Money & movement
Review where funds were held and how a shared wallet interacted with state boundaries and tax requirements.
Enterprise & data products
An enterprise platform from 0 to 1
Building an in-house CRM, navigating market-specific identity and wallet requirements, and leading sports data products.
CRM users supported across the US and Canada
The brief
Create an in-house platform that could respond to changing market requirements and make the next market easier to launch.
My role
As Senior Product Manager for Platform & Data Products, my work covered concept, development, testing, launch, rollout, and training for the CRM replacement. I also evaluated identity providers and led the team delivering in-house sports models and betting capabilities.
A shared delivery effort
Engineering built the system, and Operations worked closely with us on the migration process and initial training. Data Engineering was a partner in developing and testing the sports models. My leadership covered options, data performance, model management, roadmaps, and stakeholders.
01 / The starting point
The business was changing faster than its licensed system.
The existing licensed CRM took too long to respond to the company's needs. New US gambling markets brought changing compliance requirements, while the company's European operations faced a volatile regulatory environment.
That made responsiveness a core product requirement. The platform needed to support changing market rules as well as the compliance, finance, and identity workflows that depended on the CRM.
The product question
How could we own the platform and its data, respond faster to market requirements, and move existing customers into the new system?
02 / The platform decision
A “market out of the box” approach.
We chose to build internally so the company could own the system and keep its data in house. The goal was a unified platform that supported faster launches into new markets, rather than relying on the licensed system's delivery pace.
We called the approach “market out of the box”: a shared foundation for launching markets while addressing the requirements of each one. Ownership gave us more control, and it also made us responsible for the migration and operational processes around the product.
The scope extended beyond a CRM interface. Compliance, finance, and identity management were part of the enterprise platform, so product delivery had to account for the teams and customer journeys connected to those functions.
03 / Compliance & finance
A shared wallet met different market rules.
Launching across US states required reviewing each market's online sports gambling requirements: where money was held, how funds moved between states through a shared wallet, tax obligations, and responsible gambling rules.
The product challenge was to support a unified system while accounting for differences between jurisdictions. Wallet behavior, customer eligibility, and identity handling needed to be considered together as part of market readiness.
Responsible gambling
Account for the responsible gambling requirements of each market within the wider platform scope.
Identity & eligibility
Handle verification and registration across multiple states, alongside differing age requirements in US and Canadian markets.
Identity added another layer of complexity. Customers needed to be verified and registered across multiple states, while requirements around keeping data within a state or allowing it to cross borders varied. Canada introduced further differences in gambling eligibility and age requirements.
These were requirements we had to review during my time on the program. They shaped the product around market-specific constraints within a shared foundation.
04 / Identity provider selection
Accuracy came before the vendor choice.
Identity verification accuracy was critical. I conducted data studies across ten providers, evaluated the options, negotiated contracts, and selected the preferred provider.
This made provider selection part of the product work: the decision needed to account for the identity demands of a platform spanning multiple markets. My contribution covered the evaluation and commercial negotiation, alongside the wider team's implementation work.
10
Identity providers evaluated
Data studies informed the selection. I owned the evaluation, contract negotiations, and final provider choice.
05 / Account migration
Account migration was a customer journey.
Moving an existing market required both a technical solution and an operational process for migrating accounts and data. We also developed a password-reset function that allowed customers to claim their accounts after completing KYC again.
Promotions were used to incentivize customers to return and reclaim their accounts. That made migration more than a data-transfer task: the product had to support customers taking the steps required to use the new system.
Move the market's accounts and data
Develop the migration solution alongside an operational process for moving an existing market.
Support account reclamation
Provide a password-reset path for customers to claim their accounts after renewed identity checks.
Encourage customers to return
Use promotions to support customer participation in the migration.
A high-level account of the migration approach. Internal verification rules, regulatory controls, and implementation details are omitted.
06 / Rollout & operations
Sequence the rollout around the business.
The rollout was a multi-year program. Market sequencing involved weighing business criticality, regulator timelines, new markets legalizing digital sports betting, and the company's wider needs.
Those priorities made rollout planning a product responsibility. Moving existing markets and launching new ones had to be considered together, rather than treated as a single release date.
Initial training was conducted in close collaboration with Operations. The teams using the platform needed support alongside the software and migration process. My contribution described here covers my 2021–2023 tenure within that wider rollout.
07 / Sports models & betting products
Bring sports models and betting capabilities in house.
We built in-house machine learning models for football, basketball, soccer, and baseball. Alongside that work, we brought same game parlays (SGP), prop bets, parlays, and live SGP into the system.
The work supported bringing these modeling and betting capabilities in house. My role was to lead the team and product direction alongside Data Engineering, covering the options we considered, data performance reviews, testing, model management, roadmaps, and stakeholder alignment.
Evaluate the options
Lead the assessment of approaches and align the product roadmap with the capabilities we needed to bring in house.
Review & test
Review data performance, lead testing work, and manage the models with the team.
Lead delivery
Manage the roadmap and stakeholders while coordinating the team's model and product work.
The models and betting capabilities were a team delivery effort. The wider platform and data results below cover multiple initiatives; the savings are not attributed to any one sport, model, or betting product.
08 / Reported outcomes
Platform scale and wider program results.
CRM users supported across the United States and Canada.
Reported improvement in CRM operational efficiency.
Reported improvement in Data team efficiency.
Calculated annual savings across the wider in-house program, based on staffing costs and replaced software licenses.
Annual savings were calculated using staffing costs and the costs of replaced licensed software. They cover the wider in-house program rather than the CRM migration alone. The efficiency figures are résumé-reported outcomes for the respective CRM and Data teams; their measurement methods are not detailed here.