We’re not afraid of swipe-to-bet copycats, says Bookee founder
Adam Kalmanson claims the firm’s “first-mover advantage” means it’s in a strong position should larger operators launch competing products
Bookee has nothing to fear from potential swipe-to-bet copycats, its founder has said, as the Tinder-style betting operator looks to utilise its “first-mover advantage”.
The FSB Technology-powered app soft-launched earlier this year ahead of a full launch in recent weeks, and its swipe-to-bet concept has since caught the industry’s attention.
In a recent EGR Intel poll, almost three quarters (72%) of respondents said Tinder-style betting was set to take off and could be the natural next step for mobile betting.
And despite admitting there was nothing to prevent larger operators replicating its idea, Bookee co-founder and former William Hill affiliate manager, Adam Kalmanson, said he was confident his firm was in pole position to succeed.
“I suppose that they could [copy the idea] but that would just prove our concept and we would feel completely vindicated in the fact we launched it and someone had jumped on board so quickly,” Kalmanson told EGR Intel.
“We’d also have first-mover advantage and we are hoping to become synonymous with this swipe betting concept.
“In my experience [at big operators], if we had a new interesting affiliate deal, the amount of bureaucracy and the number of hoops that have to be jumped through mean you don’t see anything happening for three to four or even six months.
“They are quite slow movers, whereas we are very nimble and can move very quickly.”
Bookee aims to appeal to recreational punters by offering small-stake bet suggestions, which customers can swipe left to discard or right to accept.
The app also takes learnings from popular transportation app Uber by enabling customers to split the stake of a bet with a friend, and is now aiming to integrate more personalisation features.
“There is definitely a pocket segment for us and people who are arguably disenchanted by the current complexity of the market: those who haven’t bet before and in general find it too complicated,” Kalmanson added.
“So far it’s just featured and trending bets… and what is shown in the app is based on users’ feedback, what people want to see and what we are seeing most people want to bet on.
“That idea will govern where we go from here and if people want to see more of a personalised angle then that is where we would ideally want to go and that is why we are taking a lot of data on at the minute.”