Africa Focus
Africa Focus
Equally important is that we see regulators’ appetites as being engaging and understanding rather than being prohibitive and closing the door on gaming. There’ s quite a big split between the English-speaking and French-speaking nations, and between East and West in terms of policy approach – some are quite monopolistic, others are more open to the market and commerce. But overall I would say the industry is moving towards regulation rather than blocking it. Regulators see the value in protecting their customers and they see the value in benefiting from tax collection.
“ You’ ve got to adapt, you’ ve got to configure, you’ ve got to be engaged with the local audience and their specific needs”
What proportion of your business is now coming from mobile? As with everyone in the industry the majority of our business is coming from mobile. Internally we have a mobile-first approach. We build for mobile, we market for mobile and this is because this is where all of our customers are.
Do you think the growth in mobile is removing the need for a retail presence in South Africa? Most people would arguably agree with that thought. We challenge it though because if you look at the growth in retail operators opening up in South Africa over the last year or two it has exploded and this is contrary to what you would expect with mobile becoming a more acceptable form of engaging with commerce. Yet we see retail shops opening aplenty so I think they are complementary. But we don’ t have any plans to go into retail.
How big a role is in-play enjoying now? Are there particular sports it is most popular with? In-play has been significant for a number of years, probably from before the 2010 World Cup. It is obviously always getting bigger. In-play has become standard, it is not a‘ nice to have’ or
feature anymore, it is a non-negotiable. The things that consumers are moving towards now are the bet builder and cash out options and these are where you can still set yourself ahead of your competitors. In terms of particular sports, in-play is popular across the board.
What new technologies and products are having an impact in South Africa at the moment? I think you need to look at the landscape in general and consider that you are transacting with consumers on a mobile phone or website and this means that if you are not able to satisfy their needs, they will take their business elsewhere. The competition is only a finger tap or a mouse click away so you need to be positioned to work with the technology and satisfy your customers’ needs. Tech and product have a big impact but it is not just in our industry, it is in ecommerce in general.
Do you think there is scope for foreign operators to succeed in South Africa? I think we’ ve seen a number come and go but we’ ve also seen some successes. I think it is down to their localisation efforts. As with any territory, you can’ t put something in because it works somewhere else and have a plug and play mentality and sit back and wait. You’ ve got to adapt, you’ ve got to configure, you’ ve got to be engaged with the local audience and their specific needs. You’ ve also got to be able to communicate in their preferred means of communication. Customers might like to have support via WhatsApp but European operators won’ t offer that – WhatsApp is very popular here. Or they might want to talk in their local language or a hybrid of their languages, so if a foreign operator wants to succeed they are going to need to configure their business model to fit in with the local marketplace. It won’ t just work to take what works elsewhere.
Also, it’ s a bit broader than foreign operators, it is also foreign regulators and foreign industries that are starting to see value in South Africa. We see ourselves being used as an example when operators are looking at the States now. South Africa is one of the few jurisdictions to operate within that same regulatory framework as what is proposed in the States, where it is a federal and state-by-state regulation, so it is a nice benchmark for operators to look at and see what works. I know the regulators there are talking closely to some of our regulators.
60 iGamingBusiness | Issue 112 | September / October 2018