Spel IT out: Svenska Spel on its biggest tech overhaul to date

With tightening regulations being put in place across the European gambling plains, operators are having to carefully reconsider their approaches to technology. One such example is Sweden, a market that has initiated relatively stringent requirements to ensure responsible gambling measures are a high priority.

Casino monopoly operator Svenska Spel finds itself in the unique position of having to divide its operations to be able to compete in Sweden’s wider market against privately owned companies, once regulations come into force in January 2019.

The process will involve splitting its technology stack and many of its software processes. CIO Jörgen Olofsson has described the pending project as the company’s biggest IT restructuring and has said it will require a great deal of manpower to limit the downtime across the operator’s sites.

Here, EGR Technology probes Olofsson on the complexities he expects to arise during the process and how the company’s operations will look once the New Year rolls around.

EGR Technology: Can you explain in detail the software overhaul Svenska Spel is planning, and the reasons behind it? How will the new system improve compliance with new regulatory requirements?

Jörgen Olofsson (JO): Basically, this has to do with the new regulations that come into force at the turn of the year, which are intended to create better conditions for the Swedish gambling market. The situation has been somewhat confused for many years and existing legislation has proved ineffective. However, at the end of this year we will finally have a gambling market in which we can compete on equal terms.

For Svenska Spel, it will be necessary for us to divide and separate our activities to comply with gambling and competition legislation. In turn, this will have a major impact on our technical infrastructure. Therefore, we have been working to break this up so that it matches the new business structure and new market segments.

The new legislation means that, as of 1 January 2019, the market will be split into three different segments, and Svenska Spel will be dividing up its business accordingly. To operate within each segment, it will be necessary to have a licence and meet the requirements set out by the new Swedish Gambling Authority. However, it will also be necessary to comply with Swedish competition legislation.

EGR Technology: What will the three separate business areas look like?

JO: Svenska Spel will be a cohesive group with three business areas, one in each of the licensing areas: Sport & Casino, Tur [meaning ‘luck’ in Swedish], and Casino Cosmopol & Vegas. The purpose of the reorganisation is partly to comply with competition legislation and the new gambling legislation, and partly to create a clearer business focus.

The work of changing and preparing the organisation for the transition to the new gambling market is currently in an intensive phase; however, we are progressing according to plan and will be ready on 1 January 2019.

One of the most noticeable changes will be that all customers of Svenska Spel Sport & Casino will be required to register new accounts. This is due to the new gambling legislation and the need to separate the business area competing in the licensed market segment. We are taking all necessary steps to ensure that there will be no cross-subsidisation between the Svenska Spel Group and Sport & Casino; for example, by using separate IT infrastructure and customer databases.

When visiting svenskaspel.se after 1 January 2019 online customers will arrive at a landing page where they will have to choose between Svenska Spel Group (Tur and Casino Cosmopol & Vegas) and Svenska Spel Sport & Casino, depending on the type of product they want to use. They will then be redirected to the homepage of the business unit they have selected.

There will be no direct web links between the homepages of the two business units. There will, however, be a web link to the landing page where the customer chooses which business unit to visit. And, as mentioned previously, customers of Sport & Casino will have to register new accounts to place bets and play our online casino.

We have consulted with two separate law firms in order to ensure that our actions comply with both the new gambling act and Swedish Competition legislation. They have both given us their approval.

Svenska Spel’s online offering will be split between three brands and as of 1 January, users will need three separate accounts to play between them

EGR Technology: What’s the roadmap for the software overhaul and how long are you expecting it to take?

JO: This has been a fairly long journey, beginning almost two years ago when we received the first indications of the likely form of the new legislation. It was then that we conducted the first analyses into the likely impact on our systems, after which we drew up guidelines for the design of the new architecture.

Fundamentally, this has been a matter of separating the three different licence areas from one another, meaning we had to separate customer databases, streams and interfaces. As we operate in-store and online sales, there have also been multiple channel perspectives to consider.

The new legislation also opens the way for Svenska Spel to apply for an online casino licence, something we were not previously permitted to operate. This has meant that, in parallel with the transition to the new gambling market, we have also been working to implement a new gaming portal for the Svenska Spel Sport & Casino business area.

During 2018, we have been continuously working to develop and implement these changes and we are now in an intensive testing phase to verify that everything is functioning correctly.

