44 minute read
Sports Betting
by SBC Global
BILL MILLER: MAKING SURE GAMING GETS A SEAT AT THE TABLE
THE AMERICAN GAMING ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT AND
CEO looks back on his first year in the role, delving into the ways the industry has not only survived, but thrived, in the months following the pandemic
BY CHRIS MURPHY
SBC: Just one year into the job and all was going well until the pandemic hit. As President of the association that a whole industry looks to for leadership, how did you address that challenge?
BM: I imagined I would face some challenges when I took this job and it goes without saying that 2020 is without comparison. There wasn’t a playbook. But what we’ve endured the last 20 months, that’s why the AGA exists: to advocate for the casino gaming industry and be our uniting voice in Washington.
Looking back, we spent my first year at the AGA working to reinvigorate the association’s position on Capitol Hill and build gaming champions, including relaunching the bipartisan Congressional Gaming Caucus. This investment sustained us through the darkest days of the pandemic and paved the way for our tremendous recovery this year.
It was no easy feat. 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession…in the wake of every one of those disasters, the business community was given support, and every time the gaming industry was specifically carved out. But that changed. We broke through and received fair treatment from the federal government in the CARES Act for the first time ever.
What I saw in this process, and why I think it was successful, is that we united around our common interests. We demonstrated the vital economic role we play by creating jobs, generating taxes and giving back to the community. We clearly articulated what gaming needed to navigate unprecedented closures. And now that we have a seat at the table, we’re never giving it back.
SBC: How do you think your members have fared during what has been the toughest period of trading that many can remember?
BM: I’ve never been more proud to be part of this industry. To go through what we went through and not only survive, but thrive? That takes grit and resilience.
What I’m most impressed with is that despite the economic hardship, we never stopped putting customers and community first. We led on health and safety, opened testing sites and then vaccination clinics and gave back in any way we could.
Our incredible recovery shows people trust us, believe in the
experience we provide, and are ready to come back to our properties. Now after our worst year on record, we’re headed to our best year ever. That’s truly remarkable.
SBC: Adversity often drives organisations and their people to become better at what they do. How true is this of the US gaming sector and its response to the COVID-19 crisis?
BM: Innovation is core to who we are. Our members are constantly innovating to deliver world-class entertainment and meet our customer’s evolving needs. Throughout the pandemic, operators and suppliers have worked together to reimagine how and where players engage with our products.
Look at payments modernisation: when the pandemic expedited the need for contactless payments, we moved the needle because we were ready to engage the regulatory community and educate banks and payments processors.
Today, eight states and dozens of tribal properties accept digital payments on the casino floor, which allows us to better meet customer expectations, advance responsible gaming, and enhance our know your customer and anti-money laundering compliance efforts.
More recently, I think about G2E 2021 and what we were able to accomplish as an industry. Bringing thousands of gaming professionals together is no
easy feat in a normal year, let alone in today’s environment. We evolved the show to meet the needs of today’s exhibitors and attendees while putting health and safety first. It was a win for our industry and for the city of Las Vegas.
SBC: Focusing more inwardly on the association, it’s evident that there’s been a move towards a more inclusive organisation with half of its executive roles held by women. What advice would you give to your members to encourage them to strive for equality of opportunity?
BM: I’m proud of the team that we have built at the AGA. We’ve made strong hires and advanced key roles to better serve our members and the industry.
Across our business, gaming employees do reflect the diverse communities and customers we serve. We want to be an industry that cultivates and grows diverse leadership, levels the playing field, and creates opportunity to join and advance.
The AGA has also been very intentional about convening and leading the industry on diversity, equity and inclusion. You saw this at G2E 2021 where we put this topic on the mainstage and focused on diversity across our education program. We are committed to working on it, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s better for our business.
Prioritising diversity, addressing inequality of opportunity and promoting inclusion are key to serving our customers, being effective business partners, and being seen as an employer of choice and a leader in the communities where we operate. And that’s certainly true for the association, too.
SBC: The sports betting sector has had a transformative impact on the way in which fans interact with sports and wagering. Hopes that that will erode black market operations appear to be bearing fruit. Are you happy with progress on that front - and should we still be wary of the threat from unlicensed operators?
BM: I’ve been working in government for a long time, and I haven’t ever seen anything so widely accepted or quickly adopted by lawmakers and regulators as sports betting. Today, 32 states and Washington DC have legalised sports betting. That means 137 million American adults have access to the regulated industry in their home market.
The reality is that Americans have bet on sports as long as sports have been around – they just haven’t been able to do it legally until recently. Look at Connecticut where more than a million transactions happened in the first week of legal betting. That’s not from adults wagering from the first time.
It’s because consumers see the benefit of the legal, regulated market with guaranteed payouts, tools for responsible gaming, protections for the integrity of the games, athletes, bets and more.
