Chief Executive Officer, Kambi Group
G2E Exclusive Interview: Get to know Kambi
Kambi is a global leader poised to transform the Nevada sports betting scene! Catch Werner Becher, CEO of Kambi, as he discusses their innovative approach and exciting entry into the Las Vegas market at G2E 2025.
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About Werner Becher
Werner Becher, CEO of Kambi, stated that the company had a "fantastic" second quarter, citing a 13% increase in revenue and a doubling of EBITDA year-on-year. He attributed the strong performance to the World Cup, during which Kambi processed over €1 billion in turnover and more than 100 million bets on its turnkey sportsbook product. Becher noted that the company operated the World Cup on an 18% margin, which he described as "incredibly high" and an "outstanding performance." As a result, Kambi raised its full-year EBITDA guidance from €20-25 million to €23-27 million. Becher also addressed the impact of prediction markets on the sports betting industry. He said that Kambi, which is "100% fully focused on regulated markets," has seen "zero impact" from prediction markets in the US so far, though he acknowledged that these competitors are making customer acquisition more expensive in some states. Additionally, Becher discussed Kambi's new "odds feed plus" service, which targets the 70% of the regulated sports betting market currently served by in-house sportsbooks, noting that while this revenue stream is smaller per operator, it opens up a larger addressable market.
Transcript (28 segments)
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Brady Cannon0:21
Welcome back to G2E. Brady Cannon here with Sports Grid. Werner Becher is the CEO of Kambi. You heard of them? Yeah. Big gaming company. One of the real players here in the room at G2E 2025, the Global Gaming Expo here in fabulous Las Vegas. Werner, thank you so much for joining us today.
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Werner Becher0:38
Thanks for having me.
B
Brady Cannon0:39
So, tell us about Kambi. We're used to the Bellagio and the Mirage and Circa and, you know, all these hotels on the strip that have a sports book. Kambi is, I guess, a global operator.
W
Werner Becher0:53
Exactly. Yeah. So, we are a global company with around 1,100 employees. We have offices around the globe and we are the outsourcing place to go when it comes to sports betting. So many especially casino companies if they want to have a sports book we are the number one to go. We offer a premium sports book, a sports book which can compete with the big guys like FanDuel, DraftKings etc. If you want to have a premium sports book then we are the right place to go.
B
Brady Cannon1:17
That's great stuff. Do you have a property in Las Vegas currently?
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Werner Becher1:21
Not yet. We received our license a few weeks ago only.
B
Brady Cannon1:24
Good for you. So we are very close to the end of the market here and to disrupt the market of course here in Nevada.
He's a mover and a shaker folks.
W
Werner Becher1:32
Yes. So a very interesting market of course for us, Nevada with many sports books, many casinos. Great business opportunity for us.
B
Brady Cannon1:40
Congratulations. You're in Nevada, you're in Las Vegas, but you started, I assume, in other parts of the world.
W
Werner Becher1:46
Yeah. So Kambi is a spin-off of Unibet, Kindred European B2C operator. 15 years ago we were spun off and since then we fully focus on B2B sports betting. So we manage about $17 billion betting turnover per year having more than 50 customers, big customers, mainly on our platform. So we run the number four or number five biggest sportsbook on this planet at Kambi.
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Brady Cannon2:13
Fantastic. So, the team that runs your sportsbook, uh, I assume you have a lot of traders, a lot of handicappers, a lot of oddsmakers. You have a lot of smart people there that know a lot about sports and how to set a line and mathematicians. I'm sure you run the gamut of people behind the scenes that are setting up this platform for you.
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Werner Becher2:36
Yeah. So we have 320 traders all being sports experts and their knowledge is of course super important for us but the whole industry is in a big change like other industries as well with AI now.
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Brady Cannon2:46
Right.
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Werner Becher2:47
Right. So instead of human traders doing a lot of manual pricing using algorithms and things like that, AI is disrupting a lot of our industry, much faster taking so much more data points into account. So AI is a big disruptor and game changer for the betting industry.
We invested already more than $20 million in AI. So we will continue to invest. We are a first mover in this area. But AI will change a lot of things not only on the front end but also in the back end what we are doing.
B
Brady Cannon3:16
Very interesting. Again, Werner Becher, the CEO of Kambi, joining us here on Sports Grid, talking about their movement into Las Vegas in the state of Nevada and what they're doing all over the world. You mentioned the implementation which is, you know, everywhere in any industry of AI, and I always feel like there's definitely still a great deal of space for the human element there. We're dealing with humans playing a game, right?
W
Werner Becher3:40
Absolutely.
B
Brady Cannon3:40
And you and I know some things about how humans may react that AI can't necessarily pick up.
W
Werner Becher3:47
Absolutely.
B
Brady Cannon3:47
Uh, talk to me about that and how do you balance that?
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Werner Becher3:50
Yeah. So we offer sports bets on around 700,000 sports events per year. And for each of these sports events, hundreds of different bet types you can bet on. Right. So humans can't handle 400 bet offers changing all the time during an NFL game or an NBA game. Right. So they are no more overseeing. They're providing inputs to our mathematical models because it's simply not possible anymore to let humans do this job. But still, in the future, they will be super important for us because sports is all about emotions, also right? It's not only about data points, and we have billions of data points right. But still, we need humans understanding the sports, the dynamics of events changing a little bit now and then, right? What you can't see already in data points. So humans and traders and risk experts are also going forward super important for us.
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Brady Cannon4:43
Yeah, that's very interesting. I always think about, you know, when you're doing in-game wagering. Okay. And for the most part, that's run by an algorithm. There's not a guy behind the scenes punching numbers and stuff like that, right? The algorithm, the computer doesn't know that the star quarterback just got injured.
W
Werner Becher5:00
Yes.
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Brady Cannon5:00
So like you say, there has to be a human element.
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Werner Becher5:04
Absolutely. Absolutely. And also when it comes to player props as an example, right? All these things where humans are also on the field, right? There are no machines playing sports. It's humans. So humans understand better. Of course, we have inputs about reaction times of players and are they getting tired and things like that, but as you said, the human factor is still super super important to anticipate what will come next.
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Brady Cannon5:27
Very good. That is Werner Becher, the CEO of Kambi, right here on Sports Grid. Have a great rest of your week, Werner.
W
Werner Becher5:34
Thank you, too.