W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M

F E AT U R E G E O L O C AT I O N E M B ATS C O M I N GIntel
Report 2019

B2B Winners~ BMIT Technologies~ Evolution Gaming~ GBG~ SBTech~ Trustly\ 001

Onboarding
the hardest toverify and mostvulnerable players
Millennials’ identities are uniquely
hard to verify, and young players
are at risk of problem gambling.

Join our webinar to learn
how gaming operators
use our technology andexclusive data to tackle
the twin challenges
of onboarding
and safeguarding.
Tuesday 24th September
3pm (GMT)
gbgplc.com/egr-webinar

In association with

Contents
Xwww.e g r m a g a z i n e .co m

14

Sticking around:unlocking player
loyalty through faster
withdrawals
Samuel Barrett of Trustly
reﬂects on the insights
gleaned from the ﬁrm’s
recent survey on ﬁnding out
what bettors want from theirchosen provider

22
Compliance and KYC
Supplier of the year,
2019
Alex Lafferty of GBG
identiﬁes how theﬁrm has been guiding
its clients since theintroduction of GDPR
and reﬂects on theirawards success

17
Live casino productinnovation on a newlevel
Amy Riches of Evolution
Gaming provides insight
into how the ﬁrm
sees competition andcontinues to keep its
focus on innovation

20

Industry pioneers
Andrew Cochrane of
SBTech discusses theﬁrm’s awards successand what the future
holds

25

Going beyond theordinary
Jack Mizzi of BMIT
Technologies distinguishes
the areas in which the ﬁrm
is succeeding and what its
upcoming plans are3

Celebrating
excellence
XXXXXX

S

4

cientiﬁc Games wascrowned Platform of theYear at the EGR B2B Awards
2019, hosted by comedian
Glenn Moore at The Tower ofLondon.
SG Digital’s “well-rounded
entry” won plaudits from anexpert panel of judges whichscored the Nasdaq-listed ﬁrm
highly across all criteria for
its Open Gaming System andOpen Platform System.
Meanwhile, Kambi won
the prize for Sportsbook Platform Provider, while fellow
Nordic ﬁrm Yggdrasil saw oﬀ
stiﬀ competition to win RNG
Casino Supplier.
Fredrik Elmqvist, Yggdrasil
CEO, said: “We’ve been partof the EGR B2B Awards formany years now and it keeps
getting better and better. Our
sector is more competitive
than ever but we’re proud tobe part of such an innovativeand progressive industry.”
Red Tiger, SBTech, Connexus Group, Sportradar andSportCaller were among thenominees to be victorious in
more than one category, withRed Tiger winning Innovationin Mobile and Mobile Gaming
Software Supplier.
SBTech won awards for
In-Play Betting Software andSports Betting Supplier, withthe provider hailing a successful 12 months.
Andrew Cochrane, chief development oﬃcer at SBTech,said: “All the team’s hard
work and commitment has
paid oﬀ and we are delighted
to win the prize for the Sports
Betting Supplier of the Yearfor the ﬁrst time.”
Another winner was SolutionsHub Limited, which
scooped the Cryptocurrency
Services Supplier award.
Scout Gaming Group was
also a big winner on the night
after taking home the award
for Fantasy Sports Supplierfor the second consecutiveyear.
“We are very pleased that
we are once again taking
home the prize and think weare leading the innovation inthis part of the sector,” Andreas Ternström, CEO of Scout
Gaming, said.
On behalf of everyone on
the EGR Global team, I would
like to congratulate all the
shortlisted companies andwinners, all of which are honoured in this special report.

Skill games supplier
Digitain
COLLECTOR: SIMON WESTBURY, HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

XXXXXX

Mobile gaming software
supplier
Red Tiger
COLLECTORS: CHRIS LOONEY, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR; AND TEAM

XXXXXX

Acquisition and retention
partnerSportCaller

Andy Roocroft,
group head of content

COLLECTORS: PADDY MCDERMOTT, PERFORMANCE DIRECTOR; ROMILLY EVANS, SQUARE IN THE AIR
PR; AND ROB EGAN, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you to our sponsors

Marketing & Technology Partner

XXXXXX

Services rising star
Gutsy Ninja
COLLECTORS: POOJA CAPELLOS, CO-FOUNDER AND CPO; AND ARIS CAPELLOS, FOUNDER AND CEO

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Virtual sports supplierInnovation in slot
provision

Inspired Entertainment
COLLECTOR: JOANNA HARRISON, INTERACTIVE ACCOUNT DIRECTOR

Microgaming
COLLECTORS: JAMES BUCHANAN, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL OPERATIONS, AND TEAM

6

XXXXXX

Data centre of the year
Continent 8 Technologies
COLLECTORS: GRAHAM FOSTER, ACCOUNT DIRECTOR; DAVID BLACK, MD EMEA; LUIS GARCIA, GM
GIBRALTAR; AND TEAM

XXXXXX

IT supplier
BMIT
COLLECTORS: JACK MIZZI, CMO; AND NICK TONNA, CCO

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

White label partner

Live streaming supplier

Together Gaming

Betradar

COLLECTORS: KLAS ROSENQVIST, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER; AND BENJAMINDELSINGER, MANAGING DIRECTORCOLLECTOR: ANDREW PALMER, SALES DIRECTOR (BETTING) UKXXXXXX

XXXXXX

Marketing and PR
providerEsports betting supplier

Fresh8 Gaming

UltraPlayCOLLECTOR: LYUBOMIRA PETROVA, CMO

COLLECTORS:SARAH MCCHESNEY, CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR; AND TEAM

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Mobile services supplierInnovation in sports
betting software