Unfortunately, the illegal market is pervasive and rooting it out is an all-hands-on-deck effort. The AGA is focused on consumer education about legal options and collaboration with law enforcement. We’re making significant progress through our Have A Game Plan. Bet Responsibly. campaign. Last month, the FBI announced a renewed effort to crack down on illegal operators, including a PSA that features Have A Game Plan.
SBC: A resilient gaming industry needs a resilient trade organisation. How well prepared is the AGA to meet the challenges of rebuilding and taking the industry forward, not only in lockstep with stakeholders, but in a way that safeguards the health and wellbeing of their customers?
BM: The last two years have proven our resilience. Today’s AGA is more focused than at any time in our association’s history. We have been driving policy wins in Washington; prioritising responsibility as the industry grows; and challenging the status quo to make meaningful progress on things like payment choice.
I recognise that the standards are shifting not just for our business, but every business. Policymakers, investors and the public are looking beyond jobs and economic impact to understand social and environmental impact, as well. That’s why the AGA is leading an industry wide effort on ESG to understand our members’ contributions, tell our story and collectively push us forward.
The AGA today is stronger than ever before, thanks to a committed and engaged membership and a world class team that works together to protect and enhance our great industry. •
VIRGIN BET: PUTTING CUSTOMER SERVICE FRONT AND CENTRE
JAMES MCKAY, SPORTSBOOK DIRECTOR
AT VIRGIN BET, speaks to SBC Leaders about the importance of customer service and how Virgin Bet Fives is helping the “relatively new player” stand out from the crowd
BY ERIN GALLAGHER
SBC: Can you tell us more about Virgin Bet and your role in the industry? How do you ensure that you stand out from the competition?
JM: I’m the Sportsbook Director here at Virgin Bet. I’m one of three Directors we have based in Gibraltar and I help oversee customer service, sportsbook product and sports operations, which is essentially the running of the site, from banners to displays and score boards.
First starting out in the industry straight from university, I have been working in betting for around 15 years now, having worked at William Hill up until three or four years ago.
When it comes to Virgin Bet, we’re still a relatively new player in the sector. Our pillars are largely focused on the customer: the customer experience and customer service. What we’re trying to do is bring an excellent product to the market while also looking at breadth and content to become one of the biggest sportsbooks in the industry.
We’ve seen a lot of growth in the last few years by doing exactly that and delivering everything that the customer needs. What you can expect to see from Virgin Bet is extremely good service.
SBC: You mentioned that the last few years have been very busy for you as a company. What would you say have been the key driving forces behind your growth?
JM: Firstly, the customer. Everything is focused on their needs and ensuring we are servicing everything that they want, whether that be the product itself, the markets available or the
features that we have. It also includes the service received as a customer, from all forms of communication and retention.
On the other side of the coin, it involves resolving any issues, queries or complaints that a customer raises. The customer service we offer is second to none.
Virgin Bet has put significant investment in providing several measures to offer customer feedback opportunities. One of which is a Zendesk solution, which is critical in evaluating cases and ensures our highly trained customer feedback team can act as swiftly as possible.
The other key thing which has helped drive growth is the product itself. Something which we have been working on with our supplier, DraftKings, is fine tuning and perfecting our sportsbook.
We’ve been working incredibly hard to get the product offering to a level where we’re able to compete with some of the largest names in the industry and, so far, we are starting to do just that. I can see a lot of work going towards making that even better.
Over the last year, Virgin Bet has sought out increased markets to provide higher quality betting opportunities for customers. We are extremely proud to have the largest total streaming portfolio of any non-Tier 1 sportsbook. A particular example of the brand’s investment in this space can be seen within horse racing, where we have consistently looked to add value for our customers. Within the past year, the entirety of the US, Australia and New Zealand racing calendars have been added to the platform, which has led to a hugely enhanced offering.
SBC: How has the return of major events such as Cheltenham Festival and Euro 2020 helped boost the number of bettors choosing Virgin Bet?
JM: Even from outside of our industry, everyone has needed these live events to come back. It’s one of the things throughout the pandemic that we have all missed, particularly as a sports fan. The return of large events has been a massive driver for new accounts.
As we’ve seen, everyone has been incredibly excited for the return of sport. At Virgin Bet, something we have seen is that there’s not necessarily been an initial payback. There are many things that bettors haven’t been able to do that they could do before - people have had other things to worry about during the pandemic.
But what we've seen is that there's been a marked increase in registered accounts following these events and we have seen people start to bet again. If you look at the pillars that we conform to, then they've been engaging a great deal more. We've then been able to see that growth in the long term.
I think Cheltenham has probably been one of the biggest events we can point to as one of our successes. With the horse racing market a significantly strong aspect of Virgin Bet, Cheltenham was an event where we were able to do a lot of good work.
SBC: Tell us a little bit about the ‘Virgin Bet Fives’ product. What does it involve? And how has it helped
drive additional engagement with bettors?
JM: Virgin Bet Fives is a free-to-play game for new and existing customers. Interestingly, I think there are a few drivers for reasons to bet and one of those is the star players that we see performing. Whether it’s in the Premier League, or in other big leagues around the world, we have certain players where everyone knows their names: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero. The game is largely based on the idea that customers follow a particular player, and not just a specific team.
