"We see a great opportunity to become a Top 5 media brand in the North American market"

In an exclusive interview with Yogonet, Adam Fiske, co-founder of Australian sports betting media and technology company iRival Media, discusses the newly-formed Cipher Sports Technology Group, a venture in collaboration with predictive sports analytics platform Hypometer Technologies. The executive explains the main reasons behind the partnership, as well as how the group intends to secure a presence in the US sports betting market.

Fiske, who will act as CEO of Cipher, also talks about the initial success of the flagship sports predictions and content website Dimers.com, which is already live in the US, plus opportunities in both the B2B and B2C segments. Moreover, he discusses the needs of the current American market, and how Cipher's technology will adapt to the userbase there.

Hypometer Technologies and iRival Media are joining forces for purpose-built predictive analytics, machine learning and sports media group Cipher Sports Technology Group. What led to this decision and how will the experience of both companies be leveraged in this new business? What can the company bring to the US from past experience in Australia and other markets?

We had been admiring Hypometer for a number of years and are big fans of the technology they build, and even bigger fans of their team. So, after partnering to launch our flagship brand Dimers.com in late 2020, it made a lot of sense to bring the two companies together and accelerate our combined efforts into the US market.

With the US market being so new, it’s a significant advantage for us to have an entire team that has strong expertise in legal sports betting, media and technology, and collectively we would have over 100 years of experience, which obviously helps when tackling customer problems and developing new products.

Whilst Australia-based from a technology perspective, it’s super important for us to develop locally produced content that is authentic and insightful. We have a US team producing picks, podcasts, video streams and educational betting information for our users on a daily basis.

The group expects to cater to both the B2B and B2C segments of the online sports betting industry. How will a presence be secured in these opportunities? The company is focusing solely on the US market. What are its expectations in terms of growth there?

Combining B2B and B2C isn’t necessarily unique to us, but where we believe there is a significant opportunity is to use B2B partnerships to help grow our B2C brand in Dimers.com.

There is a whole country of media companies looking to develop their sports betting and iGaming strategies, and we think we are well placed to partner with them to generate mutual growth and success.

Cipher STG has described its betting products as “cutting edge.” How do they stand out from the competition and what are their main technical innovations? What does Cipher perceive as the main needs of US customers, and how will the company satisfy them?

Our team has been building machine learning and AI models for a number of years now, and we are focused on how this technology can scale across all of our consumer brands and B2B partners, and is one of the major advantages of owning our own tech.

One of the challenges in the US is engaging a customer who is relatively new to online sports betting. As a general rule, we are targeting sports fans and helping them become recreational sports bettors, so to satisfy them we focus on taking our sophisticated technology and present this to the user in a consumable and relatable way.

Cipher’s flagship brand, sports predictions and content website Dimers.com, is already live in the US with commercial partnerships with 11 sportsbooks. How would you assess initial results since launching last year and what future plans does Cipher have for this product?

We are extremely proud of the initial success of Dimers.com. We launched this brand with a small team stuck on the other side of the world (Australia) during a pandemic when there were no live US sports for a period of time. 

Fast forward 15 months and we are now engaging with a significant audience who have made Dimers part of their daily ritual and we also have a strong team based in the US, producing localized content and adding to the authenticity of the brand.

Dimers.com will remain the key focus for our team and we see a great opportunity to become a Top 5 media brand in the North American market, so that’s our goal.

Cipher STG also announced it is close to completing a Series A round to power its offerings of consumer-facing brands, technology and media integrations. How much capital is expected to be raised in this round and how will it be leveraged?

We are delighted to close this Series A and, without going into specifics, can say it’s a figure that aligns pretty closely with raises completed by others in our space.

The capital allows us to rapidly accelerate the growth of our current consumer-facing brands, develop new innovative features to engage our existing and future Dimers users, and perhaps even make a couple of small acquisitions of brands or products that complement our portfolio and bring in new revenues.

The company is confident in the evolution of online sports betting in the US. What should we expect from the market over the next few years, as more Americans now wager and states break handle records? Which technologies, such as crypto or AR, could make an impact in the market?

We are very confident in the evolution of sports betting in the US. Whilst we expect the market to follow some of the trends from Europe and Australia, it’s fair to say the US is an entirely new beast altogether. We are already seeing New Jersey drive more betting handle than Nevada, and with New York in sight it will be interesting to see how quickly other states move.

From a technology standpoint, no doubt there will be continued innovation in areas such as crypto or AR, especially to attract and engage a new audience. But generally speaking, we have found that in all markets there are certain intricacies to a sports bettor that remain constant. So, we are focusing on innovating the fandom-type experience, whilst staying true to the traditions of sports and sports betting.

Both co-founders of iRival Media attended SBC Summit North America, held in New Jersey. Which were the main takeaways from this event and what opportunities did it open?

The SBC Summit was a great event and the first opportunity that we have had for some time to meet our partners, contemporaries and competitors, face to face. Naturally, this helps unlock a lot of commercial opportunities that aren’t as obvious when meeting in the virtual world. There’s nothing like a couple of beers and some field goals on the MetLife Stadium field to get the creative juices flowing.

In terms of takeaways, we walked away impressed by the continued innovation of the industry as a whole and the focus on customer engagement. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in reducing the friction of onboarding new customers on the sportsbooks’ side.