Andrew Maykuth, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Kambi Group is a growing presence on the sports-betting scene. The European bookmaker, whose leadership is Swedish, handles a good chunk of the sports wagers made in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
But Kambi is not exactly a household name.
Kambi is OK with that.
The company last month planted its North American flag in Philadelphia, opening its U.S. headquarters in an office in the Wanamaker Building, which is close to current and potential clients. Kambi is the platform for sportsbooks at SugarHouse, Parx, and Rivers Casinos in Pennsylvania, and DraftKings and PlaySugarHouse.com in New Jersey, though its name is not in the forefront.
“We don’t want consumers to know Kambi,” said Max Bichsel, Kambi’s U.S. sales director. “We want them to know Parx or SugarHouse or Rivers or DraftKings or whomever we’ve partnered with in that jurisdiction.”
For now, Kambi also has a lock on all online Pennsylvania sports betting because SugarHouse, Parx, and Rivers Casinos are the only Pennsylvania casinos licensed to take internet bets. That will change later this year, when industry heavyweights FanDuel and William Hill US go online in Pennsylvania.
Through DraftKings in New Jersey, Kambi processed the first online bet outside of Nevada last year after the repeal of the federal sports-betting ban unleashed a growing tide of states legalizing sports betting.
In Philadelphia, Kambi hopes to eventually employ 50 to 60 people to put an American cast on the product that now comes from its primary operations in Stockholm and in London. Its technology platform calculates odds, assesses risk, and manages the back end of sportsbooks.
