Last 24 months sees ‘Best Place to Work’ business grow from 80 to 220 employees and secure biggest commercial deal to-date with one of the world’s largest lottery groups
Bede Gaming, the award-winning supplier of software to the online gaming industry, is celebrating seven years of stellar growth and success since emerging in 2012.
Launched by three co-founders in Newcastle, the business has stayed true to its roots, hiring the North East region’s top technology talent and planning to welcome its 250th employee by the end of this year. From its modest beginnings Bede Gaming’s success has skyrocketed, particularly in the last two years, with the business securing major contracts including its biggest commercial agreement to date with the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation (OLG). As a result, its personnel has climbed sharply by more than 60% from 80 in 2017 to 220 in 2019, and it won two Best Place to Work awards in 2019, at the International Gaming Awards and Women in Gaming & Diversity Awards in January and May this year, respectively.
The company is today recognised as the first-choice supplier of world-class omni-channel platform and software solutions to the global online gambling and lottery industries.
In just seven years Bede has launched and signed major platform partnership deals with some of the industry’s most innovative, forward-thinking gaming and lottery operators including the Rank Group in the UK, Enracha in Spain, major online brand LeoVegas, South Africa’s Sun International and OLG, one of the world’s largest lotteries, to name just a few.
Its technical expertise is significant with the Bede platform regarded as one of the most advanced in the gaming and lottery industries. Innovations including cutting-edge campaign management tools with real-time analytics, supporting bonusing across multiple gaming content verticals and alerting users if their accounts have been compromised which are leading the way in both driving its partner’s revenues and their security measures ensuring Bede is the safest place to play.
Since its launch, Bede has become well-known for its rapid customer integrations, bringing partners to new markets effectively, and offering the most comprehensive range of superior casino and sportsbook content.
Today it offers its platform partners a vast selection of more than 3,000 games from over 100 of the world’s best providers. Bede offers best-performing titles from the industry’s game provider powerhouses including IGT, Scientific Games, Novomatic, NetEnt, Evolution, Microgaming, Red Tiger and Playtech. Bede clients also have access to two of the most innovative sportsbook solutions with the option of SBTech or Kambi.
Last year was a record year for Bede with the number of integrations undertaken up 30% compared to 2017, monthly players across its platform up by more than 15% to 232k despite regulatory headwinds in markets such as the UK, and stakes rising to a massive £3.7 billion.
Its achievements during its seven years have been driven by its talented team. This expertise runs across all departments from commercial and finance to security and software development – many of whom have been with the business since inception – as well as driving forces such as former Product Director and new EVP of Bede Canada Sarah Hitchcock, who played an integral role in the OLG selection process, and Alex Butcher, former Bede CTO and now Managing Director since June last year.
Alex Butcher, Managing Director, Bede Gaming, said: “We have achieved a huge amount in such a short space of time and all in the right way, developing a strong and inclusive culture packed full of supremely talented individuals, many of whom have been with us since we started this journey.
“We have a huge amount to be proud of and a huge amount to celebrate and I’m very grateful to every member of the team, past and present, that has worked so hard to get us to the point where we are now. Our clients continue to enjoy digital growth and we look forward to helping many others in the future.”
