Tags Strategy, IT Investment

Going the distance

When it came to building its online gaming platform, UK bookmaker Ladbrokes' strategy was to leave absolutely nothing to chance.

Once upon a time, gambling was a relatively simple affair. Corner betting shops, dog races, casinos – the familiar, traditional, controlled side of the business was the norm. Then, some time around 1998, the gambling and bookmaking industry started to change, with the launch of the first betting platforms and the steady growth of the internet.

Before you knew it, shaky slot machine websites became full blown web casinos and traditional bookmakers began moving their entire sportsbooks online. The transformation happened at such a pace that regulators, and to some extent punters, struggled to keep up.

Fast-forward nine years and the industry is hardly recognisable. Betting shops are still up and running, of course, and you can still go to the dogs or try your luck at a casino, but it's a whole different game online. And while some startups have enjoyed spectacular swings in fortune, well-established brands have carved a leading role, evolving web strategies that not only reassure online gamblers but expand the range of products and services on offer.

It's easy to see why a solid, established brand could prove invaluable in the pioneering days of the wild, wild web, but this is only half the story, says Steve Maxwell, CIO at Ladbrokes. Maxwell insists his company has had to invest significant amounts of financial and intellectual capital to get to the position they're in today.

"Innovation has always been a big thing for us and we're really pushing innovation across all our platforms," says Maxwell. "Increasingly, technology is leading the way for Ladbrokes, showing the business what can be achieved, rather than the other way around. In our pioneer days when we built up our online businesses – the casino, sportsbook, poker, games, etc – each separate game ran on a different platform. These days, we have implemented our 'one-stop shop' approach. Even though the platforms are separate – for example, a guy playing our UK sportsbook or the fixed-odds games in Asia will feel like he's on the same platform, even though the technology is split between sites. The cornerstone of our strategy is to make the whole experience as seamless as possible."

As well as a flair for innovation, another ingredient key to its online success has been Ladbrokes' selection of long-term partners. For example, in September 2006, the group extended its commitment to its existing IBM Informix Dynamic Server system. The new deal, overseen by IBM Premier Business Partner and Informix specialist Ardenta, will run for four years and is a continuation of an earlier agreement put in place in 2000.

"We implement, support and licence a lot of Informix installations," says Neil Truby, Ardenta's managing director. "In addition, we understand and have significant experience of the Orbis Openbet application and a thorough understanding of how IBM works. I was therefore delighted to work with Ladbrokes to understand the complex multi-site, multi-national requirement which underpins their business to broker the perfect deal between IBM and Ladbrokes."

It was a strategic move, as Maxwell and his team needed a platform that could continue to support Ladbrokes' online business through its next period of growth.

"The Informix deal was part of our organic growth strategy for our eGaming business," he says. "We chose Openbet from Orbis back in 2000 as the platform for all our interactive channels and we've built the operation up since then.

"More recently, we've developed a new cash POS betting system to progress the international betting side of the business, and our multilingual skills have enabled us to take it on to a global platform. Informix comes with Orbis and we've renewed the contract for a further four years to support us as we move into a new international growth phase."

Adding a multilingual capability is definitely going to be a strong growth driver for Ladbrokes. While there appears no let up to the growth in gaming and gambling products on offer – according to Maxwell, Ladbrokes is currently growing its non-sports fixed-odds book by two to three new games a month, while Backgammon and Mah-jong are proving new launches elsewhere in the portfolio – gaining access to new geographies is crucial to Ladbrokes’ strategy.

To this end, the company recently invested in new currency hedging software in response to the increasingly complex nature of its global gaming platform and Maxwell feels he now has the infrastructure in place to effectively build out on a worldwide scale.

"Over the last six or seven years, we've been able to compartmentalise all the applications we've developed, so that now we have all these in boxes sitting on our shelves. For example, if we want to implement a retail system in Italy, we take boxes one, four and eight. If we have a project running a sportsbook in China, then it's boxes two and seven that we need. Whichever way, when you put them together, you have a system. Taking this approach and having these resources to hand just makes it simpler and quicker to put together business solutions."

And of course the need for innovation is constantly driving further changes to the site. Maxwell is already leveraging Ladbrokes' platform leadership to bring about other changes that will have a wider effect on the whole eGaming industry.

"While some of our competitors started by offering separate user names and passwords for each type of gaming, be it casino, sportsbook or telephone betting, we've always offered a single wallet," he says. "Now most of the industry has changed to offer this too, but we’d like to go one step further and enable our customers to enhance their experience by playing more out of a single wallet, whereby they can run sub-wallets for poker, casino and any game they play. This is just one of the initiatives we're looking at.

"This may sound awfully proud, but technology isn't any longer a barrier to our business initiatives. With the great architecture we have in place, we've been able to consistently hit home runs."

For more information, contact Ardenta

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