Cherry targets Pole position with new brand

Cherry is targeting primacy in the fledgling Polish market after outlining plans for its new localised PZBuk.pl online sports betting brand.

PZBuk can be translated as ‘The Polish Bookmaker’, which Cherry said places it in line with the names of various major sports associations in Poland. The operator will offer a full sports betting service on a wide range of sports, with all operations designed for Polish consumers.

Just 10 companies hold online sports betting licences in Poland, including Cherry – which was certified in July – Fortuna, LV Bet and Betclic. The others are Milenium, Star – Typ Sport, Totolotek, E-Toto, forBET and Totalbet. Poland’s new gambling regulations were introduced in April 2017, with hundreds of domains black-listed in the past 18 months.

Anders Antonsson (pictured), who heads investor relations and communications at Cherry, has told iGamingBusiness.com that the Polish launch is “strategically important” due to the low number of licensed operators offering sports betting.

“We view our Polish brand as strategically important as the Polish market is a regulated market and we are one of a limited number of operators that can offer sports betting in a country with a population of more than 38 million,” he said.

“We hope that PZBuk.pl will have a similar development as our other brands launched in 2018. Snabbare.com, Hajper.com and Nopeampi.com have all been successful.”

Meanwhile, Totalizator Sportowy, operator of the Polish state lottery online, has said it will launch a new iLotto service next month that will allow consumers to play the lottery online.

Testing on the website and mobile application took place throughout September and the company is now preparing to open up the system to the public.

Aida Bella, spokeswoman for Totalizator Sportowy, said the launch represents a “breakthrough” for both the company and the Polish market, according to the Gambling.com website.

Bella said: “This year is a breakthrough for the company, because thanks to the amended Gambling Act, we can implement many new projects.

“The main goal that we want to achieve this year is to introduce our products to the internet.”