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Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025 (25-26 March)

Interviews

Cheltenham: Next steps for horse racing

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Horse racing is one of the oldest activities in the world and the Cheltenham Festival is one of the spiritual homes of the sport. While the meeting is guaranteed to deliver strong engagement rates for UK-facing operators, there’s less interest among sportsbooks further afield in Europe. However, as horse racing continues to grow on the international stage, are European operators missing a trick by not identifying ways to make Cheltenham Festival and other UK meetings appealing to their own audience?

With the festival kicking off this week, European Gaming spoke to experts in the field on how the sport can make an impact internationally and the best practices required to make it relevant to a wider audience, while maintaining its status in the UK.

Alan Casey, CEO of AllSported

Adam Conway, Head of Trading at SIS

Dylan Casey Head of Paid Media, Checkd Media

 

Huge opportunities abound throughout the festival which brings a great deal of competition. How can horse racing operators make sure they stand out from the crowd during the event?

Dylan Casey: Too many operators allow their messaging to become like wallpaper throughout Cheltenham week. The ones who succeed are those that offer something unique or present their offer in a way that captures the customer’s eye and paid social advertising can allow operators to do just that.

A major advantage of paid social for horse racing operators is the guarantee of eyeballs and the sequencing of the messaging. The control of adverts being seen in a particular order can allow operators to get creative and even allow them to tailor the offer a customer sees based on their behaviour.

When running paid social for partner’s during the festival, we like them to refresh their messaging and offers daily. By tailoring it to certain races, horses or even jockeys, the messaging is always fresh and can help to avoid ad fatigue.

Not all operators will have the flexibility and resources to promote a different offer for each day of the festival. However, even if an operator’s offer isn’t unique enough to stand out, paid social advertising provides them with a huge opportunity to present that offer in a way that will allow them to do so.

Alan Casey: Content is king. Creating a sense of familiarity and comfort is all-important in cross-selling. Time and again, we see that racecards that feature plenty of content, predictions and ratings improve dwell time significantly.

However, even when an operator has this all-important content, how do they balance the integration times with the results? Separate integrations and multiple API feeds can take time and a lot of resources to put in place. It’s true that content is not always the priority compared to revenue-generating add-ons like cashing out, but without the content to engage customers, it’s likely a sportsbook will only get customers who are there to make a specific bet.

As well as that, consistency and balance matters a great deal, operators don’t need to be stand-out price every race, but an operator needs to be competitive in every race in terms of pricing and place terms. An operator can acquire a lot of customers by having the headline offer of the day or week, but it leaves the door open for customers to exploit that offer and leave.

Adam Conway: Aside from the traditional marketing techniques that operators adopt for the week of Cheltenham Festival, such as attractive promotional offers, offering a vast range of markets that are appealing to both existing bettors and newcomers is important. This includes the use of derivatives, which complement classic markets and allows those with little experience of racing betting to get involved.

Through our partnership with RACELAB we can offer the latest in trading technology which can help operators stay ahead of the smart money and offer prices at opportune times that standout from the crowd.

 

To what extent is there an appetite for UK horse racing outside the UK and Ireland? How does the sport need to adapt to appeal to this audience?

Alan Casey: From a customer perspective, there is a huge appetite, especially with regards to Cheltenham. It’s an easy sell with the best horses, jockeys and trainers on show and there are always magical storylines that capture the public’s imagination around the festival.

The obstacle for international operators is that the sport requires a huge level of expertise to work within it. The time and financial investment necessary to building a team to monitor the landscape is formidable.

The obvious solution is to outsource, but even then, there are pitfalls. It’s possible that an out-of-the-box service will leave an operator open to inaccurate pricing and following the exchanges blindly is dangerous based on liquidity and latency issues. It can be difficult to acquire and retain horse racing customers and even more so if there is no differentiation in the offering.

Operators need to invest in a flexible solution with a great deal of two-way communication. It’s vitally important to be able to react to your own customers’ bets and factor this into pricing. If an operator is reacting to the market alone, that lag will eat away at their bottom line.

