Pulse
Sports Betting SPORT GENERATE
trend, a new fad and it's just a way for people to try and make money in the short term. Tere are many Mr. or Mrs. 18-monthers in this industry that rotate around companies to make some money and move on. I wouldn't say I've ever had a bad boss and in that I've been lucky. I've had challenging bosses, but I like to be challenged and I think you must be challenged every day. Te challenging ones make you a better individual. It's about what you take and learn.
How would you describe your relationship with Peter Nolan, Group R&D Director, prior to his passing in November 2022?
He was my priest. He listened to my confessions. Tere were daily WhatsApp calls, and I did apologise to his wife, Jenny, for all the family interruptions that I caused. Peter was more than a friend. I wouldn't say he was a mentor as such because we didn't work directly together but he taught me so many things. He used to say to me: "why are you sweating the small stuff? You have to learn to delegate, you can't do everything yourself." He became a very important figure in my career, and he's greatly missed. Tere are certainly times that I wish he was still around when there's things I don't understand.
Peter was part of the background negotiations occurring between me and Mr. Vardanyan before I became CEO of Sport Generate. He was the UN at times! He passed away in the November and I officially took the role in January. He was aware of conversations, and he believed it was a good move for me, but no, he sadly wasn't around since I've had to take on this new challenge. My career has been focused on sales, delivering on numbers, being a CEO is a very different thing. You still need to deliver on numbers but there's different facets to what I'm trying to achieve daily.
Was part of those negotiations regarding the autonomy Sport Generate would have from Digitain Group?
I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said we're totally independent. Part of the benefit of Sport Generate and the vision I had is that I'm able to have a start-up mentality but with the backing of Digitain, so to speak. Mr. Vardanyan is very involved in all decision making. We speak weekly if not daily. But there is a level of autonomy. When I took this job in a way, I'm a teenager leaving the family and setting up my own home. Even though I'm 43 now I still speak to my parents and so, as with any relationship, these things become clearer over time.
It's not the power of decision making that's important, it's the power of delivery. Ultimately, the expectation of Mr. Vardanyan for delivery is on me, whoever may make the decision. I've learned to be a bit more diplomatic and show
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the patience that Peter Nolan asked me to show at times. It's a complex and ever-evolving relationship and it's probably not the vision of a CEO someone in the UK would envisage, but at the same time it's an encouraging definition of the role because I get to learn from experienced colleagues around me daily. It's been great to have the knowledge of the Deputy Group CEO for Technology in helping me navigate these waters.
Would you say you're a better leader or seller, or are they the same thing in essence?
Part of my mantra as CEO of Sport Generate is that I sell this company to the industry. I don't mean sell it as an enterprise, but the vision and concept. Honestly, I think Mr. Vardanyan put me in charge of Sport Generate partly because of my profile I've always hidden behind when people call you a 'legend' or 'veteran' of the industry. I don't think I'm either. I've been around a long time, and I have a profile which
Without sounding too sales-y, it's very immersive and responsive. The design team has achieved things I didn't know were possible, but my art
teacher did call me artistically illiterate. The product we've developed is interactive and we've integrated official data so through one API you're going to get a fully managed official esports product. I'm going to go out on a limb here: I think it is going to be industry defining in terms of esports and a lot of people are going to try and copy it very quickly.
I'm learning to embrace and understanding the benefits this brings to Sport Generate. Selling is selling, but as a CEO I've understood the product development aspect which I hadn't always been really concerned about.
I'd always say, "just tell me when I'm getting the product so I can sell it and what the product's like." Now I'm understanding front-end design, back-end design, back-end development - concepts that I was aware of, but I didn't need to understand. One thing I've tried to do as CEO is immerse myself into what Sport Generate is in terms of its products. Tis is why a lot of people haven't seen me around this last year because I've been immersed in this bunker building out a team to develop our product suite.
Tell us more about Sports Generate's live sports product. What's unique about this proposition?
Te live sports division was an existing Digitain product that Mr. Vardanyan saw great potential in. Over the last year we've really focused on
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