Ranking up: Rank CEO John O'Reilly talks affordability and the firm's digital future

Among the hustle and bustle of London’s Leicester Square, Rank Group’s CEO, John O’Reilly, sits down in the vibrant Grosvenor Casino The Rialto London and candidly offers: “Feel free to ask me anything you like about the gambling world, and I’ll know about it.” That statement is fully justifiable, as O’Reilly has been working at the top of the industry for over 30 years. Even now, at the age of 63, when other executives might be looking to wind down towards a happy retirement, the boss of Rank shows the same hunger as he did in 1992 when he was appointed executive director of Ladbrokes.

As O’Reilly reveals what has motivated him over the past three decades, in the background you can hear the clickety-clack sound of a ball ricocheting off a spinning roulette wheel and the whirring of slot machines. “I have the best job in the world, and I’ve always said there’s no better place to work than the gambling industry. It’s my passion,” he enthuses, while directing his gaze to this swish casino’s ground floor gaming room. His passion and pride about working in the sector could be considered an outlier. The gambling industry has, at times, been plagued by a poor public perception, as a survey conducted by the Gambling Commission (GC) in June 2023 found that 79% of respondents believe there are too many opportunities to gamble, and 71% thought that gambling was dangerous.

Leaning forward in his seat, O’Reilly gives his opinion on why the public should cut the industry some slack. “There will always be people who don’t like gambling, and that’s always been the case,” he says. “We can’t allow a minority of powerful voices to distort the fact that the vast majority of people safely enjoy what we do and what we offer. Where the criticisms against the industry are valid and grounded in robust data and evidence, we should engage constructively, and I’ve always been happy to do that. Where it’s not, we should push back hard. We owe that to our colleagues who invariably give our customers a great service and first-rate experience.”

During his five-year tenure as boss at Rank, O’Reilly highlights how he’s had to contend with the challenges of Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis. Another major obstacle has been the Gambling Act 2005 review to overhaul Britain’s gambling laws. Yet he believes that the proposals outlined in the white paper, published in April 2023, will help to bridge the gap between land-based and online gambling.

The Maidenhead-headquartered operator has 52 Grosvenor casinos and 76 Mecca Bingo venues, as well as online sites for both aforementioned brands, plus Bella Casino, Kitty Bingo, Magical Vegas, Regal Wins, Spin and Win, and Lucky Pants Bingo serving the UK market. Rank also operates Enracha, YoSports, YoBingo and YoCasino in Spain. “I think one of the primary objectives of the Gambling Act 2005 review was to ensure, as best they can, that land-based gambling is better positioned to compete with online,” O’Reilly suggests.

One of the headline changes proposed in the white paper is the implementation of online slots stake limits of between £2 and £15 per spin, although this is currently under consultation between the UK government and the industry. A £2 cap would be the same level as fixed-odds betting terminals in betting shops, yet £5 seems more reasonable and more likely as it would bring digital slots into line with the limit on B1 gaming machines in bricks-and-mortar casinos.

O’Reilly believes that while the government’s intentions might be along the right lines, one positive is that it is seeking advice from the industry instead of those who may not understand the inner machinations of the gambling world. “The government has offered a range of options, which shows they do not know the answer. I think that’s good news. It gives us another opportunity to present evidence to the government.

“I don’t think you should equalise staking limits for land-based and online gaming. I think in the online world, scenarios are different and how customers play is very different from how they might play in a place like this [casino]. So too is the monitoring of customer play where every digital play is picked up in real time. In venues, the experience is very different, so I don’t follow the logic of equalising everything. I don’t think that’s the point.”

O’Reilly adds that the government needs to be careful with restricting slots stake limits and should take consumer behaviour into consideration. “If the government decides to set this at below £10, and they might well do that, I think that will restrict consumer freedoms.”

Theory of evolution

The other major change being tabled for all online games is a mandatory five-second delay between rounds. The GC has already banned auto-spin features for online slots to give players a chance to pause and think, and this seems like the next evolution of that policy.

