Betting on a competitive future

A global online betting company was undergoing an important merger. It needed a partner to deliver essential changes to its existing systems, while all its internal IT resources were committed to the merger demands. Owing to the rigorous regulatory environment, it needed a partner that could to ramp up its teams quickly and deliver great quality on time.

The company had several urgent IT requirements to be delivered quickly to keep the business competitive and compliant with industry regulations. All its internal resources were committed to dealing with the challenges that come with a major business merger.

Highlights

Rapid deployment of skilled teams
On-time and on-budget delivery of mission-critical projects
Agile delivery provides a low-risk approach
Maintenance of competitive edge during a merger

Integration for two online betting companies

The online commercial environment is heavily regulated. In some jurisdictions, failure to comply with national rules can result in the business being shut down. Spanish market regulation was changing, and the new rules had to be integrated into regional product offerings.

Competition is fierce in the online betting market. With many companies offering similar products, margins are tight. The company needed to upgrade one of its gaming platforms to keep hold of its market position for traditional-style online casino games.

As a result of the merger, the main user account page detailing the customer’s bets and financials required a re-vamp, integrating information from the two legacy companies.

Trust was a major factor in partner selection. To achieve all these outcomes, the company needed to be confident that the partner could provide a team of experienced and capable engineers in the short lead-in time for the development work.

Systems integration for achieving online gaming regulations

Xoomworks Technology had a long-standing relationship with the client, going back over 10 years when they engaged them to carry out a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) exercise for their original Research and Development Group, based in Romania. Since then, Xoomworks Technology has successfully delivered a number of projects and was the natural choice for this new engagement. Xoomworks Technology identified the software engineers with the right skills and submitted them for interview.

Since Xoomworks Technology was familiar with the technology landscape, it was able to build a highly capable team and get started very quickly. An embedded team of 24 engineers delivered the following projects:

Integrating all changes to companywide systems to accommodate the new Spanish online gaming regulations.

This was a time-critical project, which had to be completed in advance of the regulation changes coming into effect. Responsible betting rules required incorporating measures to protect clients from large losses over short periods. Xoomworks also translated the entire gaming experience to enable British Nationals to access and use the gaming products while visiting Spain, which had not previously been possible.

Implementing a major upgrade to the gaming platform so that the latest versions of 3rd party casino-style games could be offered to their customers.

The delivery of a compelling gaming experience maintains profitability in a very competitive market.

Re-writing the customer-facing sports betting pages, which provide details of all bets placed, winnings or losses, and other account information.

This enabled the integration of the data from the two merging organisations on a single page. The technology used by the online betting organisation was a mixture of old and new technologies, but predominantly Java. Since Xoomworks was familiar with its technology landscape, it was able to deliver the changes very rapidly.

Xoomworks Technology worked closely with the Product owners to break down the scope of the requirements into manageable work packages, based on client stories. Xoomworks Technology used Agile methods to deliver all the requirements, with fortnightly checkpoints at the end of each development sprint.

This enabled the customer to see the output at frequent intervals and provide comments or request changes as the projects progressed. This method reduces the risk of delivery not matching expectations at the end of the project.

The results

As a result of being able to rely on Xoomworks Technology to deliver vital updates to existing systems, the client was able to concentrate their in-house IT resources on the ongoing merger. Key legislative requirements were met, and other areas were upgraded to maintain their competitive edge.

What’s more, all the deliverables were completed on time and on budget. The company was able to demonstrate compliance with new regulations, offer market-leading products to their customers, and provide a single view of account information to customers from both merging organisations.

The company holds its sub-contractors to very high standards; it is a testament to Xoomworks Technology that they are continually selected to deliver mission-critical projects. Detailed and rigorous metrics are applied to all outsourced teams and KPIs measured. The solution included:

Ability to dedicate in-house resources to major merger
Fast, quality delivery of key systems upgrades and changes
Regulatory compliance ensured
Market competitiveness maintained

Key legislative requirements were met, and other areas were upgraded to maintain their competitive edge. What’s more, all the deliverables were completed on time and on budget.