Q&A: 888 CEO on the BetBright aftermath and US Wire Act challenges
Itai Pazner tells EGR the London-listed operator acted “as best it could in a tricky situation”
888 this morning posted a 2% decline in FY18 revenues as its struggling poker and bingo verticals offset growth in casino and sports. EGR caught up with group CEO Itai Pazner to discuss the results and the relatively tumultuous aftermath of the recent BetBright acquisition.
EGR Intel: It looks like the UK is showing sign of green shoots, with revenues up 10% so far in Q1. What’s changed?
Itai Pazner (IP): The UK was the focus of our compliance and regulatory updates and it was a necessity to deal with that. That’s an ongoing process but now it’s built into our processes and we’re managing to bring the UK back to growth. That’s based on all categories growing in the UK and some are outperforming, notably casino and sports betting. What we have been doing is going for more of a mass-market approach with more customers, lower volume.
EGR Intel: Several other companies like William Hill and LeoVegas have suffered similar pain after shutting VIP accounts. Where are all these customers going?
IP: I don’t have a clue. If we can’t satisfy ourselves with the information we need from players, we have processes to limit or close them. Then they either go elsewhere in the industry or stop playing. I don’t know where they go. I can tell you we have a lot of processes in place to protect players and ourselves.
EGR Intel: Were you surprised by the outcry around the BetBright acquisition and the way you were dragged into a debate about ante-post bets that wasn’t really in your control?
IP: We were definitely dragged into that debate. We didn’t buy the customers. We don’t even have access to them, so it’s a tricky situation. We acted in the best way we could, which was taking responsibility for the Cheltenham bets as a goodwill gesture. The situation happened, we reacted quickly as best we could and there’s not much more we can do in that sense.
EGR Intel: What will happen to the BetBright traders who presumably won’t have anything to trade for a year plus?
IP: There’s a lot of places we can keep people busy – developing automated trading tools for the future, for example. There’s plenty to do on the sports betting side so we’re confident they’ll be occupied and satisfied.
EGR Intel: Is it fair to say your All American Poker Network could be one of the biggest casualties of the recent Wire Act reinterpretation, since it relies more on interstate liquidity sharing?
IP: We operated in three different pools in Europe until recently. It’s not ideal but it doesn’t close the potential of the market. And the US is more about sports and casino than poker. And that opinion doesn’t affect those. There will be more operational complexity with things like data centres and liquidity sharing.