BetConstruct
COLLECTORS: DAVID WEBB, UK COMPLIANCE MANAGER; AND ARTUR MANASARYAN, REGIONAL
DIRECTOR OF UK, VBETSportCaller
COLLECTORS: ROB EGAN, ROMILLY EVANS, AND PADDY MCDERMOTT

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Sports data supplier

Fantasy sports supplier

BetradarScout Gaming Group

COLLECTOR: ALEX AMON, HEAD OF ODDSCOLLECTORS: ANDREAS TERNSTROM, CEO; AND JOAKIM RENMAN, CCO

7XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Innovation in payment
solutionsInnovation in mobile

Trustly

Red Tiger
COLLECTORS: CHRIS LOONEY, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR; AND TEAMCOLLECTORS: SAM BARRETT, DIRECTOR OF GAMING; AND TEAM

8XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Innovation in RNG
casino software

Poker network

Betsoft Gaming

Dragonﬁsh
COLLECTORS: DANIEL FLESCH, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR; AND TEAMCOLLECTOR: ANNA MACKNEY, ACCOUNT MANAGER

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Compliance and KYC
supplier

Lottery supplier

GBG
COLLECTORS: ALEX LAFFERTY, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR – ENTERPRISE; AND ELLYBERRILL, CLIENT DIRECTOR

Lottoland
COLLECTOR: FERIAL ABARGHOOIE, SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, GAMEVY

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

In-play betting software

Best customer service

SBTechSportradar

COLLECTOR: LETIZIA ANGELO, GLOBAL COMMERCIAL DIRECTORCOLLECTOR: DANIEL ROSSMANN, DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Corporate services
supplier

Data analytics partner

Partis
COLLECTORS: DANIEL BEARD, PARTNER; AND JAMES MCKENZIE, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTDIRECTOR

Optimove
COLLECTORS: SIGAL MAMISTVALOV, CUSTOMER SUCCESS MANAGER; AND INÉS MURIELPALLARÉS, CSM

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Payments company

Multi-channel supplier

Worldpay

FAST TRACKCOLLECTOR: NICHOLAS YEATES, SENIOR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER

COLLECTORS: CHRIS HIRST, CO-FOUNDER; AND SIMON LIDZÉN, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER

9XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Aﬃliate software supplier

Recruiter of the year

Income Access

10

Pentasia

COLLECTORS: SARAFINA WOLDE GABRIEL, VP STRATEGY; AND TEAMCOLLECTORS: BRUCE GAMBLE, DIRECTOR, CONEXUS GROUP; AND TEAM

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Live casino supplier

Poker software supplier

Evolution Gaming

Connective GamesCOLLECTORS: FREDRIK BJURLE, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTS; AND TEAMCOLLECTORS: SERGE MUKHANOV, CEO; AND TEAM

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Bingo supplierSports betting supplier

Playtech

SBTech

COLLECTORS: JAMES NEWMAN, DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS; AND TEAMCOLLECTOR: LETIZIA ANGELO, GLOBAL COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR

12

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Mobile supplier

Slot supplierPlay’n GO

NetEnt

COLLECTOR: PETTER VIKLUND, SENIOR KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER

COLLECTORS: JAMES ELLIOTT, GENERAL COUNSEL; KAROLINA O'SULLIVAN, SENIOR ACCOUNTMANAGER; AND TEAM

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Software rising star

RNG casino supplier

VAIX

Yggdrasil

COLLECTORS: JAY KANABAR, ANALYTICS AND OPERATIONS DIRECTOR; AND ANDREAS
HARTMANN, COO AND CO-FOUNDERCOLLECTORS: STUART MCCARTHY, HEAD OF STUDIO PARTNERSHIPS; AND PER HEDÉN, CPO

XXXXXX

XXXXXX

Sportsbook platform
providerPlatform of the year

Kambi
COLLECTOR: CHRISTINA HARALAMBOUS, GLOBAL CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Scientiﬁc GamesCOLLECTORS: MARC BURROUGHES, DIRECTOR; AND LOUISE BURT, COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTDIRECTOR

Sports Betting &Platform Provider

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: Trustly

Samuel Barrett
XDirector of gaming
XTrustly
Samuel Barrett has over
10 years’ experience
working at some ofEurope’s biggest
payments companies
that specialise inoffering alternative
payments to the gaming
industry. Prior to joining
Trustly as director of
gaming, Barrett held
various management
roles at Paysafe
Group, ClickandBuy
and leading UK FX
brokerage World First.
14

Sticking around:unlocking player
loyalty through faster
withdrawals
Samuel Barrett of Trustly reﬂects on theinsights gleaned from the ﬁrm’s recent
survey on ﬁnding out what bettors wantfrom their chosen providerO

perators spend massive resources to attract
players to their site, only to have themchurn at countless points of friction. Oﬀ
the bat, about 24% of players end up dropping out
during the registration process, according to Jumio’s
Mobile gaming registration and deposit abandonment
study. And even players that survive registration
aren’t guaranteed to proceed with a deposit: CRM
specialist Optimove revealed that only one in threeplayers who register makes a deposit within 24
hours. At this point, operators pour in even moremoney to reactivate their players.
Not to mention, many of those players willsubsequently be lured away by sign-up bonuses anddeposit promotions oﬀered by other sites anyway,leaving operators with a poor return on theiracquisition and reactivation investments. With suchdismal retention rates, player loyalty can feel like afallacy.
So what’s an operator to do? In the past, somehave tried to earn loyalty by introducing new games,
deals or competing on bonuses, but beyond an
initial boost, this approach has not led to long-term
impact.
To understand what players really want, Trustly
surveyed 1,700 people across nine EU markets.
We found that providing a better payments andregistration process means merchants don’t have torely on bonuses, which are under regulatory scrutiny
at the moment.

