With the US market expanding and Latin American jurisdictions moving forward as well, Gaming Laboratories International (GLI ) has been thoroughly preparing to help deliver its clients to market quickly and efficiently. Speaking to iGaming Times at ICE, Vice President of iGaming and Canadian Services, Salim L. Adatia, explained how important it is that GLI remain experts in both jurisdictional requirements as well as client’s products and services.
Fielding interest from both new and existing clients at ICE 2019, the internationally recognized testing and consultancy lab GLI exhibited at the industry’s largest event. They were exceptionally prepared, ready to offer their knowledge and testing expertise to both sup- pliers and operators looking to enter the burgeoning U.S. and Latin America market. Indeed, since the repeal of PASPA last year, GLI has fielded many inquiries from suppliers and operators regarding requirements for each of the country’s jurisdictions looking to participate in regulated event wagering. Explaining that GLI is extremely well-positioned to answer these requests, Adatia outlined the lab’s strong experience in online testing and sports betting, as well as its in-depth knowledge of each jurisdiction’s varying stipulations. “We’ve been testing sports and events wagering for a long time, it’s just that previously it was always outside the U.S., in areas such as Europe, Australia, and Asia,” said Adatia. “Now we’re doing more for our valued clients aiming at emerging markets in the U.S. and Latin America, so really what we’re doing is bringing decades of experience back to home soil. We really want to foster partnerships with suppliers and operators, so they are not coming into these jurisdictions less than fully prepared; they need to know what the requirements are so there are no surprises or delays to market, and then we can help them succeed in their testing and consultancy needs.”
Importantly, GLI makes sure to remain fully independent with regards to the testing, but Adatia acknowledges their lab is pleased to advise which jurisdictional standards, or GLI standards, apply for each jurisdiction. Also, how the lab will go about testing the interested supplier’s or operator’s products and who the various regulatory bodies are in each juris- diction that they should be in contact with when seeking to enter into a specific market. As such, wherever in the world a new market might open, GLI strives to be there first in order to ensure it has the knowledge and expertise to deliver its clients to market as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“We want to be first on the ground in every jurisdiction looking to put in regulatory legislation. It’s equally important to us that we are a resource to regulators and provide them intelligence on testing requirements in other markets globally that they may be interested in learning more about. If we can inform them about the best practices in place around the world they can make an educated and informed decision when they seek to put in place their own regulatory and technical requirements,” continued Adatia. “By working with regulators earlier on in their planning, we’re able to better help our clients know what’s happening in those mar- kets when we are permitted to share that information. We are in talks with jurisdictions such as Slovakia, Sweden, Argentina, and various tribes and states in the U.S. to name a few, and we want to continue to support them to make sure they are not having to ‘reinvent the wheel’ in regard to their standards. Because if they have standards that are drastically different from what exists in other highly regulated markets, then it makes it harder for suppliers to port their products into the newer markets. If this happens, it can ultimately slow down the growth of a market and reduce the amount of gaming revenues that could be directed back into the economic well-being of the emerging market.” As well as being specialists in regulatory and technical requirements, GLI also needs to know their clients’ products, services, and goals inside out. If GLI can fully understand its client’s road map, it can lead them through the path of least resistance for market deployment, suggesting the testing phases and approaches that offer suppliers the fastest time to market. This is further aided by a close, long- standing relationship with clients, in which GLI can provide testing and certifications across every regulated market in the world that suppliers wish to enter. “The first question we ask is: where do you want to go? Both in the short-term and the long- term, because then we can gather the technical requirements together, use a ‘test once apply to many jurisdictions’ approach by removing the like-for-like requirements, and then they can leverage our certification for numerous markets. Even if they do not plan to go in to a market immediately, just knowing they have aspirations to do so in the long term means they have our report to use as a significant marketing tool. Should a client want to expand into other markets for which they are already GLI certified, this reduces friction and turnaround time for integration into that market,” detailed Adatia. “It’s also very important that we get a strong understanding of what products they want to deploy, which enables us to undertake the most efficient approach with regards to testing.” Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, GLI has perfected this process. The company has grown to a size where it cannot only provide quality but also quantity, with expansions and acquisitions still taking place each year to ensure it has enough bandwidth to never impede a supplier’s or operator’s time to market. As such, there is never a queue or wait time with GLI. “Having over 1200 employees around the globe and a very large and highly qualified professional services and security auditing division too is amazingly helpful. Having multiple offices on every continent doesn’t hurt either since it greatly assists from a time zone perspective, because we can conduct testing in the same location as the supplier or operator,” concluded Adatia. “In summary, we know that maintaining our ’Customer First 365’ view and bench strength that is second to none, is the key to making sure our clients can get to market quickly, with the highest quality, and therefore we always need to be ready. We watch trends very closely, and we see the digital gaming space continue to grow, which is why we are reinvesting our profits back into training, development, company acquisitions, resources, and services – thus expanding our bench so that we are always truly ahead of the game.”
