How do you see this first edition of ICE North America?

As the first event tailored to the U.S. iGaming and sports wagering industry by the ICE brand here in the States, we can say that the show was, by all measures, an unqualified success. We were extremely pleased with the level of activity in our booth during the show and at the networking events. Our team of iGaming, sports wagering, and cybersecurity experts were able to meet with many attendees who were eager to learn how Gaming Laboratories International (GLI®) ’s world-class iGaming, sports wagering, and cybersecurity testing, certification, and auditing teams could help them achieve their pressing goals and objectives. It was gratifying for us to see the positive reaction from attendees who were keenly interested in how GLI’s extensive experience in iGaming and sports wagering could assist them in their plans to deploy in the U.S. The many thoughtful and engaging conversations with regulators, operators, suppliers and other stakeholders at our GLI booth underscored the importance of having a solid game plan for addressing the many complexities of the rapidly evolving iGaming, sports wagering, and eSports market, both here in America and abroad.

With what expectations and objectives did you arrive at this inaugural event?

We’ve been testing and certifying iGaming, sports, and events wagering for 30 years; however, until now, that testing was mainly concentrated outside the U.S. Now we are helping our clients in emerging markets within the U.S. and Latin America too, making decades of experience work to their advantage. By fostering strong collaborations with regulators, operators, tribes, and suppliers, GLI ensures our clients enter jurisdictions fully prepared. We help them at every step of the process – from first understating the requirements so there are no surprises or delays to market, then helping them succeed in their testing and consultancy needs, and finally providing them with post-go-live support through any ongoing testing and consultancy requirements they might have. We also wanted to provide a resource to regulators regarding global best practices and technical requirements to help them make informed decisions when it comes to developing their own regulatory standards. In our conversations with regulators during the show, our goal was to continue to support them and to make sure they are not having to “reinvent the wheel,” so to speak. We wanted to encourage more regulatory uniformity which will ultimately benefit suppliers who wish to quickly, easily, and cost-effectively move their products into new jurisdictions with a minimum of headwinds. For this reason, as one might expect, there was much discussion about the recently released update to the “GLI-33 – Event Wagering Systems” standard available to the industry.

Why did you decide to participate?

With its specific focus on iGaming, sports betting, and eSports, ICE North America offered an excellent forum for us to demonstrate our 30 years of thought leadership in these areas. GLI Digital is everywhere iGaming is going and is approved in all regulated iGaming markets around the world. We actively support testing, consultation, and technical standards for all areas of gaming and sports wagering offered via the internet, mobile, kiosk, retail/cashier driven set-ups, wireless-in-venue, and interactive TV. By participating at the inaugural ICE North America show, we effectively reached a targeted audience of key stakeholders and decisionmakers with our message that we are the go-to experts for testing, consultation, and professional consultancy services for regulators, suppliers, and operators. Show attendees were able to see first-hand how our global accreditations can help them get their products into existing and emerging iGaming jurisdictions; offering them the quickest access to new markets. Additionally, Kevin Mullally, GLI’s Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel, participated in an informative panel discussion on the topic: “Minimum Standards and Regulatory Harmonization – Pipe Dream or Achievable Reality?”

How do you see the current North American market and what are the main challenges the U.S. gaming market is facing?

We see continued opportunities for growth and development of iGaming, sports wagering, and eSports across the country as a younger demographic continues to gravitate towards wanting more convenient modes of delivery and demand more compelling gaming content and wagering options. We also see mobile and online wagering becoming more popular with players. From our perspective, as more and more jurisdictions across the country look toward implementing a robust structure for online and mobile gaming and event wagering, there is an increasing need for the development of a strong regulatory framework to protect players, thwart potential cybersecurity attacks, and ensure the integrity of games, sports, and event wagers. That is why we created the GLI Standards Series, which are a set of globally accepted base technical standards that can be adopted in their entirety or used by regulators as a starting point for creating their own robust regulations. Specifically, for iGaming we created “GLI-19 – Interactive Gaming Systems” and for sports and event wagering, our recently released update to “GLI-33 – Event Wagering Systems” to assist regulators and lawmakers in creating technical requirements to help govern wagering activities across the country. We are so very pleased to see many jurisdictions with tribal, lottery and/or state regulators quickly embrace GLI-33 as their technical standard for certification purposes “as-is” and/or endorse it in addition to their own proprietary standards. These include North Carolina, Maine, Mississippi, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Paraguay. But the creation of strong iGaming and sports wagering regulations is but one piece of a complex puzzle. As mobile gaming and sports wagering technology advances at a rapid pace, it becomes mission-critical for jurisdictions to address how to combat the growing threat of cyber attacks to these potentially vulnerable online wagering technologies. That is why we had our cybersecurity experts from Bulletproof, A GLI Company available at our booth to inform show attendees about the many world-class cybersecurity testing, assessment, auditing, and professional services we’ll readily offer as part of the overall package they will need for success in iGaming and Sports Betting in the U.S.

A year ago, PASPA law was struck down by the US Supreme Court. How do you see the current situation of sportsbooks in the country?

From conversations, we have had since PASPA was repealed to present day which we saw last week at ICE North America, it’s clear stakeholders we speak to are all proceeding full speed ahead with both optimism and caution. The sports wagering environment in the U.S. is evolving quite rapidly. Many suppliers located in the Americas as well as others we work with around the world that seek to target the U.S., are all attempting to keep up to speed on what is happening in each U.S. state. At the time of writing, multiple states have legal, state-regulated sports betting industries including (but not necessarily limited to) Delaware, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. Additionally, in New Mexico, some tribes are also offering or exploring how to offer, sports betting under existing Class III gaming compact(s). There are currently numerous bills on file around the country and even new laws that have made it on the books. To give you an idea of how fast things are growing, just this month of May 2019 we saw Iowa, Indiana, and Montana all pass legislation to legalize sports wagering and we may soon see Tennessee follow suit. Keeping track of all the happenings in each jurisdiction, knowing what delivery mediums for sports wagering are and is not permitted (e.g.: online, mobile, kiosk, retail/cashier desks, wireless-in-venue), and understanding the rules and technical requirements for each medium is a full-time job in and of itself. For this reason, GLI invests heavily into maintaining a large internal Compliance Department that works with each jurisdictional regulator to keep our own internal databases and test scripts up-to-date in real-time. This knowledge and efficiency are what regulators, operators, software suppliers, and other stakeholders deserve and so it is what we will continue to delivery globally. This is just one more reason to choose GLI so that you can sleep at night and focus on what is important to your business – integrity, growth, revenue and the most compelling customer experience.