NBA and Better Collective to partner on talent, innovation and sustainability initiatives

1.Better Collective is a global sport betting media group headquartered in Copenhagen, with offices in 20 cities around the world. Along with New York, London and Paris (to name a few) two of these offices are also in Niš and Belgrade. Tell us a bit about your business. How did you decide to expand to Serbia? What are the key advantages of this market? Where do you see the biggest growth opportunities?   

Better Collective is a sports betting media group, owning some of the world's number 1 go-to sites, for information and data related to sports betting. Additionally, we have various media partnerships and deliver content to among others The New York Post and NJ.com. Better Collective is competing globally, and thus has to follow global market forces. We are not targeting Serbia with our products, but Serbia is a cornerstone in our success on expansion within highly qualified and talented staff. After a thorough location study back in 2015, Better Collective decided to open an office in Serbia in 2016. Initially, ambitions weren't as big as they are today, but Serbia by far exceeded our expectations in terms of how much talent we would find here. Today there are over 230 employees in Serbia representing more than 30 teams within the BC Group.

2. Your vision is to empower iGamers through transparency and technology. Transparency is a core value of our association as well. Please elaborate for our readers what transparency means in the context of your business and why it is a critical component of everything you do.

Our goal is to create a more transparent market in a growing and more complex industry and to help iGamers navigate safely across regulated gaming operators. More specifically we help sports bettors make informed decisions and find the best odds in the market among the best operators. Being a public listed company [BETCO] we strive to be as transparent as possible and prioritize our continued work with our ESG profile. 

3. Innovation is at the core of your business. Talent and innovation go hand in hand. How do you stimulate your talent’s innovative mindset and ensure they continue to grow and challenge standards with new technologies?

We do a lot to empower our employees in terms of letting them develop and grow. Our employees on all levels are often an integrated part of our decision making in terms of developing and executing our overall strategy. The majority of our staff are getting time to grow their skills within working hours, and the company as a whole supports training, participation in conferences and the like. Since we’re operating within tech - a fast changing ecosystem, research and development is the cornerstone to our future success, and there is basically no team across BC, where we are not continuously working to be ready for the future.

4. Sustainability is an integral part of your strategy. Can you share with our readers a few examples of the positive impact you made on societies you operate in?

In Better Collective we have taken various CSR initiatives over the course of the past 5 years. We have participated in tree planting for 3 consecutive years, and at the latest event we planted 200 trees in Nis. In Serbia we have sponsored educational institutions, participated in “trash-challenge” etc. An initiative I am particularly proud of from 2021 is our BC Academy, where we have educated young people in durations from 3-6 months, which so far has led to 11 graduates, who all following have got a permanent position within Better Collective. 

5. What is your favorite restaurant in Niš or Belgrade? 

The kafana culture in southern Serbia is huge. I have a few favorite restaurants in Nis, depending on who I’m going with and when. When having some of my close colleagues from abroad visiting Nis, I need to take them to Kafana Mrak. This is the most old-school restaurant in Nis. Small, cozy and it can’t become more Serbian than this. The food in Mrak is awesome. The downside about MRAK, and most kafanas is, that to get the most of the experience, you are needed to be a conditioned passive smoker. If you need a more safe choice which will suit all audiences I prefer Kafana Orac. 

6. How would you describe your ideal weekend?

Ideal weekend for me is a combination of active and peaceful. Peaceful for me mostly includes a kind of mental stimulation. I watch very little TV but instead choose to read a lot of non-fiction usually related to culture, psychology & sociology. I’ve been training consistently for the past 25 years and no weekend passes without having my obligatory morning training around 6 AM. Every other weekend I’m back in Denmark, spending time with my two daughters Madeline (11) and Victoria (13). 

Jacob Folmand – VP & Managing Director – Better Collective

Jacob is born at Samsoe but lived all his life in Viborg. He joined Better Collective in 2013, and got the opportunity to establish Better Collective Serbia in 2016. Since then he has had primary Serbian residency.