brands and the group’s sports media business, Sadi is committed to personal development, health and career opportunities for his staff. LiveScore Group, like many large companies, is continuing to ramp up measures and awareness around mental health, with the long-term impact of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis still pertinent. The firm recently secured a bronze award from mental health charity Mind for its efforts in the workplace, something Sadi is proud of, but he’s also not content to rest on his laurels.

“We’re proud of the award but we think it’s just the start of the journey, we are not satisfied at all. As a business, we hold the physical and mental health of our employees very dear. It is a top priority to become an approved, progressive leader in this space. We are far away from where we want to be so we will continue to invest,” he declares.

This existing investment has spawned trained in-house mental health aid specialists, along with LiveScore Group working with external firms to provide 24/7 support for its staff, with ongoing discussions regarding further measures continuing.

In another diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measure, LiveScore Group launched an apprenticeship programme in October 2021 to provide young people with a chance to break into the industry. The 12-month scheme sees applicants trained across a series of departments, equipping them with the skills needed to succeed in the industry. Candidates also work towards qualifications during the scheme and are mentored by senior staff throughout the process. The rarity of these types of programmes is not lost on Sadi but he champions the process, arguing the eventual future benefits far outweigh any short-term complications, in a sense of business “karma”.

He continues: “You can see why some companies would see this as a hassle, but the benefits come from so many angles. You get to give engaged managers the chance to mentor young people in a profession they love, and you can see the positivity from the apprentices when these opportunities are presented.

“The benefits trickle into the future, too. It’s a great tool to add diversity to the business because you’re not confined by limitations in experience, you can cast the net as wide as you want. This all adds to the brand and the employee satisfaction and can create long-term diverse team members.”

LiveScore Group has also supported its 165 engineers located in Western Ukraine throughout the conflict with Russia, with relocation packages for families and constant dialogue to provide any assistance required by those still in the region.

Despite the difficulties with the UK and Netherlands he alludes to, Sadi comes across as a confident leader. His lengthy industry career has helped sharpen his abilities, but also to cut through the superfluous sheen that is often presented when discussing the sector. He doesn’t mince his words but is willing to back both himself, his staff and his brands to deliver success.

The mountains can end up looking like molehills if you squint hard enough. And there comes the next challenge for LiveScore Group, beyond the cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and making market share dents. And it is that much-favoured word of the industry: scale.

Sadi says: “The one key word is scale. We’ve established our product market fit, which is our media and bet ecosystem. We started growing it in the last 12 months and now we’re going to grow it either by increasing the efficiency of that ecosystem or taking it into more territories where LiveScore has a substantial user base. This is proven, so it is about investing in scale now.”

The framework is there for Sadi and LiveScore Group to succeed. Much was made of DraftKings and FanDuel’s existing customer bases from daily fantasy sports before the fall of PASPA, while new kid on the block Fanatics is earning praise for having a huge customer base from its sports apparel business.

For Sadi, the key will be ensuring that the business, both sportsbook and sports media, can continue to develop its symbiotic relationship to deliver further gains. From the impossible to the plausible, LiveScore Group’s journey is only just beginning.