Adam Conway: The cultural significance of major UK horse racing meetings means less for international operators and their customers, but there are still opportunities for non-UK sportsbooks to make the most of these events. The betting product needs be optimised differently for markets where there is less racing heritage, otherwise bettors are not going to be as likely to engage. This means promoting certain markets that can be more relevant to them. For instance, derivatives are becoming increasingly popular with international operators, with markets such as match betting and odds vs. evens far easier to understand. Ultimately, these types of markets don’t require as much insight into the sport itself, which encourages a wider audience to engage with the product. Horse racing needs to attract a new generation of bettors, and outside of the UK these kinds of markets are important to this approach.

Of course, establishing an in-house trading team to cover 24/7 racing events can be costly. In addition, the availability of traders that have the specialist knowledge required can be difficult to find in markets where there is a modest racing culture, which means they cannot efficiently manage pricing and risk. Our SIS Trading Services can help operators in these markets by offering them a fully outsourced solution that leaves the entire racing proposition in the hands of our experts.

 

How can international operators capitalise on UK horse racing meetings like Cheltenham Festival, which are proven to generate strong bettor engagement in its home market? What can domestic operators do to maintain a slice of the action amid such intense competition?

Adam Conway: One of the main challenges that UK operators face during major UK meetings such as the Cheltenham Festival is profitability. Promotions which include offers like extra places paid can impact the overall margins they can make. These sportsbooks require products and tools that can grow business and maximise margins. At SIS, we are working hard to make this possible by enhancing our Trading Services with the addition of next generation trading tools. In partnership with RACELAB, our traders now have the very latest technology advantage, ensuring we can stay ahead of the smart money and produce more intelligent prices. This includes the Odds Engine compilation software, which has the biggest breadth of content and the most sophisticated trader controls and the highest number of priced horses (including all the local pools).

For international bettors from regions where there is less racing heritage, we have found that it has been useful to offer additional levels of support to operators new to the sport. This means increasing the emphasis on those betting markets that are simpler to understand and don’t require specific in-depth racing knowledge. We can offer operators a managed trading service to help them manage their risk.

Alan Casey: A little education goes a long way. A huge number of people that aren’t full-time racing fans flock to bet on Cheltenham every year because of the status it holds. Investing in the right odds and pricing package that includes content as part of the deal can go a long way towards engaging these fans, as well as seasoned ones.

Cheltenham simply lends itself to this kind of content with some captivating narratives every year. Rachael Blackmore and Henry de Bromhead combining throughout last year’s event and taking the festival by storm stands out as a great example. There are always interesting narratives surrounding Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins as well. It all captures the imagination and if international operators can gain the means to educate their customers on the ins and outs of the sport, they will be on to a winner.

Domestically, it’s about finding the right balance between trading and marketing teams. Consistency is essential in this product offering throughout the week. Single race odds boosts or acquisition offers don’t guarantee you a customer’s wallet for the four days of the festival or even for an entire day. The key is giving customers a choice of races that spreads out the positions more evenly and then helps the operator engage the customer in each race throughout the festival.

How is price latency and odds generation different in horse racing compared to other sports betting activities? What challenges does this present for operators?

Alan Casey: If we take a traditional sport like football, the teamsheets are announced an hour before kick-off and we see the market shifts as a result. Outside of that, there isn’t a lot of other information flowing into the market.

In horse racing however, there is more information in the market and operators are exposed from the minute they put bets up with no set times as to when information will enter the market. Latency issues become far more apparent in horseracing, dealing with large bets can result in loss of margin from a day’s racing. During the final minutes before the off, any latency or speed issue can result in operators being left badly exposed.

With the market constantly flocculating like this, Push APIs that inform operators the instant a price has changed can be invaluable, leaving no time for incorrect pricing on a sportsbook. Mere seconds of inaccurate pricing can be the difference between profit and loss.

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Irina Laivina, Media 24: “Our content is meant to educate and entertain”

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We’ve sat down with Irina Laivina, Head of Content at affiliate marketing company Media 24, to discuss how iGaming content could evolve, the key elements of a successful content strategy, the traits of top content managers, and more.

