Oddin and Esports: An interview with Head of Partnerships Marek Suchar
Oddin is a B2B esports technology solution. They operate their data-driven and AI-powered iFrame solution to supply a variety of live betting opportunities. That is a very wordy way of saying that they can deliver up to the second live coverage and engagement with esports.
In recent months they have joined forces with Sirplay to bring their own esports betting solution to the Latin American market as well as receiving an undisclosed investment from a strategic investor group led by Alex Igelman, and Jeff Sagansky.
Now that they are primed to dominate the Latin American markets and ready to launch new betting features, we wanted to see what they have to say. I spoke with Marek Suchar, Head of Partnerships at Oddin about the future of esports betting and what traditional sports bookmakers are missing out on by not investing in esports.
ESB – For anyone that doesn’t know, what is Oddin, and what do you do?
We are a B2B provider of esports odds feed, risk management, and iFrame solutions. We deliver the most engaging esports live betting experience in titles such as Counter-Strike, League of Legends, and Dota 2. Since we are an esports dedicated company, we have built our own esports-centric infrastructure, mathematical models are tailor-made for esports titles, our trading team has the right esports expertise and we prefer to work with official esports data rights where possible.
ESB – You have recently signed several partnerships with the likes of Arland, Sirplay, and BetX to build your brand around the world, but you seem to focus heavily on the LATAM region, is this the next big place for esports and esports betting?
Esports is a global phenomenon. We work on delivering our esports betting experience everywhere in the world, LATAM relationships just happened to be signed first. The industry is growing at a high rate and countries like Colombia, Brazil or Mexico have a massive esports fan base. However, there is still a lot to improve in terms of the esports betting experience, so we have received quite a lot of interest from many operators to start offering a truly engaging esports betting experience in the region.
ESB – With the slightly confusing nature of betting regulations across Latin America, what do you think will be the biggest stumbling block for companies entering the region?
The regulation can indeed be a tricky issue, as every country has its particularities. However, I believe the biggest mistake companies make when entering Latin America is considering it as a single region. What works in Colombia, does not necessarily mean it will work in Brazil. For example, Colombia has a massive Dota 2 fan base, so sportsbooks should promote this game above all others. However, in countries like Brazil, Dota 2 is not very popular, and Brazilian’s love Counter-Strike. We understand that to enter such a complex region you need partners that have the right expertise and can help you move in the right direction.
ESB – What are traditional sports bookmakers missing out on by not investing in esports?
You just have to look at what younger generations like. They spend their time on YouTube, Twitch, watching streamers, or playing video games themselves. These people are growing and increasing their purchasing power every year. We have data showing that the average esports bettor is 25 years old, while in traditional sports it ranges from 33 to 38. Esports is the most growing market and the sportsbooks that ignore its potential might have trouble attracting the new generations of bettors.
ESB – How do you view the growing trend of crypto esports betting?
I find it a very interesting match. Crypto and esports are both industries that are growing a lot during the last years, they’re both innovative, technology-based, and share a big portion of their user personas in younger and tech-savvy generations. Crypto and esports users do not like waiting, they value freedom of choice and that’s why an engaging esports betting experience combined with the fast and free crypto payments are just a great match.
ESB – You recently partnered with Sportradar and Bayes to present a whitepaper on esports tournaments, what advice would you give to smaller organizations looking to hold esports events?
If you are a smaller organizer, aim for creativity. For example, Midas mode in DOTA2 was a relatively low-prize pool event, but because of the completely new concept and people behind it, it was able to attract top teams like OG and top sponsors like Betway. In esports, there are still ways to differentiate. Make your sponsors stand out in a creative way, not just posting their logo on stream and force their names to the caster. Think about how they can become part of the story you are telling naturally. Make your schedule predictable and well known in advance, so either media or betting partners will be interested in the media and data partnerships. Unpredictable tournaments are the worst nightmare for any bookmaker, as the games that you are about to cover might have already been played with the lines open bringing potential losses.
ESB – What is the biggest area of growth for the esports betting market?
Truly engaging live betting. The esports betting market is still quite young. We know that more than 80% of the betting volume comes from live-betting, so that’s where the improvement should be focused on. When you look at most of the sportsbooks esports live offering, the lines are closed quite often, and you may find just 4 or 5 live markets. Moreover, many sportsbooks do not even offer live streaming of the games.
ESB – What is your focus for the rest of 2021?
We plan to go live with multiple new partners, but we are also focusing on improving our products and launching new verticals. Esports is a very fast-growing industry, so to keep up to date you cannot rest! We want to add more exciting betting verticals, new live markets, improve the performance of our models and explore new titles and features.
Conclusion
It looks like their focus is the Latin American market, with their most recent partnership with Sirplay they are rapidly growing in the region. They are not looking to hold a monopoly over the markets, they offer their services to a number of esports betting sites.
Latin America is a rapidly expanding market for esports and esports betting but the current model for bookmakers is rooted firmly in the past. Many large sportsbooks have entered the region, but their focus remains on traditional sports. What the region lacks, and Oddin may provide, is an esports-focused solution for bettors.
They have a clear focus and a drive to create the right technology for their needs. They realised that the future of sports betting is online, and the future of online is gaming and esports.
