Every market has its own characteristics, and we adjust our strategy and product mix according to the local needs. This is one of the reasons behind our success: We don’t just translate and replicate a central product to all markets.
Kaizen Gaming — a Greek iGaming operator live in several European and Latin American counties — is nearing a launch of its Ontario online casino apps, as well as going live with real money online sports betting in Ontario
The Athens-based company’s brands are Stoiximan and Betano, the latter of which is its international brand and the one that Kaizen plans to deploy in the Canadian province.
When Betano launches in Ontario it will officially mark the company’s entrance into North America.
While Stoiximan is live in Cyprus and Greece, Betano is active in Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, the Czech Republic, Germany, Peru, Portugal, and Romania.
On August 17, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) issued an internet gaming license to Kaizen Gaming Canada. The license is good for one year and includes the domain betano.ca.
Betano is not yet live, nor is it listed on the website for iGaming Ontario (iGO) as a regulated operator. It will be allowed to launch in the province once it executes an operating agreement with iGO.
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Company Founded in 2012 as Stoiximan
The company was founded as Stoiximan in Greece in 2012. It expanded to Cyprus three years later and had more than 100 employees by 2016.
Stoiximan began making plans to expand outside of Greece and Cyprus in 2015. It decided to create an international brand, Betano, which launched in Romania in 2017.
Since that time, Betano has launched in Germany (2018), Portugal (2019), Brazil (2020), Chile (2021), and Bulgaria (2022).
In 2020, the company — which by then was known as Stoiximan/Betano — rebranded as Kaizen, a Japanese term that means “change for the better.”
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CEO Spoke About Expanding Outside Greece in 2020
Kaizen CEO George Daskalakis said in a February 2020 interview with Greece Investor Guide that more than 30% of its business at the time came from outside Greece, but that the company was working to grow that figure “to more than 50% within the next two years.
“As you can tell, we have so far been focusing on European regulated markets,” Daskalakis told the webzine. “But our product’s nature is global, and although specific adjustments are required depending on each market, there is no reason why we would not consider a move outside Europe in the near future.”
When asked what markets Kaizen was considering expanding to, Daskalakis was coy.
“Every market has its own characteristics, and we adjust our strategy and product mix according to the local needs,” the CEO said. “This is one of the reasons behind our success: We don’t just translate and replicate a central product to all markets.”
Daskalakis added that Kaizen has “strong local teams on the ground that help us to continuously differentiate our products, services, and communication in order to offer a truly local feel to the players.”
Besides an online sportsbook, Kaizen’s product line includes online casino games, live dealer games, fantasy sports, and random number generator (RNG) products.
In the short term in Ontario, Kaizen is likely to be at a competitive disadvantage because many of its rivals — including 888, BetMGM, and BetRivers — launched in Ontario when the province’s regulated market opened on April 4.
