In the rapidly changing iGaming industry, maintaining a competitive edge requires not only expertise and experience but also a deep understanding of this unique field.
Staying ahead means keeping updated with information, and one of the most effective ways is to learn from others. Everyone has valuable experiences to share, and PASA brings their insights directly to our readers. We are delighted to present a conversation with Glenn Debattista, the COO of Revpanda.
Can you share your experience in the iGaming industry and how it led you to become the COO of Revpanda?
Glenn Debattista: I have been in this industry for 19 years, and I would describe this journey as akin to The Beatles' song "The Long and Winding Road." I started as a trader at a German sports betting company when iGaming companies began settling in Malta. From there, I gradually advanced and became a trading manager for operators in the first 15 years.
Later, I shifted towards affiliate marketing, focusing more on the product side. As a product manager, I found myself constantly leaning towards understanding and building products. Eventually, a great opportunity arose, and I took over as the COO of Revpanda, a digital marketing agency. This means I have experience in most verticals of the industry, from operators to affiliates to service providers.
As the COO of Revpanda, what are the biggest challenges you face in overseeing daily operations, and how do you overcome them?
Glenn Debattista: Some of the biggest challenges include ensuring we deliver quality services to our clients on time. This means dealing with personnel who need to follow dynamic and constantly updated processes to improve daily. While perfection is unattainable, having the right mindset, ideas, and contingency plans is crucial.
Can you share more about the company's mission and its key services that help businesses dominate in the industry?
Glenn Debattista: We stand out because we are a team passionate about digital marketing, and we take our clients' missions as our own. We provide everything our clients need to dominate in the industry through cutting-edge SEO support and development services.
How do your skills impact your approach to work at Revpanda?
Glenn Debattista: I believe that having worked with operators and affiliates helps me understand the client's perspective, meaning, standing in the client's shoes. I can understand their needs, why they need them, and anticipate their requirements. I believe understanding the client is the foundation of providing the right service.
Could you talk in detail about your experience in odds compilation, risk management, and trading? How have these skills helped you succeed in the iGaming industry?
Glenn Debattista: I still enjoy using mathematical algorithms for odds compilation, which was my previous job, and the fun of playing with numbers on Excel spreadsheets, which gave me new skills during the sports betting era.
Looking back at our starting point nearly two decades ago, most sports betting companies' trading departments manually handled odds compilation, risk management, and trading. However, since then, things have significantly changed. Nowadays, these processes are mostly automated or managed through third-party services. This shift in approach means that newcomers might not have the opportunity to learn this role from a theoretical perspective.
Indeed, these experiences are not only valuable to me but also to others of our generation in our iGaming journey.
What strategies have you adopted to ensure Revpanda's quality and performance standards are at their highest?
Glenn Debattista: As mentioned earlier, it depends on having the right processes. Ensuring quality and performance standards are at their highest is crucial for any successful company, especially for service providers that need to ensure clients receive results beyond expectations from an agency.
How do you balance executing the company's vision and goals with the ever-changing iGaming market and client needs?
Glenn Debattista: It's all about adapting and predicting the market. By ensuring any new demands are met to adapt, and predicting is foreseeing the next trend or need in the market. If you can do both, you have the perfect recipe for success in the ever-changing iGaming market.
Looking ahead, what trends or innovations in the iGaming industry do you think will have the biggest impact on Revpanda's operations?
Glenn Debattista: I think over the past year, people have realized that AI content does not perform well on Google. Therefore, services like ours become even more important, directing traffic to clients' websites through SEO and sometimes even fixing issues caused by AI content. Perhaps this is like what the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr said, "plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same)," meaning services like ours will always be in demand.
Insights from an iGaming Industry COO
With 19 years of experience covering operators, affiliates, and agencies, Glenn Debattista has honed his skills as a problem solver, networker, and company connector. From his early days as a sports writer for a European football website to his current role at Revpanda, Glenn's career has been marked by a pursuit of excellence.
As a certified Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO), Glenn is not only an iGaming expert, he is also a passionate board gamer and holds high regard for football legend Zinedine Zidane. If not serving as Revpanda's operations director, Glenn says he would pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, carving his own path in the iGaming industry.