You are given a team of five players if you log in every single day of the week. If that player then scores at the weekend, you receive a cash denomination in your account. There is then a wheel at the end of the week which shows you just how much you’re going to get. This, I think, helps create an additional sense of mystery while also adding a degree of gamification.
I think it gives you something to concentrate on for the whole weekend and means that every single game matters. This is definitely something that we’ve seen with the numbers participating, and our customers have been telling us that they’re enjoying the game too which we’re really pleased with.
SOMETHING IN THE PIPELINE FOR VIRGIN BET FIVES IS ADAPTING INTO OTHER SPORTS AS WELL
SBC: How important have Virgin Bet Fives ‘specials’, such as those rolled out for Euro 2020, been when it comes to creating a truly unique proposition?
JM: We’ve seen success in the Premier League and it led us to ask, what can we do with the Euros? The hard part for us was that the tournament didn't fall on a week-to-week basis, meaning it required adaptation, but we managed to do it and it worked well.
The final of the Euros is a good example. Everyone was watching and everyone was on the edge of their seat and Virgin Bet Five players would have their five players playing in the match, giving more opportunity of winning money.
I do think that these ‘specials’ are important, and something that is in the pipeline for the hugely popular Virgin Bet Fives is adapting into other sports as well.
SBC: And finally, can you give us a sneak peek into what’s on the horizon for the company in 2022?
JM: There are many things which internally, we are extremely excited about. One of the most important things for us is to continue pushing the product, in terms of both breadth and depth.
We’ve now also got many more horse racing tracks and we’re going subcontinental, introducing tracks across Asia and the United States. We’re constantly assessing where there are gaps and which products can fill them, to ensure we’re on par with the leading competition. Our focus is on growth of our offering, while never forgetting the cornerstone that stands us out – the customer. •
YOLO INVESTMENTS: INNOVATING WITH ARSENAL
THE LAUNCH OF THE ARSENAL INNOVATION LAB 2022 will see Yolo Group support a group of start-ups to improve the experience for football fans. Yolo Investments General Partner Tim Heath discusses the scheme, and why true innovators look at problems, not ideals
BY LUKE MASSEY
Abig part of the thinking behind the recent rebrand of our business to the Yolo Group was finding new ways to drive the type of innovation that has served us so well over the last few years.
For us, innovation is really about empowerment. The rebranding and reorganisation of the Yolo Group was a way to ensure our teams and people had the space and focus required to turn great ideas into reality.
We’re working daily at the cuttingedge of tech, and we’ve always been strong proponents of the benefits of spreading awareness and usage of pioneering technologies that can improve all aspects of people’s lives.
We want this spirit to touch every part of our business, including relationships with our partners, such as Arsenal Football Club, which is sponsored by our Sportsbet.io brand.
Introducing the Arsenal Innovation Lab 2022
That’s the thinking behind the recently announced Arsenal Innovation Lab,
powered by Yolo Group, which is looking at how these technologies can improve the experience of Arsenal fans supporting their team around the world.
The Arsenal Innovation Lab is a seven-week virtual sprint for tech start-ups to create new opportunities with Arsenal decision makers for fans of the team globally.
We’re inviting teams to submit proposals that tackle three key themes where the club sees real potential to disrupt and improve the way fans interact with Arsenal.
The first of these themes is looking at bringing fans closer to the club. The global pandemic and stadium lockdown brought into focus that the experience of a fan goes well beyond showing up to the Emirates for games.
In fact, much of Arsenal’s global fan base are not able to attend matches in person. We’re looking for tech-led solutions which can maximise the experience of these fans.
Secondly, we’re looking at ways technology can help Arsenal connect with new fans. Of course, Arsenal is already one of the most wellsupported football clubs in the world. But that does not mean the club is resting on its laurels. We’re using the Arsenal Innovation Lab to find digital solutions to reach new fans internationally.
And finally, we want to explore frontier digital and crypto economy technologies that can enhance the fan experience. We’re inviting pitches at https://arsenalinnovationlab.com before 10 December.
Those innovators selected from applicants will take part in a sevenweek pilot, culminating in a pitch to Arsenal decision-makers seeking a possible collaboration with the club. There is a £250,000 discretionary investment and prize pool to help businesses develop their solutions.
In Arsenal, we’ve been lucky to find a Premier League football club with a genuine commitment to innovation.
“We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to engage with our hundreds of millions of fans around the world and enhance their Arsenal experience,” Arsenal’s chief commercial officer Peter Silverstone said at the time of the announcement.
“The Arsenal Innovation Lab will enable us to explore new ways to achieve our goals with some of the brightest tech startups in the fan experience space.”
Tim Heath, Yolo Investments General Partner
Thinking about real-world innovation
We’ve structured the Arsenal Innovation Lab in a way that ensures that innovators are thinking about how new technologies can solve real-world problems.
