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// PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // May/June 2016
PUBLIC GAMING
INTERVIEWS
Joni
HOVI
Executive Director, State Lottery Business, Kambi
Paul Jason, PGRI:
Are current regula-
tory structures effective at ensuring that all
sports-betting operators pay their taxes and
comply with all laws? And how do they vary
from one jurisdiction to another?
Joni Hovi:
Regulations are important
to protect the consumer, to preserve the
integrity of the market, to minimize fraud,
money-laundering, and corruption, and
to facilitate the collection of taxes. An ef-
fective regulatory structure should require
transparency from the operator to enable
auditing and controls to be effectively ex-
ecuted by the regulator and agents of the
government. It should also enable the op-
erators to conduct business, and serve the
consumer with efficiency and effectiveness
as well. But each jurisdiction is different
and may have different approaches to how
these objectives are best accomplished.
Kambi is strictly B2B, so our custom-
ers are the operators of sports-betting.
Our contracts require that our customers
respect the laws of the consumptive juris-
dictions where regulatory framework is in
place. For example, no customer of Kambi
is allowed to accept sports bets from USA.
Further to this, Kambi is, for instance,
one of the few certified B2B operators to-
day in Italy. Kambi is proud to be a member
of the World Lottery Association (WLA),
European Lottery Association (EL) and
Corporación Iberoamericana de Loterías y
Apuestas del Estado (CIBALAE).
Sports-betting is much more complicated than
selling lottery tickets. Since Lottery’s reputation
for integrity is its most valuable asset, opera-
tional excellence is even more central to sports-
betting than to any other gaming category.
J. Hovi:
The operation of sports-bet-
ting is very data and technology-intensive.
Protection of transaction data and confi-
dential player information is vital. Effec-
tive standards and mechanisms to ensure
that all this data is protected have not
been established. It is also important that
the local regulator oversees the betting op-
erations in order for them, together with
the betting operators and their suppliers,
to follow up in case there is any doubt on
match fixing at a later stage. The industry
knows and respects and appreciates that
Kambi excels at this aspect of operations.
Furthermore, when it comes to sports-
betting, almost all jurisdictions have a mul-
tiple operator and licensing system model.
PGRI Introduction:
Sports-betting is the fastest growing gaming category. Maybe that’s because it is more exciting
than any other games, or maybe because it has so much appeal to young adults, or maybe because it delivers a lon-
ger-play gaming experience. Kambi’s focus is on supporting the uncompromising standards of government-gaming
operators in the highly regulated markets. Understanding the players, empathising with their needs and exceeding
their expectations are what make Kambi’s Sportsbook so successful.
Joni Hovi has been dedicated to the mission of government-lottery, with a focus on the sports integrity field, for more
than thirteen years. Joni joined Kambi in January 2016 and is applying his expertise and experience in the govern-
ment sector to support Kambi’s mission to be the most progressive sports-betting partner to government regulated-
lotteries. Prior to joining Kambi, Joni served at Veikkaus (the Finnish lottery) for ten and a half years, and served as an
advisor to the Viking group CEO’s (the Viking group consists of the 8 Nordic and Baltic national lotteries).
Sports-Betting: The Key to Unlocking New Markets and Attracting
New Consumer Groups to Government-Gaming Operators