iGaming Business magazine In-play Focus 2015 | Page 16

IN-PLAY FOCUS 2015

FROM DOT.COM
TO DOT.COUNTRY
Ebbe Groes, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of EveryMatrix, gives
exclusive insight into how the technical, regulatory, tax and compliance
hurdles posed by dot.country markets are changing the offer and
consumption of in-play betting across Europe.
How has the ongoing division of
Europe into dot.country markets
changed the offer and consumption
of in-play betting?
During the first half of 2015, the in-running
product didn’t change too much, mostly
involving small adjustments as to comply
with regulations regarding the margins/
payouts or the exclusion/inclusion of some
bet types from operators’ product offering.
A good example would be Italy, where until
recently operators were not allowed to offer
two-way handicap for basketball, which
they are now allowed to do. France is also
coming along, by allowing broader offerings
as well.
There is a rising demand and need for live
local events (i.e. the dot.ro sites will require a
certain volume of live events from popular
leagues in Romania, say handball), which
are not so easy to fulfill, as the focus of third
party providers such as Betradar or Betgenius
is pan-European/global. So, as a platform
provider, you need to be creative and always
seek specific country-targeted partnerships
and product offerings. This is one of the
driving ambitions behind our development
of the OddsMatrix sportsbook, to be able to
swiftly and cheaply add a new source of odds
and settlement data, suitable only for a small
42 | iGamingBusiness | Issue 93 | July/August 2015

Which new challenges has this
emerging landscape posed to both
operators and suppliers?
The dot.country model poses all kinds of
challenges, from technical to regulatory, to tax
and compliance, to name just a few. There are
many technical challenges to begin with (data
formats, servers, security) but regulation may
ultimately determine the configuration of

an operator’s platform, the two main factors
here being certification requirements and
specific features or functionalities. Payment
processing methods may also differ, as
each dot.country market has its own “trust”
requirements, and both operators and
bookmakers therefore need to take these local
mark ]