Technical scalability is already proving to be a hot topic in the US and this will no doubt be an increasingly vital matter as more and more markets open up in 2021. To gain a view of the challenges ahead we spoke to omnichannel platform provider FSB with CTO Sam Lawrence and strategic technical advisor to the board Keith Laidlaw.
2021 looks to be a pivotal year in the US market. How is FSB approaching the opportunities and challenges?
Sam Lawrence: With relish. We’ve been active in the US for some time now and have been significantly building up local knowledge and expertise along the way. On the back of securing our GLI 33 certification in 2020 we’ve now reached critical mass in a way that supports sustained growth and continued efficiency in the US.
We have boots on the ground driving new business from our offices in New Jersey, Nevada and Iowa. As well as this, we have a US founder/CEO, North American investors in Clairvest with deep local knowledge and an adaptable, agile, and varied offering that’s the perfect fit for the US market.
Keith, after a number of years working with the likes of GVC and Party Gaming, can you tell us what’s impressed you about FSB since you joined as a board advisor?
Keith Laidlaw: The people and the platform. Sam has incredible technical knowledge that he’s built up over the years to develop FSB’s outstanding current offering. I‘m very much enjoying working with him and taking an aerial view on FSB’s technical strategy. CEO Dave McDowell is a hugely driven individual with a burning ambition to keep growing FSB. He co-founded GAN 20 years ago and has a rich heritage and ever-growing reputation in this space.
As for the platform, I believe FSB have an enviable tech stack providing operators with the complete technical and operational solution. The combination of sportsbook, casino aggregation, multi-state PAM scalability, trading optionality, dynamic personalization, customizable front end and seamless and rapid integration of multiple data feeds and igaming providers makes it an incredibly powerful offering. What you have here is a solution that suits current needs and has the agility and scope to offer a contemporary service well into the 2020’s.
Sam, tell us why you think the FSB product is such a great fit for the US market?
Sam Lawrence: Ultimately, we want to empower our customers and I have confidence that the FSB full tech stack solution does that. It’s contemporary, sophisticated and operational in omnichannel environments. While speed to market in the US was a key ambition for some of our competitors, we took the view at FSB some time ago that our medium to long term strategy should be on developing a best-in-class stack that we could take to the market at a time that worked best for us and the overall market. What we have in place now product-wise is the culmination of significant time and resource.
More specifically, can you give us an insight into your confidence regarding FSB’s technical scale in the US?
Keith Laidlaw: As more and more states come online in the US, wide-ranging technical scalability will be absolutely crucial. What gives me confidence in FSB is their latest generation hub and spoke architectural model. That provides real technical agility and flexibility.
Sam Lawrence: For me, I look to the tremendous technical learnings we’ve accrued over the years operating in multiple continents. Our vast wide-ranging traffic footprint has meant we’ve had to adapt to the different technical, operational, and regulatory challenges within each territory we operate in. It’s also been incumbent on me as CTO to make sure that our offering fully suits the operational needs of our existing and new partners. Precision and fine-tuning has been crucial. This invaluable experience puts us in a strong position when operating within multi-states and multi-jurisdictions in the US.
Do you feel FSB’s market patience will be rewarded in the US?
Keith Laidlaw: Yes. What we’re seeing at the moment in the US is an element of buyer’s remorse. A number of the first to market software solutions clearly have had a limiting effect on efficiency and performance. Customer onboarding journeys have proved problematic technically and these platforms have failed to deliver in this respect and in others. In summary, these patchwork quilt/bolted on solutions have added complexity and reduced reliability. That’s one of the reasons why the FSB full stack is positioned so strongly; it’s a one stop solution under one umbrella.
Sam Lawrence: Harvesting our technology to suit the second mover approach in the US was something we considered long and hard but it’s proved to be a great strategy. The FSB tech stack very much addresses the needs of this second wave of demand and I’ve no doubt we have the technical prowess to be a real challenger brand in the US and beyond in 2021.