EGR Technology: How many departments and people will be involved and how will they collaborate to implement the project?

JO: If you take the entire transition then basically everyone within the company has been involved in some way in one phase or another. Looking at the IT component of the transition, this has been implemented as one large programme split up into a great number of subtasks in which we have worked as cross-functional teams. In total, approximately 250 people have been involved in the various phases and roles.

EGR Technology: How much of the backend system will need to be rebuilt?

JO: We have applied various techniques in order to meet the new requirements for the separation of the different business areas. We have set up various system solutions in completely parallel environments on parallel hardware platforms. One example is the implementation of the new customer platform – Player Account Management (PAM) from SG Digital – for the new Svenska Spel Sport & Casino business area.

In certain areas we have set up new parallel instances of existing modules, in order to create parallelity and clear separation. And we have a built-in multitenant function that allows modules to be separated in terms of software so that they can be utilised by several business areas in parallel without affecting each other or sharing data.

This makes it hard to assess what proportion is being rebuilt, [but] naturally it has had quite an impact.

EGR Technology: How will you ensure that there is no downtime on the sites during the transition?

JO: The major change facing us cannot be implemented entirely without some disruption. In part, this is down to the technology, but it is also because the business operations being conducted until midnight on 31 December 2018 are not permitted to continue into 1 January 2019 – they must be concluded and closed down. This will be a fresh start under new conditions.  We will, however, be working on a detailed go-live plan that will of course strive to keep the downtime as brief as possible.

EGR Technology: Will there be any changes to customer-facing processes once the project is complete?

JO: Customers will see and experience certain differences. Firstly, the customer will no longer have an account with Svenska Spel – they will have separate customer accounts with each of the companies operating in the new licensed segments. This means that the customer will experience and see the difference depending on where they are logged in.

At least initially, many of the functions and services will be available on each site. Over time, the differences will no doubt become more pronounced as the sites offer different products and address themselves to varying customer segments with differing motivations and needs.

EGR Technology: From where are you drawing advice and inspiration during this process?

JO: There is a great deal of accumulated experience and expertise within Svenska Spel that will be extremely useful during this type of major change. These employees have really had an opportunity to blossom and are doing their utmost to design and propel this transition.

However, in addition to these, we have also engaged external competences with experience of setting up this type of operation in other countries, as well as experts on business models, products and these kinds of systems and platforms.

EGR Technology: Are there any third-party companies helping you with the project?

JO: Certainly; they are an important component of the whole solution. As I described earlier, part of the separation of customer platforms is built on an external solution from SG Digital, which is a crucial partner in the programme as a whole. We have also procured and established a number of new relationships with online casino providers, including SG Digital, NetEnt, Yggdrasil and Evolution Gaming. Naturally, in addition to these, all of our other existing game providers have also been involved.

EGR Technology: How else is Svenska Spel preparing for the upcoming regulation from a technology perspective?

JO: Our IT organisation will continue as a common supplier for all areas of Svenska Spel. As part of our preparations, we have made adjustments to our organisation and working methods to obtain a clearer focus and interface within each of our business areas. The new regulations mean new demands, not only on our core gaming system but also on support processes and administrative systems. This has led to us also adapting technologies and platforms around these elements.

EGR Technology: Changing tack slightly, what’s your career background and how did you come to work for Svenska Spel?

JO: My background and education is in engineering, and I have worked with systems development, project management and leadership in large IT organisations. Prior to Svenska Spel, I was head of development at the Swedish Tax Agency, with responsibility for architecture and application development, including the first e-services for income tax declarations.

I have now worked at Svenska Spel for around 10 years in roles such as head of IT operations, head of production and, for the past six years, as CIO. Svenska Spel is a digital company and a fantastic workplace, an Eldorado for anyone who enjoys complex technology that is integrated with the business 24/7.

EGR Technology: And how big is Svenska Spel’s tech team and how is it divided up?

JO: Apart from our physical casinos, Svenska Spel’s IT organisation is the single largest unit employing 270 people. Our current organisation is fairly traditional with operations, development, a project office and the CIO Office to support governance issues. Operationally, we work cross-functionally and extremely closely with the business organisation in various functional streams.

Jörgen Olofsson says this platform overhaul is Svenska Spel’s biggest IT project to date