Sky Bet to remain focused on the UK

Sky Bet will maintain its focus on the UK on the back of strong growth in mobile with the Italian market still a watching brief, managing director Richard Flint has revealed to eGaming Review.

The latest financial results from BSkyB detailed 37% year-on-year revenue growth from the egaming division, from £112m in 2012 to £155m in 2013, with particularly strong growth in mobile and its number of unique users.

“Mobile growth has been very strong,” Flint said. “We’ve got probably the best app in the app store and we expect that to continue. We’ll probably do more with other parts of Sky and we’re looking forward to doing that.”

Speaking to eGR after the release of the results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2013, Flint said he believed the UK market is not too saturated and Sky Bet would not be distracted by a potential launch in Italy.

“For the time being we’re still focused on the UK,” he said. “We try to compete in a slightly different area of the market, tending to focus on the softer leisure end of the market, and we are still seeing growth there.”

“It’s hard to tell whether that’s market growth or share gain, probably a bit of both, but from what we’ve seen over the last 12 months we think there’s more to come,” Flint added.

Sky Bet is yet to expand its presence into Italy after applying for an Italian online gambling licence last year for a fee close to €300,000 but Flint said the firm was still evaluating its options and keeping a close eye on the market.

The Leeds-based operator recently became the new title sponsor of the Football League as part of a five-year deal which will see Sky Bet working closer with the clubs’ betting apps, according to Flint.

“We hope to develop closer partnerships with all 72 league clubs in particular partnerships around their betting websites and apps and we would like to really work with them closely to offer a great service to their fans and their customers,” he said.