Interview: BetVictor CTO on building a proprietary product portfolio

BetVictor this week unveiled its proprietary two-factor authentication (2FA) technology designed to protect its customers from becoming victims of fraud and identification theft.

The 2FA tech is the latest proprietary launch from BetVictor after the operator unveiled a host of in-house developed tools this year, including the RAMP marketing platform which went live in July.

Jonathan De La Rosa, chief technology officer (CTO) at the Gibraltar-based firm, chats to EGR Intel about giving engineers the freedom to innovate and that data leak, as reported on medium.com.

BetVictor CTO Jonathan De La Rosa

EGR Intel: User generated markets and free-to-play games have been hugely popular for sportsbook operators over the last 12 months or so. What do you think will be the next big product innovation?

Jonathan De La Rosa: There are some interesting developments in areas such as voice technology, augmented reality and social betting that could prove to be game-changers. In the short to medium terms I think we are likely to see exciting innovation around ‘request’ markets and perhaps new and unique betting markets that could be delivered out of the increasing amounts of player and performance data that we are now modelling.

EGR Intel: BetVictor has unveiled a host of proprietary features in 2018. How does owning your own technology help?

JDLR: Sitting on our own proprietary technology is hugely positive when it comes to innovation and agility. We are able to plan ahead with certainty and also respond to trends that we see emerging within the industry. An example of this is our #PriceItUp Builder, which was developed in response to our customers’ requests. With our in-house tech team, we were able to quickly prioritise this piece of technology development which positioned BetVictor as the first operator to release an in-house bet builder product.

EGR Intel: What do you make of the talent tech gap that is often talked about in the gambling industry? Is there a shortage of top talent and how do operators deal with this?

JDLR: The gambling industry has changed massively over recent years particularly because of the technology explosion in the space, and we’re seeing no signs of it slowing down in the near future. There’s been a shift in perception, and we’re now seen as digital employers rather than gambling industry employers. In regards to the shortage in top talent, we combat this by scaling our technology organisation over various countries in Europe coupled with offering an in-house built technology stack where our engineers have the freedom to use the latest tools and orchestration methods to build resilient and low latency transactional ecosystems.

EGR Intel: Was the launch of 2FA brought on by the BV security breach as reported on medium.com?

JDLR: 2FA has been launched to safeguard our customers’ account details and reduce the risk of fraud or identification theft. Online crime and internet fraud are more pertinent than ever before and as a customer-centric business, we’re always working on new and effective services and tools to enhance the customer experience. The report from July concerned limited legacy supplier data which was visible for a very short period. No sensitive customer information or personal data was breached.

EGR Intel: Is 2FA and the Glassbox interaction tracking software integration we saw earlier this year part of a wider strategy to adhere to the industry’s stricter regulatory compliance measures?

JDLR: The gaming landscape is ever-evolving, and it is important that industry regulators continue to respond to the rising demands to provide operators with a strategic direction focused on players, and we’re fully supportive of that. At BetVictor we have a strong compliance culture which reflected throughout the different areas of our business, from CRM to product development. The 2FA and the Glassbox tracking software integration are examples of the steps we’ve taken to enhance the security of our customers’ data.