Head of Business Development at Amelco Brandon Walker examines changing dynamics of the U.S. gambling space, adopts a tribal gaming focus and assesses the challenges that are consistently being encountered within this area and looks at how best to bridge the gap between the retail and online ecosystems.
SBC Americas: Amelco has established a strong presence across the U.S. market over the last few years. Since entering, what would you say have been some of the biggest changes that have taken place?
Brandon Walker: If we look back to 2018 when everyone started to flood into the U.S., there were so many operators emerging onto the scene. But over the last 18-24 months in particular, we’ve seen mass consolidation taking place; the large-scale operators are acquiring the medium-sized sportsbooks and casinos and the small ones are disappearing, which has really changed the landscape. The bigger operators are also continuing to get bigger, meaning there isn’t much room for smaller operators to compete.
Colorado is a good example of this. I recently read some statistics which showed the lists of operators in the state over the last two years, and there are now a handful of brands that have disappeared from the market. In short, these competing brands have just not been able to keep up with the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings.
This shows just how saturated the U.S. market is becoming, and how important it is for operators to gain a competitive edge. In my opinion, having a strong tech stack is one of the things that gives you a major edge. Out of the most popular operators – BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics and HardRock Bet – two are using Amelco technology with the others opting for in-house platforms, many of which were the result of acquisitions, such as DraftKings with SBTech.
For us, this really is testament to how well Fanatics and Hard Rock are doing against the other big brands, especially when looking at how quickly they’ve scaled, and how effectively they’ve taken on the U.S. market. Tech is no doubt going to be the biggest differentiator moving forward.
SBCA: Alongside commercial operators, you’ve also established a strong footprint within the tribal gaming community through partnerships with the likes of the Seminole Tribe and The Quapaw Nation. Why have you chosen to focus on this space?
BW: We’ve been working with the tribal community for quite some time now. We have ongoing partnerships with the Quapaw Nation in Arkansas, which owns Saracen Casino, as well as the Seminole Tribe in Florida, which owns Hard Rock Bet.
At Amelco, we really want to make sure that we are the most trusted platform providers in the tribal space. We want to work alongside the tribes to deliver the best possible platform for their brands. We’re doing that by utilizing the same building blocks for all of our customers, and giving them the best chance to become some of the most competitive in the industry.
Of course, there are intricacies to bear in mind, and the tribal space is slightly more niche, especially with regards to products such as Class II games. Amelco can, of course, integrate these products into our platform with ease; this gives any operators an out-the-box solution which can be instantly deployed.
I strongly believe that tribal operators have a huge opportunity to amass market share and compete with the biggest commercial brands, especially in states such as Oklahoma and California. These two states are huge for tribal gaming, so we’re looking to enter these states and work alongside the tribes to create the best possible gaming experiences that are completely tailored to them.
To ensure that we fully understand the intricacies of the tribal operators, we have spent a lot of time building relationships within the community. We have also been working closely with Stephen Crystal, founder and CEO of SCCG Management, who is effectively our boots on the ground and will play an integral role in introducing us to multiple different tribes across the U.S.
SBCA: What would you say are some of the biggest challenges tribal gaming operators face now?
BW: In short, regulation. If we take California as an example, the regulatory landscape is constantly changing. The tribes across California have a strong hold on the market. So understandably, they don’t necessarily want to introduce regulation which would allow the bigger commercial operators to enter and take their hard-earned market share.
Talks of regulating California seem to be ongoing, although any progress in discussions is likely to be pushed back to at least 2025 or 2026 at this rate. You then have Oklahoma, which in my view has the most growth potential for tribal casinos. The tribes in this state have plenty of influence and have been able to drive a lot of the narrative around how regulations are panning out.
We also can’t forget about Texas. Will it ever legalize gambling? Who knows! Discussions don’t seem to be taking place at the moment, but again, it has huge potential that we’re still keeping a close eye on what comes next – as well as being here to support the local tribal operators in their own development vision.
The tribal space is unique in that there are different rules and legislation compared to working with commercial operators. For example, Class II games are a very popular topic at the moment. That’s providing igaming within different parameters of how those games fit together.
No two tribes are the same either. Some are focusing solely on retail, others online, and then you have the tribes that are doing a mix of the two. But many of the tribes seem cautious in their approach. Plenty of tribal casinos are already very cash-rich; and they have enough on their plate to deal with, so for those that are retail only, they’re not necessarily rushing towards the online space.
SBCA: As more suppliers enter the market, what makes you the go-to partner for tribal operators?
BW: We’ve been going full steam ahead in building relationships within the tribal community. We have a stellar track record in delivering best-in-class products and building highly engaging mobile apps. We are offering the same technology that the bigger-name operators on the market are using, and we can’t wait to bring that to the tribal community.
As we’ve already covered, we are having great success with Hard Rock Bet and Saracen Casino – and we’re here to do the same for anyone else interested in our services. Our team is also fantastic at delivering a stand-out service to our operators; and we absolutely see ourselves as being the perfect partner in this space. The technology has not only been tried and tested, but has proven to deliver exceptional results too.
If we look at our partnership with Fanatics, our technology was very much like an accelerator program for their gaming brand. They went from sports merchandising to a fully-fledged sports betting and icasino operator that has presence in both the online and retail space. That was all in the space of 12 months – not many brands can say they’ve achieved that! They’re continuing to exceed expectations with consistent month-on-month growth, and now they’re a true challenger to the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings.
SBCA: From a supplier point of view, how is the provision of Class II gaming products enabling your partners to continue delivering stand-out experiences?
BW: Ultimately, Amelco is a technology and software house. Delivering stand-out experiences is what we do. It’s where our expertise is and it’s what we do best. Integrating Class II gaming providers into our platform is a straightforward task for us – we’re constantly adding new game providers and expanding the portfolio available to our partners.
Our player account management system for tribal operators looking to add Class II games to their roster is also simple and easy to use – which is exactly what they need, given the amount of work they have on their hands already. It also features a whole host of features, including bonus functionalities, localized payment solutions, app and frontend development tools and a whole host more. On top of this, our platform also offers all the necessary features to remain compliant: from KYC to geolocation technology.
This puts us in a really strong position to work with tribal operators and provide them with a fully-fledged platform and the tools they need to scale their business.
SBCA: How is Amelco utilizing omnichannel technology to engage with bettors that might not otherwise visit a tribal gaming property?
BW: That’s a great question. We are already working with a number of operators that use our omnichannel solution across multiple different states. The challenge with multi-state operations though is that sometimes apps require different logins or digital wallets, there might even be different KYC processes. This can cause real headaches for players.
But we’ve found a way to alleviate that problem – the traveling wallet. What this means is that players can have a centralized login across multiple states. This makes the process much more streamlined for both operators and players. This allows brands to scale into new states with ease – which is a major edge.
With more states introducing iGaming, we will be there to support operators looking to not only add new verticals to their offering but can help bridge that gap between retail and online. I can promise that we’ll be there every step of the way to support our partners in scaling their operations in 2025 and beyond!
