BIG GAMBLE
Sun International bets on sport
BAFANA Bafana’s surprise victory over Spain on Tuesday was great news for local football fans — and the latest entrant in the online sports-betting field, Sunbet.
“We made a killing. No one expected Bafana to win,” said Daniel Kustelski, the general manager of Sunbet, the new online sports-betting subsidiary of Sun International, one of the largest gambling and hospitality groups in the country.
Sunbet was officially launched in Johannesburg on Thursday, even though the platform has been live for more than 12 months being tweaked and retweaked.
Following a spell of depressed growth, Sun International hopes its foray into online sports betting will lift the fortunes of a company that has effectively stagnated.
Its share price rose a marginal 2.37% during the past year, while the overall market rose 20.7%.
The sluggish share price shows that the company needs new ideas.
It’s been a long time since it made its name by launching gambling institutions such as Sun City in the Bantustan homelands of the apartheid era when gambling was illegal in South Africa.
By launching an online sports betting platform, Sun International is hoping to hitch a ride on the coat-tails of two of the fastest-growing industries in the country — sports and e-commerce.
Michael Farr, the group general manager of corporate brand and communications at Sun International, said: “Sports is becoming a very important part of our lives.
“We spent 15-18 months to get this platform right and now we’ve ironed out the bugs we’re launching it officially,” he said.
“We believe strongly in the potential for this to grow strongly in South African, and that is why we’re doing what we’re doing.
“Our current customers will be excited by an additional gaming opportunity. There’s also potential for new customers: ordinary South Africans,” said Farr.
Although online betting constitutes only 15% of the overall sports betting sector it is growing rapidly.
“Twelve years ago in South Africa, one in 12 people were placing bets with a bookmaker, now its one in seven. Two-and-a-half million people have started to bet since 2008/2009.
“That’s a massive growth of about 75% in about four or five years,” Kustelski said. “To use a hockey analogy, we’re skating where the puck is going to be not where it is.”
The opportunity lies in the 15-million smartphones and 1-million tablets South Africans are using.
However, another attraction of online sports betting is in the potentially large bets that are made online.
“Although I am loath to divulge confidential data, typically the bets made online are multiples of cash bets.
“So it’s a couple of hundred rand per bet. That’s because people who have access to the internet typically have bank accounts and if you have a bank account you can EFT or use your credit card. E-commerce is largely a banked economy, thus more lucrative,” Kustelski said.