Industry predictions for 2023: Firms to trim the fat and the tricky path to profit in the US
David Brohan of Goodbody Stockbrokers and James McKay from LiveScore Group provide their thoughts on the main trends they expect to see in 2023
James McKay, sportsbook director at LiveScore, Virgin Bet and Roxor Gaming
Increased convergence
I think 2023 will see the convergence model really take off and we may see even more players entering that space. The media and sports-only model is seeing multiple challenges and, as a result, we need to find ways to maximise revenue from their traffic. There is obviously a symbiotic relationship between sports media and sports betting which should help with some of these challenges. In the media industry, there is an over-reliance on advertising and subscriptions, while in the betting industry, there is a constant battle with ever-increasing acquisition costs. I see convergence as a solution that offers greater average revenue per user (ARPU) to a media business and lower acquisition costs for a sportsbook. It has seen strong success to date and I expect this will go onto become the industry norm over the next year or so.Cost efficiencies
All companies will go into the new year very conscious of the cost-of-living crisis and increased costs across the board. It will now be more important than ever to look at where teams can become more cost efficient. Automation, although not exciting, will be the key part to business success in 2023. Obviously, we will all be hoping throughout the year that the outlook improves, but until that moment comes, we need to be looking at how we can save and where we can cut costs.Continued growth of bet builders
Just like with convergence, we have already seen great strides made in this area. The bet builder has become the fastest and biggest growing market across the industry, and I think we will only see this continue throughout 2023, with no signs of slowing. When we first saw the introduction of same-game acca betting a few years back it was touted as being the biggest breakthrough since in-play. This claim has rung true, and operators are even looking at promoting these on acca pages, which were widely regarded as the cash cows for sportsbooks. So, where will it go from here? I think we’ll see more markets, more stats and more entry points. We’ll also see improvements on the navigations and an improvement on the in-play experience.David Brohan, gaming and leisure analyst at Goodbody Stockbrokers