For instance, applicants to the lab may consider questions like: how can
data be used to better understand the priorities of Arsenal fans in Asia? In what ways should content be adapted to mobile devices and infrastructure in Africa? Or how can we better engage Gen Z fans on the platforms where they feel most at home?
At Yolo Group, we’ve enjoyed success taking this ‘problem-first’ approach to innovation. Necessity is the mother of invention and we’ve absolutely found that the best way to innovate is to ask our customers simple questions. What isn't working for you? How would you like to see it improved?
This isn’t about abstract ideas and utopian visions. We want to figure out exactly how we can leverage technology to make a material difference to the experience of ordinary people across a whole range of fields.
For us at Yolo Group, this takes many forms. It means encouraging every member of our team to think creatively about the challenges they face daily. It means finding the best partners to help us along the way, including Arsenal.
It also means creating a business structure with the room for innovative ideas to thrive. That was part of the thinking about our recent rebrand to Yolo Group and reorganisation of our core business areas.
Our venture capital arm, Yolo Investments, is now invested in more than 50 forward-thinking businesses spanning the worlds of gaming, fintech, blockchain and more, with an AUM in excess of €350 million.
We’re benefiting from the network effect of these businesses; a free-flow of ideas is pushing all of us to think harder about what comes next.
Underpinning all of this is the question of adoption. We’re innovating for real people, and so thinking carefully about how best to deliver next generation products and services in a way that’s accessible is always at the front of our mind.
It is the thinking behind projects such as LearnCrypto.com, a free education platform designed to help users easily learn about cryptocurrency, supported by the Yolo Group.
This is all to say that disruption and innovation cannot take place in a vacuum.
And we hope those start-ups that take on the challenges set out by the Arsenal Innovation Lab keep this in mind. •
A FREE-FLOW OF IDEAS IS PUSHING ALL OF US TO THINK HARDER ABOUT WHAT COMES NEXT THIS IS ALL TO SAY THAT DISRUPTION AND INNOVATION CANNOT TAKE PLACE IN A VACUUM
Interested in applying to the Arsenal Innovation Lab? Find out more details and how to apply ahead of the 10 December deadline by visiting:
https://arsenalinnovationlab.com/
VIRTUAL SPORTS: DIVERSIFICATION AND ENGAGEMENT TO ADDRESS NEW OPPORTUNITIES
WITH CONSUMERS INCREASINGLY TURNING towards the online space, the virtual sports sector has had to evolve to capitalise on new opportunities in the Americas and elsewhere
BY TED ORME-CLAYE
Virtual sports (VS) have long been a mainstay of the retail betting and gaming world, with many people who have experience in this sector more than familiar with the virtual horse racing and greyhound racing products.
In recent years, however, with the betting and gaming industry increasingly shifting towards the online vertical. Esports wagering is rising dramatically in popularity and emerging disruptive technologies such as blockchain based NonFungible Tokens (NFTs) have become more commonplace, presenting new challenges and opportunities for VS titles.
Speaking to SBC, three industry experts discussed the sector’s future in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the general, longrunning trend which has seen a growing number of bettors embrace the online space.
For Martin Wachter, CEO of Golden Race, the shift from retail to online gaming poses very little challenge
to the sector due to its omnichannel, flexible nature.
“All our virtual sports and games are omnichannel and multi-platform and work perfectly and smoothly for retail, online and mobile,” the CEO remarked.
“In fact, we have developed several specific features for our online products, such as combination bets across events and games, the possibility of 100% customisation, and a full suite of Instant Games.
“Basketball 3x3, for example, is one of our online virtual sports, and includes innovative features for the industry like an in-play betting option and cash out function.”
Diversification of sports available to consumers, the experts pointed out, has contributed heavily to the continued rise of VS offerings. Golden Race’s basketball product is just one example, whilst football has notably become increasingly popular among bettors.
Wachter added: “According to the existing virtual markets, football dominates almost all of them. So it is not necessary to have 50 games. You just need to understand what players want and to know their likes, and create or adapt your games for them.”
Unlike traditional real-world sports, virtual offerings have one distinct advantage for both consumers and operators in their extreme flexibility - there are no mandated schedules or fixture times and games cannot be cancelled due to poor weather or illness.
This was perhaps best exemplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a huge upsurge in betting attention towards virtual products due to the large-scale cancellation of sporting events. The virtual Grand National in 2019 was one of the most notable and widely covered examples of this.
According to Ulf Norder, Chief Commercial Officer at QTech Games, ’the demand for credible alternatives to mainstream sport shows no sign of abating’ despite the widespread return of traditional sports.
“In short, VS has retained a good chunk of its audience who ́discovered’ this new medium during the outbreak,” Norder observed.
“Unlike conventional sports, virtuals are always on and can be flexibly pressed into service of any operators’ programming schedule. Their graphics either rival the best video games, or are simply driven by them in the case of esports. They’re also easy to integrate or deploy, and don’t require the onerous risk management of real sports.
