Howard Walker – Jamaica Observer – July 7, 2020
SUPREME Ventures Limited, through its brand JustBet, is ready and raring to go with new, innovative entertainment packages for their gaming fans, especially on their mobile platform, as the sports world cautiously reopens for business.
The global outbreak of COVID-19 cancelled spectator sports for over three months, and as a direct consequence the sports betting industry – which has been forecast to overtake all other forms of gaming over the next five years — experienced a steep decline across the board.
But Xesus Johnston, CEO of Prime Sports — the subsidiary which operates JustBet — told the Jamaica Observer that his company kept gamers entertained through a push of their virtual products, featuring wagering options on football, basketball, horse racing, tennis and dog racing.
“The impact on live sporting events was devastating with all major leagues across sports shutting down, and this was obviously a major disappointment for fans and athletes. In particular, we had the Olympics cancelled for the first time in history,” Johnston explained.
He continued: “So, it initially had a negative impact on JustBet. But with our state-of-the-art betting platform with over 25 plus sporting disciplines and 40,000 events yearly, our customers found events they could enjoy and bet on. They looked at smaller leagues in the market that are not well known like Russia and China, plus other sporting disciplines like table tennis, lawn tennis and virtual events.”
However, with the return of the English Premier League and La Liga, gamers are ready to start wagering on their favourite teams in live fixtures.
“During the pandemic we increased online betting and, in particular, betting on virtual games. Our online site, www.mobile.justbet.com offers football, basketball, table tennis, dog, car and horse racing. This has proven to be a hit with our customers since it’s conveniently accessible online and allows them to bet and be entertained 24/7,” said Johnston.
He noted that while sporting events were dormant for the last three months, the company continued to put in the work to make the return to sports and sports betting as smooth as possible.
“We want to give our customers the most premium gaming experience, both at our locations and on our mobile platform, and the changes we have in store will do just that. Months before the effects of the coronavirus we had upgraded the mobile platform, which opened so many avenues for the brand,” he said.
Johnston also said that the JustBet team has been pursuing even more upgrades to the mobile platform to make it more appealing to the gaming public.
“The new platform allows more gaming options to be layered into the mobile product, for example the virtual games that our customers enjoyed recently, and we are seeking to maximise on that opportunity. We have also been doing some behind the scenes work to open more financial options to our gamers, to make our platform as convenient as possible,” he added.
JustBet has sought to engage several market segments through various channels, including a well-received online Fifa tournament. The online tourney was oversubscribed by 200 per cent and saw Jamaican gamers playing for glory and cash prizes under the JustBet brand.
“Sports betting is a social pastime and we want to build on that community. You can imagine in these times we have to take a more imaginative approach, which is why we embarked on the Fifa tournament. We will be creating more unique social activities for our gamers to keep them engaged,” Johnston said.
Source:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sports/imagination-name-of-the-game-as-justbet-navigates-covid-19_197930
