How GiG is deviating from the norm

Veering off the well-trodden path will always present an element of risk and uncertainty, yet it is undoubtedly the only way to drive innovation in a sector that has seen and done just about everything. Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) has very much taken this avenue in the development of its latest sportsbook platform, which stems from a Norwegian odds aggregation tech company acquired by GiG in 2016.

From there, GiG Sports has grown to a staff size of almost 100, split between Malta and Norway. The entity also presents a new opportunity for operators as the company will shortly be offering up segments of its new venture as a B2B product. The director of sports at GiG, Endre Nesset, believes the product presents punters with an exciting new approach to betting and the ability to bet on new and unique markets that have been priced up in-house.

“Coming from the bet placement industry, sometimes you just have to take a stand,” Nesset tells EGR Technology. “If we think we have the right price, we will publish it. It is up to [our partnering] operators as to whether they want to use our prices.” And considering the surprises the World Cup has thrown at us, there is surely a desire for unconventional events.

EGR Technology: What sets the GiG Sports platform apart from others?

Endre Nesset (EN): It’s built on completely new technology, and that goes for the platform, the trading tools and also the front-end. This is a very big advantage as it makes it quicker and more responsive. It’s also a multi-tenant system, which gives us great time to market and also simplifies the B2B management. We have taken the proprietary approach for the outrights at the World Cup; it’s a different approach to the market standard and we’re not afraid to take our own stance and price events in our own way. We won’t use the market as a reference point. We’re very excited to see how that goes.

EGR Technology: GiG already has a sportsbook product and B2B offering based on its iGaming Cloud system, so why did you decide to build an entirely new system?

EN: It all comes down to an acquisition GiG made back in 2016 when we bought OddsModel, a sports technology company specialising in statistical models to predict sporting outcomes for bet placement purposes. We use these same models for pricing up our own odds. One of our unique selling points is having the bet placement team working on all the leagues we offer odds on. We won’t publish any odds without us also placing bets on the leagues. You could say we’re putting our money where our mouth is.

Endre Nesset, director of sports at GiG

The project kick-started almost two years ago. We had an existing sportsbook, but we wanted a more flexible and agile system. We started with a small team, but this has rapidly increased along the way and now we are close to 100 people located in Malta and Norway. We have our headquarters in Malta, but we also have a technology office and parts of the trading team in Norway. In total, we have seven brands and two of them, Guts.com and Super Lenny, [already] have sportsbooks. They will remain on the previous platform for now while we launch the new product on our flagship casino, Rizk.com. Then we are looking to sell to external brands and operators later this year.

EGR Technology: How is the platform divided up?

EN: We have created three different products which can be sold as standalone modules or modelled together as a complete product. One part is GiG Sports Connect – a proprietary in-house odds feed combined with an odds aggregation system. We can integrate multiple odds feeds, including our own, and distribute that to our operator partners, giving them the freedom and flexibility to choose. We currently work with an external feed provider and have launched our own models for the World Cup.

We are making the product available for the B2B element of the business and then it will be up to the operators where they would like to make it available. The second module is GiG Trader, a new set of intelligent trading tools built with all our in-house knowledge. Our traders have played a big part in creating the user experience.

Lastly, we have GiG Goal, which is the intelligent middleware and front-end solution built with implemented machine learning. They can all be bundled together with GiG Core (formerly known as iGaming Cloud). We have rebranded all our sports products.

EGR Technology: You said the technology uses machine learning techniques to personalise a customer’s feed, so how will that work?

EN: We have a machine-learning tool in the middleware, while our intuitive front-end learns from every element of user behaviour. For example, if a player has a history of betting on the English Premier League, while another prefers to place bets on the NHL, they will see different versions of the site when they are accessing the site. It’s all created with the user experience in mind, and for ease of navigation.

EGR Technology: Can you explain your proprietary pricing system in more detail?

EN: We have some unique market types and numbers across everything. With the approach we are taking we have a team rating, and for every team we have player ratings for the full squad. We have various parameters for players, which means instead of pricing up Messi to be top scorer in an excel spreadsheet, for example, we have a far more mathematical approach.

Let’s say Messi, according to our ratings, is expected to play X number of minutes in X number of games and is expected to score X amount of Argentina’s goals and complete X assists. Having that percentage, we can easily convert that into a whole range of markets instead of having just one market for the top scorer. There are endless opportunities of what we can price up.

We are unique in the market and are pricing bets without following the rest of the market. Coming from the bet placement industry, we are not afraid to stand out and trust our prices. If we think we have the right price, we would like to publish it. But we are not forcing anyone’s hands. It is up to [our partnering] operators as to whether they want to use our prices. If they would like to use the market-standard odds, they are also available to them.

EGR Technology: How difficult has it been to stick to the roadmap and launch it just before the World Cup?

EN: It’s been a great atmosphere in the build up to launch. You can be as prepared as you want but there will always be unexpected issues coming up. That’s how the tech world is. The team has really put in the hours, and we are proud of what we are building here. We know it’s a great system, and the initial feedback is very positive and encouraging. Seeing it live during the first week of the World Cup makes us all proud of what we have built. That being said, this is just the beginning. There will be optimisation and more functionalities added continuously.