A team effort: Mr Green on its cross-team tech set-up and the complexities of M&A integration

In the last decade, the gambling industry has become increasingly packed with smart, agile, brand-focused operators that have challenged the egaming behemoths in their endeavours to seize market share. And technology has played a major role in this evolution. The start-up mentality of many of these operators has been a breath of fresh air and, without doubt, brought about a healthy dose of competition.

Although now a well-established, medium-sized operator, Mr Green penetrated the industry back in 2008 with this exact start-up mentality. Since having matured into an operation of almost 300 employees with offices in multiple locations, technology has continued to drive the business’ growth.

But with growth comes the inevitable reconsideration of long-term business strategies. According to Mattias Wedar, CEO of the business’ tech subsidiary, Mr Green & Co Technology, it is crucial for the tech side of the business to work in conjunction with the core business to support its long-term vision.

“We do this together,” Wedar says of the two main arms of the business. “We don’t see this as either tech or the business side. Business growth cannot happen without tech, and tech cannot grow without the core business requirements, so it’s a joint effort [that is] hard to separate.”
The main task for Mr Green & Co Technology is to develop according to the business plan set out by the operational organisation in Malta. “It’s about delivering on our ambitious growth plans and, at the same time, ensure we keep our platforms and architecture up to date in terms of modern technology [in the] long term. So, we don’t only focus on the task at hand but also on the bigger picture,” Wedar adds.

Mattias Wedar, CEO of Mr Green & Co Technology

His role is to lead the Stockholm-based tech subsidiary and coordinate the group’s overarching technology strategy by heading up a 60-plus team that will imminently be moving into one of the city’s renowned innovation hubs, dubbed ‘Epicenter Stockholm’.

Integration determination

As Mr Green eclipses its targeted growth each year and participates in further M&A, the operator is in the process of developing a group-wide integration strategy to avoid the inevitable revenue losses of platform migration. It’s a relatively new consideration for the Malta-headquartered firm and one Wedar is prioritising over other tech concerns. “The idea is to have one common front-end platform, one middleware, and one set of suppliers, but it’s going to take time to get there.”

At present, the operator’s casino site sits on the NYX platform, while its sportsbook is powered by Kambi. However, the recently acquired Evoke Gaming’s brands are powered by SBTech and a different version of the NYX casino platform. So, Wedar’s next move is to shift all brands to the same third-party systems and redevelop Mr Green’s unique middleware and front-end platforms to suit its multi-brand strategy.

Wedar explains: “What we’re doing now is picking the low-hanging fruit on the supplier and technology sides that we will integrate and build a joint, multi-brand and multi-jurisdiction platform. And this will cover all areas from front-end to back-end and down to infrastructure.” Yet with this seismic shift comes concerns of latency and downtime associated with complex multiple platform migrations. And, more often than not, these are a drain on resources and hinder business development.

Crucial to avoiding these setbacks is being smart and agile, but with Wedar’s background in developing Sweden’s leading online yellow pages, he is confident he can work with the operator’s third-party providers to avoid slowing Mr Green’s fast-paced plans for expansion. “If you become a master of integration you have, in a way, mastered this industry,” Kärrbrink comments. “Of course, we should not work with multiple suppliers for the same kind of basic functionality.”

It’s clear that the duo is very much on the same wavelength and are somewhat of a tangible representation of the close coalition Mr Green’s business and technology divisions share. “We are building a blueprint for future M&A,” Wedar says. “It might be more cost efficient to let Mr Green and Redbet [acquired via the €7m purchase of parent company Evoke Gaming] run on their individual set-ups for quite some time, but with larger acquisitions it doesn’t make sense to have two infrastructure providers as well as two front-ends and back-ends.”

The Evoke Gaming acquisition, which was completed just a few weeks ago, could prove a turning point for the operator as it continues to mature and approach customers from a new angle. And although Evoke and its subsequent brands represent a different audience from Mr Green, the executive team admits it discovered a host of synergies between the two operations, which led them to consider this new approach to hosting all brands on one platform.

