Since then, SunBet has launched in Namibia<\/a>, while its parent company Sun International announced in September that revenue from its online brand had surged 35.5%<\/a> year-on-year during H1 2026.<\/p>\n While Gregory acknowledges that doubling market share in the South African online market is \u201csuper ambitious\u201d, it is a challenge he has no issue taking on.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any problem with setting out big targets and big ambitions,\u201d he tells iGB. \u201cAnd if you can get some way towards that you\u2019ll have done nicely. It\u2019s a journey, not a target, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Exactly<\/a> how SunBet is progressing on its objective is a little unclear, with Gregory explaining that only Sun International and its competitor Betway (part of Super Group) are publicly listed online operators in South Africa. <\/p>\n But Gregory believes SunBet has made \u201csome progress\u201d since Bengtsson first outlined the operator\u2019s growth plans, despite competing against the two established market leaders in Betway and Hollywoodbets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got small [online] market share, somewhere in the region of 3% to 5%, so there\u2019s plenty to go after,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe are probably third or fourth in the market right now. The two incumbents have got massive market share, Betway and Hollywoodbets, so there is opportunity to take market share from them.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think there is a long tail of smaller operators [that] I think in the longer term will find it more difficult to compete with the bigger guys in terms of market reach and product offering.\u201d<\/p>\n Technology holds the key for SunBet<\/p>\n At Sun\u2019s Capital Markets Day, Bengtsson said the company planned to be \u201cmore aggressive\u201d in its attempts to gain market share, through investment in technology and product.<\/p>\n When asked how SunBet plans to double its market share, Gregory echoed Bengtsson\u2019s comments, stating: \u201cProduct is going to be key and having an outstanding product, which is technically efficient and easy to use and fully available and scalable, is going to be paramount to winning in any of these markets.<\/p>\n \u201cTechnically, it requires us to be world-class. And those technical innovations always take time. But we\u2019re going to need to invest heavily in our technology and our product to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregory adds: \u201cSomeone said to me, there\u2019s a difference between being good and being popular, right? But we need to be both. So first, we need to get good, and then we need to get popular.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of where investment will be targeted, Gregory says it will be heavily centred around upgrading SunBet\u2019s tech stack and bringing more of it in house, which he says will allow the company to move faster and have its roadmap into its \u201cown hands\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be fully scalable, efficient, have an outstanding UI, UX, have a great range of products, have features and functionality,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n SunBet\u2019s sports betting opportunity<\/p>\n In its earnings call<\/a> following the release of Sun International\u2019s H1 results, Bengtsson explained SunBet\u2019s split between casino and sports betting was roughly 90% to 10% in favour of the former.<\/p>\n Although Gregory acknowledges the operator is under-indexed in sports, he says the company is now investing to grow its sportsbook share. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re certainly under-indexed on sport, and that\u2019s probably due to the growth in our casino business, coming from our casino heritage,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut we are certainly putting a lot of effort into reimagining our sportsbook to see if we can grow that number.\u201d <\/p>\n Gregory says SunBet\u2019s investment in its sportsbook is already under way, with a series of upgrades aimed at making the offering more appealing to customers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve put in a whole lot of software, some StatScore products, we\u2019ve got a programme to make the UI and UX better over the next six weeks,\u201d he continues. \u201cSo by early December, we should have a new look and feel to our sports product, and looking at features and functionality around how to make that more compelling and better for customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Cautious approach to expansion<\/p>\n SunBet\u2019s launch in Namibia marked its third market after Botswana and South Africa. The operator also holds licences in Ghana, Zambia and Kenya, although it hasn\u2019t yet operationalised in those nations.<\/p>\n Gregory says SunBet is taking a cautious approach to further expansion, with the brand currently focusing on growth in Namibia. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re cautious about other greenfield African expansions,\u201d he comments. \u201cI think you\u2019ve seen a lot of European guys come in, spend a lot of money in Africa, not get much traction and leave.\u201d<\/p>\n Bengtsson previously said the company viewed \u201cplenty of inorganic opportunities\u201d both inside and outside South Africa, but asserted the business had a \u201cvery high bar\u201d for what it deemed as investments that could aid growth.<\/p>\n Gregory says M&A could offer a way into new markets, provided the expansion opportunities meet the criteria in terms of data such as internet penetration, mobile money usage and propensities to wager.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been pretty clear in our public statements that we would be interested in high-quality M&A, where it would provide us with critical mass in certain geographies,\u201d he says. \u201cSo a top three player in certain African jurisdictions that have got a strong customer base and strong brand and perhaps some strong technology, then that would be interesting for us.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked how SunBet plans to balance its objective of doubling online market share in South Africa with expansion opportunities elsewhere, Gregory stresses the two are not \u201cmutually exclusive\u201d.<\/p>\n Gregory concludes: \u201cWe can do well in both. It\u2019s just a matter of resourcing.\u201d<\/p>\n Kyle has been with Clarion since December 2023, joining from the world of sports journalism, subsequently becoming a LatAm-facing senior reporter with iGB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SunBet CEO is plotting December launch for updated betting product, as it leans on improved UI and UX…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[28,112,365431,365432,365433,365434],"class_list":["post-866143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-markets","tag-business","tag-markets","tag-simon-gregory","tag-sun-international","tag-sunbet","tag-ulrik-bengtsson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNS8xMS9reWxlLWdvbGRzbWl0aC1wcm9m.webp\")
<\/a>Kyle Goldsmith<\/a><\/p>\n