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Kambi Group plc acquires front end specialist Shape Games

Published

4 years ago

September 8, 2022

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Kambi significantly strengthens capability to deliver engaging and tailored sports betting experiences through addition of industry leading front end supplier

Kambi Group plc, the industry’s trusted sports betting partner, has strengthened its sportsbook proposition with the acquisition of award-winning front end technology specialist Shape Games for an upfront consideration of €38.5 million. The acquisition also includes a performance-related earnout of up to €39.6 million, potentially bringing the total consideration to €78.1 million, all to be paid in cash.

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Shape Games is the industry’s leading front end provider, focused on driving customer engagement and retention through the delivery of its customisable, fully native frontend technology to leading operators in regulated markets. Shape Games’ growing roster of partners includes Danske Spil and Norsk Tipping, as well as Kambi partners BetWarrior and JACK Entertainment, with each operator leveraging Shape Games’ technology to offer highly differentiated user experiences.

Transaction highlights and strategic rationale
Shape Games’ fully native front end technology complements Kambi’s high performance sportsbook and existing front end capabilities, creating a compelling proposition that will significantly enhance Kambi’s capabilities in the mobile space where the vast majority of sportsbook turnover originates. Combined, Kambi and Shape Games will empower operators to deliver exciting, tailored sports betting experiences to their players like never before.

The sportsbook front end has become a key tool for operators to effectively differentiate their brand, localise their offering and engage players to increase acquisition and retention. Not only does Shape Games provide a best-in-class front end, but its complementary customer engagement capabilities, which include personalisation, loyalty, statistics, and free-to-play games, provides the ability for operators to drive incremental growth and revenue.

The acquisition builds upon an established partnership between the two companies. Kambi and Shape Games have successfully combined on tender processes to secure turnkey contracts and Kambi believes the closer bond this agreement delivers will ultimately lead to greater commercial success for both parties.

The addition of Shape Games marks another important step in Kambi’s strategy, as it extends Kambi’s excellence within the sports betting value chain and enables the delivery of the front end through either turnkey or modularised packages. As such, Shape Games will continue to provide its services on a standalone basis to all operators, but a closer technical and commercial integration with Kambi will enable an enhanced service to be offered to Kambi’s current and future partners. In 2021, Shape Games generated revenue of €7.6 million at an EBITDA of €2.8 million, with 2022 forecast to deliver 100% year-on-year growth following several major partner wins.

Kristian Nylen, Kambi Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder said: “I’ve always been clear on our intention to acquire technology and talent that will complement and enhance our sportsbook proposition, and I have no doubt Shape Games will do just that. Having worked closely with Shape Games and its experienced team over recent years, I have seen first-hand how their technology enables operators to extract the full value of the Kambi sportsbook and provides the level of control operators require to deliver bespoke experiences to their players. While Shape Games will continue to grow and offer services on a standalone basis in line with our plans to offer a suite of modularised products, it is the ability to offer a combination of Kambi’s and Shape Games’ technology to our partners which really excites us and solidifies our position as the clear leader within the sports betting ecosystem.”

Christian Risom, Shape Games Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, said: “We are very happy to join forces with the leading sportsbook provider of the industry. Shape Games and Kambi have been working closely side by side for years now and it is exciting to take this partnership to new levels. Together we will have an unmatched sports betting and casino offering for any market in the world, be it on mobile and web or in retail. Kambi’s modular approach to the market allows us to form a profound and tight-knit integration with their sportsbook all the while pursuing opportunities with other sportsbook partners. From our perspective, this represents the best of both worlds for any customer out there. For me personally, the years we have worked with Kambi were a clear testament to the cultural match between the two organisations as both have a deeply rooted focus on best-in-class technology, customer experience and integrity in everything we do. It has always been great working alongside Kambi as collaborators and I am certain that what lies ahead is even greater.”

