Conquer Technology establishes gambling division to take on operator risks in small-scale tech innovation.
Former UK Tote product director and UK industry veteran Jamie Hart is seeking to streamline integration efforts for operators in his newly established role as head of gambling at UK technology consultancy Conquer Technology.
Hart, who also spent time as an executive director at Tabcorp and director of innovation at William Hill, said the move was prompted by a desire to help operators fix their biggest technology and integration problems in a nimble and innovative way, in contrast to the clunky processes that are often in place.
He said that, as an operator, the majority of technical decisions are made through necessity around regulatory changes, leaving “not much room to solve other technical problems”.
“Integration is typically the biggest issue for betting companies and that will be our number one target,” Hart added.
Conquer Technology describes itself as a full-service development studio specialising in transforming client problems into top-notch solutions.
Hart said he met Conquer Technology chief commercial officer David Carter when the company participated in an innovation competition during his time at William Hill, between 2008 and 2016.
Conquer Technology focuses on small-scale technical innovation. Hart said the firm would take on the risks associated with small-scale innovation, making it easier for operators to implement new or challenging technologies.
Hart said Conquer Technology would be seeking to help firms innovate in various areas including regulation, Know Your Customer and new betting products and bet types.
“Operators find it difficult to get the bandwidth to experiment and test new things. It might be quicker and cheaper to do those with us than in-house,” Hart said.
“[As operators] there certainly seem to be a lot more people involved in projects now than there was 20 years ago. I’m hoping we can provide a unique outsourcing model,” he said.
“UK Tote was limiting”
On his move, Hart said the Tote had been a passion project but he had aspirations to solve other technical challenges.
“There’s a lot more I want to do and change [in gambling] and the Tote’s product was difficult to innovate,” he concluded.
