The official sports betting company of the National Football League in the United Kingdom as well as football clubs likes Nottingham Forest and Norwich City, 888, has officially left its former sports betting provider, Kambi. That means that the entire product range from 888 is now bring produced in-house, giving the company far more flexibility in terms of what it is able to offer and the promotions that it can now provide customers with.
From a customer point of view, the changes will be seamless and there’s an argument that only the most eagle-eyed will even notice a difference. 888 will be hoping that that changes pretty quickly for the better, with the aim being to improve the user experience immeasurably. The company is aiming to grow in 2021, with the launch of the in-house sportsbook being the first major step on the road to market growth.
Moving Away From Kambi
888 Holdings initially signed a deal with Kambi Sports Solutions in 2013, with the idea that Kambi would provide a fully-managed sportsbook for the company. As a result, 888 gained access to Kambi’s integrated products and their range of betting markets. It was a successful relationship on the most part, with 888 Sport growing in popularity in the years that followed. Now it appears as though the betting company has decided to go in a different direction.
The dedicated sports arm of 888 Holdings was launched in 2008 but struggled to make a major impact on the market initially. Sponsorship of a stand at Fontwell Park Racecourse in 2010 began to change that, as did the use of former Arsenal and England forward Ian Wright as a pundit during the 2012 European Championship. In the years that followed, 888 Sport improved its offering, allowing it to get to the point that it’s now moved away from Kambi.
The first sign that this might be being planned came about in March of 2019, when 888 paid £15 million in order to acquire Dedsert Limited. The Dublin-based company provided BetBright with its sportsbook platform and 888’s Chief Executive Officer, Itai Pazner, spoke of how it gave the company the ‘missing piece’ in their proprietary and technology portfolio. The deal cost 888 €17.5 million, but put the company on the path to where it now finds itself.
888 in Comfortable Position
The news of 888’s move away from Kambi comes as the company beat the revenue expectations last year. Whilst betting shops were closed owing to the non-essential business restrictions, 888 was one of the online companies to benefit in the form of increased sign-ups. The revenue and adjusted earnings taken before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation are believed to be ‘moderately ahead’ of the previous forecasts that the company had done.
The site said that its strong performance was reflecting the new customers, which started at the end of 2019 and continued into 2020 in spite of the global health crisis. It’s believed that new products having been launched was a part of the success, which might help to explain why the company has continued with its launch of its new sportsbook’s look. Now they’re just concerned about the ‘possible headwinds’ in the coming months.
What It Means For Customers
In short, the separation from Kambi and the launch of its new-look product base means little to nothing for customers of 888. Whilst the hope is that it give the company far more flexibility and give them the opportunity to be innovative, that will not be immediately apparent to punters using 888’s services. Instead, they likelihood is that they’ll notice a slight change to the look and the usability of the website but otherwise things will be muted to begin with.
The company itself has spoken of the ‘improved horse racing experience’ that customers can expect, declaring it to be ‘on a completely different level’. Over time, the rest of the platform will begin to offer things that customers will start to love, including a faster user experience. This is due to the fact that it’s much cleaner, with a seamless integration of the unified clients that 888 uses to provide its sportsbook platform.
What’s Different?
The main thing that will be different for users of 888’s sportsbook is the manner in which it aims to make things easier. The homepage will be personalised, leading to your favourite sport being put on it so that you can see the bets that you’re most likely to place much quicker. The content will be tailored to your preferences, including the notion of bets being recommended to you depending on previous wagers that you’ve placed.
The recommendations will be real time, meaning that the likes of In-Play bets can be included. You’ll be told about the bets that you’ve placed recently and how they went for you, whether you won or lost them and what net win or otherwise you made. You’ll also experience an ‘up-sell’ in your betting slip, with different bets that you could place if you want to. The BetFeed will feature popular bets that other people are placing, with smart filtering engaged.
The move from 888 is set to give the company complete control over everything that they offer, meaning that you’ll almost certainly start to see some appealing offers as it starts to bed in and settle down. You don’t need to do anything to experience the new 888 Sport site other than load it up, with everything available to you as a result becoming apparent over time. Whether it proves to be a successful move remains to be seen.
