In an exclusive interview with Games Magazine Brasil, David Bretnitz, Vice President of Sales – Americas, discussed Kambi’s new multi-year partnership with KTO Group. The company is set to enhance brand’s online sportsbook offerings in Brazil as the market approaches regulation in 2025. The executive highlights KTO’s rapid growth and ambitious goals as some key reasons for the agreement, and the collaboration aims to leverage Kambi’s AI-driven solutions and global expertise to deliver top-notch betting experiences.
GMB: Kambi recently signed a multi-year partnership with KTO Group to power their online sportsbook. What were the key factors that made KTO an ideal partner for Kambi?
David Bretnitz: We were very proud to sign with KTO. They are a fast-growing operator, one which boasts an extensive customer database and real ambition to build on its market share in Brazil, underpinned by the sports betting upgrade that a partnership with Kambi provides as the market approaches regulation.
The agreement sees Kambi replace KTO’s existing third-party sportsbook provider in Brazil. With regulation set to bring added operational complexity and expanded competition, KTO recognized the need for a best-in-class sportsbook, with a localised offering, to succeed and thrive in these new market conditions. Kambi has a proven track record of delivery in highly regulated markets on six continents, and our services – with a deep sports betting offer on key sports, unmatched combinability and cutting-edge UX – all lend themselves well to empowering operator success throughout the region.
With Brazil preparing to launch a regulated sports betting market in early 2025, how does this partnership with KTO strengthen Kambi’s position in the Latin American market?
Kambi has vast experience throughout Latin America in jurisdictions including Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the trusted sportsbook partner to leading operators including BetPlay, BetWarrior, Olimpo.bet and Rush Street Interactive (RushBet).
We are confident we can replicate this success throughout Brazil in partnership with forward thinking operators like KTO. This is thanks in part to the strength of our betting offer – with football betting so important in Brazil, Kambi’s AI-powered pricing and comprehensive prop markets such as ‘player to have a shot on target’ and ‘player to score from outside the box’ offers operators the tools they need to succeed. This is in concert with the data-driven insights drawn from across Kambi’s 40-strong network of operators, with every bet placed informing strategy and best practice for every operator on our network, regardless of whether they took the bet themselves.
That said, strengthening Kambi’s position in Brazil is not our core focus with this agreement. Kambi only succeeds when our partners succeed, and we look forward to working closely with KTO to ensure they can bring unforgettable betting experiences to their customers throughout Brazil.
Kambi’s technology includes AI-powered trading capabilities and a comprehensive odds coverage. How do these features specifically benefit KTO and enhance their sportsbook offering?
Kambi introduced its AI-powered trading to the market ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and having since processed hundreds of millions of bets this technology now covers much of our pre-match football offering – enabling partners such as KTO to offer sports betting that is right at the cutting edge.
End user behaviour is increasingly moving towards player-curated markets, and products such as complex props and bet builders that only advanced algorithms have the capacity to price, trade and deliver.
We believe those sportsbooks which still lean heavily on human trading, rather than human-assisted machine trading, are approaching a tipping point in the scope of offering they can successfully price and risk manage in the face of these intensifying consumer demands – many having already fallen behind. Kambi will soon be making this technology available across our in-play offering, extending our lead even further.
KTO has quickly become a major player in Brazil’s online betting sector since its launch. What challenges and opportunities do you anticipate in Brazil’s evolving betting landscape, and how does Kambi plan to leverage its technology and experience to support KTO’s growth and success in the region?
We’ve touched on how increased competition intensifies the need to have a high-performance sports betting product in place to succeed at the top end of the market, and this goes hand-in-hand with operator empowerment from the sportsbook platform – enabling local operators to localise and leverage their brands effectively will empower success against international competition.
Another factor at play will be the need to manage greater compliance requirements.
A sportsbook’s offering compliance function needs to ensure all requirements are met while also protecting the competitiveness of the offering. There is a trend in multiple jurisdictions towards blocking particular events or markets from the offering due to concerns of betting-related manipulation, and by way of example, discussions are ongoing in Brazil as to whether to allow card markets on football.
With each of the more than 50 jurisdictions in which Kambi is live having their own, ever more varied offering templates, Kambi was in a position where hundreds of vital compliance decisions were required daily. To address these challenges, Kambi developed our Offering Compliance Automation technology – delivering a significant evolution to our filtering engine.
The tool automatically filters the offering as per local regulations, not only ensuring all compliance requirements are met (and without the need for time-consuming manual decision making on individual competitors and athletes), but also guaranteeing our partners can launch and operate with complete confidence in a full and competitive offering.
Can you elaborate on how Kambi’s flexible turnkey sportsbook solution will integrate with KTO’s existing infrastructure and what benefits it will bring to their operations?
Kambi’s high-performance sportsbook solution is platform-agnostic by design – capable of seamlessly fitting into any in-house or third-party solution – and will integrate simply into KTO’s in-house player account management platform.
In terms of the benefits this will bring to KTO, the Kambi sportsbook offers operators unmatched control over crucial player facing elements including front-end and odds, giving KTO all the tools they require to build on top of the Kambi sportsbook platform and deliver a sportsbook that is true to their brand.
Alongside this, Kambi partners can create bespoke ‘specials’ unilaterally – requiring no input from Kambi – giving KTO the opportunity to build and promote unique bets to amplify their marketing and brand identity.
Looking ahead, what are Kambi’s goals and expectations for this partnership with KTO, and how do you envision the collaboration evolving as the Brazilian sports betting market matures?
As Brazil prepares to put its regulatory framework into place KTO is set to take the next step in its sportsbook evolution, and we are very pleased to be going on that journey with them. A top quality and fully compliant sportsbook will be essential in what is set to be an ultra-competitive market, but with the strength of KTO’s brand and marketing combining with Kambi’s sports betting expertise we believe the partnership is perfectly placed to build on KTO’s success.
Article orginally appeared on Games Magazine Brasil
