SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
100 locations, 85% of operators on the EGR US Power Rankings are customers, and 10,000 LinkedIn followers – these are just some of the number highlights from the past 12 months highlighted by Justin Cosnett , Chief Product Officer at Continent 8 Technologies.
This has been a significant year for Continent 8 Technologies. It saw us celebrate our 25-year anniversary of providing innovative, reliable infrastructure to the global online gambling industry. It’s also a year in which we have experienced unprecedented growth across all areas of the organisation.
The industry itself has had a big 12 months, with online gambling regulation continuing to roll out across North and South America, as well as more established markets in Europe. Asia and Africa have also seen progress when it comes to regulation and licensing.
At Continent 8, our mission is simple. And that’s to provide operators and suppliers with the infrastructure they need to succeed in each regulated market they enter. To do this, we always take a first-to-market approach and combine this with our cutting-edge solutions and services.
This means that our customers can prepare for launch ahead of time, hitting the ground running when the market opens. We also work hand in hand with regulators, helping them shape their infrastructure frameworks so they are fit for purpose.
This is what makes us the go-to infrastructure provider to the industry, with operators and suppliers leveraging our managed hosting, connectivity, cloud and security solutions.
In fact, we now power 85% of operators on the EGR US Power Rankings 2023 and some of the biggest names in the business in Europe and beyond.
Our global connected network passed 100 locations
The scale of our global connected network puts it among the top 20 best-connected in the world, according to Hurricane Electric Internet Services. This year, our network surpassed 100 locations driven in particular by expansion in North America, as well as strategic sites in Croatia and Curaçao.
We are now live in 30 US states and counting including the likes of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan and Ohio. In total, we have added 13 sites to our network this year, ensuring our customers have access to the markets they need.
Continent 8 infrastructure grows in 2023
We have continued to invest heavily in our infrastructure due to customer demand. Operators and suppliers are asking for more locations, more space, and more solutions whether that be public, private or hyperscale cloud.
A great example is our third-stage expansion of our Atlantic City data center which officially opened in April, adding 30% more capacity via a 5,330 sq ft Modular Data Center (MDC). This took the total capacity to 15,000sq ft with a total of 88 equipment racks. We are already looking to expand our footprint in New Jersey with an additional site.
In November, we added Curaçao to our global footprint, which came hot on the heels of numerous transformation initiatives set out by the Curaçao Gaming Control Board, including revising the licensing procedure for operators on the island.
Operators are supported out of the most advanced multi-tenant Tier-IV data center in the Pan-Caribbean region, which of course is run to the highest technical and operational standards.
Cyber attacks on the rise, Continent 8 responds
While the global online gambling industry continues to expand at a rapid cadence, so too does the number of attacks that are being launched against operators and suppliers.
Continent 8 has responded, augmenting the solutions and services offered through our dedicated Secure division. Over the past 12 months, we have amplified our DDoS scrubbing capacity to 2.5+Tbps, as well as increased our scrubbing centres geographically deployed across multiple continents. We now have eleven locations in total.
What’s more, we continue to advocate for taking a multi-layered approach that covers DDoS and WAAP protection, as well as MDR/EDR and SIEM/SOC. We’ve also launched Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT), providing comprehensive security assessments of an organisation’s infrastructure and applications.
We continue to welcome top talent to the team
The Continent 8 team now stands at more than 245 people across our global offices from the Isle of Man to Gibraltar via Montreal, Buenos Aires and most recently India and Singapore. This year we grew our workforce by 20% across various departments, ensuring we deliver the best solutions and services to our customers at all times.
A social media impression
Continent 8 is active on social media and this year we hit 10,000+ LinkedIn followers. This is a major milestone, and we are incredibly proud of the content we post to our followers.
This year we have had a lot of content to share, attending 50+ events, sponsoring tens of expos and bagging three industry awards: Data Center and Cloud Systems Provider (EGR B2B Awards 2023), Cloud and IT Services Partner (EGR North America Awards 2023) and Leaders in Digital Technology (NJBIZ 2023).
2023 has been a hugely important year for Continent 8, not least because it is our 25th anniversary year. It is a year where the industry has grown and we have kept pace every step of the way, supporting our customers as they too achieve and exceed their goals.
Next year is set to be bigger still, but for now, we are proud of the progress made in 2023 as evidenced by our year in numbers.
