GLI: "Sports wagering is going to be the fastest-growing market going into 2020"

What are G2E attendants going to find at company’s booth this year?

We will be having a lot of fun in our booth at G2E. We will be unveiling what we are calling “The GLI Experience,” which will bring the lab to the tradeshow floor in an innovative, interactive way. We want to keep a bit of the surprise for the show, so without giving everything way, we will use technology that will allow attendees to see for themselves how GLI can light the way to everywhere they want to go. The GLI Experience is personally guided by our team of experts and includes up-close looks at the what, why, and how that set GLI apart from all other independent test labs. In addition to the GLI Experience, we will be talking with attendees about our testing/certification, consultation, and professional services that regulators, suppliers, and operators worldwide rely on every single day. We operate in mature and emerging land-based, iGaming, lottery, and sports wagering markets, and we have tested and certified more than 3 million items in over 475 jurisdictions. Experts from our labs around the world will be on hand, available to consult with attendees about the new technologies they see on the show floor, and with exhibitors about paths forward for their latest innovations.

GLI announced this year the appointments of three key executives in the Americas: Tina Kilmer, Senior Director of Engineering; Chris Kwon, iGaming Client Services Representative; and José Carlos Figueroa, Caribbean Government Relations and Business Development Representative. What brings each one of them to the company? Why are these roles important to GLI? Are you planning to announce other relevant appointment for this region?

What they all have in common is experience. At GLI, we carefully seek out our staff for their experience, insight, and value they will bring to our clients around the world. Tina has a trifecta of experience having served in operator, supplier, and regulatory capacities. That, combined with her extensive engineering background, give our clients a valuable consultative asset in their journey with GLI. As for Chris, we wanted to further expand our in-house knowledge base in sports betting and event wagering to provide even more value to our clients in this rapidly expanding area, and his eight-year tenure at SportsOptions allows him to give respected insights. Most recently, we brought José Carlos to GLI from the Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC). Because of his direct experience in evaluating, supervising, and coordinating the activities of the Gaming Division’s Fiscalization Area, our clients across the ever-growing LatAm region will benefit from his insights. These are just three of the latest examples of how our people are leading experts in their field, and this gives our clients value they will only find at GLI. As to whether we are planning to announce other relevant appointments at GLI, we are always in discussions with experts who might add value to our offerings globally, therefore the industry can rest assured that announcements such as these will continue to be made overtime - you’ll just have to stay tuned in this regard! 

Tina Kilmer will moderate the panel 'How Did You Do That and Why Not? How to Get Out of Your Own Way ', presented by Global Gaming Women, entity chaired by Christie Eickelman, GLI's VP of Global Marketing. How is this relevant for GLI? What can G2E expect from these presentations? 

We are thrilled that Christie is president of Global Gaming Women. She has been and continues to be a tireless advocate and mentor for women in gaming, and she is an inspiration to our 1,250+ employees – women and men. Tina is also a towering figure on the global gaming stage and is an equally passionate advocate for Global Gaming Women. Together, their deep involvement and high visibility are important for all our employees. As for this particular panel, women and men oftentimes get in their own way, and hearing from successful people of what had them stuck and how they got unstuck is an important life lesson, so we really encourage those wanting to learn more about this to attend the upcoming exciting panel at G2E.

What gaming segment are you expecting to grow the most in 2020? Why?

The land-based segment continues to be a challenging and competitive market that is growing at a slower rate than the recent introduction of sports wagering. Without a doubt, in our view, sports wagering is going to be the fastest-growing market going into 2020. We anticipate an even stronger focus on sports wagering from land-based expansion into new markets. It is exciting because suppliers worldwide are innovating in incredible ways with advancements in digital gaming, and that creativity is what makes our job at GLI so fun. We can foresee that iGaming is also going to grow in more segments, and every day is different. It is going to be a tremendous opportunity for states as suppliers look across opportunities on a state-by-state basis. Suppliers are looking to determine when the best time is to submit for testing and are increasingly submitting on a multi-tenant multi-state approach, in effect testing once but applying results to many jurisdictions simultaneously in order to deploy to multiple markets. To achieve this, they are looking to find what forms of sports betting are permitted based on jurisdictional criteria in the hopes to have a better understanding of what will lead to the path to least resistance for getting their products to numerous markets faster. For that, GLI is here to help. GLI specializes in analyzing and testing sports and event wagering systems, and those assessments can be applied to many forms of betting to ensure suppliers are set up for success from the start. As a company, we are celebrating 30 years serving the industry, and if you would have asked this question 30 years ago, no one could have imagined the exhilarating journey that lay ahead. That’s where we are today. The gaming industry is fortunate to have the world’s most creative people developing products for end-consumers. This industry is continually innovating and preparing ways for every segment to grow, and GLI will be along for the exciting ride every step of the way.