In an article covering MGM-LeoVegas merger, Igaming Focus spoke with Russell Karp, VP of Media and Entertainment at DataArt, about iGaming industry consolidation and legislation.
“Igaming Focus spoke to Russell Karp, vice president at software consultancy DataArt. Karp pointed to transatlantic acquisitions that had worked well, namely DraftKings’ private equity driven takeover of European sports betting technology provider SBTech.”
“ ‘That strategy was done smart. It was done by private equity people who know what they’re doing’, Karp says, alluding to the relative immaturity of the gaming market in the U.S., where customer acquisition and the race to grab market share may have sometimes won out over pragmatism.
‘There has to be communication between business and technology, so one knows what to expect from the other”, he continues. “There has to be this relationship there and when they’re working in silos, the end result is almost never positive.’”
“Karp says the incentive to stay compliant is strong in the U.S. “America is polarised with politics. If somebody gets to somehow deposit a million dollars that they don’t have, and they blow through it, or somebody, god forbid, does something to harm themselves because they lost all their life savings, then you’re going to have politicians here stand up and make a statement, not only about the industry as a whole but the specific sportsbook”, he explains.
He says there are consultancies in the U.S. specialising in cross-jurisdictional compliance but he’s not sure the take up for their services is as high as it should be. 'I recently met with a company called Odds On Compliance’, he says. 'They’re fairly new, like a year and a half, maybe two years old but they have a very slick product. You can search anything legal around sports betting and they have the actual legislative wording for each jurisdiction.’
He thinks businesses like Odds On will play a key role in the U.S. industry going forward due the likelihood of frequent regulatory tweaks and updates, across all the U.S.’ legal states.”
Original article can be found here.
