Home advantage: BetCity on cementing its position in the Dutch market through local expertise

When the Netherlands finally opened its doors to regulated online gambling on 1 October 2021, homegrown brand BetCity.nl was one of just 10 licensees approved by the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA). Despite the initial hiccups at launch, including a technical fault with self-exclusion programme Cruks on the opening day, BetEnt brand and start-up BetCity was up and running on that 1 October deadline, so right on schedule. The idea for the formation of BetCity goes back 20 years. From a background with a family history of land-based casinos for almost 40 years, Casino City director Mario Singels says looking at opportunities to get into the online market was the next logical step on the company’s roadmap. The conversation around BetCity as an online spin-off of Casino City began seven years ago when now CEO Melvin Bostelaar first met Singels, who is a majority stakeholder in BetCity. At that time, Bostelaar had merged his technology company Dutch Frontiers with publishing company Voetbalprimeur to create what would become the largest men’s sports publishing company in the Netherlands – Digital Enterprises.

Digital Enterprises then owned Dutch and Belgian soccer online publisher Voetbalprimeur, the latter of which Singels had already joined and bought a 50% stake in. In 2015, Bostelaar and Singels wanted to move into online gambling but with the market being so mature they knew it would be difficult to break into. Possessing their own media channel meant they could reach five million people each month right at the centre of their target audience. A look at Bostelaar’s CV on LinkedIn shows a rich history of entrepreneurial flair. He was co-founder of six separate businesses from 2008 to 2019, all based in the Netherlands, apart from an online food and groceries delivery business in the UAE. No doubt this start-up mentality positioned him to lead the gambling business’ entry into the Netherlands. Bostelaar tells EGR that the operator opened its Amsterdam office five months ago, initially with just four employees. The team has now grown to 60 and consists of customer support, marketing, data and content staff. The new office, which is still under construction, has been designed as a “second home”, featuring gaming and meeting rooms. The operator works closely with Kambi for its sportsbook and ORYX Gaming as its platform provider. BetCity is now the only Kambi client in the Netherlands since Kindred Group’s Unibet had to pull out of the market. On choosing Kambi, Singels says: “We know that if you want to be in the market, you need to have a first-class product. If you have a second-class product, you will always lag behind others.”

Moving up the leaderboard

BetCity, which offers sports betting, casino and live casino, is one of four Dutch companies to be granted a licence by the KSA. Bostelaar says his firm is content with a position between five and 10 but the ambition now is to become a top-five player in the Netherlands. While international operators such as bet365 have entered the Dutch market with a 20-year history of sports betting experience and its massive brand, Casino City’s Singels believes his firm’s online spin-off business, BetCity, has more knowledge of the Dutch market than anybody else. “We have a large knowledge of performance marketing and know almost all the executives of the largest publishers and broadcasters to make the best deals and we work with them closely to constantly optimise the data to achieve conversions of players. So, combined, these should give us an edge,” he explains. Another way for BetCity to stand out is through its editorial knowledge. The Dutch operator has a dedicated betting editorial department to provide players with more information about matches. “We want to bring more content to the players than a normal bookmaker will do. We’ve got a whole team of editors here and we want to put out a lot of content,” says Singels. As well as its local presence and experience with programmatic and affiliates, BetCity’s chief exec highlights the strength of its network. “We know all the big media companies personally and we can make better deals/pricing than other companies. We have our own data team which will monitor and optimise those partnerships on a daily basis. So, I think this will be a very big competitive advantage if you compare doing it, for example, from Malta or the UK.” The Amsterdam-based operator also anticipates a strong advantage by having entered the market among the first wave of entrants, while some international operators have to wait until their cooling-off period expires before applying for a licence. Bostelaar says BetCity will use this time to buy inventory and close deals over a longer time period before the second wave of market entrants arrive in April 2022. “On the affiliate and direct partnership sides, we know all the directors of the big publishing companies personally. We are in talks with them about contracts of one and even two years. So, what we are trying to do now is, in the coming six months, get as many players as possible and then have a perfect guard strategy so they stay with you. “For example, we are building an app now to get loyalty. We are pushing very hard across different media channels. We are really keen on getting a lot of market share in the first four months,” notes Bostelaar.

Campaign debut

The operator’s first foray into TV advertising was released on 18 October, with former professional footballer Andy van der Meijde starring in a new commercial filmed in BetCity’s HQ. The campaign, which is running on TV and social media, sees van der Meijde sharing the news of his transfer from rival operator Toto, where he was previously brand ambassador, to BetCity. “It’s not about the ones and the twos, but about the knowledge and the facts,” says van der Meijde, as he cheekily references the catchphrase from his former King Toto campaigns. Robert Kooiman, who joined BetCity as marketing director in September after nine years at Dutch e-commerce company Coolblue, discussed the premise of the campaign on its launch: “Recently, it has also become possible for new players to enter the market for games of chance. As a new Dutch provider, we want to change the playing field by challenging our players to play smarter. By making Andy van der Meijde the face of our very first campaign, we are convinced that we can reach a large group of sports fans.” On why van der Meijde was selected for the ad campaign, Bostelaar refers to the ex-footballer’s own media channel on YouTube which has over 240 million views a year and 268,000 subscribers. He is most famous for his “Andy in de auto” videos which feature ex-footballers and other famous people riding in the car with him. As the KSA’s KOA regime states, licensed operators are prohibited from any games of chance advertising between 6am and 9pm. Meanwhile, online conduct duties restrict operators from targeting Dutch consumers aged between 18 and 24. On player acquisition, the regulator also states that bonuses cannot be modified to incentivise a customer to play more on a particular game or market and bonuses cannot be used as a tool or incentive to re-engage customers with products. Singels affirms that BetCity will not advertise bonuses on TV and that responsible gambling will be at the heart of all its media campaigns. “We will try to touch as many media points as we can, so television, online and everything,” he adds. While Singels acknowledges that the Netherlands is a strongly regulated market, he believes BetCity can work well within the regulations. As well as following player behaviour closely, tracking play and offering tools to limit customer wagering, the operator is also upgrading its responsible gaming team with four more staff.

A taxing situation

Another challenge for the Dutch market is the high tax rate of 29% on GGR (reduced by 1.1% from 1 October 2021) plus a 1.75% levy, which could prove financially unviable for smaller operators looking to enter the country. For Singels, he believes it all depends on the number of players that enter the market but reiterates that “we wouldn’t have stepped into the market if we thought we couldn’t make a profitable business”. The Casino City director also went on to say that the decision to stay local with a Netherlands presence rather than an office in Malta does have financial implications. “For tax reasons, it would have been much more profitable to go to Malta. A few of our competitors did that. We can’t deduct our VAT taxes, which is much easier to do when you work from Malta. So, [companies based in Malta] have a big advantage over us on the tax side and that’s an issue,” he explains. Looking ahead, as well as a new loyalty app in the works, Singels says BetCity is working on getting as much content out to players through a variety of tools. “We will add some tools that will deliver all kinds of stats and information about upcoming events to our audience. We are also looking at things like our own podcasts or television shows on YouTube.” But for now, BetEnt firmly has its eggs in one basket with no plans to expand into other markets outside of the Netherlands. Singels comments: “At this moment, we want to have everything running as good as we can. Each market has its own difficulties and its own opportunities. For now, the Netherlands is the market we are aiming at. “We are a local company. We think we have an edge over other players here in the Netherlands. We will lose that edge when we go to another market. So, we first have to try to really see if we can do better than others in the Netherlands before we go to other countries.” As the saying goes, ‘home is where the heart is’ and as a start-up in the Netherlands, BetCity is raring to go to capitalise on that local expertise.