According to the survey, almost all players – 94% –want instant access to their winnings, and 80% said
they would gamble more frequently with a site thatoﬀered this.
This sentiment was especially strong in Spain
and Poland, where over 90% of players stated theywould gamble more often with instant withdrawals.
And among valuable VIP players, the desire is evenstronger: 87% say they would gamble more withinstant withdrawals.

We found that providing a better
payments and registration processmeans merchants don’t have to rely onbonusesSamuel Barrett | Trustly

Beyond oﬀering speedier withdrawals, operators
can diﬀerentiate themselves from the competition
through a sleeker player experience. Take Trustly’s
Pay N Play, for example. In order to register at a Pay
N Play site, all a player has to do is make a deposit
via his or her trusted online bank – no redirect awayfrom the gaming site is necessary. This drastically
boosts conversion because by bundling theregistration and deposit steps, there is no chance aplayer will register but not deposit.
As the player makes a deposit, Trustly extracts
necessary information from the player’s bankaccount to fulﬁl KYC requirements and delivers thedata to the operator, who can register the player
account in the background. This means the player
doesn’t have to ﬁll out lengthy forms or submit
copies of bills or identiﬁcation documents.

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: Trustly

During this step, operators can also verify theplayer’s identity and age, ensuring that he or she isallowed to play. It streamlines the registration anddeposit steps, but it also ensures that operators staycompliant with increasingly strict KYC regulations.
When Trustly ﬁrst introduced Pay N Play, many
operators were sceptical that oﬀering faster
withdrawals could yield ﬁnancial beneﬁts. But
more than three years later, as the game-changing
product proves, faster withdrawals coupled with africtionless player experience is the key to unlocking
player loyalty.
In-banner betting and beyond
Soon, streamlined registration and instant
withdrawals will be standard features on gamingsites. As a result, operators that don’t oﬀer africtionless sign-up and payment ﬂow will be left in
the dust. So how can operators further diﬀerentiatethemselves?
Trustly’s latest innovation, In-Banner Pay N Playtakes the player experience to the next level.
Imagine you’re surﬁng the web, perhaps reading
news about your favourite football team. In a bannerto the right, you see an oﬀer to bet on the scoreof tonight’s match. You place a bet on your team
directly within the banner, even though you’ve
never visited that speciﬁc sportsbook site before.
You simply choose the odds and select the amount

Trustly’s team collect the Innovation in payments solutions award

you wish to bet, make a deposit by logging into youronline bank via the iframe, and conﬁrm your depositwith your bank’s usual authentication method. You
watch the game that evening and it turns out you
made a smart bet. When you’re ready to cash out
your winnings, you navigate to the site and withdraw
the money directly to your bank account.
It’s hard to picture a smoother betting experience,as you never need to register an account or evenleave the website you’re surﬁng. X

15

Would you gamble more often with a gambling website that offers instant withdrawals?
Deﬁnitely yes X Probably yes X Probably not X Deﬁnitely not X
Spain

60%

Poland57%

Estonia45%

Germany

43%

UK

46%

Netherlands

42%

Findland

34%

Denmark

29%

Sweden

34%

34%

6%

35%

8%

37%
38%
35%
37%

5%

14%

5%

16%

4%

16%

41%

6%

21%

44%

16%
35%

14%

25%

5%
12%
8%

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: Evolution Gaming

Live casino productinnovation on a new level
Amy Riches
XHead of marketing
XEvolution Gaming
Amy Riches is headof marketing at
Evolution Gaming.
Joining in 2013, thisrole sees her involved
across corporate andproduct marketingfor Evolution’s worldleading live casino
services.

Amy Riches of Evolution Gaming provides
insight into how the ﬁrm sees competitionand continues to keep its focus on
innovationThe past 12 months have been both anincredibly busy period for Evolution anda very tough period. Busy in terms of new
product development and launches, and tough interms of competitive activity and the pressure tocontinue to perform at the very highest level. That
Evolution should retain the EGR Live Casino Supplierof the Year crown for a tenth consecutive year against
this backdrop is, therefore, both extremely satisfying
and humbling.
We are never content to sit back. Of course,
intense competition is nothing new in the live casino
industry. We know that each year the competition
will more than likely continue to intensify as newproviders enter the market and existing providers
improve and expand their product and service
oﬀerings. We are always challenging ourselves topush further and set the bar even higher and tocontinue to create unique games that aren’t available
anywhere else. Our constant objective, therefore, isto strengthen our leading market position, to retain
existing customers and help them to grow, to attract
new customers and to provide the most unique,innovative and entertaining content out there.
We know that to achieve this we must continue todevelop our successful live casino platform further
while focusing on a number of areas considered to
be of strategic importance for our own continued
growth. When we look back over this latest award
period, what really stands out for me is our ramping
up of product innovation to an entirely new level.
During this period, we accelerated our innovationeﬀort with the aim to take Evolution live casino to thenext level, using the latest technology and adapting
our oﬀering to more target audiences than everbefore.

The foundations for this process had been put inplace in 2018 with the launch of Lightning Roulette,
which proved to be a landmark release.
Lightning Roulette is an extended live roulettegame that delivers a new player experience through amix of RNG features that give the traditional Roulettegame a whole new dimension. Not only was theLightning Roulette extremely well received by players,
it also went on to win several awards, including
Product Innovation of the Year at the Global GamingAwards at G2E Las Vegas, as well as EGR’s Game of theYear at the EGR Operator Awards.

