While Playbook Gaming Limited is the company that holds the license – the one that you will see named at the bottom of a sportsbook/casino website – it is Playbook Engineering that have built and developed the platform used by them and their white label customers.
They are the same company for all intents and purposes, but may cause confusion to gamblers looking for more information.
This is just done in order to run the business more efficiently, so won’t make a bit of difference to the end user, but if you are wondering why there are a few different but similar sounding company names out there, this is why.
So what do Playbook Gaming/Engineering do?
Well, they are a betting and gaming platform provider (so they offer a sportsbook and a casino platform) that is a relatively new entrant to the UK industry, but a fast growing one nonetheless.
With offices in London and Krakow (Poland) the company employs around 80 people, and has a handful of UK customers operating as white labels as well as a brand of their own; Rhino.
New Playbook Gaming Betting Sites
About the Platform
The product that Playbook have created is a good looking beast.
It’s easy to spot once you know what it looks like, so there is a ‘cookie cutter’ element to it, but this is true of any white label provider, and there are plenty of personalisation options available to the operators that use it.
Speaking of which, they are:
- BetZone (White Label)
- Bresbet (White Label)
- PlanetSportBet (White Label)
- Vickers (White Label)
- Rhino (Own brand)
More important than what we can see though, is what goes on behind the scenes and in the engine room.
It’s a good option for new entrants or more established brands, but you can see why Playbook would be an appealing option to smaller brands just getting off the ground; the modular platform is easy to use, comes with loads of back end tools that operators can use to target their offering, and most importantly, is scalable.
This means a brand can grow with the same platform, allowing them to bed in and not worry about the cost of switching over a few years down the line.
Key elements include:
- Managed Services – Things like customer support, compliance, and trading can all be handled by Playbook if required, meaning the brand itself can focus on marketing.
- Integration Options – To allow each operator to strategise and target a specific type of customer, they can integrate various different betting markets, features, and other options to build the product that will best suit their target market.
Essentially though Playbook can provide as much or as little for their white labels as they need, whether that be promotions and bonuses, business intelligence and a great visual dashboard that operators can use to track their performance, player account management, payment and KYC solutions, and more.
The Workforce
The team at Playbook are split into three broad departments:
- Product
- Engineering
- Operations
The product team is made up of people like business analysts, product owners, designers, and project managers, who are responsible for ensuring the platform continues to satisfy the betting community. The concentrate on the features and functionality of the platform, working with people in other areas of the business to bring it all together. You can think of them as conducting the orchestra.
The engineering team are the guys and girls who actually build the platform and make the whole thing work, then fix any bugs or issues when they arrive. An online betting platform is an incredibly complex machine, processing millions of pieces of information throughout the day, so it makes sense that there are more people working in the engineering department at Playbook than anywhere else.
If the engineering team keep the machine running in the background, the operations team handle everything that is more customer facing. These are people like customer service for bettors and gamers, technical support for business customers, compliance officers, and odds traders. They are there to create the markets and solve customer problems.
Two Up Digital
Added into the mix, although the link is a little unclear, is Two Up Digital.
This is a disruptive digital development and design agency specialising in the betting and gaming industries, and it was the old trading name registered under the license now held by Playbook Engineering.
The license was first issued in 2018 (although Two Up Digital has been registered with Companies House since 2016) and Playbook have only been in operation since 2020/21, with many staff members from Two Up now working for Playbook.
It looks like perhaps the two companies were once the same entity but were split off in order for them to concentrate on their own specialities and grow independently.
Like Playbook, Two Up Digital has offices in London and Krakow, and it looks like the company did used to offer platform services.
The link may be unclear, but the two companies certainly have history, lending Playbook another string to their bow because having strong ties with a specialist digital agency can only be a good thing for brands using the Playbook platform.
It certainly adds to their offering, even if indirectly.