Speaking on the analyst call last week after Super Group’s Q1 earnings were published, CEO Neal Menashe compared the business’ hold on Africa similar to the way DraftKings has emerged as one of the two top players in the US. To that point, the Betway brand holds gold medal positions in South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania.
And those market share leads also resulted in Africa and the Middle East being the largest geo by revenue in Q1, representing 39% of all group revenue. On the continent, sports betting revenue was up 38% and online casino jumped 31%. Further expansion plans across Africa are in the pipeline, having just launched in Botswana.
Meanwhile, the UK and Canada were namechecked for strong growth, while in the US, the igaming-only approach saw record revenue derived from New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Here, Menashe and CFO Alinda Van Wyk explain how lessons have been learned across the business to ensure they hit the ground running in new markets.
EGR: Looking at Africa, with several podium positions in markets there. There has been lot of chatter recently about having to be localised to succeed, so how does Betway do this?
Neal Menashe (NM): For every market in the world, the product has to be made for that market. What payment options they like, how you navigate through the product. You can’t just come with a vanilla product and think you’ll win. We did that in Nigeria and they didn’t like it, so we changed it.
EGR: What would those changes look like?
NM: The product in Ghana is different to South Africa which is different to Nigeria. A Nigerian product has some of the nuances they are used to in that market. Maybe how they bet or the payments – it is the little things but all of them require development work.
What we learned in the past is you had markets in Europe not making money which were holding up [our changes] in the UK. Revenue in the UK is now up 87% because we can put development time into fixing our product. That’s why we are gaining business because the product is now there.
EGR: The investor call had a lot of questions on Africa. Do you think the US investor community truly understands those markets?
NM: I think they didn’t, but they are learning now. Everyone’s been talking about markets outside of America. I think the tariffs also put the fear of God into everyone and they realised there is an outside world. But there are big funds invested all across Africa now.
EGR: In the US, record revenue and losses coming down in igaming. Could New Jersey tax hikes scupper this? And what are those conversations like between the you and the state?
Alinda Van Wyk (AVW): New Jersey isn’t going to be the first market to raise tax. We just have to navigate around it.
NM: Our aim is to lower the cost base there and that means our breakeven revenue will come down. Then we can keep going forever because it is not costing a lot. We can grow from there.
EGR: The investor deck attached to the earnings mentioned personalisation for US igaming. What does that look like?
NM: Now we’ve moved Betway Casino to Spin Palace Casino, it’s about enhancing the product offering to be similar to that in the UK, South Africa and other markets. If you come on the site, it’s about what games they show you related to what type of player you are. That is all dropping now.
EGR: On Alberta, given Ontario was up 2% and Rest of Canada was up 16%, does it mean the regulated market might be tougher to deliver growth when it goes live in 2026?
NM: I think it’s two things. [Ontario] has been regulated and we’re not willing to overpay for the customer at this point. But now operators are starting to drop their marketing spend. You always see this in [newly regulated markets]. Look at Brazil, they will spend millions, not get the returns, and then over time, the price comes down. We’re just waiting for the price to come down.
Alberta is probably only going to go live in Q2 or Q3 2026, but we’re not going to make the same mistakes as we made in Ontario.
AVW: We got it right in Botswana. You just need to understand exactly what is required. We got it really right there because we understand the market, we know how to deal with the customer.
EGR: In the UK, the Health and Social Care Committee has asked for another Gambling Act 2005 review – there is surely no appetite for this from the industry?
NM: They [the Health and Social Care Committee] should worry about two things: the black market and crypto casinos. Just shut them down rather than sending letters. That’s what they need to be doing. We found a happy place [with the review].
EGR: On the people front, how is the business coping with chief commercial officer (CCO) Richard Hasson having left? What is the process on his replacement looking like?
NM: We took Richard’s role and divided it up into corporate finance, investor relations, and then procurement which is the commercial side. We’ve taken the role and split it into three, which is what it needed to be because otherwise you are across too many things.
The post Q&A: Super Group on leading in Africa and learning lessons first appeared on EGR Intel.
CEO Neal Menashe and CFO Alinda Van Wyk speak to EGR after the firm’s record Q1 performance, with several gold medal positions in Africa helping push the Betway parent company forwards
The post Q&A: Super Group on leading in Africa and learning lessons first appeared on EGR Intel.