iGaming Daily

Andrea McGeachin (00:01.83)
Hi, everybody. I'm Andrea McGeekin from Neosurf, bringing together some great chit chat today. But before I start, let me talk about the sponsors, which are great for the letters been able to do all of this. So OptiMove is our sponsor. And they're the number one CRM marketing solution in the iGaming market. And 56% of the EGR Power 50 personalized player experience with OptiMove. And as a special offer.

Up to Move are offering new clients a free first month when they buy Up to Move for more information and claim that free month. You go to uptomove.com and forward slash SBC. There will also be links at the end of the podcast when it's published. That's great. So I'm now gonna introduce my guest today who is Andy Whitworth from Whitehap Gaming, the CEO.

But I want to just quickly give the story, Andy, before you can start to talk, because it's a great story. It's 20 years. 20 years, you don't look that old in the iGaming world. And it started in retail in the UK and Australia. And you've worked on both the operator and supplier sides. And I'm always fascinated when you talk. So I'm really, really pleased that you're with us. I know that you are a commercial director for Casino.

Andy (01:08.37)
Thank you.

Andrea McGeachin (01:24.846)
for nine years at what was then GVC, now Entain. And I know you were part of an amazing team out there with other people I know from there. And under your watch, you jumped from the AIM market to the FTSE 100, which is a massive thing to do. Became the biggest company globally at the time. And thanks to the area of your area, the casino growth. So you know what you're talking about. You're also in the thick of it for when they're major US deals, including the original MGM joint venture.

But after that, you've been at NetEnt, so I hope I've said that right, and Red Tiger, which everybody should know who the Red Tiger is, selling to, before it was sold to Evolution, but for the past three years, and that's where I want to focus today's chat, but you can go backwards if you wish. A, you've been at White Hat Gaming, starting at your Chief Commercial Officer, but you're the CEO now. And...

You are really driving things forward, especially in the US, which is, again, the focus we're going to talk about today. And I love the way that you say it, believe it or not. And it is true, you're the sixth biggest iGaming supplier in the US. And that's just after being live for 20 months. And you are got a major success story. So welcome, Andy. How are you?

Andy (02:44.366)
Very good, thank you for the warm welcome. I should say that White Hat is in several parts, so I know we're gonna talk about platform later, but my area is actually the studio side, so it's off the White Hat Studios division. It's okay? I don't want Phil getting upset with me.

Andrea McGeachin (02:46.394)
That's okay.

Andrea McGeachin (02:56.322)
Yes, sorry. Yeah, I always it just rolls off the tongue of what hat gaming for me. So it's what goes but okay, that's cool. Where are you today? Are you in the UK? Are you traveling?

Andy (03:08.722)
I'm in the UK actually, so just gearing up. I mean I do travel a lot, but yeah UK until the weekend where we, I guess like yourself, we travel over to New York for the SBC show next week.

Andrea McGeachin (03:10.297)
Yome!

Andrea McGeachin (03:20.31)
Yeah, sadly I'm not going. I've, my partner's organized a holiday because it's coming across my birthday. So I actually feel once won't be at the SBC, which I'm quite sad about, but all my team will be. They'll all be there. So listen, I wanted to, I wanted to start chatting to you about this amazing position that you've actually achieved. And it's the fastest US rollout. And you were the first supplier to be live in all seven I-gaming states.

That's an amazing journey. Just from a podcast listener's point of view, how the hell did you do that? How should anybody else be doing it?

Andy (03:59.835)
Yeah, I mean, it's been a very exciting journey for everyone at the team. Like you say, we sort of from day one till now, it's been 20 months. I put it down to four sort of reasons actually, like the number one is people. So we're very lucky to have, I'll be honest, like I think you mentioned earlier, I've been in the industry 20 years, so I've got a really big black book of good people that I can call on. So we have had a lot of people with US experience from like tech delivery to commercial.

Andrea McGeachin (04:21.411)
Yeah.

Andy (04:28.53)
We were fortunate or successful in doing the deal with Blueprint Gaming. So we bought a really good tech stack. We bought a really good backlog of games, which I think are the best games in Europe. So it's just all come together. Like, you know, we had product that people wanted. We've got some really good USPs. So from that degree, like it hasn't been a hard sell to sell to the customers. The hardest challenge in the US is, and I guess most suppliers will find this is actually getting live in terms of, you know, that.

from when you decide to go to the US, I always say to people, it's two years, you know, you have to get your personal licenses, you have to order the tech, you have to do GLI certifications, you have to get regulatory approval in every state, you then have to get integration slots with each of the suppliers. And to be honest, a lot of the suppliers probably until sorry, a lot of the operators until recently have been focused on sports. But you can kind of tell in the US, you know, casino is really important. Now, you know, that's where the profit comes from, that's where the growth comes from, you know, and hopefully there will be more states soon.

Andrea McGeachin (05:21.242)
Yeah.

Andy (05:26.41)
But yeah, it's been really enjoyable, I have to say.

