Betting and gaming companies should be taking risks when it comes to innovation, Digitain’s Chief Business Officer Simon Westbury told SBC, as this can lead to new channels of growth.

Speaking at the recent SBC Betting on Sports Europe conference, Westbury reflected on the first six months of the year – highlighting some of the ways in which Digitain has reached its corporate objectives so far. 

He noted: “We’ve received a GLI certification for our new platform, Centrivo. We’ve launched virtual sports and our live dealer product, as well as carrying out a lot of development on our sportsbook product with an average of more than 90,000 events per month this year. 

“Over the last six months, we’ve revolutionised our betslip, we’ve brought in AI personalisation of our sportsbook and we’ve also launched our sports jackpot. 

“So when we talk about corporate achievements, we’ve had a lot of product achievements. There’s been a lot of internal changes and development taking place at Digitain, and we’ve grown the sales team both internationally and in Armenia too. So it’s been a very active period, full of momentum and full of growth. Our achievements will be judged at the end of the year, but I’m very comfortable and happy where we are as a company right now.”

When quizzed upon the topic of innovation and the key lessons that the betting and gaming industry can take from other sectors, Westbury suggested that much can be learned from looking a little closer to home. 

He added: “I think we need to look at what we can learn from ourselves as an industry and how we can define what innovation is, rather than focusing on invention. Innovation doesn’t necessarily have to be a new product, it can be something existing that has been tweaked to make it more appealing, more structured and more desirable for players. 

“What we can learn is that we’re in the entertainment industry and we need to focus on the players and our end users more, rather than worry about our jobs and saying ‘we don’t want to have that bit of innovation because what we have works’.

“We should be looking to take risks. I’m going to take risks as Chief Business Officer and digitising because that can be innovation, which subsequently can drive business. So I think my message to the industry is not for me to preach. But I want to say that we need to look at ourselves as an industry to understand what innovation is, and not be scared to take risks around innovation.”

Watch the full interview HERE