Following its acquisition by Entain in 2023, Angstrom was often mentioned in earnings calls but rarely engaged publicly. Although the company was recognized as an essential part of Entain's same-game parlay offerings, details about its activities remained scarce until this month, when a press release from Entain highlighted Angstrom's initiative to develop a free-to-play game named Seven.
This announcement suggests a shift for Angstrom, showcasing its commitment to innovation in betting products and signaling its evolving role within the Entain ecosystem.
Ross Jarvis, Angstrom's director of strategy, remarked, "If you had told me – or anyone on the leadership team – a couple of years ago that building a customer-facing, free-to-play (F2P), mass-market app, and creating a brand as well as a product, would be on Angstrom’s roadmap, I don’t think many people would have placed that bet."
Acquired for its expertise in U.S. pricing and modeling, Angstrom is now poised to act as a dev shop—an agile team leveraging its technical knowledge to create products beyond its original scope.
Leo Gaspar, a consultant and former co-founder of Huddle, observed that the line separating technology provision from consumer solution design is becoming blurred. He pointed out, "The strongest specialist companies increasingly understand not only the technology they provide, but the consumer problem that technology can solve."
Major operators maintain sizable tech and product teams, but their focus often shifts towards maintaining existing platforms and managing regulatory compliance. According to Marc Thomas, managing director at Algosport, some operator platforms resemble a “little Frankenstein,” developed iteratively over the years. As a result, internal teams frequently find themselves occupied with maintaining operations rather than innovating new products.
Specialist developers can offer sharper focus with fewer organizational impediments. The development of Seven began from discussions between Jarvis and CEO Jonathan Blezard before receiving authorization from Entain, which initiated an 18-month development timeline.
Angstrom's modeling expertise informed the game's consumer proposition. Utilizing historical data from the English Premier League, the team established the prize structure and calculated variables, such as the likelihood of players scoring first or last.
Gaspar emphasized that a concentration of this kind of specialized knowledge grants specialists a significant advantage during the exploratory phase of product development. "The best ideas often come from understanding what is technically possible before everybody else does," he noted.
The operator contributes vital resources needed to scale new products, including distribution, branding, customer data, infrastructure, and regulatory expertise, allowing specialists to focus on testing concepts without dealing with the complexities of larger corporate strategies.
However, challenges emerge as operators seek to impose their processes on specialists, which initially thrive on agility and an entrepreneurial culture. Thomas suggests, "Basically, try and leave them alone."
While some degree of integration is necessary, it should be gradual. Gaspar differentiates between integration, which allows specialists access to essential operator resources, and full absorption, which risks discounting their unique value. He posed a crucial question: does the specialist retain the ability to transition from an idea to customer experimentation faster than the larger organization?
Angstrom’s Seven also exemplifies the potential of reusable intellectual property. Initially piloted around Premier League football, Entain aims for broader applications in other sports and markets. Angstrom is already assessing how the game mechanics could translate to American football plays such as touchdowns.
Gaspar argues that reusable capabilities can prove more beneficial than custom developments, facilitating faster and cheaper adaptations for operators. He states, "You might have one core piece of IP underneath several very different consumer propositions."
At Algosport, their primary products are delivered through Blackbox software, with partners able to develop supplementary services around that technology. Thomas believes this flexibility enhances Algosport’s reputation from merely a B2B supplier to a valuable resource for progressive companies.
While newly developed products may not directly translate to revenue, they can enhance customer acquisition, retention, and overall differentiation. Reusable technology allows for minimized development costs and reduces reliance on external suppliers.
Independent B2B suppliers face risks as their dependency on individual operators can lead to bespoke development roles that limit their revenue diversification. Gaspar advises that, rather than overhauling their core offerings, suppliers should tailor solutions to specific needs.
Even major operators may find it difficult to justify investments in proprietary development for lower-revenue sports, while independent suppliers can utilize economies of scale. The betting development firm is thus finding value in its dual role, whether integrated, independent, or operating in a hybrid model.
The critical question for the industry revolves around how operators can effectively harness specialist capabilities to craft products that attract customers.
