MOVING AT TOP SPEED | Sports Betting Operator

21VIRAL works to adapt to a rapidly shifting online marketplace. By Mark McGuinness

Today’s online sports betting scene seems to change at an ever-faster pace. Sports Betting Operator met with casino and games aggregator platform specialist 21VIRAL’s CEO, Christoph Härtel, to discuss how sports books and casino operators can integrate content more quickly in today’s fast-moving iGaming market.

Tell us about 21VIRAL. How did the business idea come about?

21VIRAL commenced operations in 2011 and was founded by a team of industry entrepreneurs, including the former founder and director of iGaming platform provider Finnplay. We have been in the industry for a long time, and the founding team has 20-plus years of successful experience building high-tech supply chain and platform management solutions.

We are headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and have offices in Latin America. Our business specializes in resolving game-integration issues for operators, and game providers in Central and South America. Our goal is to relieve the frustration of dealing with game-integration problems. We connect game providers and operators seamlessly, ensuring easy and faster integration of game content. Our services also include transparent reporting and reconciliation of game revenues, giving you clear insights into your commercial games’ revenue.

christoph härtel — Christoph Härtel 21VIRAL CEO

What are you doing that’s different from other similar services?

That is an excellent question. Over the past few years, we have been steadily building and scaling our aggregation platform and solutions, focusing on the rapidly growing Latin American market. We listen closely to customers and industry stakeholders. We are a customer-focused business, and technology should help solve challenges, and identify opportunities for growth and expansion for operators.

Understanding several operator industry pain points – such as integrating game providers’ content to operator platforms (which can take months), lack of support on due diligence of the game provider and technical onboarding, and localized market access — we knew something had to change, which is the launch of our LatAm-focused Game Connector Platform.

We created the 21VIRAL Game Connector Platform aggregation solution, which reduces operational burdens for the operator on technology integration, due diligence – as we handle this for the new game providers, before we onboard to the Game Connector platform and games reporting. This makes market access to new game content for smaller, localized operators across Latin America much faster. The goal is to create a seamless experience of transparency, agility and trust, with no hidden or complicated reports, to allow LatAm-focused iGaming teams to concentrate on developing the business without being stuck in constant impasses to find new games providers to connect with.

Part of the solution is enablement, which includes all the technical integration, heavy lifting and onboarding. One of our first clients that we onboarded, Air Dice Group to the GamesConnector Platform, is already appreciating the advantages that we provide for their LatAm business expansion.

Many smaller, boutique game providers in other territories, such as continental Europe, lack the commercial and technical distribution, and contacts/relationships to enter LatAm – we do all that from them. The operator gets access to unique game content in the supply chain that can enhance their players’ engagement and revenue opportunities. It is a win-win situation.

Let’s talk AI for a minute. Does it help?

Of course, AI is front and center for many businesses, and is a huge focus at numerous trade shows, such as the SBC Summit. Without getting too technical, AI offers a powerful set of tools for both small and large companies. If used correctly – and I can’t emphasize that enough – AI can, to a degree, level the playing field from an operational and competitive standpoint. It is an enabler of information. However, you still must interact with the AI to improve its outcomes, as it isn’t self-aware yet!

Regarding our business, 21VIRAL, we have – as I’ve mentioned, liked to make life easier, simpler and faster for our customers. To that end, our business process has allowed us to use AI to enhance routine testing such as QA, endpoint testing, code generation and improved standard operating procedures. What does that mean in simple English? It is like a manufacturing line; we can optimize, increase efficiencies, improve operational outputs, reduce human error, improve technical standardizations and improve a host of processes – the result being that we get things done faster, like game launches into the operator’s casino. As they say, time is money, if the game isn’t published and in front of players.

What’s next for 21VIRAL?

We are attending a host of international industry shows, such as SBC Lisbon and SiGMA Europe, and LatAm-focused ones, such as G&M Media in Mexico. We are excited about the future and intend to be the fastest aggregation platform, using AI when it comes to all things game integration in LatAm. We will continue to make the lives of customers, operators and game studios/providers, easier and empower them with solutions that generate revenue growth. www.21viral.com

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