It’s time for the third part of STATSCORE’s series of interviews with sports betting mavens. Today Maciej Akimow, Chief Executive Officer of Shark Agency, and an experienced sports betting and gaming expert, discusses the most important trends in the business!
Here’s more about STATSCORE’s interviews!
STATSCORE: What are the 3 biggest opportunities for the online betting industry in 2022?
Maciej Akimow: Without any doubt, I can say that the World Cup in Qatar will be the biggest chance for the betting industry. It’s an opportunity to grow revenues, and it will be a chance to attract new players and engage them in betting.
Dynamic trends can also help smaller companies to understand them and be there before bigger companies without flexible skills. You can invest in new traffic channels at a relatively good price. A good example of this trend is cooperation with influencers. Still, you can find rising stars of social media who will be attractive to your strategy.
I also believe that small things make a big difference. It’s worth it to keep improving client service. Customers would like to have pleasure from betting or using casino slots, not to run through the obstacle course racing.
STATSCORE: What are the 3 biggest threats to the industry?
Maciej Akimow: Uncertain economic situations could have a negative impact on players’ activities. Spending money on entertainment is not the main human need.
In the market, we have a lot of companies competing for the same customer. In my opinion, there are too many operators in the market. For a new business, without investors and IT know-how, it’s almost impossible to rise. There’s no place for bootstrap nowadays.
I’m also afraid of overregulating the market. Law should be easy and create opportunities for businesses to grow. Overregulated markets only help to grow offshore operators. You can’t be attractive if you don’t have the budget to hire developers because you need to spend money on accounting or law services.
STATSCORE: What has been the biggest achievement of your organization since the beginning of 2020?
Maciej Akimow: We’re still in the game and it’s the most important thing. Many affiliates and sport betting agencies have been taken over by bigger companies with better cash flow, ideas, and structures. It’s a similar situation as in the operators’ industry. You need to be a big fish. If you’re not – then you need to be like a little shark and make risky decisions. We still work on our tools and improve them every single day. All the time you need to know that there’s something more to learn.
STATSCORE: What are, in your opinion, the most crucial trends in sports business and sports marketing currently?
Maciej Akimow: Sports need to change. Younger people, Generation Z or however we will call them, are not interested in sport as much as older customers. You need to show them sport in a different way – dynamic, highlights and bringing emotions into entertainment.
Having a lot of experience in the industry is not as important anymore as the ability to adapt to new things and trends. You need to know that younger audiences are not watching TV or using Facebook anymore because it’s for “boomers”. You will find them on TikTok, Discord, and Twitch.
STATSCORE: How important is the role of affiliate programs to the sports betting industry?
Maciej Akimow: Affiliation 10 years ago was much easier to understand. Most affiliates had well SEO-positioned websites for the most common phrases like betting bonuses, sportsbook, etc. Nowadays you have more tools to promote your partners. You can connect everything in one machine with good analytics knowledge and then you will know your audience and know in which place you must push the traffic to the registrations page. The entry threshold is much higher.
Check out what Slava Zhuk says about the future of the industry!
In my opinion, iGaming and affiliation are the greatest examples of synergy in the business. None of them can exist without the other.
STATSCORE: What are the key aspects on which bookmakers should focus to keep their businesses growing and stand out from the competition?
Maciej Akimow: Two things – product and marketing. For marketing to be effective, you need to have a good quality product. You can’t create anything useful if you don’t look into customers’ behaviors. It’s sad that after years of saying that every next year is the “mobile first year” many operators couldn’t develop a light mobile app.
STATSCORE: Thank you very much!
Maciej Akimow Bio
CEO of Shark Agency, a company that connects players with operators.
10 years experience as an affiliate and iGaming expert. He helps companies to grow
