In-house development no threat to Playtech, says new COO
Shimon Akad talks exclusively to EGR about the firm's imminent expansion plans and hints at major deals in the pipeline
Operators looking to reduce reliance on third-party suppliers will not impair Playtech’s future growth opportunities and the company can be a crucial part of B2C brands’ desire to differentiate, according to its new COO who was speaking exclusively to eGaming Review.
Shimon Akad (pictured), who replaced the outgoing Shay Segev this week, also pointed to several imminent major deal announcements as proof that the gaming supplier’s ‘omni-channel’ drive is paying off.
Earlier this month a number of major operators including Paddy Power and William Hill cited increased spend on in-house development in move to take more control over their core technology.
However Akad said operators attempting to differentiate from their rivals should do so from a content and front-end perspective rather than taking the risky approach of building their own platforms.
“If you want to get something professional then you come to Playtech,” he told EGR. “Some try to do their own but 90% will eventually return to us.”
“Each side (operators and suppliers) should do what they are best at. We always welcome our licensees to be more individual and we will help them be unique from a content perspective, but it is not easy to produce your own software.”
Akad, who was previously MD of Playtech’s Techplay Israel business, pointed to its omni-channel approach as proof that its licensees remain dependent on its technology.
Coral and Ladbrokes in particular are likely to enter wide-ranging agreements with Playtech across online and retail, but Akad said it won’t stop there.
“All of our licensees will move to our [omni-channel] system eventually. Retail operations have very old technology and, as we have by far the biggest R&D budget in the egaming sector, we can exploit the benefits of taking the land-based guys online.”
Akad said a particularly exciting opportunity was to offer this solution to government-owned operators, as Playtech has with its 20-year deal with Finnish state-owned RAY.
“This is a major growth area for us – governments are stable and will exist for years,” he said.
Commenting on Ladbrokes’ decision to promote its current digital chief Jim Mullen to CEO, Akad said he wished the new boss well in what will be a “very tough job ahead”.
“We have a very good and tight relationship with Ladbrokes and I believe that it will be in a much better position next year, just like Gala is,” Akad said.