Shape Games was founded in 2018 by Risom, Chief Product Officer Nicolas Linde, and Chief Technical Officers Ole Gammelgaard and Philip Bruce, all of whom will continue to lead the company post-acquisition. Shape Games applies the vast front end experience gained from working with companies such as RedBull, Bang & Olufsen and Credit Suisse to the iGaming industry. Shape Games has since won numerous industry awards and several high-profile clients across Europe, North America, and South America. The company has approximately 80 full-time equivalent employees, with offices in Denmark, Spain, the Isle of Man, and Latvia.

Africa

TaDa Gaming joins inaugural iGaming AFRIKA Summit in Nairobi

Published

8 minutes ago

April 16, 2026

Wladimir P.

tada-gaming-joins-inaugural-igaming-afrika-summit-in-nairobi

Supplier plans Stand A08 meetings on May 4-6 as it targets further growth across African iGaming markets.

TaDa Gaming will attend the inaugural iGaming AFRIKA Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 4-6, where it plans to meet partners and operators at Stand A08 as it targets further expansion across African markets.

The supplier said it is live in more than 16 countries and is preparing to launch in South Africa through new partnerships and collaborations. TaDa described its approach as a “glocalisation strategy” built around global core mechanics and localised content.

TaDa highlighted its Fortune Gems and Fortune Coins series—specifically Fortune Gems 500 and Fortune Coins 2—as key titles, alongside its market-tailored X Hot slots, including X7 Hot. The company also pointed to its mobile-first focus, citing “fast loading and lightweight deployment” to support local infrastructure and devices.

The company said its Africa footprint includes partnerships with betPawa, Hollywoodbets, World Sports Betting and Betway, as well as distribution via 1XBET and BetConstruct. TaDa previously won SiGMA Africa Slot Newcomer of the Year.

Ray Lee, Director of Business Development, TaDa Gaming, said: ‘We are consistently growing our brand awareness through new partnerships across multiple markets, increasing our know-how and positively impacting our ability to keep delivering the experiences players want. We welcome everyone to drop by Stand A08 to meet our dedicated team and find out more about what we can do for your African success.’

The post TaDa Gaming joins inaugural iGaming AFRIKA Summit in Nairobi appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

EGR B2B Awards 2026

ELA Games lands two nominations on EGR B2B Awards 2026 shortlist

Published

8 minutes ago

April 16, 2026

Wladimir P.

ela-games-lands-two-nominations-on-egr-b2b-awards-2026-shortlist

Supplier is shortlisted in Slot Supplier – Under 5 years and Casino Software Supplier – Under 5 years ahead of the 3 June ceremony in London.

ELA Games has been shortlisted in two categories for the EGR B2B Awards 2026: Slot Supplier – Under 5 years and Casino Software Supplier – Under 5 years.

The EGR B2B Awards recognise service providers and software developers across iGaming. Winners will be announced at a ceremony at City Central at the HAC in London on 3 June 2026.

In its announcement, ELA Games pointed to recent product development and partner-focused delivery, including work to expand across regulated territories and a focus on “technical reliability and smooth integration.”

The supplier also highlighted product features it says differentiate its content, including the Winpot mechanic and a shooter format. It cited the release of Shoot Happens as an example, describing it as using a bespoke game engine to combine narrative progression with betting systems.

The post ELA Games lands two nominations on EGR B2B Awards 2026 shortlist appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

ChatBet

Betting at the Speed of Chat

Published

1 hour ago

April 16, 2026

Wladimir P.

As legacy sportsbooks struggle with ‘search and click’ fatigue, Josh Swerdlow, Founder and CEO of ChatBet, says the next industry titan will win by owning the conversational intent layer where billions of users already live.

Why is the current sportsbook UX struggling to keep up with modern tech?

It comes down to legacy debt. Current sportsbook apps are just digital spreadsheets – grids from the 1990s that have been optimised for desktop and not mobile-first intuition. With the majority of sportsbooks, users are forced through deep menus and endless scrolling, creating a “hurdle race” for every transaction. This leads to cognitive overload – while hardcore bettors might tolerate the clutter, casual punters encounter analysis paralysis and this usually leads to betslip abandonment. As user behaviour shifts from “search and click” to “intent and fulfilment”, and against a backdrop of spiraling acquisition costs and high levels of churn, this is really putting the squeeze on operator profitability and ultimately long-term sustainability.