“Naturally, as elite sports continue to limp back from the sidelines, these levels will inevitably recede and stabilise. Nevertheless, the retention levels are there despite the traditional sports betting ‘competition’ which is encouraging to see. Make no mistake then, virtual sports are here to stay. They represent part of a diverse daily diet for worldwide players."
Mark Fellows, Business Development Director at Quantum Leap Solutions, shared his opinion on how relationships between operators and suppliers have evolved as the sector returns to a stable trading environment after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fellows explained: “The lockdowns certainly helped QLS, as well as others, accelerate the delivery of VS to operators, and in doing so also meant they were much more visible to a new audience.
“Many of these ‘new customers’
Martin Wachter, CEO of Golden Race
Ulf Norder, Chief Commercial Officer at QTech Games
have continued to enjoy the content post resumption of live sport, and we have seen that operators are still very engaged with our content and are constantly working with us to enhance the product offer.”
However, he did note that challenges are still present when cross-selling virtual offerings to traditional sports fans, particularly relating to the fact that sports leagues and authorities are generally more protective of their IP, media rights and content. Although, he noted that the efforts QLS has made to address this hurdle were presented.
“It seems to make most sense commercially for these organisations to embrace VS as an opportunity to make their sport more popular as well as to derive revenue from its virtual representation.
“Via our partnership with RMG, we have attempted to address this with Legends, one of our flagship virtual products which pits the best horses of the last 50 years against each other in replicas of the top British races.
“However, it remains a shame that current gambling regulations for virtual sports preclude them from being skillbased and, in so doing, ensure the virtual version of a sport lacks the rich tapestry of the real thing.”
As virtual sports moves out of the pandemic along with the rest of the betting sector, new markets are emerging. This is most notable in North America, where more and more US states and Canadian provinces are rapidly opening their jurisdictions to regulated online and retail sports betting.
As the breakout of sports betting in the US and Canada will entail virtual sports - fantasy sports are already extremely popular among consumers in the region - Wachter pointed out the necessity for developers to tailor their products to the specific sporting tastes of the market.
“It is key to adapt products to the likes and backgrounds of different players according to regions, culture and so on,” he explained. “This is why, at Golden Race, we have our Basket 3x3, based on the most played urban sport in the US streets. We are also about to release another North American-focused virtual sport, which will be announced soon.
“Our teams are also researching and studying other possibilities to be successful in the US, giving players the sports they like the most with a virtual outcome, and all the advantages of our awardwinning virtual sports: a trustworthy product which is easy for players to understand, not very expensive for retail and very flexible and adaptive online.”
Lastly, addressing the topic of NFTs, Fellows discussed the potential impacts that the emerging tokenised products could have not just on virtual betting, but on the gambling industry as whole.
“It is debatable whether NFTs are a flash in the pan, but they certainly encourage the creation of 'new' digital sports in which the customer can participate through ownership and the trading of a digital asset, such as a competitor in a virtual game.
“That does seem to have captured people’s imagination and it represents both an opportunity and a threat to betting operators. On the one hand, they could facilitate and encourage participation. On the other hand, they could find their user base drifting away from the exciting jeopardy betting represents, towards that encompassed in trading NFTs.” •
IT REMAINS A SHAME THAT CURRENT GAMBLING REGULATIONS FOR VIRTUAL SPORTS PRECLUDE THEM FROM BEING SKILL-BASED NFTS HAVE CAPTURED PEOPLE’S IMAGINATION AND IT REPRESENTS BOTH AN OPPORTUNITY AND A THREAT TO BETTING OPERATORS
TACKLING ONLINE ABUSE: A NEW DIMENSION OF SPORTS INTEGRITY
JAKE MARSH, STATS PERFORM’S GLOBAL HEAD OF
INTEGRITY, JOINS SIGNIFY CEO JONATHAN HIRSHLER to outline the multi-layered challenges of tackling online abuse by expanding the remit of sports integrity
BY TED MENMUIR
Announcing a headline project this summer, Stats Perform and AI integrity partner Signify pledged to develop a sophisticated monitoring tool to help tackle and tackle social media abuse witnessed across all sports markets.
SBC: Stats Perform announced a partnership with Signify and its Threat Matrix service. Why has Stats Perform chosen to tackle the prominent matter of online abuse in the interest of all sports stakeholders?
JM: Social media abuse is recognised as one of the most serious problems facing sport, with calls from fans, players, teams, leagues and even governments to take action. At Stats Perform, we recognise that the sports integrity field needs to expand to include an increased focus on this issue, especially given its impact on sport and the welfare of its participants.
As part of our approach to being a responsible sports stakeholder, we are offering a service that assists federations, rights-holders and teams in identifying the nature of the problem they are facing and empowering them to take action against online abusers.
We had been speaking with Signify since the start of 2021 and it became clear we shared a common philosophy in taking a proactive approach to tackling sports integrity issues and online abuse in particular.
