Q&A: Betty CEO on aiming to quintuple its Ontario market share

Dialing in from Betty’s HQ in New York, CEO Justin Park is excited to share how the female-focused online casino operator will look to kick on from what has been a full-on opening year.

Betty launched its slots-only online casino platform in Ontario, Canada, in February 2023 and the firm estimates that it has secured a 2% market share in the 12 months since.

Park explains that this was achieved on the back of the group’s in-house developed casino platform, Midnight, which serves as the central operating system for the firm. The platform, which is set to move to a version two in the coming months, is set up to deliver “players with a personalized and transparent gaming experience”, according to the CEO.

To accomplish this, the platform uses real-time data to allow Betty to offer customized player experiences in real-time. The platform is also flexible to tailor third-party integrations such as payment services and game providers, to best suit the operator’s needs.

Betty has also caught the industry’s attention after securing three separate funding rounds, with plans in place to use the capital injection to expand user acquisition, improve live operations, and upgrade its proprietary platform. 

A $5m round, led by Karlani Capital, in the same month as going live was followed by HappyHour leading a seed extension in May.

Then, in January this year, the founders secured another $5m investment in a pre-Series A funding round spearheaded by CEAS Investments before adding former WeWork COO Jen Berrent as a strategic advisor in March. 

The firm stated that its main objective in 2024 was to use the capital raised to upgrade its in-house proprietary platform from Midnight One to Midnight Two. 

Speaking to EGR North America, Park details how exactly the operator is looking to progress and gain further market share in Ontario, as well as its plans for the future. 

EGR North America (EGR NA): For those unfamiliar with Betty, could you explain what makes you different to others in the market? 

Justin Park (JP): Betty is a challenger brand that operates purely in the Ontario market. We saw that 40% to 45% of the total addressable market is driven by women who play slots, and that audience is underserved by sports betting-first operators. 

So, we are going after that section of the market with our offering, which is slots only. Our site is built on an in-house proprietary platform, and we’ve built a lot of features to attract and retain this type of customer.

EGR NA: How did you discover it was women who make up such a high proportion of slots players?

JP: We reached this conclusion in three different ways. First, we used data from the University of Nevada, which is pretty robust. We then gathered our own data sets by physically going to land-based casinos and literally counting the number of men and women playing slots. Thirdly, we spoke to other people in the industry and, from an anecdotal perspective, found out what the split is and, so, arrived at the 40% to 45% range. 

EGR NA: As an online slots-only operator, how do you ensure users play responsibly?

JP: I think responsible gaming starts at a business model level. Most operators are top-heavy, where you have a smaller portion of the player base that drives revenue. That being said, our strategy is about building a more casual customer base, and because of that, we’re more interested in a bigger pool of players who play at a smaller level. 

EGR NA: What specific product developments and refinements have you been making in the 14 months since launching?

JP: A big part of our thesis is bringing best practices from the free-to-play mobile game space and social casino into our product. Specifically, we incorporated metagame and live ops mechanics. What this means is leveling systems, coins, stores, and collections, things of that nature. We are augmenting all of that quite significantly. We also added new game providers to give players a broader selection of games and invested in our in-house user acquisition infrastructure. 

EGR NA: Your tech stack was also built in-house. Do you plan to do as much internally as possible?

JP: As a starting point, we wanted something that could become really big, which is why we even considered the operator side of the industry to begin with. When we looked at a lot of operators, we saw that no one had reached a meaningful scale without in-house tech. Once we saw that, we decided on our product vision and what we wanted to create. From there, we decided we definitely could not accomplish that with third parties.

EGR NA: From that initial concept, what does the ultimate goal for Betty look like?

JP: Looking at other operators, bet365 is the business we admire the most. We tried to look and learn as much as possible about how they do things, and I believe one of their core tenets is doing everything in-house. Bet365 is what we aspire to be – it has one of the best sportsbooks ever built. While bet365 has online casino, it’s second to sports betting, so I want Betty to become the bet365 of online casino. 

EGR NA: Would you ever consider diversifying your offering to include more verticals?

JP: I don’t think we’d ever venture into sports betting. I have zero appetite for sports betting, and the customer base is just too different from online casino players. For us, bingo is the next category that makes the most sense.

EGR NA: When you received the latest cash injection in January, it was confirmed the funds would be used to upgrade your proprietary platform. Will it be just subtle tweaks or a complete overhaul?

JP: It’s both. For context, I previously trained as a customer service agent and worked a few shifts in that department, so I know how to improve our product in that area. We can also improve operational efficiency by going from Midnight One to Midnight Two. There are lots of different end users of the platform, so we are building each model for each specific end user. Most platforms are built as a seat of functionality that people need to dig through to get what they need as opposed to being built for a specific end user. In that sense, there’s some definite overhaul in how we think about it. 

EGR NA: In terms of your growth plans, are you looking at expanding into new markets in the near future?

JP: Right now, we estimate we have around a 2% share of the Ontario market. This means there is still a lot of headroom for growth. We want to be in the number one position, so that’s where our focus is. We want to get to 10% in the next 12 months. The good news is we have built a scalable model, meaning we know how to buy quality traffic efficiently and predictably onboard and retain those users. We have also discussed expansion, and if we do, it would be in other markets in Canada, such as Alberta, when it regulates. 

EGR NA: Does this mean you are not looking across the border into the US in the near future?

JP: We are focused on the Canadian market at the moment. In four or five years from now, who knows what will happen. I think as our appetite and ambitions grow, we will have an eye on eventually entering the US. 

EGR NA: Will expansion into the US depend on igaming legalization in more states?

JP: Not necessarily. I think for us, step one would be getting a foothold somewhere. It’s proving that we can be a multi-jurisdictional player and there is plenty of opportunity in the markets that are open at the moment to build a meaningful business. We are not concerned about the whole legalization debate at the moment. I think that topic is more relevant to the bigger players in the industry.