Andrea McGeachin (05:26.63)
Cool. I have to, because I've been working with your company for quite a while and it's from the wider group, when you said people, I totally agree. People I work with and engage with in your company, across, as I say, across the group, have got a really good personality of openness. So I applaud you for that, I really do, because I can give a first-hand experience that it is good and I deal with Eric who's.

He always gets to the point, but he's always still got a smile on his face. He's great.

Andy (05:59.254)
Yeah, I think we have no, we have no egos. So, you know, from the founder to the most junior person, everybody does every task. You know, we have an open door policy with the staff. I describe YHAT Studio. It's a bit like a family actually. Like we haven't had anyone leave. You know, we're all actually, they might not say this about me, but I think we're all friends as well. But yeah, it's a very good, hard, I mean, the team works exceptionally hard. I should say it's not, it's not a jolly, but we do have a good time at the same time.

Andrea McGeachin (06:01.75)
No! It's wonderful to work with you guys.

Andrea McGeachin (06:10.155)
wonderful though.

Andrea McGeachin (06:18.766)
Hahaha!

Andrea McGeachin (06:22.349)
Mm.

Andrea McGeachin (06:28.726)
Yeah, I totally, this is what we've got. We're all about our team. But yeah, I totally endorse that through personal experience with your guys, absolutely. It's a pleasure, because it's true. So here you are out there in the US, but you've talked about all the things and you said about the two years. Actually, by the way, it's taken us two years to get ready as well. And we're a payment provider. We're not even doing the gambling side.

Andy (06:38.702)
Thank you.

Andrea McGeachin (06:57.51)
We're going to be serving the gambling, but the piece for me from what you've done is how do you differentiate yourself from the competitors in that US gaming market? I know you've got game variety and quality and innovation, but give me a little bit more information on that. How does that work?

Andy (07:15.094)
Yeah, so in terms of like games and tech, I think we have two really big, unique selling points. One of it's our branded IP. So we call ourselves a house of brands and we have spent millions on doing deals, you know, like with deal or no deal, Peaky Blinders, Ted Goonies, et cetera. But that really helps sports books with player acquisition to get new players in. So those games, you know, they've just, they've just been flying, you know, and all the operators want them, you know, you get a bit of a daisy chain effect. So when the MGM fans will launch your games, you then looking at some of the smaller guys going,

Andrea McGeachin (07:24.783)
Yeah.

Andy (07:43.906)
we need those games, so it's an easy sell. And then the second part, and it comes from sort of experience of working in the US market, is our jackpot system. So there isn't actually many good jackpot products in the US, you know, most of them are sort of standalone games. So we've come in with a product called Jackpot Royale, which basically links as many games as you want into a progressive system. So I think in like Michigan and Pennsylvania, we have over 30 games feeding into a jackpot. So they're literally just paying out constantly to the players.

On last check, we paid out something like 16 million in the last 12 months. So, um, yeah, it's one of our biggest, you know, it's our biggest strengths. Um, I also believe in commercial teams. So we have, you know, I think I said, we have nice people who work for us and, you know, they, the operators are their friends, you know, I think we're trusted because we have an experienced team of, you know, we've worked in Europe for, for years and years ahead of this. So it just comes together and we, and we do, and we, sorry.

Andrea McGeachin (08:33.014)
Yeah, you guys know what you're talking about, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah, you don't.

I'm just saying that it's very important because it's transparent and honest. So that comes across and that is what operators want. Absolutely.

Andy (08:48.398)
It's definitely the trust element. If we tell people a game is good, I think they believe us. We don't say that about every one of our games. We push the games that are the best.

Andrea McGeachin (08:55.674)
Sadly, yeah.

That's really cool. So that is Jackpot's launched, you said it's out there, is it?

Andy (09:02.902)
Yeah, it's live and also there's 30 games linked to it. And we used to panic when we saw the jackpots drop, but literally we probably have about eight, nine jackpots drop a day now. So it's become second nature to us.

Andrea McGeachin (09:14.458)
Okay. Well, gosh. And you say that this brand and IP important in the games, I mean, this is something you're doing yourselves in the background. Have you got, is that experience or is that just pure focus and drive? How does that work?

Andy (09:33.014)
I'll be honest with you. Sorry, I just cut out there. Sorry. Yeah, it comes from experience. So when I worked at NetEnt, some of our biggest games were the branded IP like Jimi Hendrix, Motorhead. So it's continued from that. And there aren't that many branded games in the US either. So, I mean, we have over 33 branded games live now. So I just think it's good for player acquisition. And, you know, the US is on a big player acquisition drive at the moment, and, you know, cross-sell from sports books. So if you have, you know, if you have things like Rick and Morty and...

Andrea McGeachin (09:58.627)
Yep.

Andy (10:01.526)
Peaky blinders, you know, the players do sort of go to those games first as they start at the casinos.

Andrea McGeachin (10:09.218)
And do you do profiling? I mean, do you?

Andy (10:09.783)
You do profiling, do you?

Play it for 500. Yeah, I know. Yeah, so I did as well. I'll get it.

Andrea McGeachin (10:17.26)
Yes.