SBC: Can the complexities of identifying online abuse (hate) be simply resolved by an algorithmic solution? How have Stats Perform and Signify approached the technical boundaries and realities of identifying actual threats?
JH: This was almost the exact question we asked ourselves in developing the Threat Matrix in the first instance. Can we use a mixture of AI, machine learning and human intelligence (we call it augmented intelligence) to identify targeted online abuse, with all the contextual and nuanced terms used across different sports and industries?
We’ve been working on training, refining, and developing our solution for over two years, and as a result are now able to pick up far more comprehensive results across a broader range of issues that athletes have been asking for help with, than we’ve seen from anyone else, including the platforms. We have a specific focus in highlighting the real issues and identifying abusive account owners. We are driven by getting to the source of the problem and offering a real deterrent.
Our secret weapon in this endeavour is an academic Communications Threat Assessment Protocol called CTAP25. Developed by security experts Theseus, CTAP-25 identifies a number of signifiers that help determine where a message or account could become a clear and present danger to an athlete. Our methodology is grounded in thinking like this. It’s allowed us to develop a super smart, always learning approach to identifying targeted online threats.
SBC: How does the monitoring of abuse differ to other Stats Perform wider sportstech projects in terms of scope, size and technical remit?
JM: Proactive monitoring of social media is a huge task to undertake manually which is why Signify’s Threat Matrix service leverages AI natural language understanding and machine learning to identify targeted abuse at scale.
Jake Marsh, Stats Perform’s Global Head of Integrity
Jonathan Hirshler, Signify CEO
This is then combined with expert analysis which delivers a meaningsbased assessment of this data, blending the speed and scale of AI with the nuance of human interpretation to produce evidence-based reports and actionable recommendations.
In this respect, there are similarities to our other sports tech integrity offerings such as Betting Markets Monitoring and our unique Performance Integrity Analysis (PIA) service.
PIA includes video analysis along with the use of advanced models and metrics powered by our Opta database, combining quantitative data with qualitative analysis undertaken by our in-house performance integrity experts. Whilst the offerings may be different the fundamental core of using AI and tech solutions aligned with human analysis is key to these services.
SBC: Following high profile events this summer, should online abuse of athletes be included within the UK government’s proposed Online Harms Bill?
JH: The Online Safety Bill (née. Online Harms) has the potential to be worldleading and really set a new bar in terms of how social media companies need to take more responsibility in protecting their own users.
If the lawmakers get this right, specifying athletes, or any other type of individual within the Bill shouldn’t matter – we need to ensure that all users across these platforms are protected from the vile abuse that’s been on the rise in recent years.
The evidence we developed for the Professional Footballers’ Association was submitted to the Committee that’s scrutinising the Bill, cited by ex-players like Rio Ferdinand (who really hit home what it feels like to be on the receiving end of online abuse).
This was used to underpin our clients’ dialogue with social media platforms, leading to tangible change in how the issues are being addressed. If the Bill is successful, it will provide regulatory bodies like OFCOM with real teeth to hold those who fail to act accountable. This could also provide useful stimulus for other countries and law-makers to take similar action.
SBC: For sports does online abuse have a ‘duty of care conundrum’? Which stakeholder carries the duty of monitoring hateful content?
JM: We would agree that this has been an ongoing challenge when dealing with online abuse in sport. Both on a macro level, in terms of which organisations should have primacy on the issue, and on a more micro level whereby we have seen confusion over whose remit it should fall under within those organisations.
For example, should responsibility for this sit with a Head of Communications, Player Welfare or perhaps under a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion role? Many sporting bodies are still working this out.
Ultimately, all sports industry stakeholders have a degree of duty of care in this area. Whilst in some sports we may see a federation or governing body take the lead, others may instead have a club/team approach which looks at the problem more from an employer’s duty of care perspective.
Clearly the social media platforms themselves also have a responsibility to try and counter this abuse. Either way, it’s vital that all bodies work together collaboratively, sharing information, resources and best practices to ensure players and officials are protected from targeted online threat and discriminatory abuse.
SBC: Evaluating real-life examples, can open content/dialogue platforms ever be considered ‘safe environments’ for all audiences?
JH: Will we ever get to a position where there is no abuse and social platforms are 100% safe? Probably not, but if we can help clients to really hold some of these bad actors to account by taking tangible action – we could see a sea change across sport and social media.
It’s also worth pointing out that whilst our initial focus has been on public social media, we’re also seeing problems reported on private social channels. To avoid a situation where abusive account owners simply switch from public messages to direct messages, we’ve developed innovative techniques that identify threatening / abusive messages sent via DMs. We’ve done this sensitively, developing a smart process that protects the privacy of the victim.
SBC: Finally, how will Stats Perform and Signify gauge actual progress on minimising online abuse, an issue that continues to challenge the biggest technology firms?
JH: With an AI-based service like Threat Matrix, it is possible to monitor the performance of social media platforms in dealing with this issue. Our recent work with the Professional Footballers’ Association is a great example of this.