With products like MONOPOLY Liveand Deal or No Deal Live, we believe
we have taken the entire Live Casino
industry to the next level
Amy Riches | Evolution Gaming
Building on this success – and from what welearned from our Dream Catcher money wheel before
that – we invested considerable resources in further
product innovation ahead of 2019. In particular,
we partnered with the huge powerhouse brands
Hasbro and Endemol Shine to create, respectively,
MONOPOLY Live and Deal or No Deal Live. Both new
titles are game show games that redeﬁne live casino,
and both are exclusive to Evolution.
With products like MONOPOLY Live and Deal or
No Deal Live, we believe we have taken the entire live
casino industry to the next level. MONOPOLY Live isa special edition of our Dream Catcher money wheel,in which the world’s most popular board game meets
live casino – complete with augmented reality, 3D
Bonus rounds built around the adventures of MR.
MONOPOLY, and with the chance of big multiplierwins. It’s a multi-level game that really does redeﬁnelive casino in so many ways.
To transfer this famous, much-loved board gameto online was a huge challenge but one we haveenjoyed immensely and of which we are very proud.

17

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Fredrik Bjurle, director of products and team, Evolution Gaming, pick up the Live casino supplier award

unlimited seats at the Blackjack table rather than the
traditional seven seats), Side Bet City (a stunning,
80s-themed poker variant), 2 Hand Casino Hold’em,
and two First Person games (First Person Lightning
Roulette and First Person Dream Catcher). The lasttwo games are part of our growing RNG oﬀeringin which every game, uniquely, comes with a ‘Go
Live’ button that can take players directly into theequivalent live version of each game.
The net result is that there are now more reasons
than ever for players of all kinds to be attracted to live
casino. As we’ve said before, it’s not enough for us tooﬀer just traditional table games. Today’s live casino
is about so much more. We are always looking to push
to the next level and to provide operators and playerswith what they are searching for, all the while making
sure it’s the absolute best gaming experience available
anywhere.
Very often operators and players do not know
precisely what it is they are searching for, but that is
the role of innovators and product developers – tocome up with fresh, diﬀerent ideas that surprise anddelight. Already we have our minds focused on thenext wave of live casino innovations that will meetthat challenge! X
DISCLAIMER
The MONOPOLY name and logo, the distinctive design of the gameboard, the four corner squares, the MR. MONOPOLY name andcharacter as well as each of the distinctive elements of the board
and the playing pieces are trademarks of Hasbro for its property
trading game and game equipment. ©1935, 2019 Hasbro. All rights
reserved.
Deal or No Deal Live is based on the Endemol Shine Group
television format Deal or No Deal © 2003. Deal or No Deal Live
Project © 2017 Endemol Shine Group IP B.V. Deal or No Deal is a
registered trademark of Endemol Shine Group IP B.V. Used withpermission. All rights reserved.

Featuring: Evolution Gaming

On the back of MONOPOLY Live’s record-breaking
ﬁrst month, a number of our licensees said it was themost powerful live casino cross-sell tool ever created.
Deal or No Deal Live is another truly entertaining
game concept. With this game we wanted to stay
100% true to the TV show format that people know
so well. So there’s the familiar, engaging presenter
and, of course, the thrill of waiting for the banker’s
oﬀer. But now online players can play along in the live
game show from wherever they happen to be. Like
MONOPOLY Live, this is a multi-layered game. In Deal
Or No Deal Live, players go through the qualifying
round to take part in the actual game show. Having
qualiﬁed, they then get the chance to top up the prize
values in any of the 16 briefcases. The game also has amix of RNG elements, including multipliers, so again
players have the chance to win big.
Multipliers have been a recurring feature in
our recent games and they are working very
well in attracting new player types. But an evenstronger theme running through these games isentertainment. Our focus now is very much on
providing world-class entertainment, where wesee services like YouTube and Netﬂix as our maincompetitors. We are no longer just in the gaming
business, we are in the entertainment business – andour product roadmap reﬂects this.
It has been the most exciting time imaginable
and we have achieved a great deal of momentum in
getting these new games ready and out into the world.
It’s taken a huge team eﬀort and we’ve had some ofour best minds at work to make these super-complex
studios become a reality.
With our new game show games category oﬀering
players a great variety of titles such as Dream Catcher,Lightning Roulette, MONOPOLY Live and Deal or No
Deal Live, we have carved out a whole new segment inlive casino.
Importantly, we have seen large numbers of ﬁrsttime players ﬂocking to these games. These are ﬁrsttime players who had never entered the world of live
casino before, and they are thoroughly enjoying theexperience.
Of course, variety and choice remain key
watchwords in our product roadmap, so the focus
hasn’t been exclusively on game show style games.
We have also brought dice well and truly into the live
casino world with Super Sic Bo and Lightning Dice,an extension of our Lightning brand.
Other new titles that have come out of this busiestever new product development period are Inﬁnite
Blackjack and Free Bet Blackjack (both oﬀering

19

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: SBTech

Industry pioneers
Andrew
Cochrane

20

XChief development
officer
XSBTechAndrew Cochrane
is an experienced
egaming and sports
betting commercial
executive. In his roleas chief development
officer at SBTech. He
manages international
business development
and expansion,
revenue management
and commercial
partnerships for theleading egaming
supplier.

