New entrant BetWarrior has undergone several key steps in its short lifespan thus far, as the casino and sports betting brand strives to make a splash in selected key markets.
Co-founded by a pair of ex-PokerStars stalwarts, Kambi has aligned with the firm to integrate a sportsbook platform, with digital product studio Shape charged with delivering a native, mobile-first gaming entity that meets Apple’s strict new guidelines for entry to its App Store.
Morten Tonnesen, co-founder and CEO, has been speaking to CasinoBeats regarding establishing the brand and how BetWarrior intends to best resonate with its target audience amid such fierce competition: “I had worked for many years, alongside my BetWarrior co-founder José Del Pino, at PokerStars, and that gave us a front-row seat from which to observe the changing landscape of the global gaming industry,” he says.
“Two things really jumped out at us. Firstly, that while gaming has been moving onto the mobile channel at breakneck speed for a decade now, the products haven’t kept pace. The industry is still awash with legacy platforms that fail to deliver a true, fully native mobile user experience.
“These newly-regulating markets will be fast-growing but without the competition you see in the mature markets”
“Secondly, regulated gaming is finally going global, and that opens up an unprecedented opportunity for those which can better adapt to new markets in Latin America, Africa and beyond.
“We felt that, combined, these two observations provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build an igaming brand and platform that could redefine the sector, and we’ve set up BetWarrior to achieve exactly that.”
Adding: “We are initially launching in regulated markets in Latin America and Europe. Latin America is a particularly interesting region right now. Since Colombia regulated a couple of years ago, the market has been growing very impressively, and other jurisdictions, including Brazil and Buenos Aires, are making swift progress towards introducing new frameworks.
“These newly-regulating markets will be fast-growing but without the competition you see in the mature markets of western Europe. This presents a major opportunity for a young operator and platform such as ourselves to define the standard.
“For many customers in these markets, playing online casino or placing a bet on football on a mobile phone will be an alien concept. So, this gives us a chance to offer something completely new and focused on a new generation of mobile player.”
“The industry is still awash with legacy platforms that fail to deliver a true, fully native mobile user experience”
The advancement of mobile is very much front and centre of the BetWarrior mantra, with the new guidelines introduced by Apple pinpointed as a particular advantage point, especially as difficulties could have been created for certain operators who may be stuck on legacy platforms that lack the agility to adapt.
Despite being an industry buzzword for many a year, Tonnesen remains confident that BetWarrior can deliver on a promise that he believes no-one else really has: “While many operators have tried to modernise, most have decided on technology that is easier to deliver and reuse across platforms ie. HTML5 technology, as well as a mindset that defined mobile as simply an adaptation of what came before, rather than building a quality experience for the specific platform.
“This approach is already looking outdated. Just see the recent announcement from Apple, which will require games to be fully native and built into the app by September 4, 2019. Those that don’t comply will not be permitted in the App Store, and a number of operators will be caught cold.
“With BetWarrior, we have mobile at the very core of our proposition. Everything we have built is fully native. Simply put, this can deliver an experience that hasn’t been seen before, from bespoke, personalised content to the most intuitive user interface ever seen in the gaming sector.”
Despite attempting to gain ground in a bustling industry, as previously alluded to, Tonneson outlines why it isn’t just a case of building upon his and Pino’s success but drawing upon experience across numerous industries: “We’ve moved to assemble a team at BetWarrior which doesn’t just build upon our own experience, but draws upon expertise from new fields such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, so we can fully realise our vision.
“We have set ourselves up to be faster and more agile than the competition”
“Obviously, it is not a simple task to attempt a disruption of an industry as large as online gaming, but we have significant investment, world-class partners and some of the best talent in the space.
“We see big opportunities in terms of delivering an agile platform that can better adapt to the particular requirements of a diverse range of markets, and we feel this will give us a head start versus legacy operators and suppliers.”
Concluding with a brief outlook on how BetWarrior proposes to enjoy sustained success: “We have set ourselves up to be faster and more agile than the competition. Our platform is best-in-class and more adaptable than anything I have ever worked with. We see it being suitable for roll-out in both newly-regulating markets and more established jurisdictions.
“It is packed with personalisation features which enable us to deliver a fully bespoke experience to a customer, whether they are logging on in Bogata or Berlin. This is the future of gaming and we want to be at the very centre of it.”