We analysed more than six million
tweets targeting professional footballers across the UK during the 2020-21 season, identifying an uptick in targeted racist and discriminatory abuse being sent with fewer discriminatory messages being moderated in the second half of the season versus the first half.
We’ve proven how it’s possible to create a real benchmark, illuminating the size and scale of the problem across any given sport. Once you have this, it’s entirely possible to monitor increases / decreases in recorded targeted abusive messages – alongside the tactics that need to be countered.
JM & JH: The partnership approach Stats Perform and Signify have developed is based on working with interested stakeholders across the sporting world to help understand the nature of the problem (how bad is it for your sport, really?) and then providing the tools to do something about it. •
SPORTS BETTING HALL OF FAME: JOE BRENNAN JR
JOE BRENNAN JR walks us through his journey from digital marketing to sports betting before explaining why we’re entering a new era of gambling legislation
BY ERIN GALLAGHER
SBC: First of all, can you tell us a little bit about your background - how did you first become involved in the betting and gaming industry?
JB: In a word, accidentally. I grew up in Philadelphia so I was around sports betting since I was a child. Funnily enough, the first time I ever bet on sports was when I was in the second grade. I bet a quarter - which was my milk money at the time - on the weekly NFL parlay tickets that got passed around there.
My career started with digital media, I wound up at AOL in the early 2000s. I was on a team which was looking at the best ways to take AOL’s existing business assets and try to find new opportunities and revenue streams. At that point, online gaming was in its infancy stages.
When I left the company in 2005, there was already a growing awareness of ’digital civil liberties’ amongst people who worked in the online industry. The consensus was that for anything that you could legally do in the real world, you should also be able to do so in the online world.
Something which piqued our interest was when the state of Michigan considered passing a law to require criminal background checks for people when they went on online dating sites.
In response to that, we decided we had to organise. We formed a business association called iMEGA, Interactive Media Entertainment And Gaming Association. We decided to look at legislation like the online dating background checks.
The good thing was that this proposed legislation in Michigan never really went anywhere, but we saw it as an indicator that there were potential legal threats to all sorts of segments of society that had begun operating on the web
From that general beginning of looking at digital civil liberties, we joined the debate after the passage of the 2016 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). We got involved with litigation, and because I was based in Washington DC, I wound up as the person who was the ‘boots on the ground’ when it came to going to the Federal Courts or committee hearings.
Eventually, we made our way to New Jersey. At the time, we felt the state was ripe for legislation, and that legislators didn’t want gambling to be illegal, they just wanted it to
be regulated. It was then that our opponents started to label us ‘the sports betting guys’. But eventually, we began to accept that and grew into that identity.
SBC: What would you say are the standout moments of your career?
JB: The obvious choice would be to say March 2018, when the US Supreme Court overturned PASPA. That was a big moment. But actually, I would go back to December 2008. That was when we had our first group call with a few folks who were interested in possibly challenging the federal law against sports betting.
I remember it well, because I was sitting in my car outside my doctor's office in the pouring rain. We talked about how, if we weren’t successful, we wouldn’t make anything worse. But if we were successful, then that would change everything. We began by reaching out to Ray Lesniak, the New Jersey State Senator, and to build some organisation in the state.
It was at that point that we were truly ’at the beginning’, so to see how things are today is great. The other stand-out moment was when we won the statewide vote 10 years ago. That might have been even bigger than the day that the Supreme Court overturned PASPA. Up to that point, Governor Christie wasn't on board with this effort. He had declined to join the original lawsuit that we filed back in March 2009, in which we partnered with his predecessor, Governor Jon Corzine. But finally, two weeks out from the sports betting vote, Governor Christie decided to endorse it.
For me, it felt like handing your child off and hoping the person looking after them would do the right thing.
Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend in 2011, I received a call from one of our New Jersey lobbyists and they said ‘I'm here with the governor, he's on the boardwalk in Atlantic City and he just gave a speech saying that New Jersey is going to start taking sports bets from this NFL season’. I was stunned at the idea that New Jersey would start accepting sports bets in three months.
Here was the Governor of New Jersey, and the former US Attorney for the Department of Justice in New Jersey, saying he was going to get behind the start of legal betting, and that he was going to bring in Ted Olson to be the lead attorney to challenge the federal law. The movement just grew from there. And I knew we were going to win.
I like to tell people how when we got started back in 2008, my wife asked me ‘how long is this going to take?’ And I said 'three years, tops'. I might have been slightly off with my prediction on how long it would take, but I’m happy we were right about how things would play out in the end.
SBC: You played a major role in legalising sports betting and online gaming in New Jersey. When did you start to feel the tide was turning?
JB: In the early years, it was really tough because most people thought we were wasting our time. Even some of the Las Vegas bookmakers thought that the law wouldn’t be overturned. For so long, people thought we were crazy - and at times, we really questioned why we were bothering.
It wasn't really until the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. The polarity then seemed to change overnight. When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the lawsuit, the bandwagon for legalising sports betting was suddenly full. It seemed like we were getting knocked off of our own bandwagon.
