TEAMING UP GAMING MARKET MOBILE CREATIVITY - Betsson AB

– THE ONLINE GAMING MAGAZINE – A word from the CEOwe are living in a time of change. Forten years or so, the online gaming industryhas been characterized by a lotof change: Rapid development, highgrowth, fun and crazy workplaces,but also legal and political uncertainty.Now at least the uncertainty seemsto be coming to an end. We are witnessinga change in policy in most EUmember states, which are liberalizingand re-regulating the sector. Betssonwelcomes the development, and eventhough it may place high demands onus in terms of new taxes and compliancerules, we believe that the positiveeffects of being licensed will outweighthe negative ones — as long as thelicensing regime comes with reasonabletaxes, are non-discriminatory andallows all forms of online gambling.The question many industry employeesnow pose is, “Will it be boring?” Iprefer to think that this is when thereal fun begins. We are part of a historicmoment of change, which initself will be a challenging and interestingjourney to go through. Whilegoing through the changes, and afterwards,we have all the possibilitiesin the world to continue to developour business in terms of new creativeproduct offerings and new dynamicbusiness models. And we can continueto have fun, as we have had for thelast ten years. This will not be boring,or tedious.While Europe is going throughchanges, we are taking our first stepsin Asia. The Asian gaming market ishuge and Betsson is very well positionedto take advantage of it. InChina, we have a first establishmentand we are slowly learning how to dobusiness there. In the near future, ourmain focus in Asia will be on growingthis newly established business.Meanwhile, there are other interestingopportunities in Asia that we are pursuing,mainly from a B2B perspective.Asia will continue to be an area of interestfor Betsson as we go forward.From a product perspective there isalso a lot of development and changegoing on. Good examples are the mobilesolutions being developed in theonline gaming industry, and Betssonis highly active in this area too. Webelieve that this year will be the time“We will continue to be focused and passionate aboutwhat we do. And we will be dynamic, creative andfair – in other words, we will do it the Betsson wayand continue to build this company’s culture and soul.And it will be fun.”when mobile gaming really takes off.Betsson aims at delivering world classmobile solutions that our brands canbenefit from.Speaking of brands, I often getasked what it is that makes Betssondeliver such strong growth year afteryear? Part of the answer definitely liesin the multi-brand strategy pursued bythe Betsson group. Betsson currentlyruns 17 brands, of which 13 are on behalfof our partners. These brands areoften niched at a certain market orproduct segment. This means that, togetherwith our partners, Betsson coversa very broad range of the customersegments on the market. The belief isthat customers want variety and thatthey like to play on many sites simultaneously.Betsson’s strategy caters forthat, and while many of our competitorsrun a “one size fits all” strategy, webelieve that the multi-brand approachsets us apart.The competition in the market isfierce, but in recent years, Betssonhas advanced quickly on the list ofthe largest and most influential onlinegaming companies in the industry. Weare overtaking mid-sized competitionand closing in on the market leaders.In the “EGR Power 50" report of2011, Betsson was ranked as the fifthmost influential gaming company inthe world, up from 12th place the yearbefore. This is of course a massiverecognition of the hard work we haveput in and it shows that our businessmodel is right. With Betsson’s currentdevelopment, steps are being taken tomatch the market leaders in terms ofboth product offering and geographicalcoverage. Betsson will not get carriedaway and try to do everything atonce, but the strategy is to invest in aselected number of “new” productsand markets in a focused way.On a group level, we will continueto be passionate about what we do.We will continue to be dynamic, creativeand fair — in other words, we willdo it the Betsson way and continue tobuild this company’s culture and soul.And it will be fun.MAGNUS SILFVERBERGCEO, BETSSON– 07 –