For this edition of the Income Access Q&A, we met with David da Silva, CEO of sports betting affiliate Easyodds.com. We asked David about the heritage of Easyodds and his plans to expand into the USA and beyond.

Income Access (IA): Can you give us more insight into your background and how you came to be the CEO at Easyodds? How has the site grown and what are the plans for the future?

David da Silva (DDS): I have a background in digital entertainment product design, marketing and monetisation. The Easyodds Board hired me because of my vision to transform Easyodds from a UK-centric betting odds comparison site into a global media destination.

Easyodds.com launched in the year 2000 and quickly established itself as a trusted independent odds-comparison site. Bettors rely on Easyodds to find the best welcome offers and bets. While the UK and Europe pioneered the development of online betting, it is the rest of the world that we believe will grow our business.

Today, Easyodds geolocates to 20 countries and is available in 26 languages. That's a possible 520 permutations of our current site.

IA: As an affiliate in 2021, where do you believe the most significant opportunities lie?

DDS: Unsurprisingly, we believe that the USA will be a source of massive commercial opportunity for those able to access it. The strategy that we have settled on is based on the realisation that domestic publishers are best placed to exploit our core assets in the USA.

Take the Easyodds brand, for example. We make odds easy. US betting consumers will want the reassurance of a simple, memorable and trusted brand to educate them and help find the best deals available.

While odds comparison sits at the core of our platform, our utility expands far beyond. We are relevant to users at all levels of betting experience and competence. We help them decide what bets to place and who to place them with. Basically, Easyodds is a trusted sportsbook betting destination proven to channel betting intent into betting activity.

IA: It sounds like you’re focused on the US market and have developed unique strategies for it. Can you tell us more and how Easyodds will fit in?

DDS: Easyodds.com can provide affiliates operating in the USA with a value-added destination that will de-risk and underpin their marketing investments. We have over 20 years of domain authority in sports betting which gives us considerable organic search power.

We also create a means to collect first-party data that is essential to hedge against future privacy protection measures such as ad-blocking and third-party cookies for targeting. Our CRM capabilities maximise user value and increase affiliate traffic ROI.

That's why we are inviting interest from potential franchisees who see the value of the combination of brand and technology that Easyodds brings.

IA: How do you believe affiliates can deal with increasing privacy legislation, ad blocking and cookie tracking?

DDS: We believe that one of the biggest threats to affiliates comes from removing third-party cookies from their armoury. There are already a number of international regulations for advertisers to navigate and more are on the way.

Our response to this existential threat is to grow first-party data. We are building our user database with granular permissions based on genuine value exchange. Easyodds.com has invested heavily in CRM that will allow us to keep serving our users with relevant content on a transparent opt-in basis.

IA: The African iGaming market continues to grow. Where are some of the opportunities you see in that market?

DDS: The African market is fascinating and has enormous potential. The main challenge is getting the product right for the users in those territories. While interested in betting on sports, African bettors have different needs and motivations from those in non-African markets.

Most discussions seem to focus on the local standard of living and technology constraints. While these factors are invariably relevant, we believe that local gambling regulations and taxation have the most significant impact on the nature of African sports betting. We recently started a project to address how to make Easyodds more relevant to African audiences. To date, we are finding that accumulators, or multi-bets, have the greatest appeal.

For more information on Easyodds or to discuss a partnership opportunity, contact David and the team today.

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