 

Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to the iGaming industry?

Since childhood, I have been attracted to philology and the study of foreign languages. After university, I realized that content creation was where I could combine my passion for languages with creativity. When I moved to Latvia and changed my social circle, I became more and more drawn into the world of iGaming. Over time, this industry fascinated me so much that I found my professional niche there.

I started at Media24 as a senior content manager, where I introduced new ideas to improve both content and design. These changes had a positive impact on our business goals, eventually leading to my promotion to head of the content department. Now, I continue to optimize and shape our content strategy.

 

How do you see the role of content evolving in the iGaming affiliate marketing industry over the next five years?

In affiliate marketing content will still play a key role, especially for the SEO-driven affiliate companies. But the way we will create and deliver it will change. The average reader today is more demanding than ever, expecting more value in the content he consumes daily, and willing to spend less time doing it.

The number of content sources has also increased now, too, and that has created many additional angles and opportunities. There’s live streaming, new social media formats, short form videos, and everything in between. So you have to think outside of the traditional strategies and experiment with new ways to connect with your audience to keep up.

Mobile traffic dominance will require adapting for the relevant formats. This trend is already happening globally and will only develop further. Internally, we are following along and are aligning our design and content strategies. Everything must be optimized for mobile-first consumption today.

 

What are the key elements that make up a successful content strategy in your opinion?

The best content strategy starts with clear goals. At Media 24, we believe that our content should educate and entertain, not take advantage of players. We aim to be a source of helpful information for the reader, not just a platform to promote iGaming brands. In a world of informational overload, your content should be focused on providing real value. Users love it, and search engines prioritize this kind of content too.

We are thinking about the long-term perspective. If content that we produce helps a reader to find what he’s looking for, and is engaging, search engines will naturally rank it higher. So for us it’s not a question of how we can exploit the algorithms, but what is the best way to help a reader make an educated decision.

 

What role does SEO play in shaping the content strategy at Media 24, and how do both teams collaborate for the best results?

At Media 24 content and SEO departments always work hand by hand. It’s hard to imagine our success without close communication between the two teams. We work closely together to develop content plans, conduct competitor analysis, and rely on the SEO team to guide us in the right direction with their data-driven insights. From there, we apply our editorial expertise to make sure our content is relevant, valuable and helpful. So the SEO team navigates us strategically, while the content department is responsible for creating valuable content that keeps readers coming for more.

 

When building your team, what traits do you value most in a content manager, and why?

For a content manager, first of all, the key thing is attention to details. In content creation, even small errors can affect credibility, user experience, and performance, so precision is key. I also highly appreciate the initiative and the desire for learning new things. The industry does not stand still, so a good content manager is constantly exploring new tools, trends and working methods, offering fresh ideas and solutions.

We work with 90+ geos and with such a reach it’s very important for the content to be relevant to every country niche specifics and language. That’s why we prioritize hiring native speakers and local experts in every given market. The ones that have a deep understanding of cultural nuances, player preferences and market regulations. This guarantees our content is authentic and resonates with readers in every region.

 

Are there any long-term goals you’re focusing on at Media 24?

I would really like to optimize all our processes as much as possible. This is something that we are working on actively, and we see that the development of technology can assist us in that. For example, we are currently exploring how we can use the possibilities of AI agents to save time for our team. The main goal is to create smarter work processes.

AI will not replace human content creators, as it lacks originality and niche-specific expertise. But this technology can enhance how we work in many ways. That’s why we’re already developing AI-driven solutions to speed-up our operations and assist us in different repetitive tasks. Once we are able to automate routine and time-consuming parts of our work, this will allow the content team to focus more on creativity and strategy. So by experimenting with AI, we’re not replacing creativity. We are giving it extra space.

The post Irina Laivina, Media 24: “Our content is meant to educate and entertain” appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Affiliates in the US Sports Betting Market – Has The Game Gone Cold?