Andrew Cochrane of SBTech discusses theﬁrm’s awards success and what the futureholds
EGR Intel: What do you put the company success down toand can you map out the wins of the last 12 months?
Andrew Cochrane (AC): We have been in business for
10 years and really pioneered the space, achievingsome signiﬁcant milestones along the way but particularly in the last 12 months following the repeal of
the federal US PASPA legislation.
To that end we have won some of the industry’s
biggest sports betting and platform technology contracts across established and newly regulated markets including the UK, US and the Nordics.
We created history by becoming the ﬁrst supplier to announce sportsbook technology partnerships in the newly regulated US market with Churchill Downs, Golden Nugget and Resorts Casino, justweeks after the repeal of PASPA.
Since then we have rapidly become the go-to
sportsbook platform supplier, having won several
major public procurement processes due to our innovative, proven, revenue-generating platform andsportsbook technology that is recognised as thenumber one for speed to market, localisation andﬂexibility. This includes wins across four regulated
US states to date with several tier-one partners, mostrecently being selected as the supplier of choice for
the Oregon Lottery as well as furthering our partnership with Churchill Downs in the newly regulated
state of Pennsylvania.
In May this year we launched of the most signiﬁcant new brands into the competitive UK market,
powering Gamesys’ new sportsbook brand Virgin
Bet after agreeing a landmark ﬁve-year full platformdeal. We were selected by Gamesys due to the depthof next-generation platform and sportsbook APIs.
Also, earlier this year we were named Sports Betting Supplier of the year at the annual EGR Nordics
Awards with judges praising our achievements in theregion for providing highly innovative, best performing sportsbook products to several of the industry’s

major brands for more than a decade.
The team’s hard work and commitment has paid
oﬀ and we were delighted to win the prize for theSports Betting Supplier of the Year for the ﬁrst time.
We’ve secured some of the industry’s largest andmost strategically signiﬁcant deals in the last year
and this is just reward for everyone’s eﬀorts.
To also win In-Play Betting Software Supplier for
the fourth year in a row is testament to our innovative product suite of in-play sports betting productsthat continue to deliver a unique user experience forplayers and outstanding results for our customers.
If we all thought the industry was fast moving 15
years ago when I ﬁrst started in gaming, we were
wrong, it’s moving quicker than ever before… andI’m going from one plane to another to discuss
the signiﬁcant opportunities that exist for tier-one
brands in regulated and newly regulating markets
today.

After 10 years in business weare undergoing huge positive,
transformational changes and all
for the right reasons
Andrew Cochrane | SBTech
EGR Intel: After a highly successful decade in the industry,what do the next 10 years hold for the company?
AC: After 10 years in business we are undergoinghuge positive, transformational changes and all forthe right reasons. Over the last decade we have all
had to adapt to a vast number of market changes,
but now that change is on our own terms thanks to a
combination of rapid regulated market growth andour success in winning some of the biggest gaming
and lottery sportsbook platform technology deals in
the last 18 months in the UK, US and the Nordics.
We are in the midst of an extensive recruitment
drive across the entire business including the sales
and commercial, account management and marketing teams. This is all to do with scaling the businessin line with our rapid growth at the same time as en-EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: SBTech

SBTech won two major prizes at the EGR B2B Awards 2019, claiming Sports Betting Supplier of the year and best In-play Betting Software, the fourth consecutive year the company has
achieved this accoladesuring we continue to oﬀer exceptional products andservices to our existing customers across 15 regulated markets.
The business is rapidly maturing and naturally
moving into a more corporate phase. This is all partof our growth strategy. We are deliberately maintaining a great balance of being an entrepreneur-led
business alongside introducing a host of new policies, procedures, rules of engagement, due diligence,and KPI management. We’re taking all the goodparts of a blue-chip global organisation but keepingthat drive and passion. Existing and potential customers can see that, hence our winning position inso many recent large procurement processes.
EGR Intel: What do today’s egaming customers want froma supplier?
AC: Customers don’t want to deal with a slow-moving
business, they want a technology partner that understands what makes them and the markets they are
in tick. We spend a huge amount of time with customers, as well as their end customers working on
exactly the right solution for them. What are their
speciﬁc attributes and how can we best help them asa B2B provider? We select the right solutions within
our toolkit to drive revenues forward in a responsible manner.
This is so important in today’s market. We oﬀer
our partners a range of egaming and sports betting
solutions, but in a responsible and compliant way,

supporting their return on investment back into
local communities and good causes. CSR is becoming increasingly important and we’re seeing that in
the many RFPs we work on. We take great care in ensuring our product oﬀering and processes are compliant and responsible and that we are the right partners to deal with. We’ve had a huge amount of success with that.
Let’s not forget, however, that our success andgrowth has also been down to our proprietary product solutions and innovations such as PulseBet, ActionBet, Exploding jackpots and Betbuilder, as wellas the customisation and personalisation we oﬀer
– making sure solutions are unique to speciﬁc markets, understanding what clients want and building
it, especially around areas such as bespoke trading
solutions.
The market is entering a more responsible andmature phase with personalisation and diﬀerentiation driving product development, however we havebeen ahead of that curve for some time. For us it is
now about continuing to win further tier one, regulated market contracts, and following a structured,
long-term growth plan with the right systems inplace to forecast deals coming in and the best ways
to resource them.
The industry may be changing, but there’s one
thing we will never change, and that is our passion
for creating memorable experiences for operatorsand their players. X

21

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: GBG

Compliance and KYC
Supplier of the year, 2019Alex Lafferty
XGaming director
XGBG
Alex Lafferty is gaming
director at GBG, theglobal identity data
specialist. With deep
sector experience,
Lafferty works closelywith GBG’s gaming
clients to ensure they
continue to increasecustomer engagement,
grow their businessand enable regulatory
adoption.

