GeoComply co-founder David Briggs was joined onstage by a who’s-who of European online operators, including newly minted Entain CEO Gavin Isaacs, evoke CEO Per Widerström and Snaitech CEO Fabio Schiavolin.
Aptly named “The CEO Dilemma,” the quartet commiserated over the difficulties of growing and innovating new product when the black market can do it faster, without being tethered to regulatory obligations. Longtime peers and competitors, the panelists prodded each other and made light of the difficulties.
“All three of us would dream to be in the unregulated market just for a day,” Schiavolin joked.
Isaacs, whose career spans several major gambling companies, has seen the unregulated vs. regulated debate become increasingly murky. Having taken the reins at online giants Entain in September, he now must navigate new technologies and grey markets.
“When I started, there were very clear black and white lines, but there’s much more grey now,” he said. Those who choose to operate legally make sacrifices to do so, he said, but it sometimes feels “unfair” to see others not do the same.
Always one step ahead
One of the central themes of the discussion was finding ways to innovate and protect IP with offshore platforms lurking closely behind. For Isaacs, the innovation is not necessarily the hard part. Rather, the latter point is the rub. “It’s the time to market that’s the issue,” he said.
To his credit, Briggs mentioned a few potential tools that might help with this. Among them were the adoption of artificial intelligence and the adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Widerstrom, whose firm oversees powerhouses William Hill and 888, was positive on AI while noting the high costs associated with it. But he asserted that off-the-shelf services make it so that “you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Crypto is another story. None of the companies represented in the panel are able to accept the currencies, which are extremely popular among younger consumers. Many of them choose black market platforms because of that roadblock. As Isaacs pointed out, the tenets of a regulated market and crypto are somewhat at odds. Operators diligently fulfill KYC obligations, while crypto at its heart is a decentralized, anonymous medium.
Do players care about regulated protections?
As the black market continues to grow, legal operators must fight hard to convince players to stay above board. If the odds or markets aren’t superior, though, the regulated market must push its other arguments. Chief among them is the framework of consumer protections and harm minimisation.
But in today’s era, do players even consider that argument? After all, it’s a hard sell to say that the best thing about the regulated market is that you are monitored more closely with fewer options.
“The consumers don’t care (about harm minimisation) as much as the rest of the stakeholders do,” Isaacs surmised. “I don’t know if the player cares.”
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/innovation/regulated-vs-unregulated/