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A lot has changed since the US Supreme Court struck down PASPA (The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992) as being unconstitutional, effectively ending Nevada’s near-monopoly on sports betting in the country. With every US state now free to legalize and launch its own sports betting market, in-person, online, and mobile sports betting grew at a neck-breaking pace.

This explosive growth saw the emergence of ‘affiliate companies’ – marketing agencies specializing in performance marketing and promoting licensed sports betting operators. However, as the market entered a new phase and growth slowed, some affiliates have been seeing mixed results in the past year.

We sat down for a chat with Shmulik Segal, Founder and CEO of Media Troopers, an advertising agency specializing in sports betting and iGaming in North America, to hear his views on the gambling marketplace and what the future holds for affiliates. Segal takes a realistic approach and acknowledges the days of insatiable growth are gone, but he still sees great potential in the market.

 

Looking at the bigger picture, how bad were things for affiliates in the past year?

Segal: “I won’t tell you the past year hasn’t been challenging for marketing agencies like ourselves. Looking at 2024 earning reports of publicly traded marketing agencies in the gambling industry, the results are a mixed bag, Segal says. “While some of the largest players in the space saw their US revenues drop by over a third compared to 2023, the earnings of others just flatlined.”

 

What causes you to be optimistic then?

“But on the flip side of the coin, there were also companies that saw double-digit growth in earnings,” Segal compares. “So what does that mixed bag of results tell us? Although the days of explosive growth are over, the market is certainly not on a one-way street. I still see tons of opportunities for companies that are adjusting and doing the right things.”

 

So what are the main challenges the affiliate market is facing?

“I can divide the challenges into two main categories: objective and subjective. Objective categories would be anything that’s ‘man-made’, such as legislation (new states that open up), increased regulation (restrictions on advertising, increased taxation), the evolution of technology (Artificial Intelligence and further mobile personalization), competition (both operators and other marketing channels and companies), and all other factors that are created by governments, companies, and individuals,” he explains.

“The subjective factors are more geographical or permanent. Let’s take sports betting as an example. According to the American Gaming Association’s state tracker, Out of 51 potential jurisdictions across the country (50 states + Washington DC), 38 have legalized sports betting. However, only seven states have legalized iGaming.”

 

So, how do you treat these challenges differently?

“As an affiliate, you understand the fundamental difference between the two types of challenges: your level of control. While you can mitigate objective challenges, you must adapt to subjective ones.”

 

How do you stay relevant as an affiliate amidst these challenges?

“The first thing we must always keep in mind is that we make a living out of providing our customers with additional value, i.e. unique knowledge and expertise that the operator doesn’t have and fits perfectly into its marketing mix. We must provide our customers with a competitive, cutting edge.”

“Case in point: we constantly strive to be ahead of the curve in everything we do. Our technology platform constantly adapts and upgrades to include more powerful AI tools for segmentation, targeting, and personalization. A huge part of our media teams’ job is to look for the ‘next big thing’ be it a fresh marketing channel or a new source that will enable us to expand our reach and tap into new markets.

Our commercial teams work closely with existing and potential operators to find new ways to bring value to players, be it new games, news, or promotions. And it goes without saying that our compliance team takes great care of ensuring we adhere to the highest standards of safe advertising and responsible gaming.”

“But no less important,“ he concludes, “is the operations team that ties all the pieces together and executes everything. That’s one of the biggest challenges, given operations can be slow-moving, we constantly need to improve our execution to keep up with the changes the other parts of the team bring.”

 

What about other types of challenges? The ones you can’t mitigate?

“When it comes to subjective challenges, however, you have much less control, and this is where companies must brace themselves and adapt quickly. Case in point, there are 38 sports betting states, while a portion of the remaining ones, such as Hawai, Utah, Texas,  and California, won’t introduce sports betting or iGaming in the foreseeable future.

 

With fewer states regulating gaming in the foreseeable future, is the market bound to shrink?