22

Alex Lafferty of GBG identiﬁes how theﬁrm has been guiding its clients since theintroduction of GDPR and reﬂects on theirawards successW

ith the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May last year,
we’ve worked closely with our clients to help themunderstand and meet their new responsibilities.
Our industry-leading identity software, ID3global, oﬀers our customers the security and peace ofmind that the data they are processing on behalfof their customers is accurate and up to date.
Given the considerable apprehension aroundthe introduction of GDPR, the GBG team worked
alongside customers to create bespoke solutions
for each business’ individual needs. For example,
we reviewed all of our data suppliers in advance of
GDPR to assure full readiness for the new regulation.
This led to us changing our supplier in Spain
to guarantee ourselves and our customers fullcompliance. We then undertook a big project totransfer clients to the new data set in time for thechanges.

LCCP compliance and responsible gambling
Similarly, when the Gambling Commission(UKGC) announced upcoming changes to its
licence conditions and code of practice (LCCP) in
February this year, GBG supported hundreds ofoperators to get their current records up to date,ensure that they are compliant with new regulation and strengthen their ID and age veriﬁcation
software and processes.
Many organisations already trust GBG tosupport with regulatory and compliance requirements, including over 80% of the EGR Gaming
Power 50, such as: SkyBet, Ladbrokes, 888,

Casumo, Bet365, LeoVegas and PlayTech. We
worked closely with these customers, and many
more to ensure they had a thorough understanding of what these new regulations meant for themand of the new levels of compliance that they must
adhere to.
Responding to our customers’ ongoing demandsin this area, GBG will soon launch a new educational dataset which will support onboarding
match rates.
Currently, GBG oﬀers four diﬀerent databases
which include a hard date of birth match, helping
us stand out from our competitors, such as credit
reference agencies, who only traditionally use
credit data. GBG has recently processed millionsof records for the likes of Bet365 and SkyBet toensure their player data was up to date ahead of
the LCCP changes.

The past 12 months have presented
regulated markets with some bigcompliance challenges and we’re proud
to have helped our clients to meet theirregulatory requirements
More broadly, GBG has worked hand-in-handwith operators to understand the many challenges
they face this year, most notably in striking theright balance between providing a fast and frictionless service, while taking preventative measures to minimise fraud, counter money-laundering
activities and ensure the wellbeing of vulnerable
players.
With responsible gambling increasingly at theforefront of political, media and industry agenda
about the gambling sector, GBG responded tohigh demand from operators to know more about
their customers and increase their social responsibility. We created GBG Predator, which enables

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Rank relies on GBG to look beyond KYC for its growing customer baseRank Group, one of the UK’s top gaming operators, chose GBG to help manage the identity of
its customers in October 2017. GBG’s ID3global
solution, with its ability to verify over 4.4 billion
people globally through a single API, enables
Rank Group to process accurate and up-to-datecustomer data of its 2.8 million customers, while
fully ensuring compliance regulations are met.
Rank Group specialises in the regulated gaming
segment of the entertainment market, through its
brands such as Grosvenor Casinos, Mecca Bingo
and Enracha. Delivering an outstanding customer
experience is one of its main business objectives.
GBG ID3global helps Rank Group check its
customers are who they say they are within thematter of a few seconds, while tackling the risks
of identity fraud and threats arising from money
laundering. The solution creates a seamless experience for customers by conducting an electronic
identity veriﬁcation check in the time of a typical
web page load. The technology employs traditional and emerging data sources and means Rank
can depend upon a customisable platform that
supports quick and conﬁdent decision-making.
With the help of ID3global, Rank Group, oneof the UK’s top gaming operators, has achieved a
6% uplift in customer veriﬁcation on a month-tomonth basis for its ﬂagship brands – Grosvenor
Casinos and Mecca Bingo.
By optimising the player journey, GBG has allowed Rank Group to consistently work against its
main business objective while fully ensuring thatcompliance regulations are met.
Rory Howard, Rank Group’s director of payments and customer diligence, said: “GBG helps
us add value with its best-in-class datasets. Its
account management team and product innovation really help us deliver a best-in-class service toour players.”‘Absolutely delighted’
We are absolutely delighted to have won Compliance and KYC supplier of the year at the 2019 EGRAwards.
In a highly competitive segment, we believe
this award recognises the fact that we continue toacquire and invest in products that add signiﬁcantvalue to our gaming partners.
This not only ensures that operators using ourservices remain compliant and avoid regulatorﬁnes, it also allows them to put their customers
at the forefront of what they do, enabling a ﬂuentacquisition journey and enhanced customer
experience.
To learn more about how GBG can help yourbusiness meet its KYP and compliance obligations, visit www.gbgplc.com. X

Featuring: GBG

gambling organisations to create triggers that ﬂag
up when they should intervene, in real time, forgood and bad.
This vast customer behavioural analysis canallow operators to build customer proﬁles andtarget promotional activity to maximise revenue,
while also providing the ability to protect vulnerable customers in line with social responsibility. It
is this thorough understanding of the needs of ourcustomers that keeps GBG at the front of the pack.

23

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: GBG

Compliance and KYC
Supplier of the year, 2019Alex Lafferty
XGaming director
XGBG
Alex Lafferty is gaming
director at GBG, theglobal identity data
specialist. With deep
sector experience,
Lafferty works closelywith GBG’s gaming
clients to ensure they
continue to increasecustomer engagement,
grow their businessand enable regulatory
adoption.

