If you are looking to take on the giant that is the US market, market share is key – something which can be achieved through an efficient, scalable user acquisition strategy. That’s according to Aidan Toolan, Co-founder and CEO at Fortuna Edge Media.

Speaking to SBC, Aidan touched upon the ways that Fortuna Edge Media is connecting the dots between operators and customers to drive shareholder value through its proprietary user acquisition tech infrastructure, before discussing their plans for 2022.

SBCA: It’s been an outstanding year for Fortuna Edge Media and you guys are making a lot of waves in the industry, can you tell us a bit more about yourselves and what you are doing in the US market?

Sure, and thanks first of all for having us on SBC, you guys are crushing it for the community of sports betting and iGaming professionals. In a nutshell, Fortuna Edge Media is a pure-play Technology and Media company, laser focused on driving user acquisition and value generation in the regulated US Sports and iGaming market. We are fully operational, licensed and live in 16 US States and growing as new states open up.

As you mentioned we’ve had explosive growth over the last 12 months and we’re only getting started. The way that people interact with the world and how they use devices means that the amount of data created in the next 3 years will outstrip all the data created in the last 30 years. And so Fortuna Edge’s proprietary user acquisition tech infrastructure makes sense of this data to drive hyper-personalized interactions, enabling us to get in front of consumers at the right moment in time, with something that they find exciting and important.

Alongside all that, it’s just so exhilarating for us to be in the middle of the fastest growing market in the world at the moment, one of which we are perfectly positioned to take full advantage of.

SBCA: You mentioned that you feel acquisition is the most important area for operators in the next 12 months, can you tell us more about why you think this is?

In order to survive in this market, operators need to get to at least 5% market share, ergo, user acquisition now becomes the focal point for operators in terms of priority, because this is what will deliver sustainable shareholder value in the short to medium term.

While product is incredibly important for delivering long term customer value, the reality of the situation is that if you can’t get to those numbers that help you reach your critical mass, product is irrelevant. Efficient user acquisition gets you the number of customers you need to generate enough data for you to draw meaningful insights about how your product is being used and therefore how to develop it further. This in turn delivers shareholder value in the long term. For operators in the US right now, efficient scalable user acquisition is their number one challenge.

SBCA: So, in relation to this challenge, why are operators not acquiring better at scale?

One of the biggest problems operators face in the US market is having the ability to line up their tech stack in a way that enables them to quickly make strategic decisions in real-time. In many cases, it is inefficient, disconnected, cumbersome and slow. The ramifications of this are huge, because this lack of infrastructure has a knock-on effect in relation to how effectively and efficiently operators can drive sustainable user acquisition. And of course, as we are seeing, this then massively impacts share price and growth forecasts.

This is not something new, we have seen this in almost every other industry before. Take for example the banking industry where we are seeing challenger banks taking significant market share from incumbents. These fintech’s built their infrastructure around the efficient collection of data, which gives them access to meaningful insights and therefore enabling them to create a seamless customer journey. In this new world how you collate and use data will allow you to win.

At Fortuna Edge Media we’ve positioned ourselves as an industry leading authority in understanding and utilizing technology in the sportsbetting and igaming space. We have built our tech infrastructure to allow for scale, speed, and efficiency; all the things that operators need right now.

SBCA: What does 2022 have in store for Fortuna Edge Media?

The upcoming year is exciting for us. We have an innovation roadmap across 6 key areas that we are looking to expand on. Our primary focus is user acquisition and value generation, so we will be constantly developing our proprietary user acquisition tech infrastructure to expand into 2022 and beyond.

Also, another key area for us is growing out our www.BettingAmerica.com marquee brand and bringing it to a wider audience. Excitement and trust in relation to sports betting is what drives engagement, growth and loyalty and we have found that Betting America is a brand that has resonated with audiences across the US. How we scale this in 2022 is something we are really looking forward to.

Lastly, we pride ourselves on being amongst the first to go live whenever a new state has opened up in the past. Fortuna Edge is extremely strong on the legislation and licensing side of things, and so new states coming on board will be rocket fuel for our growth. We fully expect the size of the market to be a lot bigger than people even imagine. As Bally’s Chairman Soo Kim said at last year’s SBC North America event “The market will be 10x larger than any estimates coming out.”