“Combining all this well will improve our overall technology once the integration is finalised. The turnaround should take around a year, and the plan right now looks very promising,” Kärrbrink adds. As ever, the industry dispute over legacy technology versus picking and choosing third-party solutions continues. And Kärrbrink, whose career in the industry traces back to Sweden’s monopoly operator, Svenska Spel, believes that the sector is far too complex to not work with providers.

“The demand from customers is too high,” he says. The operator differentiates its offering by hosting its own middleware layers and overhauling the front-end of each of it products. “From the business side, we have 100% control of what we offer to the customers,” he continues. Multiple releases are carried out on the operator’s middle layers each day, and Wedar insists it is much more efficient for a gambling firm to own its own middleware and front-end. Kärrbrink interjects: “We use NYX as our account platform and on top we build numerous layers of middleware where we interact with our customers.

“Everything the customer sees is our own technology, and this is under constant development. You find similar setups with most operators. What we have really focused on is innovating around our products, like Green Gaming, our sportsbook with its totally new front-end, and our new live casino – Live Beyond Live.”

Going green

The operator’s Green Gaming technology has sought out to tackle egaming’s new-found necessity for more stringent social compliance by combining psychological analysis with a unique algorithm developed by partnering with tech firm Sustainable Interaction. Mr Green’s in-house tech team integrated the programme into the operator’s middleware platform and its centrally located data-powered event hub which records all individual events and transactions carried out by players in real-time.

Wedar says the biggest challenge with building this model was the constant processing of data in order to create a personal profile for each player that opted into the programme. The tech team built a mechanism within its event hub specifically for Green Gaming data. “We had this mechanism in our event hub which is our central repository for all the activities that happen on our platform. The Green Gaming predictive tool applies the external algorithm on top of this data and presents individual player profiles with risk levels,” he says.

Both chief executives are sure that data is the key to further improving the UX and offer users a more personalised gambling experience, as well as in the evolution of Green Gaming. If a player opts into Green Gaming they will have an initial self-assessment test carried out to gauge their risk behaviour. From there, the technology will analyse a player’s time and money spent, and any minute changes in behaviour to determine their overall risk level.

Kärrbrink says: “The second step starts measuring every spin and every action you do on the site. We have a risk scale from zero to 100 and the higher up you are on that scale, the higher the risk of becoming a problematic gambler. Based on where you are on this scale, we push individual recommendations within a range of different activities like setting a limit, taking a break or self-excluding, or even contacting someone who can support you.”

Mr Green launched its Green Gaming problem gambling detection tool in September

It is interesting to note how far the industry has come as the majority of operators now process data in real-time, a marvel which Kärrbrink points out was not the case during his time at Svenska Spel, as when he started in 2004 the monopoly operator (among others) was processing data in six-month blocks.

Presently the Green Gaming analyses are based on rolling two-week player data that updates risk levels continuously. But the next step, according to Kärrbrink, is to process predictive data before a player even makes their first move. He turns to Netflix as the prime example of AI and machine learning-based technology being used to predict what a customer would want to watch next. He firmly believes this is where the industry will head in the near future.

“I think AI and machine learning solutions will be key going forward in terms of KYC, training CRM, optimising customer support and further improving Green Gaming to be much more personalised. The next step for our industry is to be much more personal and relevant through laser-sharp predictions based on historical behaviour.”

Centre of the tech universe

The operator’s new office space at Epicenter has been home to some of the biggest hitters on Stockholm’s prolific tech scene, including Spotify. And Wedar is positive that the team’s new home will result in some interesting new partnerships with like-minded techies. “The idea for Epicenter is to host small-to-mid-sized companies with a proven business model in a co-location workspace.

