Driving Africa’s new era

Marko Dzoic, our sales manager in Africa, outlined how we’re offering clients a new lease of life in the latest issue of the Intergaming and Intergamingi Magazine.

There are several clear trends emerging within the African online sports betting market. The first, in tandem with currency fluctuations, is due, in part, to the varying prosperity of the economies across the continent’s 54 countries. Another is how the market’s accelerating maturity, combined with increasing sportsbook customer demands, is shining a light on the limitations of existing in-house technology.

The two are interlinked, so let’s examine both in more detail.

Change of strategy

On one hand, you have large, established operators in African countries with relatively stable economies where the currency experiences low levels of fluctuation, while on the other there exist smaller brands that operate within more unstable economies with higher levels of currency fluctuations, larger, more well-recognized brands with in-house solutions are considering parting ways with their legacy providers and switching to advanced platform technologies from suppliers such as EveryMatrix, where we can rapidly integrate full turnkey solutions.

This involves several modular elements that combine to create the ultimate efficient operation, including a proven sportsbook platform combined with GamMatrix, our player account management platform, MoneyMatrix as our payments gateway, and PartnerMatrix for affiliate management software and agent systems. Alongside bonusing, gamification, and safer gambling features, this provides them with a complete solutions ecosystem proven to work together to generate maximum uptime, maximum revenue, and differentiated and personalized player experiences.

Offering instant change

Meanwhile, small-to-medium brands are seeing what their larger competitors are doing and considering consolidating their efforts to develop larger sportsbook entities. However, they are often only looking to integrate new sports data feeds instead of a complete sportsbook solution.

Larger brands are also having to cope with the rapidly changing industry. In turn, they are either considering, or are in the process of, switching providers because legacy suppliers are unable to cope with the growing demands of increasing player volumes, new sportsbook features, compliance functionality, or they simply don’t have the capacity to expand to more countries.

These legacy platforms have reached the end of their shelf lives and are no longer fit for purpose. We can instantly change that.

Currency Issues

Then comes the wider socio-economic issue of currency devaluation, which has been a burden for years and continues to challenge many local brands trying to grow their share of voice. This is exacerbated in countries where banks don’t allow companies to buy foreign currency in large amounts, causing problems when it comes to paying providers, businesses with local ownership, or sportsbook development teams.

It is common, for example, to see some smaller operators only integrate sports feeds from providers due to commercial models that are typically less exposed to currency fluctuations. Often with sports feeds agreements, they either come with a fixed fee or a lower revenue share with lower monthly invoices. This means that if a currency fluctuates sharply, the cost of doing business is lower and there is less risk.

Differing from the rest

All African brands are aware of these varying levels of uncertainty. These are not going away; however, there are several ways that working with EveryMatrix can both mitigate these financial burdens due to our flexible, bespoke approach and simultaneously boost revenues and grow market share thanks to our diverse and best-of-breed products.

We’re proud to say that we provide the most cost-effective, highly efficient, proven betting and iGaming technology products and solutions that generate the best digital sports betting tools and experiences.

At the same time, we also recognize that every project we undertake and every operator we work with is different. Therefore, we’ve become experts at adapting both our technologies and our commercial approach to any individual need(s).

Local knowhow

We have been operating on the continent for several years, have a team on the ground, and have developed a better understanding of the market than our competitors. We know how diverse Africa is, with 54 countries, each one with its own specific needs, demands, differences, and qualities.

As our aim is to be present in every market, we either visit operators directly or attend all the major events in Africa. We also speak to local operators and punters every day, developing new relationships and equally communicating that our door is always open.

Key features

In 2023 we provided 149,000 pre-live matches, with 130,000 of them available in-play. In comparison, the world’s leading betting operator had 136,000 pre-live matches with 90,000 in-play. We also have more pre-live and in-play football matches than any other operator.

Our extensive esports coverage is non-seasonal, allowing for high betting volumes during periods of lower sports betting activity. On the topic of fast live betting, many African operators suffer delays from a few seconds to several minutes. We don’t. With live betting and esports gathering speed in Africa, high uptimes and fast, seamless betting are crucial to attract players.

Our advanced odds management allows clients to maximize betting margins and profits by tweaking the odds per sport, country, tournament, or even just one market. Regarding bonuses and promotions, the features offered include cash-out, auto cash-out, partial cash-out, bet builder, and cash-out on site or manual acceptance.

Using BonusEngine and PartnerMatrix, we can provide additional tools to retain players, including proposed bet slips so players can start creating their tickets faster. We fully support and provide omnichannel technologies and features across online, mobile, and retail solutions, while the user-friendly back office allows operators to change positions for any sport and any competition with just a few clicks.

Finally, we can offer feeds with the option to adjust odds or without. This allows us to adjust pricing for each group of providers or operators across the continent.

The original version of this article was published by Intergaming and Intergamingi Magazines.