SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Yoel Zuckerberg, Chief Product Officer at bespoke casino and sportsbook platform provider Soft2Bet, offers some useful insight into the process of platform integration and migration. Efficiency and speed, he believes, are just two of the key elements required for onboarding new clients.
SBC: Tell us about your experience and expertise in platform integration and migration.
Yoel Zuckerberg (CPO of Soft2Bet): Providing an optimal integration and migration experience is essential and our overriding priority as a platform provider as it drives both our business and that of our B2B partners. Managing these projects, and ensuring they run smoothly, is a standard practice of ours that we fulfil, but a crucial part of what is expected of an igaming platform provider.
I have completed many such projects, for both small and large operators and across different regulations, and I often note that there are patterns and characteristics that appear regularly, but there are always specifics for each client and market that need to be taken into consideration.
SBC: Can you talk us through the process? How long does it take and what are the key steps that need to be followed?
YZ: Efficiency and speed are two key features of our onboarding process. We have a clear process where we present our full solution and gather specific requirements, implement them as part of the integrations, which is followed by a demo and finally go-live.
Our onboarding steps are:
- Full scope assessment of integration projects and client requirements.
- For migration projects, gathering sample data from the platform that is being onboarded, analyse it to understand if it needs any alterations and schedule it in as part of our integration work.
- The process usually takes between four and six months, this ensures we have the time and scope to deliver a smooth integration to deliver scale and growth for our partners.
SBC: What are the common mistakes made by companies when migrating to or integrating a platform and how can they be avoided?
YZ: The first instinct of many operators is to migrate all users’ information, but this isn’t required. Some of the data that is stored on one platform does not always need to be migrated or can be done at a later date.
However, to do this effectively it’s important to produce a data map between the two platforms as it enables us to zero in on the business-critical parts of the dataset, whilst also being able to take into account and adhere to any legal and data protection requirements.
This flexible approach means that if our partners want to keep hold of historical data, we provide the solutions to store it on the old platform and still retain access to it as we complete the migration.
SBC: What are the main fears and concerns for operators seeking to migrate and what would you say to dispel them?
YZ: Its down to Platform downtime : To mitigate against this, player account migration is done in phases, which means that the majority of the data is transferred to the new platform prior to the migration date, and when the system is in production, we only need to update the missing part, which allows us to have the new platform up and running very quickly.
Losing customers due to platform migrations: One of the most important things to do is to communicate any changes to players well ahead of time. By doing this your customers are aware of upcoming changes and can take them in their stride. In addition, promoting and communicating about the new platform allows operators to inform their players of new features. This can help with customer retention and even attract new players.
Operational change: Working with a platform provider over a number of years can mean that operators get accustomed to a certain modus operandi and have specific requirements that they know will be addressed. This can make them request features that don’t need to be supported by the new platform.
The way we manage this step of the migration is by going over it in detail with the client, analysing each module, presenting how they work and after analysing case studies and historical data we can assess how it can be supported by the new platform. In many cases this early-stage preparation reduces the scope of work that is needed to complete a migration.
SBC: Can you give us an example of how you’ve worked with an operator to help them migrate to a new platform?
YZ: We recently collaborated with an igaming operator to facilitate their transition to our new platform, supporting them in migrating player accounts, game configurations and transactional data to our PAM. Our team also provided expertise on integrating third-party software and ensuring regulatory compliance throughout the migration process. By offering training sessions and ongoing technical support, we ensured a seamless transition for the operator, minimising downtime and maximising the efficiency of their operations on our platform.
