When entering a new industry or launching a new product, there will inevitably be jitters or nerves over the uptake or interest from the market. Particularly if there are well established names already in the space, making a good first impression is paramount to success.
So when Radar first entered the gaming industry last year, bringing its geolocation and geofencing tools to the market, CEO Nick Patrick had optimistic but realistic expectations.
But the company, which has over eight years of geofencing experience after honing its craft in other areas such as real estate, retail and e-commerce, has come to the industry and made a splash in the market.
Patrick, who co-founded Radar, tells SBC Americas that the firm has experienced overwhelming levels of demand for its solutions throughout 2024.
“The last few months have been great,” he says. “We have crossed 30 enterprise gaming customers including a really nice mix of sportsbook, igaming, ilottery and sweepstakes. We have also passed a billion API calls per day between gaming and other verticals. So the adoption of the platform continues to really grow.”
Since last speaking with SBC during the summer, Patrick and Radar have been busy working to sign up new clients and launch new products, including Geo-Compliance Premium, which packages together its compliance and location spoofing detection and fraud detection technologies for the most sophisticated multi-state sportsbook and igaming operators.
It is these kinds of bespoke developments that Radar knew had to be developed for the gaming industry after taking into account the specific nuances of the space.
While entering a new market can certainly be challenging, Patrick has been a regular bettor himself and notes that coming into the gaming space has been “a lot of fun”.
But rather than purely fun, Radar’s gaming industry entry signifies its determination to be the leading geolocation service provider across several industries.
“Our vision is location infrastructure for every product and service,” Patrick asserts. “We want to be the location solution for gaming and the location solution for real estate, retail, e-commerce, restaurants and travel.
“We’re always looking for verticals where there’s an acute need, and we’ve seen a ton of demand (in gaming). Pretty much every operator and vendor is exploring alternative geolocation solutions, so we’ve just had a lot of success in winning early customers.”
Rather than resting on its laurels and taking those early wins, Radar seeks to build on the momentum it has gathered over the last few months. The firm is headed to Las Vegas for G2E next week, where it aims to demo its solutions and entice new customers to take up its services.
Having first attended the show in 2023, the firm is relishing the opportunity to “show off” the dashboard and sample app, while meeting new and existing customers.
“We’ll have almost a quarter of the company out there and really, the goal is just to meet existing customers, prospects, and partners while continuing to tell the story,” Patrick says. “We find it really valuable to get out and talk to customers, learn where their pain points are, where their opportunities are and get their hands on the products.”
Expanding its visibility and potential customer base is at the heart of Radar’s strategy and underscores its consecutive appearances at industry conferences in the last year.
Another key way of improving its visibility is through synergistic partnerships with like-minded firms. That is why Radar has inked deals with compliance consultancy IC360 and compliance analytics firm LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
By integrating into IC360’s Prohibet and LexisNexis’s suite of compliance tools, Radar can take advantage of the opportunities they bring, according to Patrick, as these companies already have existing relationships with North America’s biggest operators.
Patrick elaborates: “By integrating Radar on another platform, you’re unlocking a lot of value, and that value could take the form of new ways you can use your data, or ease of integration.
“If you’re already using a partner’s tools, it becomes easier to adopt Radar as part of that toolkit and use that joint, joint expertise. I think both IC360 and LexisNexis fit that mold.”
Despite making progress in several quarters during 2024, Radar still has many goals to achieve. Key to this will be the incoming appointment of its Head of Gaming who is set to be announced publicly soon.
The new appointment will be tasked with onboarding new sportsbooks and igaming operators onto the platform as Radar seeks to be the leading gaming supplier of geolocation technology.
Further, it will continue to make progress in becoming licensed across North America. Currently ready to operate in 16 jurisdictions, the firm aims to be licensed in all North American jurisdictions where online sportsbook and igaming are legal by Q1 of 2025.
But its ambitions are not just fixed to North America. Like many operators and suppliers, Radar is observing the developments of Brazil with eager eyes and seeks to take its presence into the country as it establishes a federal framework for the regulation of sports betting and igaming.
“We are ready to serve tier one operators across the board and in 2025 outside of the US, Brazil is a big focus for us,” says Patrick. “We’ve signed a few Brazil operators and we’re going to be on the ground at SBC Summit Rio in February.”
He concludes: “We continue to be overwhelmed by the demand and we’re getting live with more and more customers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re at 50 plus enterprise gaming customers by the end of the year. It’s our fastest growing vertical and I think it’s going to be a really exciting next couple quarters.”
