Q&A: Sabin Brooks, chief marketing officer, BetNOW

EGR: Why did you leave PartyGaming, where you were also chief marketing officer, and how did the experience equip you for being chief marketing officer at a start-up like BetNOW?

SB: I felt a number of wrong decisions had been made and wasn’t convinced the business was headed on the right trajectory. It felt like the right time to leave. But there were some great entrepreneurs at Party; its success was largely built on taking risks to establish marketing channels to create a tipping point for the popularity of online poker. Similarly, at BetNOW it’s about finding routes to market by bringing about a fundamental change in betting behaviour.

EGR: Balderton Capital, one of Betfair’s first backers, is an investor. Who are the others?

SB: Balderton and US West Coast private equity firm BlueRun Ventures are the majority shareholders, alongside other angel investors and high net worth individuals.

EGR: Why has mobile to date failed to deliver on its advantages over PC?

SB: Because it has failed to play to the reach, accessibility, immediacy and convenience it enjoys over PC. Downloadable applications and WAP services have been complicated, cumbersome and inconvenient. The opportunity has basically been undermined by a dearth of user-friendly technology. There’s no guarantee of success for BetNOW, but I believe factors such as no download and being able to bet direct from your mobile phone bill means we are playing more to mobile’s strengths.

EGR: The iPhone, better apps, connectivity and network compatibility ““ will these really provide the breakthrough or are people just not that interested in betting from their mobiles?

SB: People do want to bet, and generally they want to do so just before or during the enjoyment of live sport, but I’m not convinced the iPhone is the panacea many claim it to be, not least because it’s still niche. However, mobiles are a constant companion, and as such there’s no doubt in my mind that mobile betting will take a significant share of bookmaker’s turnover in the near future, particularly for in-play betting.

EGR: So when and how will in-play betting be delivered on the mobile?

SB: People betting on a race from their mobile and then streaming the race to the same device is where we are headed. It’s hard to say exactly when this will happen, but it’s only a matter of time before handset technology and the right commercial model prevails.

EGR: Do you think mobile gaming will gain more of a foothold in emerging markets than it has in Europe, given the advances in handsets, products and know-how?

SB: The payment processing capabilities of pre-and post-paid mobiles offers massive potential in several markets where online take-up has proved less successful, notably Asia and South America, but regulation will be decisive. Collaborating with risk-averse mobile operators is dependent on local licences and/or white label deals with compliant local partners, but the right deal in the right market could be huge.

EGR: Product/technology gaps tend to be closed quickly. Shouldn’t you be working on getting a white label version of your product?

SB: You can forever debate the merits of white label versus own brand but our sense is that the make-up of our current proposition is suitably defensible for us to create a viable and profitable mobile betting brand in the UK before the big guns move in.

This article first appeared in the September issue of eGaming Review.

Don’t miss out on egaming news: sign up for our free Snapshot email. Or get the news as its breaks with the free eGaming Review RSS feed.