Dotan Lazar: “We never rest on our laurels”

We are meeting today to celebrate the opening of STATSCORE’s new office. What are your impressions of it?

I think it’s beautiful. The architects and designers did an excellent job in planning it. It’s huge, covering 1,200 square meters. We already have 140 to 150 employees, and we plan to grow. The office can accommodate up to 200 people in a hybrid mode.

This is where we aim to be in a year from now. Overall, it’s amazing. It’s modern, high-tech, sports-themed with lots of pictures. It’s very impressive to walk in here.

It’s true, from what I noticed, each room has a different sports theme. Now we are sitting, for example, in the “Roland Garros” office. Where did the idea for such room markings come from?

We are a company that provides data, but everything revolves around sports. Our employees love sports, and they work in sports. We wanted them to feel good here, to feel that this office has a connection with STATSCORE.

How do you feel about Poland in general? How is your cooperation with Dariusz Łęczyński (CEO of STATSCORE) and others here?

I think the Polish people are amazing, very warm, and welcoming. Darek and I have great communication and cooperation. We’ve been working together for almost two years now, even before the acquisition.

Our relationship has only improved since then. He’s done an incredible job building everything, hiring good people, managing, and stabilizing the system. When we took over STATSCORE, it wasn’t perfect, but now it’s heading in a very positive direction.

Darek just told me that you believed in him right away, even though he himself had doubts for a moment whether he would be a good CEO.

I definitely knew right away that Darek would be a great CEO. Now, after some time, it turned out that I was right. We’ve already done a lot of great things, and there’s more to come.

Darek is an extremely intelligent person who knows what he is doing and also has leadership skills. People believe what he says, and that’s very important when you’re a CEO. It is not enough to have good ideas, but you also need to talk about them in such a way that people believe that it is possible. I am very happy to be working with Darek.

So, on November 14, 2022, you took over STATSCORE. When did the idea of building the new modern office come to you?

After visiting the old STATSCORE office and starting to organize the system, we analyzed who was in charge of what, how many people we needed, and the company structure. We decided to move to a new office. We had the opportunity to leave the old one and get something much bigger because we believe STATSCORE is going to grow.

When we signed the lease for the new office, we had 70 people in Poland. Now we have 140, doubling our staff within a year. We wanted a strong base before expanding further. In July last year, we decided we needed something bigger, and Darek started looking for potential buildings. We found this one, and it was the best decision ever. It’s beautiful.

In 2022, you said your goal was double growth in all aspects of the company’s operations in a very short time. Almost two years have passed. Have you achieved this goal?

Yes. STATSCORE has almost doubled in size in one and a half years, in terms of both manpower and revenue stability. We are always striving for improvement and efficiency. In high-tech, you need to be efficient.

I think we have reached our goals, but we are always aiming higher. We are smarter now because we’ve learned the Polish work culture and mentality, and we’ve found common ground to build on together.

What was the main reason for acquiring STATSCORE? What did the company have that you were looking for?

First and foremost, the technology and products. We always admired their products and management but never had such a product ourselves. The customer base was also a significant factor. Besides that, we discovered very good people and partners to work with. The rest is history.

What’s your favorite STATSCORE product?

I love PointsInPlay and Tipster. Tipster is an LSports development (formerly known as BetBooster), while PointsInPlay is an LSports idea that STATSCORE, with its widget capabilities, can produce and deliver.

Overall, my favorite STATSCORE product is LivematchPro, which includes match tracking and play-by-play features. Adding Tipster and engagement tools to this product makes it a standout in the industry.

I watched many interviews where you mentioned LSports’ focus on the Brazilian market. What do you think about that market and about the way that develops?

The Brazilian market should become one of the biggest in the world. It’s becoming regulated, offering a huge opportunity, similar to the US market when it opened up. Brazil will likely surpass the US.

Brazilians love sports, especially soccer. We also have a long-term deal with the Basketball League in Brazil. This will help us become more official and legitimate in the market, allowing us to reap its benefits.

When I was in Brazil two years ago, I noticed that Brazilians love not only sports, but also gambling. Moreover, they talk about sports in a more emotional way than we do in Europe. It made a huge impression on me.

Exactly, I feel the same way. People there love sports, it is very important to them, and this makes this market have huge potential. I think Brazil is the future for many operators.

Do you want to go beyond basketball?

Sure, we have such plans, as I said, Brazil has huge potential. Of course, football is the most popular there, but Brazilians also love other sports disciplines. They just love sports. Anyone who has been to Brazil knows this very well, sport is the number one topic there.

Coming back to Poland, what are your goals and ambitions for STATSCORE in the coming years?

We aim to stabilize technology, introduce new ones, and enhance product capabilities, particularly in fan engagement. Customer acquisition costs for bookies are high, but engagement tools can attract new users more affordably. This is the future.

Now where you’re opening this office, where does Poland fit into your overall strategy? How important is the Polish market for LSports?

We already work with the top 5-6 bookies in Poland, and we aim to bring in more customers. STATSCORE needs to grow stronger and bigger. We are bringing a lot of technology to Katowice in collaboration with Google and AWS. We invest heavily in Poland and its people because we see it as a strategic asset.

What about other markets? What are your plans for expansion?

Brazil and Asia are our main focus areas. Asia, in particular, has billions of potential users, and we need to make our products more accessible in their languages.

So, there’s a lot of work ahead in content localization?

Yes, it’s already in progress. Asia is a challenging market, but with our partners, we know how to succeed. We never stop aiming for more and always think about the next best thing. We never rest on our laurels.