The future of retail was a key talking point at the new-look Spotlight Sports Group Cafe at ICE London. The group’s breadth of services was on display through new retail products recently launched in the state-of-the-art Ladbrokes Coral concept stores.

The Racing Post Betting Shop Display, an essential part of the experience for retail bookmakers for decades, has been transformed into interactive touch screens. Providing customers with up-to-date form on every horse running in Britain and Ireland, the offering has now expanded to territories across the globe including South Africa, France and the US. It also shows key information on virtual racing.

The expansion into supplying sports content has been well received in the marketplace, with Spotlight Sports Group’s range of expertise in the sporting sector now used to provide tipping content and up-to-the-minute data for more than 20 sports. This content can now be offered to retail bookmakers through off-the-shelf digital display screens that provide customers with all the essential information they need to place a bet, all available in more than 70 languages.

Speaking about Spotlight Sports Group, Director of Retail, Alan Pepperell discussed the positivity around the rebrand and the excitement surrounding new, innovative retail products.

“The ICE exhibition is a critical week for us and this year was especially important with the launch of our Spotlight Sports Group. Given our acquisition of ICS and Apsley in recent years it was important we demonstrated our expanded capabilities, and ICE allowed us to showcase our breadth of services.

“Having the latest version of the Interactive BSD (Betting Shop Display), as well as the Sports bet-prompt screen on the stand led to a number of positive conversations. Demonstrating how our coverage now extends to international horse racing as well as British and Irish, and how our talented sports team has expanded our offering with pre and in-play tipping, all of which can be translated into 70+ languages through the expertise at ICS-Translate, saw constant interest over the three days of ICE.”

Speaking about the conference, Alan highlighted a constant theme with the host of exhibitors: “Innovation was key at ICE this year, with a number of stands focusing on how they are looking to diversify. Self-service betting is a primary focus in retail and there seemed to be a number of new entrants to the market.”