Coral preps new in-house front-end
New responsive sportsbook site currently in beta, more games to be developed by its CR Games studio
Gala Coral is readying a new in-house built responsive front-end for its Coral.co.uk sportsbook but says the move isn’t part of any longer-term plan to move away from its outsourced model.
Speaking to analysts following the publication of its full-year results yesterday, Gala Coral chief executive Carl Leaver said the decision to develop the sportsbook, which is currently in beta, came after it had been unable to find a supplier which could meet its timetable and cost requirements.
However, Leaver dismissed any suggestion the move could be part of a longer-term strategy to replace third-party tech with in-house produced products, and clarified the operator’s strategy of using outsourced solutions.
“There is currently nothing else on my mind that we would want to own or change but this approach is a dynamic approach,” Leaver said. “It is as good as our suppliers are good, the same way in-house technology is as good as your in-house team.
“If the capability of our suppliers change then we may change our position on what we want to own and what we don’t want to own,” he added.
According to Leaver, choosing between an in-house or outsourced strategy was not a binary decision and he explained where third-party components were critical to success, the firm had ring-fenced development resources to ensure the products meet its specific requirements.
“So we benefit from the supplier’s generic roadmap while at the same time being able to direct our own exclusive development requirements on top of that,” Leaver said.
The firm also revealed that its games studio CR Games would produce up to 30 in-house titles next year as it looks to ramp-up the number of exclusive games offered, content which the operator said attract a greater level of gross win than non-exclusive titles.
News of Coral’s proprietary front-end comes after William Hill recently launched its own fully responsive website in a move to gain more control of the customer-facing aspects of its site and the ability to offer greater levels of differentiation.