“I don’t see it that way. Long gone are the days when a new market opened every few months. What would you do? You can’t ‘magic up’ more states. But you can certainly adapt and brace yourself to improve and grow your share in existing markets, which is exactly what we are focusing on doing,” he explains. “Along with acquiring new players through new and existing markets, we are constantly looking for new channels that will bring our customers (operators) loyalty and higher lifetime value.”

 

You are talking about increasing share and value, does that mean there are no new opportunities?

“We see huge potential, with opportunities constantly coming to knock on our door. North Carolina and Vermont were the two new markets that launched in 2024, and we are already seeing a lot of growth there. For example, North Carolina, which only went live with sports betting in March 2024, but by the end of the year, already clinched ninth place in the Top 10 sports betting states, reporting revenues of over $583.

This is why we treat every state as a standalone ecosystem with its unique set of challenges, requirements, and potential. The next exciting challenge (and opportunity) we are preparing for is Missouri, which legalized sports betting at the end of 2024 but has yet to launch. We have already been hard at work since the ballot was approved in November, so we can hit the ground running and start sending our MO sportsbook partners newly depositing customers from day one.

 

What about organic growth in existing markets?

“There’s certainly that also. While every new state that launches sports betting can potentially bring a spike in growth, we are certainly seeing organic growth and improved results across the board year after year. Take as an example the Super Bowl. In 2025, legal US bets on the Super Bowl grew 10% year-on-year. Or March Madness, on which best are expected to grow 13% from last year.

So, is there still organic growth in existing markets? For us, it’s a big, fat yes.”

 

Are you planning on staying within the iGaming and sports betting markets in the near future?

“That’s a very good question I ask myself every day, Segal smiles and immediately corrects himself. “Actually, scratch that. I ask myself this question many times over the course of a day in the office.”

He elaborates: “iGaming is tangent to other gaming verticals, and sports betting has an overlap with a whole universe of sports and its related verticals. Every website in these verticals needs traffic, and we know how to provide it. So new opportunities knocking on our door. But how do we capitalize on these without losing our focus and commitment to our core business? We keep our ears and eyes open, but never lose focus.”

 

The post Affiliates in the US Sports Betting Market – Has The Game Gone Cold? appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.

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Elevating Player Experience: Cloudfresh’s Vision for AI-Driven Gaming Support

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HIPTHER, organizer of the Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025, is excited to welcome Cloudfresh as the Networking Break Sponsor, a company empowering businesses with top-tier cloud services. As a Zendesk Premier Partner, Cloudfresh specializes in integrating, optimizing, and scaling the best in-class cloud solutions, acting as a vital link between companies and cloud technologies. In this exclusive interview, we speak with Vita Usatiuk, Sales Executive at Cloudfresh, to explore how AI, omnichannel support, and personalized player interactions are reshaping customer service in gaming.

Player support is becoming a crucial factor in gaming retention. How can integrated customer service solutions enhance player satisfaction and engagement while keeping gamers in the game?

Integrated customer service solutions are essential for enhancing player satisfaction and engagement, ultimately driving player retention. By providing support across various channels like chat, messaging, phone, and email, gaming companies can meet players where they are, offering seamless and convenient assistance. This omnichannel approach ensures that players can easily reach out for help before, during, or after a game. Furthermore, AI-powered tools can provide instant help and personalized interactions, addressing player needs proactively and efficiently. A robust support system contributes significantly to a positive gaming experience, fostering loyalty and encouraging players to stay engaged with the game.

The gaming industry faces unique challenges in customer support, from omnichannel demands to peak traffic surges. How does Cloudfresh leverage Zendesk to help gaming companies streamline support operations and optimize agent workload?

The gaming industry presents unique customer support challenges, including omnichannel demands and peak traffic surges, especially during new release windows. We in Cloudfresh implement Zendesk solution for the customer support to help gaming companies streamline their support operations and optimize agent workload. Zendesk offers a unified platform that integrates various support channels, enabling agents to manage interactions from a single workspace. AI-powered automation can handle routine inquiries, allowing agents to focus on complex issues. Zendesk also provides tools for intelligent ticket routing, workforce management, and performance monitoring, which helps optimize agent efficiency and ensure timely issue resolution.

