30 April 2019, by: Carl Lewis

Bet.co.za CEO Scott Canny on Covid-19 impact on the industry

Bet.co.za CEO Scott Canny joined CapeTalk’s Lester Kiewett on his show Tonight with Lester to discuss the impact of Coronavirus on the sports betting and gambling industry.

With global sport halted as the world scrambles to cope with the effects of the novel virus; like many industries, sports bettings has all but ceased and this has meant the gambling industry has had to find new ways to interest regular punters.

Canny spoke about the most affected part of the industry that has been hit by the virus during the ongoing lockdown in South Africa.

“It’s been tough, it’s not something we could have seen coming. Usually, we are offering sports from around the world, 100’s of games a day, 1000’s per week to now where we are at a point where we are actually taking bets on guys who are playing FIFA against each other.”

“The biggest challenge for us as a company and as an industry as a whole is the retail sports betting space. The majority of the market here (South Africa) is retail, bricks and mortar shops where people are going in and placing their bets and that side of the business has totally shut down.”

“This virus has affected a lot of people in a lot of different ways, it’s been great to see how people have pulled together and been so resilient. The same applies to us as a company and a industry.”

With the English Premier League on hold with less than 10 games to go, Liverpool holds a comfortable 25 point lead and were cruising to their first title in three decades. Kiewett asked Canny about what would have happened if he had placed a bet on Liverpool winning the league at the start of the season. Canny explained that Bet.co.za had already paid out all bets on Liverpool winning the league late last year.

You can listen to the full interview here as well.