In an exclusive interview with GMB, David Bretnitz, Vice President of Sales - Americas, discussed the new multi-year partnership of Kambi with the KTO Group. The company is ready to enhance the online sports betting offerings of the brand in Brazil as the market approaches regulation in 2025. The executive highlights the rapid growth and ambitious goals of KTO as some of the main reasons for the agreement. The collaboration aims to leverage AI-based solutions and Kambi's global experience to deliver top-level experiences.
Games Magazine Brasil - Kambi recently signed a multi-year partnership with the KTO Group to boost its online sports betting. What were the main factors that made KTO an ideal partner for Kambi?
David Bretnitz -
We are very proud to sign with KTO. They are a fast-growing operator, boasting an extensive customer database and real ambition to increase their market share in Brazil, supported by the sports betting upgrade that a partnership with Kambi provides as the market approaches regulation.
Kambi has a proven track record of delivery in highly regulated markets across six continents, and our services — with a deep offering of sports betting on major sports, unmatched combinability, and cutting-edge UX — all lend themselves well to empowering the operator's success across 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 extensive experience across Latin America in jurisdictions like Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, a reliable partner of leading sports betting operators such as BetPlay, BetWarrior, Olimpo.bet, and Rush Street Interactive (RushBet).
We are confident that we can replicate this success across Brazil in partnership with forward-thinking operators like KTO. This is partly due 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 shoot on goal" and "player to score from outside the box," provide operators with the tools they need to succeed.
This aligns with data-driven insights drawn from Kambi's network of 40 operators, with every bet made informing the strategy and best practices for each operator in our network, regardless of whether they themselves have placed the bet.
That said, strengthening Kambi's position in Brazil is not our main focus with this deal. 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 across Brazil.
Kambi's technology includes AI-powered trading features and comprehensive odds coverage. How do these features specifically benefit KTO and enhance their sports betting offering?
Kambi introduced its AI-powered trading to the market before the FIFA World Cup 2022 and, having processed hundreds of millions of bets since then, this technology now covers much of our pre-game football offering - allowing partners like KTO to offer sports betting that is at the forefront.
End-user behavior is increasingly moving towards player-curated markets and products like complex props and bet builders that only advanced algorithms have the capability to price, trade, and deliver.
We believe that bookmakers still heavily reliant on human trading, rather than machine-assisted human trading, are approaching a tipping point in the scope of the offer they can price and manage risks successfully in the face of these ever-increasing consumer demands - many have already fallen behind. Soon, Kambi will make this technology available across our entire in-play offering, further extending our leadership.
KTO has quickly become a major player in Brazil's online betting sector since its launch. What challenges and opportunities do you foresee 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 address how increasing competition intensifies the need for a high-performance sports betting product to succeed at the top of the market, and this goes hand in hand with empowering the operator's sports betting platform - allowing operators to localize and leverage their brands effectively will strengthen success against international competition.
Another factor at play will be the need to manage greater compliance requirements.
The compliance function of a betting offer needs to ensure all requirements are met while protecting the competitiveness of the offer. There is a trend in several jurisdictions to block specific events or markets from the offer due to concerns about betting-related manipulation, and for example, discussions are ongoing in Brazil about whether to allow card markets in football.
With each of the more than 50 jurisdictions in which Kambi is active having their own increasingly varied offer models, Kambi was in a position where hundreds of vital compliance decisions were needed daily. To handle these challenges, Kambi developed our Offer Compliance Automation technology – providing a significant evolution to our filtering engine.
The tool automatically filters the offer according to local regulations, not only ensuring that all compliance requirements are met (and without the need for time-consuming manual decision-making about individual competitors and athletes), but also ensuring that our partners can launch and operate with full confidence in a complete and competitive offer.
Can you explain how Kambi's flexible, ready-to-use sports betting solution will integrate into KTO's existing infrastructure and what benefits it will bring to their operations?
Kambi's high-performance sports betting solution is platform-independent by design — capable of seamlessly fitting into any internal or third-party solution — and will simply integrate into KTO's internal player account management platform.
In terms of the benefits this will bring to KTO, the Kambi Sportsbook offers operators unparalleled control over crucial player-facing elements, including front-end and odds, giving KTO all the tools they need to build on the Kambi sports betting platform and deliver a sports bet that is true to their brand.
Additionally, Kambi partners can unilaterally create custom "specials" — without requiring input from Kambi — giving KTO the opportunity to build and promote unique bets to broaden their marketing and brand identity.
Looking forward, 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 in place, KTO is ready to take the next step in its sports betting evolution, and we are very pleased to make this journey with them.
A high-quality, 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 combined with Kambi's sports betting expertise, we believe the partnership is perfectly positioned to develop KTO's success.
Source: Exclusive GMB
