Industry predictions for 2020 - including Latam growth, innovation and M&A
In the first of a series of articles leading up to the New Year, EGR asks industry experts to predict the big themes for 2020
Adam Wilson, co-founder, Bookee
Latam Growth
2020 will be the year where Latin American enters the mainstream industry narrative. Brazil will regulate, opening the doors to the biggest single betting market to enter the fray to date, starting a regulatory domino effect that puts Latam at the forefront.
UK exodus
I’d expect to see some high-profile operators leave the UK next year. With the Big 7 turning into the Big 4, how sustainable is a loss leading strategy just to say “we’re here”, when competing against potentially (surely) even more consolidation and certainly more regulation.
Genuine innovation
Perhaps wishful thinking, but I’d love to see a flurry of innovation, most likely coming out of the US. 2020 will see VCs start to take the industry seriously, which will lead to funds being thrown at young (or old, no ageism here) hungry entrepreneurs. Product will be the focus, with platforms starting to take a more open approach to third-party integrations. Operators already live for close to two years are moving out of the get-me-live phase into the we-need-good-product phase. This will create the perfect storm for plenty of supply and demand for awesome innovative product.
Michal Kopec, director of M&A, Better Collective
M&A
M&A will continue to play an important role in both the operator and affiliate landscape. With a potential Flutter-Stars merger being potentially the biggest deal we can see in the industry, smaller consolidations are expected to continue to happen. On the operator front it will be very interesting to see how the likes of William Hill and GVC will react to this potential mega-merger. On the affiliate front it will interesting to see how the ongoing compliance and regulatory changes will drive further acquisitions from key players.
US check
After the exciting developments in the US market following the PASPA repeal, 2020 will be the year of verification. In 2019, everyone got extremely excited about this market. However, the big regulatory changes are yet to be implemented – 2020 will be a real test for this market. If some of the big states push through some operator-friendly regulations the ‘American Dream’ can become a reality, at least for some companies in the market. On the other hand, if nothing moves forward some companies can face some serious difficulties to keep up waiting for those changes to happen.
Eastern Europe
With all eyes on US, German and Dutch regulations, some tend to ignore Eastern Europe. In the meantime, markets like Bulgaria, Romania or Czech Republic continue to develop. Poland becomes an attractive market for sports betting operators with the likes of Cherry and Betclic getting their licences there in 2019. On top of that, positive regulatory changes seem to be coming in Ukraine. Some operators focused on those markets like STS, Superbet or Fortuna can grow stronger and either catch up with other European giants or become very attractive M&A targets for those.