By: John Walker, SBR founder
© 2007 All rights reserved
Those that follow the offshore industry already know of legendary bookmaker and head of Olympic Sports, Spiro. In two lengthy interviews legendardy bookmaker Spiro comes forward and tells how Olympic became an A+ sportsbook and where he sees the industry going from here.
In financial terms, Spiro’s Olympic Sports has no equal in this part of the world. I have interviewed dozens of bookmakers over the years but never had one more open about players escrow and finances of their sportsbook. Well before there was a diligent rating service such as Sportsbook Review, Spiro’s was developing his own protocol of how to handle player funds. Spiro explained a decade earlier he had invested six million dollars of his own money and loans before he reached consistently profitable critical mass. The well mannered Spiro mused at the fact that recently failed BetPanAm thought they could make it on a little more than pocket change. To be sure, Spiro is the man you would want at the top of your list to safeguard the family nestegg. He has a contingency for contingencies on anything that might go wrong. Spiro explains that it’s not even close to enough to just keep the players money safe. He believes a sportsbook should keep at least three times the amount of players money in cash on hand to adequately protect the players. Spiro went to great lengths to explain the risks and why such a high amount of coverage is needed to protect the players.
So far you have been given a piece of the world according to Spiro. But the Olympic management machine is very much a two headed executive branch. SBR readers meet the brains behind Olympic Sports, meet Mike. Mike was once considered a wonder boy because of his youth and extraordinary computer software and IT skills. However, pushing 30 years old, Mike has been in the industry longer than most, even longer than Sportsbook Review. Mike, like Spiro, is extremely conservative and calculating. The combination of Spiro and Mike combines a savvy old world, street wise bookmaker and a shrewd book smart executive. Together they run one of the most efficient and profitable operations in the offshore world.
Spiro is a rather firm believer that consolidation will occur leaving just a handful of super books. Actually, he believes consolidation is already happening without anyone noticing. He foresees naive sportsbook managers and even poorer planners driving each other to their knees and eventually out of business. This will create a continuing flight to quality to books financially secure with conservative policies. What about buyouts and takeovers by Olympic? In one of the rare moments of the Sportsbook Review interviews, Spiro and Mike took a bit of a pass remarking how good the coffee is in Jamaica. Spiro seemed to indicate that there were more pressing issues to deal with and with the start of football closing in fast. Nonetheless, this is one industry observer that wouldn’t be surprised to see Olympic dip into their mammoth cash position if the right acquisition came their way.
Growth from within Olympic includes the opening of BetJamaica last year to attack the casual market. Olympic’s bid to purchase Royal Sports last year fell through after then Royal Sports CEO Roberto Castiglioni and the Dutch owners broke a multi million dollar signed deal and then refused to send back Olympics down payment. The real threat of a lawsuit and strong words from Mike finally persuaded Royal Sports to return Olympic’s money. A year later Royal Sports is in chronic slow pay mode and worth a mere fraction of Olympics offer while BetJamaica is on an easy pace for an incredible $100,000,000 in first year handle.
BetJamaica is well positioned to compete against the leaders in the casual market such as VIP and Bet365. While Spiro is a top bookmaker and right hand man Mike is brainpower at its finest, Olympic added customer service guru Scotty to head up the opening and management of BetJamaica. The good humored Scotty is every players’ best friend and a great compliment to the existing Olympic team.
Olympic is currently looking to move their operation from Jamaica where they have been for eight years. Panama, Antigua and even Curacao are all still in the sweepstakes to land this operation. Panama could be considered the favorite. If Olympic can successfully negotiate with the government it’s possible that Olympic could become the master license and exert control over which books locate to Panama. That would be a definite positive for Panama. If the Panama arrangement can not be negotiated a good long shot would be Curacao. Although more expensive to operate, Curacao provides a large operation a quality worker pool and first world internet infrastructure.
Olympic and BetJamaica will continue to be the most secure sportsbooks to play at attracting the largest playing professional as well as the casual player. And why not, this is a one of a kind sportsbook with top management, a true players book.
John Walker: SBR Founder and industry recognized authority on sportsbooks.
Mr. Walker's 5 year SBR mission continues to expose scams as well as provide players with reviews and information on the best sportsbooks.