SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
As a range of prominent tech firms cut their staff numbers, some firms are reportedly eyeing up potential recruits, including bet365.
According to a recent report in The Times, the Stoke-on-Trent-headquartered global bookmaker is examining the HR opportunities an abundance of tech talent provides.
The past few weeks have seen social media leader Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – cut its staff numbers by 11,000, including 650 UK-based roles.
Fellow social media firm Twitter has also reduced its headcount, as have big-name fintechs such as Revolut. bet365 Recruitment Manager Dan Myatt informed The Times that this could provide the firm with possible candidates.
Denise Coates’ betting giant currently has 243 roles available in its technology team and opened a tech training academy back in October to drive innovation and staff numbers in this area.
“It could free up some relevant skills,” Myatt remarked, commenting on the sudden ballooning of the tech talent pool.
“Companies like (Meta) have also extended the salary bandings quite dramatically. People have been highly paid for minimal years of experience so it could be a shock to the system from a recruitment perspective.”
Also speaking to The Times was Logan Naidu, founder of Kernel Group, the parent company behind Dartmouth Partners, a recruitment agency specialising in several areas including technology, strategy, finance, HR and legal affairs.
Naidu predicts that the recent layoffs seen in Meta, Twitter, Revolut and other tech firms are just the first wave, with a potential second wave contributing to ‘a bigger pool of unemployed people’.
This in turn will create the ‘rare opportunity’ of a recruitment ‘buyers market’ for companies seeking to bolster their in-house tech teams, something which bookmakers and gaming firms are increasingly keen to probe.
The plethora of tech jobs opening at bet365’s comes as it continues to strengthen its position in the Americas, having acquired licences in Colorado and New Jersey as well as Latin American jurisdictions such as Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The company’s desire to boost its tech talent pool also follows a similar recruitment drive initiated this year for its content division, which began with the appointment of James Clark as Sports and Betting News Manager to lead an ‘ultra-modern’ media division.
Meanwhile, rival firm Entain has also looked to opportunities for technological expansion, having launched its Ennovate platform back in January to examine the potential of virtual reality (VR) and NFT products, among other areas.