22

Alex Lafferty of GBG identiﬁes how theﬁrm has been guiding its clients since theintroduction of GDPR and reﬂects on theirawards successW

ith the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May last year,
we’ve worked closely with our clients to help themunderstand and meet their new responsibilities.
Our industry-leading identity software, ID3global, oﬀers our customers the security and peace ofmind that the data they are processing on behalfof their customers is accurate and up to date.
Given the considerable apprehension around theintroduction of GDPR, the GBG team worked alongside customers to create bespoke solutions for eachbusiness’ individual needs. For example, we reviewed all of our data suppliers in advance of GDPR
to assure full readiness for the new regulation.
This led to us changing our supplier in Spain
to guarantee ourselves and our customers fullcompliance. We then undertook a big project totransfer clients to the new data set in time for thechanges.

LCCP compliance and responsible gambling
Similarly, when the Gambling Commission(UKGC) announced upcoming changes to its
licence conditions and code of practice (LCCP) in
February this year, GBG supported hundreds ofoperators to get their current records up to date,ensure that they are compliant with new regulation and strengthen their ID and age veriﬁcation
software and processes.
Many organisations already trust GBG tosupport with regulatory and compliance requirements, including over 80% of the EGR Gaming
Power 50, such as: SkyBet, Ladbrokes, 888,
Casumo, Bet365, LeoVegas and PlayTech. We

worked closely with these customers, and many
more to ensure they had a thorough understanding of what these new regulations meant for themand of the new levels of compliance that they must
adhere to.
Responding to our customers’ ongoing demandsin this area, GBG will soon launch a new educational dataset which will support onboarding
match rates.
Currently, GBG oﬀers four diﬀerent databases
which include a hard date of birth match, helping
us stand out from our competitors, such as credit
reference agencies, who only traditionally use
credit data. GBG has recently processed millionsof records for the likes of Bet365 and SkyBet toensure their player data was up to date ahead of
the LCCP changes.

The past 12 months have presented
regulated markets with some bigcompliance challenges and we’re proud
to have helped our clients to meet theirregulatory requirements
Alex Lafferty | GBG
More broadly, GBG has worked hand-in-handwith operators to understand the many challenges
they face this year, most notably in striking theright balance between providing a fast and frictionless service, while taking preventative measures to minimise fraud, counter money-laundering
activities and ensure the wellbeing of vulnerable
players.
With responsible gambling increasingly at theforefront of political, media and industry agenda
about the gambling sector, GBG responded tohigh demand from operators to know more about
their customers and increase their social responsibility. We created GBG Predator, which enables

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Rank relies on GBG to look beyond KYC for its growing customer baseRank Group, one of the UK’s top gaming operators, chose GBG to help manage the identity of
its customers in October 2017. GBG’s ID3global
solution, with its ability to verify over 4.4 billion
people globally through a single API, enables
Rank Group to process accurate and up-to-datecustomer data of its 2.8 million customers, while
fully ensuring compliance regulations are met.
Rank Group specialises in the regulated gaming
segment of the entertainment market, through its
brands such as Grosvenor Casinos, Mecca Bingo
and Enracha. Delivering an outstanding customer
experience is one of its main business objectives.
GBG ID3global helps Rank Group check its
customers are who they say they are within thematter of a few seconds, while tackling the risks
of identity fraud and threats arising from money
laundering. The solution creates a seamless experience for customers by conducting an electronic
identity veriﬁcation check in the time of a typical
web page load. The technology employs traditional and emerging data sources and means Rank
can depend upon a customisable platform that
supports quick and conﬁdent decision-making.
With the help of ID3global, Rank Group, oneof the UK’s top gaming operators, has achieved a
6% uplift in customer veriﬁcation on a month-tomonth basis for its ﬂagship brands – Grosvenor
Casinos and Mecca Bingo.
By optimising the player journey, GBG has allowed Rank Group to consistently work against its
main business objective while fully ensuring thatcompliance regulations are met.
Rory Howard, Rank Group’s director of payments and customer diligence, said: “GBG helps
us add value with its best-in-class datasets. Its
account management team and product innovation really help us deliver a best-in-class service toour players.”‘Absolutely delighted’
We are absolutely delighted to have won Compliance and KYC supplier of the year at the 2019 EGRAwards.
In a highly competitive segment, we believe
this award recognises the fact that we continue toacquire and invest in products that add signiﬁcantvalue to our gaming partners.
This not only ensures that operators using ourservices remain compliant and avoid regulatorﬁnes, it also allows them to put their customers
at the forefront of what they do, enabling a ﬂuentacquisition journey and enhanced customer
experience.
To learn more about how GBG can help yourbusiness meet its KYP and compliance obligations, visit www.gbgplc.com. X

Featuring: GBG

gambling organisations to create triggers that ﬂag
up when they should intervene, in real time, forgood and bad.
This vast customer behavioural analysis canallow operators to build customer proﬁles andtarget promotional activity to maximise revenue,
while also providing the ability to protect vulnerable customers in line with social responsibility. It
is this thorough understanding of the needs of ourcustomers that keeps GBG at the front of the pack.

23

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community, accessible wherever you are.
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industry. Whatever your role and its challenges, our specialist networks will give you thetools to improve customer acquisition and retention, benchmark against peers, comply
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Analysisegr.global

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: BMIT Technologies

Going beyond theordinary
Jack Mizzi
XCMO
XBMIT Technologies
Jack Mizzi is chiefmarketing officer at
BMIT Technologies.
A seasoned B2B
marketeer with focus
on IT, datacentre, cloud
and telco services,Mizzi is responsible formarketing and product.
He held this post forseveral years, during
which the company hascompletely transformed
its product offering andrepositioned itself into aleading IT organisation,
listed on the Malta
Stock Exchange.

