Headline: You can’t win an F1 race with a bicycle. The days of legacy technology are over – EveryMatrix is here to shake things up”
iGaming AFRIKA: Mark, can you please introduce yourself, outline your industry experience and what brought you to EveryMatrix?
Mark: I’ve been in both senior B2C and B2B iGaming roles almost exclusively in Africa for the last 15 years. I started with Hollywood Bets in South Africa, running their sportsbook, then joined the B2B and world with companies including SportRadar, IMG, SportingTech and recently took the opportunity to help EveryMatrix expand further into Africa. It was one of those opportunities I couldn’t turn down.
iGaming AFRIKA: Can you provide an overview of the market dynamics in South Africa? What are the key touchpoints people need to consider?
Mark: There’s a long history of sports betting here. If you look back even further, traditional land based casinos have been around for years and consumers have a very strong association with them. There’s also a very strong background in on-course bookmakers and affection for horse racing, something we’re focusing on heavily with the imminent launch of our own product.
The uptake in crash games as well as other verticals such as the growing live casino options, live blackjack, game show formats and slots, has really helped the industry grow here. It’s a market controlled primarily by two operators however its actual size is significant. If you look at the numbers released for the last financial year it generated more than €2 billion in GGR. When you put that up against some of the more established markets, South Africa goes toe-to-toe with them. The opportunities for operators in South Africa to expand are huge.
Related Articles
-
Fazi: Redefining iGaming in Africa -
iGaming AFRIKA set to Attend AGE Lagos 2025 -
Exclusive: Esports Betting: The Next Big Thing in iGaming? -
Exclusive: Advancing South Africa’s Gambling Landscape with Martin Sack
The country’s background in land-based betting and casino, combined with the boom in online in the last few years since regulation, plus the regulatory changes across the continent all points to huge potential for both operators and suppliers as well as customers to start enjoying better experiences.
iGaming AFRIKA: Why does EveryMatrix view South Africa as such an attractive market?
Mark: It is is dominated by two key players that make up a big portion of total GGR, but an equally large part of that is made up of multiple brands, so if you look at the opportunities to grow those operators once they access our proven turnkey technology the potential is significant.
I’m fortunate to have many close C-level friendships with execs that run operations here and their frustrations are never ending with what they’re working with. I compare what some of them are doing as trying to win a Formula One race with a bicycle. It’s simply never going to happen.
Most South African operators also use a handful of providers that cover 80% of the market, but it’s the same product suite, the same casino offering and the same front-end. The only front-end differentiator they is a few cosmetic changes in terms of colour waves.
We have proven technology that consistently and continually delivers growth for our customers worldwide. We know the products that we have are best-in-class and we’re confident we can deliver in South Africa, making a big difference to our customers and their players’ experiences.
iGaming AFRIKA: Tell us more about the legacy technology that’s being used and how you want to end the “over-promise and under-deliver culture”.
Mark: This isn’t just a South African problem. It’s across the continent. Legacy suppliers who over-promise and under-deliver is common. If you speak to an operator in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, over the years they will have the same feedback that they were promised the world but only got a tenth of what they were expecting. In South Africa there is a lack of choice of high-quality turnkey technology for operators going back for the last 20 years.
Existing suppliers are slow to roll out features. They’re adequate when it comes to horse racing, but weak across every other vertical.
This has allowed companies to come in thinking that can offer something new, but South African operators are fed up with what they are being forced to use and they’re taking the opportunity to speak to tried and trusted providers coming into the market such as EveryMatrix.
iGaming AFRIKA: Why have these legacy providers prevailed for so long and other companies haven’t really seen the untapped potential of South Africa?
Mark: A lot of it comes down to regulation. When companies realise the associated costs they get a third of the way in and realise it’s not worth their while. It’s not been taken seriously and or been done well to this point, but we want to change that.
Many companies have entered and failed and that comes down to not offering the right products, the right customer support, and understanding the requirements of South African players. It is an incredibly competitive market and if you have a sales team that’s based on the other side of the world that’s trying to understand how you work day-to-day, the chances of that relationship being successful are slim to none.
I’m in Durban, South Africa and we have another office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania so we can meet with our clients face-to-face. We’re able to build relationships outside of business and get a real understanding of what their requirements are from a ground-up perspective, which puts us at an advantage compared our competitors.
If you put those factors together EveryMatrix is in a very strong position. In addition, we plan to significantly increase our team over the next year with localised staff to support customers in real time, with the right payment mechanisms and channels. This extra layer comes as part of the package with EveryMatrix and is how we do business.
iGaming AFRIKA: What is EveryMatrix bringing to the market that moves things forward?
Mark: If you look at our results in the last few years, it’s record breaking year after record breaking year and we’re the fastest growing provider out there. Our profits are being reinvested back into our products that we’re able to offer to our partners worldwide.
In South Africa we’re able to offer the industry’s largest casino aggregator with 34,000 games from hundreds of integrated premium studios including our own games. Our OddsMatrix sportsbook and odds feeds products are best-in-breed with 170,000+ live and in-play events every month. We provide localised, market-specific products such as horse racing that is a ‘must-have’ for 90% of sportsbooks here.
iGaming AFRIKA: The FSB acquisition has been a significant development for EveryMatrix with many customers migrating to EveryMatrix technology. How does that process work?
Mark: The conversations we’re having with brands here are advanced and you’ll see many more operators migrating to our technology. Migrating customers’ players in serious numbers is not something that’s new to EveryMatrix and something we’ve done very well in recent years such as with Bet-at-Home in Germany and the Hungarian lottery for example, migrating millions of players in matter of weeks. This is not an easy feat and many competitors regularly fall short in this department, but the strength of our processes, experience of our teams and robustness and scalability of our platforms has meant we’ve been able to pass these tests with flying colours.
I’m confident we’ll nail it in South Africa. We’re not in the business of telling clients what they want to hear, instead we’re straight to the point and give customers a clear-cut idea of what to expect. What we promise is what we deliver. Successful migrations are crucial and we’re confident we can deliver whatever any operator here needs.
EveryMatrix is exhibiting at SIGMA Africa on March 10 th and 11 th . Book a meeting with Mark and the team today! https://everymatrix.com/contact/