O’Reilly believes this is the right move but needs to be carried out in the correct manner. “I think you’ve got to think about the customer experience. If you look at a game like live roulette in a casino like this, you need to move the chips onto the table, then you have the spinning, the result, the paying out, the clearing of the chips, all of which takes time. Regarding online slots, it’s not like that at all; it’s pretty instantaneous. Is it right that the customer has a chance to consider further play? I think that’s right, but you should not slow it down to the point that it becomes dull and monotonous to play. Gambling has to be safe, but it should also be fun and exciting. We’ve just got to make sure the balance is right.”

Another controversial proposal is for lower limits for under 25s who play online slots, either £2 or £4. Or it may be the same cap for over 25s, yet this age group would have extra vigilance on their play. O’Reilly believes singling out this portion of society is wrong and, in some cases, overly draconian. “I think it’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” he remarks.

“I don’t mean to undermine the importance of managing risk for younger people, but we already have a whole raft of measures in place for these customers. We already know their age, it’s fed into our risk models along with other variables and we’re managing that risk in real time. I think that’s a better way of doing it; imposing a black-and-white restriction on young adults, purely because they’re 23 or 24 rather than 25 seems wrong. For example, take a very well-paid professional footballer aged 24. He’s only allowed to stake £4 because of his age, but his next-door neighbour, aged 25, can stake £10. Does that seem logical to me? No, it doesn’t. I think there are better ways of managing risk for younger adults. Discriminating between someone who is over 25 and someone who is under 25 is completely wrong.”

Let’s get digital  

Away from regulatory changes, the group’s most recent set of results for Q1 2023-24 showed signs of positive growth. Underlying net gaming revenue (NGR) increased 11% year on year (YoY), while the business noted that digital NGR enjoyed a 7% YoY increase to £51.8m for the period.

Despite the positive performance of the digital arm, Rank Interactive, O’Reilly admits he is never truly satisfied: “We achieved growth in what has been a tough economic climate and a tough regulatory climate as well. I’m never entirely happy with where we are, in truth, and my team knows that’s always been the case. We are in a very different place now to where we were before we did the acquisition of Stride. We are a very different business and very much in command of our own destiny now.”

On that point, Rank completed the £115.3m acquisition of Stride Gaming in October 2019 and began the creation of its RIDE tech platform and migrating its brands to the tech stack. Mecca was first in January 2022, followed by Grosvenor in September 2022. While Rank has now completed the migration, it wasn’t always plain sailing, with a number of issues and delays.

Despite this, O’Reilly outlines how it compares with previous tech migrations he undertook at Ladbrokes and Coral. “I’ve done a lot of migrations in my career and this was among the best. The migration of Grosvenor, I feel, went smoother as we learned a lot during the migration of Mecca. A lot of development work is still ongoing with a load of core platform works ongoing, but we’ve got to a good place.”

Looking forward, the CEO divulges what is in the pipeline for the online division. The first part of this is the new central engagement platform to combine the operator’s mountain of data into one place rather than being spread across different databases. The aim is to help improve the day-to-day running of the business. The second benefit is that it will allow Rank to create a more personalised experience in real time for consumers.

O’Reilly also reveals the firm is on course to release new apps in 2024 and there are plans to consolidate its existing content management systems. “This is a project we started quite a while ago. The first brand, Bella Casino, is now live. We will be rolling it out onto our other brands in the next 12 months. The benefit is that it will improve the quality of the front-end offering for customers and hopefully also improve performance in a technical sense, for example, a speedier site to navigate,” he explains.

The other major development is the ongoing progress of its Hawkeye responsible gambling tool. First unveiled in June 2021, Hawkeye monitors changes in player behavioural patterns which existing safer gambling controls might not pick up. “We now have 20 different data variables that feed into the Hawkeye model, and that number is constantly increasing. The algorithm is also constantly learning and improving, so it’s never standing still. I also think the current round of white paper consultations may result in changes to how we structure the algorithms to manage risk more effectively in real time.”

Elsewhere, on the technology front, Rank is turning to AI to help with the day-to-day running of the business. “We’re increasingly using AI for customer support, creative work and in-house projects. We’re also using it to improve efficiency and the consistency and quality of what we deliver to customers.”

