With modern technology constantly developing and the Canadian market at the forefront of an ever-evolving landscape, BetGames Chief Product Officer, Ian Catchick, is sure its groundbreaking latest launch earlier this year, Twain Sport, is set to spearhead the next generation of sports betting. Here, he details just how the trailblazing product works and how it aims to combine the worlds of sports betting and casino in a new era for bettors.

BetGames is really making waves globally in the iGaming sphere – could you tell us more about your universal appeal for those Canadian readers who might be unfamiliar?  

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BetGames has been established for some time, with over a decade of experience to be proud of. Now in its 11th year in the industry, we’ve made a name for ourselves by creating live casino entertainment and live dealer content that makes sports fans feel right at home.

Our latest product to go live in Ontario is Twain Sport – already live with 40+ global operators. The aim is to deliver non-stop, fixed-odds sports betting in a casino format for the new generation of bettors.

Our goal is to deliver content for operators centred around sports betting, while providing the same margins that come with iGaming and casino.

To do this, we’ve created our own proprietary set of sports products that deliver high-octane tournaments of basketball and football, every 60 seconds, in the short-form betting format we know the new generation is looking for.

The numbers on offer are fantastic – with over 1400 matches each day, broadcasted 24/7, our fast-paced, action-packed events are the perfect proposition for operators looking to boost revenue.

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What sets Twain Sport apart from other offerings in the market? What gives it that universal appeal at a time when truly unique products are thin on the ground?

It all started with a basic idea to introduce high-quality, unique and competitive live sports content – aimed towards customers who wanted short, fast action. We addressed that with a product that delivered intensive short-form, pre-recorded live rounds of both sports.

Ensuring high turnover and low stakes for extended sessions of engagement, Twain Sport offers something that few, if any, product vertical can – one that appeals to sports and casino fans alike, as well as being designed to truly appeal to a next-gen audience better than any other studio. We have high expectations for Twain Sport in Ontario and expect it to perform incredibly well throughout the upcoming winter months.

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Did you have a target audience in mind when envisioning Twain Sport’s success? What’s the thought process behind launching in Canada?

It was certainly a strategic move. For a start, the average Canadian bettor is between 25 and 35 years old, the exact demographic we’re aiming to entertain.

We all know next-gen players are looking for instant thrills and excitement, just like you have with casino games. This is particularly the case if sports matches are playing out on television and players are looking for additional entertainment via mobile.

We take that passion for sport and bring that format into play, bridging both 24/7 sport and high-frequency betting, without any of the barriers to entry you’ll see with many casino games.

We see this as the future of entertainment. Bringing sports into the casino world means attracting sports fans and moving them away from the lower margins associated with in-play sports betting.

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By doing that, we’re able to offer a customer lifetime value on a par with casino margins – while greatly boosting your customer base.

How does Twain Sport blend different elements like slots and live casino into its fixed-odds format, making it appealing to the modern sports fan?

There’s no other betting product that comes close to what Twain Sport offers – in many ways, we’ve created an entirely new vertical for bettors to enjoy.

In short, we repackage the basic USPs of slots, virtuals and live casino into one and deliver it in a fixed-odds format where sports fans can feel right at home.

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To bring sports punters closer to the casino world, our approach revolves around a few key principles. Our mission is to provide rich, familiar and unique content that delivers high-quality live entertainment experiences.This draws on our core competencies of broadcast, game design and our skills in intuitively knowing and understanding how to create content that our players enjoy.

Speaking of player enjoyment, what makes Twain Sport stand out in comparison to other betting products, particularly in terms of combining slots and live casino elements?

For next-gen players, it’s all about providing an experience that is as simple and accessible as possible.

They’re telling us quite clearly that what they really want is high-quality, engaging, rapid-play, simple-to-understand content.

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We know that Twain Sport provides that and more – in launching our game-changing vertical, we’ve done it exactly in a way that deals with the time pressure that the next-gen players have on their demand for entertainment.

We know that they’re very keen to enjoy a combination of what they know right now – in our case – easily understandable sports formats – and newer concepts that enhance their playing experience.

How is Twain Sport’s launch in Canada positioned to meet the current market demand for top-quality betting experiences?

I have no doubt that our launch in Canada with multiple tier-one operators will be a fantastic chance to showcase why this new, shorter-form style of betting content is exactly what the market is demanding right now.

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The crucial thing to remember is that our players’ time is very precious, and they want to ensure that the action on offer is high-quality, rapid and revolves around the rest of the entertainment mix.

Twain Sport’s action-packed nature with immediate rewards and a fantastically high production quality allows us to deliver on that goal.

We see Twain Sport as the future, catering to the new generation of players who are looking for instant thrills and payouts. We’re very excited by the prospect of introducing it to another new audience and I’m sure it will be a great show.

