BMM: "We are deeply committed to transforming the performance of the industry while protecting its patrons"

BMM Testlabs, a pioneer gaming lab and a global player in testing and certification, is entering a new chapter in its four-decade history. Earlier this year, the company announced that The Visualize Group (TVG), led by C.C. Melvin Ike, had acquired a 60% stake in BMM. Despite the transaction, long-serving CEO Martin Storm, who has been at the helm for 23 years, continues to lead the company through a period of rapid expansion, record revenues, and new international market entries.

In this exclusive conversation with Yogonet, Storm talked about the decision to partner with TVG, BMM’s strong financial performance in 2025, its progress across land-based and digital gaming, the shifting dynamics of the gaming lab sector, and the company’s future ambitions. He also shared his views on industry consolidation, leadership continuity, and why BMM remains committed to transforming gaming while protecting players.

BMM is booming. What motivated you to partner with C.C. Melvin Ike with The Visualize Group at this time and sell 60 percent of BMM, yet remain to lead and grow the business?

I had many opportunities over the years to sell the business. It seems like everyone wanted a piece of BMM. Valuations aside, it’s always about the people; those who are truly committed to your success, and those who want to advance the industry meaningfully. After so many introductions and not finding the right people, I was introduced to Melvin Ike. Mel was different from others I had met from the biggest private equity firms in the world, even though he was ex-Blackstone, one of the largest.

He wasn’t just excited by deploying capital; he wanted to genuinely help build the business, be authentically involved, add value, both strategically and operationally, and help grow our people. He redefined the meaning of a committed investor relationship for me, and as a CEO with 23 years’ experience staying on to lead, that was important to me. I want BMM to make a real difference in the gaming industry and the world.

We are deeply committed to transforming the performance of the industry while protecting its patrons. While BMM is doing so well right now, there are strong indications that TVG can turbo-charge our business going forward. Everything we have planned for a decade now seems possible with our evolving relationship with The Visualize Group.

BMM is 44 years old now and you have led the business for 23 years through a global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and BMM’s international expansion from Australia into 15 countries. BMM has achieved nearly a decade of consecutive financial growth, even during COVID. How is BMM progressing financially in 2025?

Firstly, let me thank our customers for their continued business and support, and our staff for making sacrifices to meet our customer demand. They are all doing their very best, and I appreciate them.

With the goal of servicing our customers more effectively as they expanded globally, we made structural changes to globalize our business in 2024, which took many leaders and staff out of their comfort zones. While we continue to improve, I know we are better today for those important changes in our quantum of communication, both internally and externally, our business velocity, our consistent quality, and our financial performance.

In the first half of 2025, our revenues were up nearly 25% percent, and our profits more. In our key lines of business, the land-based gaming testing and certifications segment is up 20 percent year-over-year against 4 percent segment growth, and our digital gaming business grew nearly 30 percent against 11 percent segment growth.

Customers are voting with their business allocation to BMM, and I feel like we are only just getting started. My business goal for BMM is that it will be the No. 1 gaming lab in the world by driving the highest quality and integrity alongside the most efficient and responsive service. And I intend to remain as CEO to finish what I started and lead the business to that goal.

What’s driving such strong growth?

In land-based gaming, in early 2025, we completed effective U.S market access, giving us full access to the Class 3 gaming certification market for the very first time. As the owner of BMM, it took me nearly a quarter of a century and $20 million to achieve that. In the burgeoning online gaming markets in Europe, Asia, and Brazil, we are now fully engaged and becoming the preferred lab for medium and large providers.

In our service delivery departments, we’ve made material investments in staff and infrastructure, and we are getting much better at matching supply with demand. With such growth, it hasn’t been easy, but we are getting to where we want to be. And ultimately, we genuinely care about our customers, and that supports growth.

While you are growing very strongly across both land-based and digital gaming testing, has your segment investment profile changed at all?

For the first 17 years I was at BMM, we focused 90 percent of our go-to-market investment in land-based gaming, in particular sales and marketing. Over the last seven years, we have balanced that land-based focus with a growing investment in the digital segment of iGaming and sports betting. Now I feel we are equally committed to both. But it’s still very challenging as we support up to 80 gaming shows each year with a very high number of digital-specific shows. 

How did your company manage to carve out its place in the market?

It took us more than 20 years to get access to all the markets we needed. Now that we are finally in, I can understand why some of the other labs have decided to move on from the business. We feel like we have been leaders for a long time, but the challenge was, not everyone saw it. But the right customers knew. The gaming lab segment is very hidden in the industry.

Customers know that we listen, that our value proposition is highly thoughtful, that we are fair and balanced in our pricing, i.e., we don’t gouge hours and rates like some others, that we care about the customer, that we don’t use fancy marketing firms, and that we excel based on good old-fashioned effort, service, and excellence. We don’t just illuminate; we try to shine. 

One more question about the other recent transaction in the industry. GLI was recently acquired by Avalon, a new special-purpose structure within CVC Capital Partners. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I was clear with Mel at TVG that if they were to invest in BMM, I emphasized two non-negotiables: avoiding conflicts of interest and ensuring leadership continuity. On conflicts, TVG could have no interest in any gaming company that is or could be a BMM customer. That’s just how it should be, fancy structures or not. Independent test labs serve as the backbone of the $100 billion+ gaming industry. Avoiding any potential conflict is the only way to maintain the health and integrity of the industry. We hope other gaming labs appreciate the importance of this as much as we do. 

The second key issue was leadership continuity, which ties directly with the first. Leadership of the test labs has been continuous for several decades, and that continuity has helped uphold trust and standards. I have significant concerns when sudden leadership changes are brought about by conflicted parties. Continuity is important to maintain the integrity of the business.

While I don’t know what GLI’s leadership plans are, I do know that I’m staying at BMM as CEO. There is so much to do and learn, so much more to innovate in this industry, so much more value to deliver, and so many more people to educate about how we need to operate in this industry. I want to lead in that effort.

I heard that U.S gaming industry icon Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. recently retired from the BMM Board of Directors after 12 years of service. Is that true?

Yes, in late April, BMM celebrated Frank Fahrenkopf’s last global compliance committee and board of directors meeting with BMM. With the future changes at BMM, the timing made sense. Frank joined the BMM Board of Directors in early 2014 and made an outstanding contribution to BMM’s growth and stability, helping the business navigate its way from an emerging international business into an established global operation.

At a special thank you dinner in Las Vegas, the leadership of BMM from all over the world celebrated Frank’s contribution to the business with heartfelt speeches and great humor. I am eternally grateful for Frank’s support, contribution, experience, and good cheer. I can assure you that those who know and have worked with Frank at BMM will miss him.

BMM recently announced that it has opened a new BMM lab in São Paulo, Brazil. What is your strategy there?

Firstly, we are deeply committed to gaining access to new regulated gaming markets for our customers. We are licensed in Brazil and, more recently, the UAE, another emerging market. Brazil is a very exciting market that accepts iGaming, sports betting, and now VLT solutions. We have never been busier, servicing new customers in Brazil and transferring work from overseas there. We await land-based gaming as the next phase. Our lab is up and running in São Paulo, and we are billing from Brazil. 

As a last question, what’s next for BMM and Martin Storm?

We have a relentless focus on industry transformation and gaming lab leadership, and we will achieve this through innovation and strategic growth. That sounded very scripted, didn’t it? How about this? Let’s just work very hard, service our customers, do a great job, and have some fun!!