The use of AI, as well as Rank’s one-wallet solution, aims to make the player experience as streamlined as possible. As O’Reilly puts it, creating this kind of seamless experience is what Rank’s mission is all about. “The one-wallet solution is only a small part of the omnichannel experience. The key thing is that we recognise the customer as an individual. For example, when we communicate with him or her, it should reflect the type of player they are. If they are a retail customer and they move online, we recognise that fact and we will communicate with them accordingly about what online games they want to play. We always try to create a seamless experience between online and land-based for the consumer, which is the raison d’être for Rank and what we’re looking to do.”

The casino and bingo operator has also announced a number of senior hires this year for Rank Interactive: Sam Allanson, who will shortly join the firm as CFO, and Andrew Peat, who joins as managing director.

On the significance of these hires to the digital arm, O’Reilly remarks: “I think this shows we’re keen to attract top talent. The new hires will augment the strength we have in that team to sharpen up our focus on delivering our plans for Rank Interactive. As the business gradually evolves, we have the ability to attract stronger and better talent. The shape of the business has changed: three years ago, we had five people in our digital development team in Cape Town; now we have over 200 people there, and it’s growing quickly. As the business grows and the geography changes shape, we will attract the right talent to help build the business further.”

Iberian flair  

Not long after O’Reilly was hired as CEO in 2018, Rank bought QSB, the owner of Spanish online bingo operator YoBingo, for an initial €24m, but this amount was subject to future performance that could see the total reach €52m. At the time, Rank said that the Spanish market was “attractive” and there was significant potential in combining retail and online bingo and slot verticals. Since then, the operator has launched a number of brands in Spain, namely YoSports and YoCasino to complement the online casino and nine multi-game venues of the Enracha brand. The business was praised in the group’s most recent set of financial results. This is no surprise when, in Q1 2023-24, the Enracha and Yo brands’ digital performance rose 6% YoY.

Following this positive performance, the operator committed to further supporting the YoBingo, YoCasino and Enracha brands with further initiatives going forward. “Spain has been very successful for us. We’re doing a bunch of exciting things at the moment, which I look forward to sharing when we’re in a position to do so, but all I can say is that we are testing some new product concepts for the customer.”

O’Reilly also points out how tricky the Spanish market is for anyone looking to stamp their mark. “When you look at the Spanish market, it is an extremely difficult market for a newcomer to break into, given the restrictions on advertising, for example. You can’t offer any incentives to a customer within the first 30 days of them signing up to play with you, and only then if they have opted in to receive those offers. That’s a tough starting point for any new operators to break into. We’ve done a lot of hard work over a number of years and are in a very strong position in the Spanish bingo market.”

In addition, Rank is also in the process of securing a licence in neighbouring Portugal for YoBingo, but it is taking longer than anticipated. “There isn’t a licensed bingo operator in Portugal, and I can probably guess why,” O’Reilly observes. “But we have been persistent in Portugal, digging in and getting closer by the day. The regulator has been working very closely with us, and it’s a good relationship. We are making progress, but it’s not easy. We have completed the development phase and are now down to regulator testing.”

O’Reilly appears optimistic about the country’s prospects for online gambling, though. “I think the Portuguese market will be great. We cannot know for sure but I’m upbeat about the opportunity. Will it be a bigger online market? We don’t know, but what we do know is that it has a great land-based market, so there is an opportunity there for the online market. Only time will tell.”

As the interview comes to an end, O’Reilly reflects on his varied career within the industry. What is his greatest achievement? “That’s like asking a parent to choose their favourite child,” he chuckles. “I helped to launch the first interactive service in the UK and really the UK’s first sportsbook in my time at Ladbrokes. I helped launch Coral into the digital space prior to its merger with Ladbrokes, and during my time there I saw the valuation of the business grow significantly, largely as a result of the progress we made in the online space.

“Gambling is in my blood,” he concludes with a smile. “For as long as I can remember, it’s been part and parcel of my life. I remember being approached about a job at Ladbrokes and all I thought about at the time was smoky betting shops and how I was not sure that was for me. But I took a punt and ended up working there for 19 years. I’ve always wanted to start and end my day reading The Sporting Life. It’s a copy of the Racing Post nowadays, of course, but to have a job where you can legitimately do that is as good as it gets for me.”