Q&A: Playtech CEO talks BGT acquisition

Playtech has never been one to shy away from M&A activity, and last week struck again with a ?115m deal for sports betting supplier Best Gaming Technology (BGT). The acquisition, which provides a major boost to Playtech’s retail and omni-channel divisions, came just weeks after buying businesses within the online casino vertical, Quickspin and GECO Gaming.

eGaming Review caught up with the London-listed supplier giant’s CEO, Mor Weizer, to find out more about last week’s deal and how it will be integrated into the Playtech family.

eGaming Review (EGR): What prompted you to buy Best Gaming Technology?

Mor Weizer (MW): The technology will become part of the industry-leading Playtech ONE omni-channel offering, which enables players to enjoy a similar gaming experience across all products and devices using the Playtech infrastructure with a single account and wallet. SSBTs are growing fast, not only in the UK, but elsewhere, and we realised it is a vertical that is a simple one for an omni-channel approach and offering.

We tried to do the SSBTs ourselves because we realised the punter value, but the results on the BGT terminals for different and good reasons are by far higher. And we realised that by acquiring BGT we will have access to the most sophisticated and advanced solutions for SSBTs which will play a key part in our omni-channel approach. They will also help us invest in certain core markets for Playtech such as the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and certain other markets.

EGR: What is it about BGT’s products which make them stand out?

MW: There is a reason why they generate double the volume of other SSBTs and it goes way beyond just a front-end sports solution. The SSBTs are a very sophisticated system that has certain back office skills which eventually lead to stronger results for the operator and a better experience for the consumer. They have all the relevant and necessary services fully integrated, including accounting systems, bank services and third-party protocols which allow the operators to integrate those with third-parties. It also has a very innovative marketing tools for content management, both on promotions and reporting on big data customer tracking. So all together it’s a very sophisticated system.

EGR: Are you worried that operators like William Hill are rolling out proprietary SSBT products?

MW: I’m not worried at all. I think the market will evolve and SSBTs are a relatively young vertical within retail sports betting. William Hill was different in terms of its approach, within online it is the same, and I think other operators understand the value of BGT. I think the ability to integrate this online is a massive opportunity for operators that would like to digitise and revolutionise their existing retail operation by deploying an omni-channel offering. BGT offers its product to most established bookmakers in the country, but outside of the UK where they have a significant presence there are a lot of opportunities. They are focused on five or six countries but the pipeline is a very long list of operators in different countries across Europe.

EGR: How many bookmakers do you have in the pipeline?

MW: I can’t be too specific about that. All I can say is there is a long pipeline of customers. Add to that the fact Playtech has certain customers which have entered into an agreement with us, as part of which we will deploy an omni-channel offering. We have done that with Coral in the past and we have just done it with Ladbrokes, while we have certain opportunities with the likes of Caliente and in different parts of the world.

EGR: How will BGT’s omni-channel solution work with your Playtech ONE product?

MW: Simply by integrating the back office of BGT and the online platform of Playtech, using the same infrastructure and basically one single username, account and sharing the same wallet. From a customer perspective, it’s about making the journey seamless and allowing them to place bets on the terminals and then, in a fully integrated and seamless way, use the money they have within an online environment. It’s very similar to what we have done with Coral and Ladbrokes and it seems to be very successful for them.

EGR: What areas of the Playtech business are you looking to focus on?

MW: Our focus is to strengthen our existing verticals and extend into new verticals and the acquisition of BGT is a combination of both. Going forward we are still very much focused on three or four areas. These include more casino content, sports betting, omni-channel and player engagement. Last but not least is our CFD initiative which we have not left behind and are still interested. We said at the beginning that we were going to focus on our gaming division, but obviously we are thinking to grow our online CFD vertical organically and through acquisitions.

EGR: You have already completed a number of acquisitions in 2016. Will the rest of the year be quieter for Playtech on the M&A front?

MW: It’s a good question. These transactions have a time of their own and whenever we are able to announce, we will do so in due course. What I will say is that Playtech remains acquisitive. We still have a very strong balance sheet and are in discussions with various companies, albeit I can’t say specific names. M&A is an inherent part of our strategy; we have bought more than 20 companies in the last 10 years or so and we definitely believe the right thing for Playtech to do is grow organically and at the same time accelerate growth through acquisitions.