Charlie Williams: We are looking to build a strong foundation of partnerships in Africa

This April, Charlie Williams became Commercial Director at Altenar. In an interview with us, he says about trends and innovations in the industry that he wants to incorporate into Altenar’s strategy, building business in African markets, or the company’s main goals for the near future.

Your previous roles include founding a consultancy firm focusing on C-Level advisory. How do you believe this experience will contribute to your success in guiding Altenar’s commercial strategy?

The consultancy firm enabled me to engage with leaders across a wide spectrum of businesses in the iGaming space from affiliates and CRM to casino, sportsbook, and operations. In doing so, I was exposed to a deeper understanding of how all the pieces fit together, and ultimately was creating ways to optimise the value chain so that all stakeholders are benefiting.

Likewise, you can start to understand where improvements in operational efficiency can be made and where additional revenue generating opportunities exist. These business roadmap ‘blueprints’ can translate into most commercial strategies, with a bit of tweaking here and there, as each business has its own unique vision and objectives.

The same can be said for Altenar, and how our commercial roadmap is shaping up for the next 18-24 months. We are executing a campaign based market penetration approach through a scalable lead generation and sales management model, which is driven by a top calibre product and service offering.

What are some key trends and innovations in the iGaming and sports betting industry that you’re most excited about, and how do you plan to incorporate them into Altenar’s approach?

I am mostly excited with the endless possibilities for true player personalization. The vast amount of data being collected and processed opens the gates for drastic product improvements, which will lead to more seamless player experiences. Sending the right bets, at the right time, to the right player, and through the right means of communication is becoming easier to achieve. Utilising AI as an overarching concept and ML at a more granular level, we will enable back office tools and front end interfaces to work in harmony.

Could you share more about Altenar’s plans for growth in the African market through potential strategic partnerships? What potential opportunities do you see in this region?

We are looking to build a strong foundation of partnerships in Africa, both on the marketing side and also with local sales consultants. In the coming months, we will start to increase our brand exposure and penetration in the region.

We want to amplify our current presence through increased advertising, sponsorships, and building stronger relationships with some of the key consultants on the ground. We feel this collective approach will expose us to more opportunities in Africa, and further enable us to showcase our leading Sportsbook solution.

As Altenar’s new Commercial Director, what specific strategies do you plan to implement to expand further the company’s reach and growth in global markets?

We are maintaining a very vanilla strategic approach, as we understand the industry is continuously evolving, so we are prioritising agility over complexity. Our global strategy houses our regional strategies which are driven by campaign based marketing including targeted SEO, PPC, social, and a significant investment across a high volume of industry events.

This marketing strategy is supported by outbound sales campaigns and a strong lead qualification process, which progresses into the sales management cycle and eventually handed over to our operations team for onboarding. The strategy is also fueled by our partnerships and collaborators both at regional levels and globally.

How do you envision your role impacting Altenar’s relationships with strategic partners and clients? Are there any specific areas you aim to enhance?

Altenar has a long history of strong partnerships within the iGaming sector. We value collaboration with industry stakeholders from various areas such as regulatory bodies, solution providers, and technology suppliers. We see these partnerships as helping to form and continually improve our own Sportsbook offering. We are currently enhancing how we work with certain strategic partners. These partnerships can fit into two categories:

Regionally focussed partnerships which we can work alongside to grow our footprint in a specific geo.
Solution focussed partnerships which offer a specific product(s) that compliments our Sportsbook offering and can add value to the onboarding of new clients.