Then there was a sense that once it got to the Supreme Court, opponents became allies. The casino associations and companies that were originally opposing us were now agreeing that sports betting should be legalised.
IT WAS AT THAT POINT THAT WE WERE TRULY ’AT THE BEGINNING’ , SO TO SEE HOW THINGS ARE TODAY IS GREAT WHEN THE SUPREME COURT AGREED TO HEAR THE LAWSUIT, THE BANDWAGON FOR LEGALISING SPORTS BETTING WAS SUDDENLY FULL
SBC: Did you anticipate the US market becoming as big a powerhouse as it is now?
JB: The National Gambling Impact Study outlined just how big the potential market was in America. At the time (1997), they were saying sports betting was approaching $300 billion a year in handle in the United States, and it was almost completely unregulated - with the exception of Nevada.
In New Jersey, we brought in a local public policy group that had done a lot of economic impact studies for various projects across the state. We asked them to take a look at what they thought the sports betting market would be like.
What was amazing was how they got the numbers right on the nose. They believed that it would be a pretty sizeable market and that within a year or two, it would be much larger than the Nevada market, which really was an eye-opener for many people. We distributed that study freely, making it available to the state legislature and allies. It was so successful and credible - we began to have people quoting our study results back to us.
At one point, which was quite early on, I went with our Republican lobbyists, a guy by the name of Dale Florio in New Jersey. to meet the two State Assemblymen from Atlantic City. He was adamant that both of these representatives were not in favour of legalising sports betting. He said their position was that they didn’t want to do anything which would hurt the Atlantic City casinos. 45 minutes later, those same two representatives had become cosponsors of the legislation, because we made the benefits of a legalised market clear to them by saying this isn't going to cannibalise your business. We're not trying to take anything away from the casinos. We’re trying to give them one more tool to be able to compete.
WHEN YOU LOOK AT NEW JERSEY, IT HAD A LOT OF TIME TO GROW ORGANICALLY IN THE SECOND WAVE OF SPORTS BETTING, POLITICS IS LIKELY GOING TO MAKE THE MARKET EVEN MORE FRAGMENTED
SBC: As we head into 2022, what are your key predictions for the market?
JB: I think we've had sports betting ’wave 1.0’. The low hanging fruit of states that were likely to pass legislation have done so. Some perhaps too quickly, as in the case of Arizona, which was less than four months between the law passing and everyone going live on 9 September. That kind of speed has created some rocky patches, though thankfully nothing that hasn’t gotten sorted out.
When you look at New Jersey, it had a lot of time to grow organically. We had a lot of really thoughtful people, lawmakers, industry folks come together and craft those laws in a way that made sense for everybody.
Now we’re moving into states where, for instance, tribal gaming is the dominant force and those sovereign nations have their own needs. They’re not necessarily going to rush into models where they feel like they are going to cede control over the marketplace that they created and grew.
In the second wave of sports betting, politics is likely going to make the market even more fragmented.
You're going to have people trying very hard to use their compacts or their competitive position to try and maintain competitive advantages and limit those new markets to competition and participation. I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. There's got to be a middle way to do this - to protect people, protect existing gaming interest and existing game compacts, while at the same time opening these markets up in a sensible way.
SBC: And finally, what would be your biggest piece of advice for those looking to start out in the industry?
JB: I guess it depends on where you're coming from. For the better part of a decade, we were warning Europeans that when you come to America, you're going to do business on American terms. You can spend all the time you want telling us how America should really do things, but it’s pointless. What I would say to those coming from the UK and Europe is, you probably need to ’Americanise’ your offering much more.
Right now, I think the market is underperforming because of the offerings coming from the UK and in Europe because they've not been localised enough. There's been too much effort at shoehorning the US public into ways of doing business that don’t fit with our experience. Let's face it, mobile and online sports betting has existed in the United States for quite a while - it's just that it was being run from Antigua.
One of the reasons why you may still see a significant percentage of bettors out there who are continuing to bet with grey market brands is because they don't see what they want in the current offering. There's an American style of betting that's existed for quite a long time, and generally that is what Americans want.
Also when you look at the offerings between the brands we have right now, it all feels the same. The industry needs to find a way to nurture new entrants and to develop something new and exciting for their consumer.
Every once in a while I see something where I think ‘wow, that is a really cool idea’. But the tough thing for start-ups is that it is such a steep climb to just get to market - with all the legal and regulatory barriers - before they can get somebody interested in their idea.
We really need some sort of environment where newbies can get educated, can learn to fail and then create a product that can meet the regulatory standards and then find a legitimately new audience. We need an environment where new market entrants aren’t being crushed by the regulatory and compliance costs before they even get to show themselves. Hopefully things will loosen up.
I am surprised at how quickly things have expanded. I don't think that we'll be at 48 to 50 states within the next five years, but back in 2018 I certainly wouldn't have expected that this would have gone the way it has. •