Personalization is key to delivering a top player experience. How can gaming brands use AI-driven customer support to provide more tailored interactions and proactively address player needs?

Personalization in gaming support is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. AI-driven solutions are empowering gaming companies to meet this demand in innovative ways. Here are some practical examples:

  1. AI Agents for 24/7 Support and Instant Answers: Players expect support around the clock. Zendesk’s AI Agents can provide instant, accurate answers to common questions, drawing from your knowledge base. This ensures players get the help they need immediately, any time of day.
  2. Intelligent Triage and Routing: AI can analyze incoming support tickets and route them to the right agent or team based on the player’s issue, game, or platform. This ensures that players are connected with specialists who can address their specific needs efficiently.
  3. Proactive Support and Personalized Recommendations: By analyzing player data and behavior, AI can help anticipate common issues and proactively offer solutions or tips. This could include in-game notifications, personalized FAQs, or tailored support articles. For example, Kaizen Gaming, a European eGaming company, delivers 95% resolution at first contact with live chat and 360° views of customers. This level of insight allows for highly personalized and proactive support.  
  4. Automation for Scalability: Gaming companies often experience peak support volumes around game releases or updates. Zendesk’s automation capabilities, enhanced by AI, can handle surging ticket volumes and reduce wait times. Play Games24x7, an Indian online gaming company, reduced their resolution time by 68% by leveraging Zendesk automation and analytics. This demonstrates the power of AI in scaling support operations efficiently.  

By leveraging Zendesk’s AI-driven features, gaming companies can provide more tailored, efficient, and proactive support experiences, ultimately driving player satisfaction and loyalty.

Cloudfresh has extensive expertise in implementing and optimizing Zendesk solutions for gaming businesses. Can you share a recent success story where your solutions significantly improved customer experience?

Yes, we have many success stories, and one recent example is our work with Bloober Team, a renowned game development studio specializing in psychological horror games. Bloober Team faced challenges in providing efficient player support, especially during peak times around game releases.  They needed a solution that could scale, provide comprehensive data from players, and streamline their support workflow.  

We implemented Zendesk’s Enterprise Suite for Bloober Team, including add-on apps and a custom ticket form to gather essential information from players.  We also integrated DeepL for translation to assist with their diverse player base.   

The results were transformative.  Bloober Team now has a robust system to manage player support, allowing them to react quickly to issues and provide timely solutions.  This has significantly improved their ability to maintain contact with players, address concerns, and ultimately enhance the player experience.  This case demonstrates our ability to tailor Zendesk solutions to the specific needs of gaming companies, helping them to overcome support challenges and foster stronger player relationships.

At the Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025, AI and automation in gaming support will be major discussion points. How do you see AI-driven support evolving in the next few years, and what should gaming operators focus on to stay ahead?

It’s clear that AI is no longer a future possibility in gaming support – it’s the present and the driving force of its evolution. We’re seeing a distinct separation between companies that are embracing AI and those that aren’t. Those “CX Trendsetters” are pulling ahead, and gaming operators need to be in that category. It’s not just about replacing human agents either; it’s about ‘human-centric AI.’ We’re talking about augmenting agents, giving them superpowers to handle complex issues while AI handles the routine.

Looking ahead, expect AI to get even smarter – predictive, hyper-personalized, with more natural conversations. And it’s not just chatbots anymore; AI-powered automation will touch every support channel, creating those seamless omnichannel experiences players demand. Crucially, AI will provide a wealth of data and insights, allowing for data-driven optimization of support strategies.

So, for gaming operators who want to stay ahead, it boils down to this: invest strategically in AI, empower your agents to work alongside it, focus on leveraging those AI-driven insights, build systems that can scale and adapt, and, of course, prioritize data security. That’s from my point of view the roadmap for success in the AI-driven future of gaming support.

With Cloudfresh at the Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025, this year’s event will showcase the latest innovations in AI-driven player support and customer service strategies. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with industry leaders, gain exclusive insights, and explore the future of gaming support technology!

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