SB&G returns to its roots with CoLab

In the world of egaming, rapid and almost unexpected growth is not an uncommon occurrence. Most recently, the likes of Sweden’s LeoVegas and Global Gaming have both found themselves doubling in size after evolving from bright-eyed start-ups to mid-level firms and, in LeoVegas’ case, going on to become a top-tier operator valued at over $1bn.

However, a common side-effect of upscaling a tech business is the inherent loss of team spirit and the ability to share and implement fresh ideas. One former exec of a casino supplier recently told EGR he was leaving a tier-one supplier in search of a smaller and more agile project with more of a “can-do” attitude and fewer overheads.

Elsewhere, the CEO of Malmo-based Global Gaming, Stefan Olsson, stepped down from his position in favour of a more hands-on development role within the company. Confirming his new role, Olsson said: “I’m basically a developer, problem solver and entrepreneur, which I can do less and less now when the company has reached a new level. I want to devote my days to cutting-edge innovation work.”

As it faces these changes in management, Global Gaming interim CEO Joacim Möller says it is key to involve the entire company. “Growth will become change, even if we are not directly changing anything per se, because we need to rearrange things. I think communication is key. So, explaining what we are doing, in which direction we’re doing it and when we’re doing it. Leadership needs to be very close to its people and [you should] over-communicate [everything].”

Looking outside the box

The shifting sands are inevitable for companies following the traditional route of growth, but Leeds-headquartered Sky Betting & Gaming (SB&G) has sought to challenge the status quo by inviting start-ups from outside the gambling industry to pitch their product ideas and join an 11-week programme to work closely with some of its staff.

The CoLab project, launched in September 2017, brought in five tech start-ups that were tasked with injecting new ways of thinking and novel product ideas into the company. CoLab pioneer and head of product and operations at SB&G, Tom Murgatroyd, tells EGR Technology his vision was to establish partnerships that went beyond the traditional operator-supplier deals.

“I think the programme is slightly different in the sense that it opens up a different type of working relationship, and that’s what we’re looking for. These are smaller companies looking to get a foothold commercially with their products that we can work with in a slightly more fluid and bespoke nature. We embarked on the programme to accelerate areas of emerging technologies that we simply don’t have the time and resources to fully exploit and we know we have to because it’s really important for our customers and their experiences that we do this.”

A key component for CoLab was also to bring back the culture of working closely together. The theme was rooted so deep into the programme that one of the start-ups brought on board to work with SB&G founded its entire business on helping companies in the midst of very rapid growth to establish better collaboration internally by utilising each other’s skills.

Going in circles

Talking Circles, as the company is aptly named, comprises a technology platform and thought leadership programme aimed at breaking down silos and oversized teams in large distributor organisations by leveraging internal technology expertise.

“In very simple terms, people can collaborate based on what people can offer and what they need in that moment,” founder Dimple Lalwani explains. “The technology element is a difficult one because you need to keep it simple so that people can understand but the whole magic of it is matching people at the right time for the right reasons.

“Usually it’s the teams and departments looking into innovation and the digital and people transformation part of the company. In terms of SB&G, the interest came from the digital team and I remember having great conversations with the CTO and the enterprise services team.” Lalwani compares SB&G to the likes of Skyscanner and TransferWise in terms of size and speed of growth in recent years.

All three operate the Spotify tribe model, dividing their teams into smaller factions for better communication and a more agile manner of working. She reiterates the difficulties around maintaining close working relationships within a company at its peak. “[Talking Circles] essentially solves the essential problem of fast growth in large distributor organisations that want to solve the problem around breaking silos and working across them to be able to innovate and allow teams to collaborate and come up with better outcomes.”

The learning development manager for SB&G, Pete Wallis, agrees, adding: “As the company has grown and grown its tribes, we think about the level of knowledge and experience and expertise that exist within it, and what [the] platform was aiming to do was to relieve some of that.”

Wallis’ role as mentor for Talking Circles came about as the result of a pitch he made during the operator’s internal CoLab programme which urged SB&G to challenge some of the perceptions and attributes of the technology industry. “A large part of [my role] was [forging] that link between them and the business because they obviously wanted to learn from the business, so it was to open doors and make those connections.”