Truly unique products are thin on the ground these days but BetGames’ CEO Andreas Koeberl is confident he has a winner on his hands ahead of its launch not the Canadian market. Here, he explains more about the trailblazing product and how it aims to bring the worlds of sports betting and casino closer together.

Twain Sport has caught the attention of many in the industry having gone live with leading brands globally – tell us more about its universal appeal.

It’s a product like no other, essentially. There’s always talk of ‘innovation’ in the industry but I’m not sure the description is always warranted with a lot of similar products. Twain Sport bucks that trend and delivers a brand-new concept that might create its own vertical.

We’ve been able to offer a simple yet engaging proposition globally since evolving Twain Sport to a 24/7 offering, we’re thrilled at how it has performed since launch. But it isn’t the same product we saw on day one either. Beyond the round-the-clock scheduling we now have, we’ve engaged with operators and bettors to build their feedback into subtle tweaks to gameplay and presentation that have given us the more intuitive, mobile-first optimised product we see today.

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We haven’t finished with the evolution either. Such an approach proves valuable in consistently strengthening and improving Twain Sport. Coming soon we’re looking at introducing AI-generated commentary in localised languages, allowing us to cater to audiences wherever we operate and scale more effectively. It’s a delight to see it gradually grow and refine.

What was the inspiration behind its development? Did you identify a gap in the market that led to Twain Sport’s creation?

Standard sports betting is so well-established and popular that trying to compete with it wouldn’t have worked. We looked at what was currently popular in the world of social media, gaming and general entertainment, and the trend is toward fast-paced and on-demand.

We wanted to create a product that complimented live sports betting and was easily accessible, presenting the opportunity to enjoy it whenever the mood takes a bettor. Twain Sport’s action-packed nature with immediate rewards and a fantastically high production quality allows us to deliver on that initial goal.

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Now we have a fast, fun betting experience that replicates much of what live sport betting offers but is more accessible so that if bettors have 15 minutes to spare between the second and third quarter of a basketball game or can’t wait for the kick-off on the next big soccer match.

So, naturally, they can play a couple of rounds of T-Kick or T-Basket with us. Sixty-second matches every two minutes, 24 hours a day every day allows us to fulfil that promise, keeping bettors engaged, before and after big events – Twain Sport fills the gap and then some.

Speaking of gaps – can Twain Sport achieve the holy grail of cross-selling between major sports and casino-style betting?

Undoubtedly. It offers everything that most casino games do – instant thrills and payouts. BetGames’ roots are in converting sports bettors into casino players. The advantage we have is that Twain Sport bridges that divide without any of the barriers to entry you’ll see with most casino games.

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We did our due diligence during early development, looking at the target demographics we’d be putting Twain Sport in front of in each region. The key, is to keep bettors engaged, promoting a reason to cross-sell, and with our stream of on-demand basketball and soccer, we have a unique product that definitely fits the bill. We got it right, and to see that groundwork come to fruition is hugely satisfying.

One of the many reasons that Twain Sport ticks the number of boxes that it does is that it’s a versatile product – bringing sports into the casino world, and attracting sports fans too, moving them away from the lower margins associated with sports betting. It offers operators a lifetime value on par with casino margins, while greatly boosting their customer base.

When will Canadian players see the launch of Twain Sport and how will the market there react?

Now that T-Basket is available 24/7, we’ll be launching very soon indeed and with several operators.

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What we’ll be launching with is unlike anything else on the market – Twain Sport offers up 60 seconds of action-packed basketball and football games played by real athletes competing in bespoke one-on-one challenges, every two minutes, throughout the day – so we’re confident it is going to receive the same overwhelmingly positive response it has enjoyed in other regions.

We’re launching into a unique market too – one with incredible potential. We’ve researched our audience and designed Twain Sport to specifically target that 25 – 35-year-old bracket that the average Canadian bettor falls into.

By delivering that demographic the fast-action entertainment it demands, along with our branding options, we can ensure we’re supplying a fantastic tool which helps promote trust and showcases the value and integrity of our brand and product.

SBC’s Canadian Gaming Summit is going to provide the perfect launchpad and the timing couldn’t be better – what do you expect to gain from the event?

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Putting Twain Sport and T-Basket in particular front and centre to the very people we need to show it off to is ideal just before we launch in Canada. The market there is buoyant and growing rapidly and with its love of sports and fast-paced entertainment, we couldn’t hope to have an offering more attuned to hit the ground running.

We see Twain Sport as the future, catering to the new generation of players that are looking for instant thrills and payouts. We’re very excited by the prospect of introducing it to another new audience and I’m sure it will be a great show.