What do you mean when you say we are moving from “search and click” to “intent and fulfilment” and what does this mean for online sportsbooks?

In a “search and click” world, the user does the heavy lifting – navigating deep menus and grids just to find a single market. “Intent and fulfillment” flips that script. It’s the shift from a user searching for a bet to simply commanding it. If a consumer can book a five-star hotel in Rome by sending a single text, they naturally expect to back their favorite team with the same level of ease. For the operator, this means the sportsbook evolves into a high-powered back-end utility – the engine – while the messaging interface becomes the front-of-mind “steering wheel”. By moving away from the friction of standalone apps and capturing intent directly within WhatsApp or Telegram, operators stop being a destination the user has to find and start being a conversation the user is already having.

How does conversational betting actually chance user behaviour and crush the conversion funnel?

Traditional betting can take between 10 to 12 steps and up to 60 seconds – a solution like ChatBet reduces that to a single text or voice note and ten seconds or less. It also shifts the player from architect to director – instead of manually building complex parlays by scrolling through 50+ toggles, the user simply asks the AI to “Build a safe 3-leg parlay for the United game” and then confirms the wager. The result? Data from a ChatBet pilot shows an 82% drop in time-to-bet and a 28% increase in conversion rates.

From an operator’s perspective, is this a rip and replace of the current technology or is it much easier to implement than that?

Conversational betting solutions such as ChatBet are an orchestration layer, not a replacement. Our solution literally plugs into existing APIs. This also helps from a regulatory and compliance perspective, with core functions such as KYC, wallet management and responsible gambling triggers remaining securely within the operator’s existing stack. This allows for overnight modernisation – operators can update their UX for the “TikTok generation” without the multi-year cost of rebuilding their entire core tech.

Why is intent data now considered the ultimate competitive moat?

It’s about context over clicks. Traditional trackers show where the user clicked but conversational data reveals exactly what they want in their own words. Then there’s the network effect – every interaction trains the AI on local slang, fan sentiment and individual patterns and preferences. This provides operators with an insurmountable defence. A competitor can copy your odds, but they cannot easily clone a refined, high-context relationship with millions of users.

Why is this a billion-dollar venture-scale opportunity right now?

Viral distribution. Conversation betting piggybacks on billions of WhatsApp and Telegram users to allow operators to solve the skyrocketing customer acquisition cost crisis they face. There’s also the retention advantage, with messaging-native users showing a 35% higher day-30 retention rate because the interface is “always on”. What’s more, chat-based betting allows for “nudge” technology and lower-friction, smaller-stake engagement, which aligns with 2026 global regulatory shifts toward safer play.

Predictions markets are throwing the sports betting industry into chaos. How does conversational betting help traditional operators get in on the action?

Prediction markets are exploding because they tap into the “stock market of everything” but for traditional operators, these markets are often too complex to display in a standard grid and too intimidating for the average punter to navigate. Conversational betting bridges this gap by acting as a natural language translator for complex binary contracts. Instead of forcing a user to decipher order books or probability curves, a chat interface allows them to simply trade on their opinions, like the weather or political shifts, as easily as sending a text. Because chat has “unlimited shelf space”, operators can offer an infinite array of niche markets without clogging their app’s UI. Ultimately, it turns prediction markets from a niche financial product into a social, real-time experience, capturing “hot takes” in WhatsApp or Telegram and instantly converting them into priced, compliant transactions.

If this shift is as inevitable as you say, what is the one thing legacy operators need to do right now to avoid becoming the ‘Blockbuster’ of the betting industry?

They need to stop thinking about their “app” and start thinking about their “API”. The battle for the customer has moved off the home screen and into the chat thread. Right now, the opportunity is to be the first mover in the conversational space – to own the “intent layer” before it becomes the industry standard. The winners of 2026 won’t be the ones with the loudest marketing, but the ones who make placing a bet as easy as telling a friend who you think will win.

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