Jack Mizzi of BMIT Technologies
distinguishes the areas in which the ﬁrm
is succeeding and what its upcoming
plans areAs the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as
its weakest link, and this ﬁts perfectly withthe realities of online gaming operators. The
constant focus on launching innovations to end-users
or deploying solutions and platforms to B2B clientsrequires both breadth and depth in terms of skillset
and resources, but also the ability to ensure thateverything performs to a tee, all the time.
This is where service providers such as BMIT
Technologies play a critical role. Winners of the 2019
IT Service Provider EGR award, the recently publicly
listed company [MSE: BMIT], has further extended
its services portfolio as it continues to serve its widebase of online gaming customers, ranging frominnovative start-ups and small operators, to mid-size
B2B and B2C operators to some of the largest gaming
operators worldwide.
Originally known as a datacentre provider, BMIT
Technologies has actually continued to invest in
this area, with the announcements of the openingof yet another datacentre in Malta – a €10+ million
investment in a purposely-built facility, designed to
be Tier 3 certiﬁed once inaugurated in 2020. This
investment complements the company’s other two
datacentres in Malta, and its points of presence in
Italy and Germany. As with all its facilities, the new
datacentre will also be interlinked to BMIT’s highspeed international private network, which provides
one-of-a-kind speeds and security features for all
BMIT Technologies customers.
Customers’ demands for cloud solutions andhybrid cloud set-ups is on a continuous rise, andin this context BMIT Technologies has adopted amulti-pronged approach to ensure that customer
requirements are satisﬁed. Over these last years, thecompany has deployed a number of public cloudservices, related to computing, storage, productivity
and hosting, as well as a number of managed privateand hybrid cloud services. These allow customers
to tap into BMIT’s pool of technical experts andplatforms, and deﬁne the optimal infrastructure
requirements, which generally ensure a pay-as-yougo, scalable solution, which grows as business grows.
Topping these oﬀerings are a range of managed IT
services, which allow customers to fully or partiallydelegate the management of their infrastructure to
BMIT Technologies, and therefore further optimise
their investments and resources.

Originally known as a datacentre
provider, BMIT Technologies has
actually continued to invest in this area,with the announcements of the openingof yet another datacentre in Malta
Jack Mizzi | BMIT Technologies

In the context of increasing hybrid cloud
requirements, as well as the deployment ofservices over global cloud platforms, BMIT has alsoannounced a strategic partnership with Microsoft,which would allow it to deploy a range of managed
services over Microsoft’s Azure platform globally.
Additionally, the company will also be enablinghybrid cloud capabilities on Azure through Azure
Stack, starting from Q4 2019, as it addresses
regulatory and compliance requirements ofcustomers wishing to deploy services on the cloud.
Security requirements and compliance concerns
have always been top-of-mind topics for CEOs, CTOs
and CSOs across organisations, and as infrastructures
become increasingly complex across platforms
and sometimes across jurisdictions, security andcompliance matters can become nightmare subjects
unless handled appropriately. BMIT Technologies’
comprehensive security portfolio covers services
and solutions such as managed ﬁrewalls, backups

25

EGR B2B WINNERS REPORT 2019

Featuring: BMIT Technologies

Jack Mizzi, CMO, and Nick Tonna, CCO, pick up the IT supplier award

26

and disaster recovery solutions, uniﬁed threat
management, remote access solutions, and more
recently, productivity-related security options.
Gone are the days when productivity products
are seen as distinct from the rest of the company’s
core IT systems. With employees working from
diﬀerent locations and requiring continuous accessto company resources, CTOs are increasingly looking
at solutions which allow for ﬂexibility and ease ofaccess without compromising the security of theorganisational data. Microsoft Oﬃce 365 is most
likely the most obvious choice for these requirements,
as it provides a pay-per-use truly complete suite ofsolutions, with diﬀerent plans: from the popular
Word, Excel and PowerPoint to increasingly usefultools such as Teams, combined with SharePoint,
which allows for easy collaboration, document shareand communication all in one software.
All services are constantly being updated with newfeatures – with the beautiful addition for technicalteams that they need not worry about deploying andmanaging updates themselves. BMIT Technologies
have handled some of Malta’s largest Oﬃce 365
implementations, with responsibility to deploy,migrate and power up thousands of users acrossdiﬀerent Oﬃce 365 plans. Microsoft’s step-up from
Oﬃce 365 is Microsoft 365, which bundles Oﬃce 365,
Windows 10 and mobility security features together,and all for a pay-per-use monthly fee. BMIT haveadded Microsoft 365 to their portfolio, complete witha range of managed deployment options, to facilitate
adoption.
The enabler for this full suite of IT services is acontinuous investment in training and certiﬁcations.
BMIT Technologies’ prides Microsoft Gold Partnerand HPE Gold Partner status for a number ofcompetencies, as well as other industry-leading
certiﬁcations from a number of other global players.
This reﬂects itself in the capability of the company
to understand requirements, propose solutions
and eventually deploy and manage systems to thecustomer’s full satisfaction.
Following BMIT Technologies’ successful IPO
earlier this year, and the eventual listing on the
Malta Stock Exchange, the company is now aiming
at extending further its full suite oﬀering, as wellas embarking on a growth journey, which will see it
explore new technologies and new markets.
Further information about BMIT Technologies may
be found at bmit.com.mt X

Thursday 24 October 2019 | Grosvenor House, London#EGROperatorAwards

Celebrate your extraordinary feats and daring innovations
Table enquiries:
Clark Beecroft
T: +44 (0) 20 7832 6596
E: clark.beecroft@egr.global

BE THERE
ON THE NIGHT

Sponsorship enquiries:
Sam Compagnoni
T: +44 (0) 20 7832 6554
E: sam.compagnoni@egr.global

www.EGROperatorAwards.com
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