Q&A: Sam Sadi on LiveScore Group’s next phase of growth

LiveScore Group CEO Sam Sadi is looking to the future. After four years as CEO, the boss has no intention of resting on his laurels. This year also marks LiveScore’s 25th anniversary and the group has planned a slew of activations to coincide with the milestone, including having increased its free-to-play LiveScore 6 jackpot to £1m for the opening weekend of the Premier League season.

Elsewhere, Sadi discusses global expansion plans for the group’s B2C brands, LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet. With the former live in four markets, Africa has been earmarked as a new frontier into which it is set to push, while Virgin Bet has retained its commitment to UK horseracing after recently extending its partnership with the Ayr Gold Cup.

With the group also smashing internal records, Sadi spoke to EGR to explain how the brand has managed the two-decade-plus journey and what is next on the horizon.

EGR: LiveScore has reached its milestone 25th anniversary. How big an achievement is this and what do you put the longevity down to? 

Sam Sadi (SS): Without question, we see this as a major achievement and something to be highly proud of. Following the dotcom boom, there are few digital brands which have enjoyed such longevity and steady evolution.

How has this been possible? We believe that a culture of innovation has been vital in underpinning LiveScore’s success. While the core idea in 1998 was solid, it has taken a relentless approach to ensure the product moved with the times and remained world class.

This has always gone hand in hand with the needs of our loyal users, without whom LiveScore would not exist. We worked tirelessly to maintain high levels of trust based on speed, accuracy and technical excellence. This approach has been critical in growing our userbase to the 50 million we have today.

EGR: How have you marked this anniversary, both internally and with customers? 

SS: This celebration is all about our people, from our past and present staff through to our 50 million active users. As with all great celebrations, we kicked it off with a special party to reward staff – a 1998-themed bash at our London HQ and other global offices. This was a lovely opportunity to say thank you and look ahead to the future with our entire LiveScore Group family. 

Users should also be keeping their eyes peeled for several activations throughout the year as we commemorate our milestone. Last weekend LiveScore 6, our free-to-play in-app promotion, had an increased jackpot prize of £1m forthe opening weekend of the Premier League season, making it our largest ever prize total.

Further exciting projects are also set to be rolled out including initiatives involving football icons, pundits and charities, making this our most meaningful and impactful campaign yet.

EGR: You recently visited LiveScore’s office in Lagos, Nigeria, a country with the most LiveScore users in the world and also LiveScore Bet. Tell us about your footprint and growth in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa.

SS: It was fantastic to visit our exceptional team in Lagos who have done so much to make Nigeria a thriving market for LiveScore.

The country holds the distinction for us as being one of four territories where LiveScore Bet is fully operational, and the sole such example outside of Europe. Unquestionably, I look at our success in Nigeria as the blueprint for the global expansion of LiveScore Bet.

I left Lagos further inspired both by our staff and our further opportunity within the continent, so stay tuned to hear about our future expansion into South Africa.

EGR: LiveScore Group brands broke many internal performance records in Q2. What were some of the highlights? 

SS: Without question, the achievement of breaking record monthly active user figures for both LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet stands out. To achieve this during June and July outside of the core football season is a testament to both the loyalty of our users and the quality of the product, and reflects the upward trajectory that LiveScore Group is on.

On a personal note, I’m proud to increasingly witness major global businesses looking at what we do and attempting to put elements of our strategy into practice. This recognition underscores our role as market leaders and serves as a validation of our accomplishments.

EGR: The LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet brands recently underwent overhauls to the UX. What differences will customers notice? 

SS: We expect our users to immediately experience a more intuitive and engaging user journey, enhancing their overall experience. We know how acutely important this is in terms of customer retention within a crowded market.

Specifically, we meticulously focused on reducing cognitive load for users. This leads to quicker and more efficient task completion, streamlining our customers’ ability to achieve their goals effortlessly.

Another build focused on a redesigned bet slip which prominently highlights bet returns, accentuates the place bet call-to-action and simplifies the process of claiming bonuses.