PASPA
You've heard that PASPA has been repealed and that sports betting is coming to the US state by state. Is this a problem? An opportunity?
It could be both. A wide range of businesses in the US are exploring how they may move in to the sports betting market and leverage the great customer base they already have. There is plenty of opportunity in the space to work with existing white label providers such as SBTech, OpenBet, playtech, or fsb. These guys offer a viable way forward if you consider sports betting an add on to your product, but you have no interest in innovating in the space, or exploring what US sports betting can become.
If instead you want to become a giant in sports betting then you need to differentiate yourself from the competition. You now have two options: acquire a small operator who's doing things a bit differently or build something yourself.
I was involved with MustardBet from the very start - the initial project was just me and the CTO - and we always tried to improve on the flaws we saw in the current state of the market. With MustardBet we invested our effort into structuring things such that:
- we don't offer a price, we offer a point along a price stake curve;
- we think co-variance is important, so bets on 1x2 also move over/under markets;
- we can't be money pumped
- we don't need a bonus abuse department because we don't offer bonuses that can be abused
MustardBet was different from the competition, but couldn't monetise that difference. Going after professional gamblers in core markets, at tight margins for big money may be the hardest game in town. Depending on your current demographic and the regulatory framework of the US there could be ample opportunity to differentiate yourself from both MustardBet and the current competition. Having gone through this process before, and with a wealth of experience in sports betting, I can help build this area of your business into a key revenue generator for years to come. I would be willing to relocate for the right role.
My Experience
Gambling Specific:
UK and Isle of Man Licence Applications; I have successfully completed licence applications in both these jurisdictions for Mustard Systems Limited, managing the entire process from initial requirements gathering to the final submission.
Compliance / Policy Work; the creation of company wide policy documents to address the regulatory requirements following review of the legislation.
Information Security and Remote Technical Standards; I prepared the ISMS policies and was the main point of contact for the auditor. I ensured our development team produced a product compliant with the Gambling Commission's Remote Technical Standards.
Payment Services and PCI-DSS; acquiring a suitable payment processor and acquiring bank can be notoriously difficult for new licence holders; a lot of the mainstream payment providers do not deal with gambling related companies. Additionally, you will be required to be compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and, at the very least, complete and Self Assessment Attestation of Compliance - a process I have completed for Mustard Systems Limited.
Third Party Integrations; I have experience sourcing and evaluating third parties for the supply of game state data, pricing data, ID&V, payment services, casino games, address finders, and live chat. I have enough technical experience to evaluate their offering, and enough commercial experience to negotiate at industry rates.
App Development; I worked closely with an external team who built the Android and IOS apps for MustardBet. On a weekly basis I worked with their PM to review progress, monitor performance and prioritise the backlog. I was also responsible for managing the process and relationship with Google and Apple once the products were complete.
Startups:
Getting stuff done; everything is urgent, but not everything is important. Calmly managing priorities to make steady progress is vital to a startup's success. Eventually I should run out of important things to do - that's the point at which you fire me.
Fail fast; a theme I have seen repeated far too often is the fear of putting something live because it's not yet *something* (it really doesn't matter what the *something* word is). This fear of failure is completely natural, but it's crippling your ability to move forward. Define an MVP, agree it, and once it's built, get it out the door and start learning. And when I say agree it, I mean every single stakeholder must agree that the definition of the MVP gives a product suitable to put in front of a customer. Don't put off the conversation with sales (it's always sales) until after you've built it hoping to convince them then. Seriously, just don't.
Build, Measure, Learn; as a mathematician and quant (before I moved into Ops) I have the statistical ability to create and run meaningful experiments and it's my belief that this iterative cycle is the most important part of building a successful startup. The agile framework lends itself to integrating these results into the business development as quickly as possible.
Creating a productive environment; Andrew Garrood, CEO of MustardBet, is fond of saying, "we're defined by how we fix things" - we all make sub-optimal decisions, but it's how we deal with them, what we learn, and how we apply that to the future which fosters productivity. During the innovation stage employees must have freedom to fail - in a startup you simply can't afford the time and monetary cost of operating in any other way.
Growing the team; as the business grows it will be natural to find employees with more exacting domain knowledge - I can't be your payments / compliance / AML guy forever - nor would I want to be. I do, however, have plenty of experience recruiting for these roles and getting people operational.
About You
You have a massive customer base who you think is open to sports betting and you want a piece of the action. You're not content to go with the same high margin, poor quality product that the whitelabels provide, or at least, not in the long term - you care more about your customers than that. You're a strategic thinker, and know that first mover advantage isn't the thing everyone claims it to be - the right product, the right market, the right time - these things are key.
If the above sounds like you and you want to explore the US Sports Betting space then please get in touch.
I am available as a permanent employee, contractor or consultant - all subject to availability. I would be willing to relocate my family for the right package and opportunity.