Ahead of their upcoming US launch, SiGMA TV caught up with Alex Kornilov, managing director of sports company BETEGY to discuss the year ahead – watch the full interview below.
We started to look at the US market back in 2018 when the American market was opening up – it quickly became clear it would become one of the biggest domestic markets in the world – Alex Kornilov
BETEGY, a sports data company which provides betting operators and media companies with analytics and data visualisation, have announced plans to enter the US market.
The sports data company will be backed by JKR Investment Group, a European investor that operates in the tech entertainment industry and helps companies and ambitious teams build global entertainment businesses.
The Group invests in companies that work in industries like gambling, digital marketing, fin tech, and esports.
‘We are delighted to extend our portfolio with investment into the industry innovator. It will strengthen our ecosystem and help BETEGY in conquering the new ambitious markets. We are privileged to partner with the strong team the company was able to create,’ said Alexander Gusev, CEO JKR (seen above left).
As Alex (seen right) explains, the US market has its own particular challenges and nuances and European companies looking to enter the US market will need to reassess the way they work – both as a company and with clients.
“In the US it takes more time to close deals, due diligence is different, the legal environment is different, so it requires new processes inside the company which are not so straightforward.”
WATCH the exclusive video interview with Alex Kornilov in full below:
BETEGY will be joined by Bill Pascrell, an individual with a strong background in the global gambling industry, who joins the team as a board member and mentor.?
Bill (seen left) is also an ardent supporter of President-elect Biden, an appointment which ‘should boost further development of online betting in the US’ especially in light of Biden’s well-known opposition to President Trump’s attempts to appeal the 1961 Wire Act.
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His expertise will be much in demand, especially in the context of what has been a particularly challenging year, when ‘financial markets in general and access to capital became non-existent’.
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Although, as Alex says, the current health pandemic has helped them gain a fresh perspective on things – ‘we had prepared the company for growth and needed support to do this on a bigger scale internationally’ – the clarity they gained helped them to choose the right partners to move forward with.
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“[JKR Investment Group] are all professionals from the industry. They not only took on the company from a financial perspective, they also did a deep check of the product validation, they talked to our clients – they discussed the vision of the market and future services with other market players.
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“Only when we had a deep understanding of each other’s business strategies and had alignment in our goals and values did we say: OK, let’s make it happen.”
About Betegy
BETEGY?is a sports data service that operates on machine learning algorithms. The service provides betting operators and media companies with analytics and data visualization by generating high-quality personalized content.
Since 2012, BETEGY has helped clients in sports tech, media, and gaming tell a story through data and produce machine-powered content in scale for online and retail.