Wallis says the process has given each of the five businesses a taster of what is required to partner with a major player like SB&G and gain knowledge in how to scale their own operations. This was the consensus among the founders of Talking Circles and fellow startup E-bot7, which pitched its AI-powered customer services solution to the CoLab dragons.

Fabian Beringer, CEO of E-bot7, says the team’s insight into the tech functions and set-up at SB&G had him considering improving the integration side of his product, including the backend and UI. “I experienced them to be a very flexible company. Rob [our mentor], who we’ve been working with, really knows how to carry out on-boarding processes and it was a really nice experience. I also think these guys are open to new technologies.

They kind of knew what they wanted, and it was [up to us] to explain in depth what can and can’t be done,” Berlinger continues. The product is being integrated into SB&G’s customer services solution, initially via a couple of team members to ensure the handover of the current services onto the new platform is smooth.

The hybrid system utilises data to generate suggested answers to queries fielded by players. But instead of relying entirely on AI, it works with the customer services agent to learn more about the customers and their queries. Agents can set the platform to a certain confidence level so any queries that come in above that level will be answered by the system. Anything that is lower than this threshold will require input from the customer services agent.

Berlinger says: “The agent in the contact centre answering requests will get a suggestion from the system and they can improve it or change it and, therefore, it not only trains the system but reduces handling time to make their lives easier.”

Berlinger plans to streamline the system to include more languages and high-quality translations for users in a number of countries. SB&G’s Murgatroyd says E-bot7’s system served to reduce operational overheads and increase speed of resolution. Although both companies are still in the early stages of establishing themselves, they have already secured investments from major tech partners and each has an impressive breadth of clients, including Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Telephonica.

Five start-ups were chosen by SB&G to participate in the 11-week CoLab programme

Mutually beneficial partnerships

Their time with SB&G has given both firms an insight into the workings of a major corporation, and, Murgatroyd claims, has resulted in discussions surrounding future investment opportunities. “It is a possible outcome of the programme. And that will all depend on them as well because all the start-ups are at different levels and some are heavily backed and are just looking for scale.

Others are just two guys, an idea and some amazing thinking,” he continues. The 11-week stint started with a Dragon’s Den-esque pitch day after which the five successful businesses were given SB&G mentors to work closely with to develop their products. Back in November 2017, SB&G CTO Andy Burton said: “In some cases it’ll be a product that’s already part-built and in others it will be a case of really building the idea.”

The other three start-ups to transition onto the programme have developed products in the realms of in-play betting, voice recognition and real-time analytics; all very novel technologies that other operators have only just started to investigate. Murgatroyd says the initiative marked a watershed moment for the company in changing the way it approached innovation and new technologies.

An internal version of the initiative was also launched at the same time in an effort to be inclusive of the tech talent found within SB&G, Burton says.

Undoubtedly, this is another crucial part of engaging the staff of a constantly growing tech company. “We’ll fund people internally to go ahead and develop those ideas. We expect to do the external one as an annual cycle and, internally, we’ll do it once or twice a year to generate new ideas.”

Ultimately, Burton says CoLab stemmed from the company’s philosophy that it is a tech company first and foremost. “We could equally sell any digital product,” he adds. “We [were] not only looking at companies who work inside this sector, we’re looking for great ideas from anywhere.” Elsewhere in the industry, other major operators have embarked on similar journeys to seek out innovative tech solutions outside of egaming.

In 2017, Swedish operator Kindred Group launched its Kindred Futures subsidiary, which also partners with innovative start-ups. LeoVegas’ LeoVentures business took a proactive stance in Q4 2017 by appointing LeoVegas co-founder Robin Ramm- Ericson as MD to lead the search for new tech-focused acquisitions – its latest being slots streaming platform and network CasinoGrounds.

Meanwhile, fellow Swedish gambling group, Cherry, revealed in its 2017 annual report it was looking further afield for future investments in an effort to diversify its offering and take on the role of a broader “entertainment company”.

It is clear that fresh focus is required to avoid stagnation in product innovation and people management. And as these companies face the struggles that come with a lack of motivation and new ideas start to fizzle out, restructuring and opening new doors is absolutely essential, as CoLab has visibly demonstrated.