“It’s going to be a great, modern, open-landscape environment where we will be able to continue delivering new thrilling products for our players. At the same time, we get the chance to meet and work with other innovative, technology-driven companies and potentially find new exciting partnerships.”

Wedar also looks to the new space to aid the operator’s recruitment efforts. Kärrbrink and Wedar have both worked for Swedish search engine Eniro in the past and are quick to relay how difficult it is to recruit engineering staff in the tech-savvy city of Stockholm. “In Stockholm there is high competition for skilled engineers and then you have the likes of Spotify, King and the larger corporations eyeing a digital agenda,” Wedar explains.

“We invested quite substantially in our leadership programme last year and continue to do so; we have 40 middle-managers on the programme at the moment. Green Gaming is also an important part of recruitment because the industry is stigmatised, especially if you come from outside.”

For those who do enter egaming from the outside world of technology, Wedar claims there are few other industries that allow you to work on as many unique projects in such a fast-paced environment as online gambling. The operator’s niche, Kärrbrink says, is its keen focus on UX and a well-loved brand that endeavours to offer a much broader entertainment value to players than any of its counterparts.

It is in the process of recruitment that the operator’s brand-first approach plays a key role in sourcing new tech talent. “It’s very strong – and it has to be [in order] to attract the best talent,” Kärrbrink says. “One of our main cornerstones is to have a superior user experience and that comes from the tech team in Stockholm being able to redevelop the product that the business thinks will drive innovation.”

The operator’s overarching product-orientated drive is maintained across the board to ensure this focus on UX is upheld. With this in mind, the company is split into cross teams and given specific objectives and KPIs to encourage growth.

Wedar says this methodology will benefit Mr Green in many ways, including speeding up time to market, encouraging empowerment and traction, and getting the right stuff out at the right time. “We believe the teams are the ones best suited to make these calls,” Kärrbink adds.
“The key is we give them the full mandate to deliver on their KPIs and we stop interfering in their projects. I think this has created a much stronger feeling of belonging and it has also improved the relationship between the Malta and Stockholm offices.”

Ball’s in their court

Having launched its flagship sportsbook back in 2016, the firm took a shot in the dark with its Kambi-powered product, not knowing whether the offering could compete with the incumbent sports betting giants. The UX is very similar to that of its casino site, offering customers an entertainment-driven experience and a unique ‘bet assist’ feature to give novice punters a nudge in the right direction.

Furthermore, the majority of Mr Green bettors are cross-sold from its casino site. And Kärrbrink says the operator has deliberately sought to make its offering similar to a casino in order to make its users feel welcome. Elsewhere, the product feeds punters 15,000 communication snippets a week on a wide range of markets and matches. “We are aiming for the recreational player,” Kärrbrink confirms.

Kärrbrink is also quick to dispel the wider industry’s suggestion that sports betting technology is lacking innovation. Instead, he blames operators for not leveraging the extensive host of features offered to them by their sportsbook suppliers.

“Sportsbook providers are innovating quite well,” he notes. “It’s often at an operator level that innovation is low in this case. I went to ICE and when you walked around the sportsbook providers there was a lot of innovation around their products. From one match, they have created hundreds of markets during that 90 minutes.”

But plans are in motion to start targeting more hard-core punters via its freshly acquired RedBet site. “Redbet will look a bit different,” he says. “Mr Green is continuing to focus on the recreational player, while Red Bet will be targeting a more hard-core sportsbook fan base. Integrating Redbet into the Mr Green organisation will, of course, take a lot of our focus this year. We will also introduce Green Gaming for sportsbook, becoming the first operator offering a risk assessment to sportsbook punters.”

As with any marriage, the one between Mr Green’s tech and operational arms must be constantly nurtured, with communication key to its success. But as the operator looks ahead to developing its multi-brand portfolio and acquires more firms, the vision for its underlying technology may change, however its key priorities will not. Social responsibility, continuing to build on its brand and creating a top-notch user experience are always at the top of the agenda.