Max Meltzer
5 QUESTIONS
Strive Gaming was formed in 2021 by former Kambi executives Max Meltzer and Damian Xuereb . The company features a platform for sports betting and iGaming , as well as other products . Strive has staff in Canada , the U . K . and Malta and focuses purely on serving the North American market . Meltzer has a master ’ s degree in law with a focus on U . S . and U . K . comparative law and IP law from Durham University . He sat down with GGB Publisher Roger Gros at G2E in Las Vegas in October . To hear and view a GGB Podcast of this interview , visit GGBMagazine . com .
1
GGB : You have a great deal of experience in in the iGaming sector . Tell us what ’ s happened with Strive over the last three years . Meltzer : It ’ s been a wonderful ride since my co-founder Damian and I left Kambi just over three years ago and set up Strive Gaming . It ’ s been quite a great journey . We ’ ve got customers such as Golden Nugget , now owned by DraftKings , PointsBet and BetSafe in Ontario . We ’ ve also got Desert Diamond in Arizona , Four Winds , the tribal casino leaders In Michigan and various others . So it ’ s been very exciting as we continue to grow .
2
What do you do for your clients ?
Fundamentally , we ’ re a player account management system — end to end . We also provide app development services and managed services in the form of customer payment risk and fraud agents . We fundamentally think that our PAM ( player account management ) technology , our modularized approach and our bonus rules engine , which is called the Infinity Engine , give us one of the leading platforms in the U . S . and Canada .
3
How is your platform different than others ?
First of all , we are and were completely designed from the beginning to serve the North American customer base . There are a lot of older technologies out there that are kind of off the shelf from other jurisdictions . I don ’ t think it ’ s too disruptive to say that there are PAMs that were basically social casino-based . They are almost 20 years old , these tech stacks . What we ’ ve designed are very adaptable to the regulatory complexities of going live in modern , multi-state requirements of each and every state that allows regulated sports betting and / or iGaming since PASPA was repealed . During that time , particularly our first year , there were so many different regulations occurring while people were trying to quickly get to market . And that ’ s very difficult to do with some of those old monolithic systems .
4
Obviously , operators want their system to capture as much information from the player as possible . How do you do that ? In essence , we have a very great-looking back end that ’ s a bit like the iTunes of the world . You have all of your customer information inside of it , but also the ease of the ability to integrate it with new content providers , geolocation providers , payment providers and others . And obviously , particularly for our customers that have casino licenses in the iGaming states , being able to quickly integrate and onboard casino customers with new content is really , really important . That ’ s not readily available with many other PAMs .
And then training is a big part of our onboarding process . We have a training regime where we demonstrate how it works and then we kind of a train the trainer . One of the biggest value adds that Strive offers is that we actually try to offer any operational assistance , not just our managed services group . It adds value to provide more in the form of consultative and operational support alongside our managed services offering to operators , particularly tribal casinos .
5
Max Meltzer
Chief Executive Officer , Strive Gaming
Do you have modules for responsible gaming as well ?
I think one of the greatest tool sets that we have is the Infinity Rules Engine . When you set it up appropriately from an operator perspective , you can actually identify player behaviors very quickly so you can try to rectify or address any issues that come up . We ’ re very proud of the fact that we are able to utilize that for responsible gaming as well .
“ They Said It ”
“ We ’ ve had tens of thousands of people link already and , as you would expect , they are placing more bets , so that means higher GGR , higher handle . They are also consuming more on ESPN . They are real superfans . It ’ s a foundational experience that will allow us to really personalize .”
— Aaron LaBerge , chief technology officer at Penn Entertainment , touting the ESPN-ESPN Bet integration capabilities on Penn ’ s third-quarter earnings call
CALENDAR
December 2-4 : Thai Entertainment Complex Summit , Bangkok Marriott Hotel The Surawongse , Bangkok , Thailand . Produced by Winna Media . For more information , visit winnamedia . com .
December 4 : Global Regulatory Awards , Grand Connaught Rooms , London , U . K . Produced by Vixio . For more information , visit gamblingcomplianceawards . com .
December 3-5 : Certificate in Gaming Leadership , River Spirit Casino , Tulsa , Oklahoma . Produced by the OSU Spears School of Business . For more information , visit business . okstate . edu .
December 9-11 : Global Symposium on Racing , Loews Ventana Canyon Resort , Tucson , Arizona . Produced by the University of Arizona . For more information , visit rtip . arizona . edu .
January 20-22 : ICE Barcelona , Fira Barcelona Gran Via , Barcelona , Spain . Produced by Clarion Gaming . For more information , visit icegaming . com .
February 23-25 : SiGMA Eurasia , Dubai Festival City , Dubai , United Arab Emirates . Produced by SiGMA Group . For more information , visit sigma . world / eurasia .
February 25-27 : SBC Summit Rio , Riocentro , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil . Produced by SBC Events . For more information , visit sbcevents . com / sbc-summit-rio .
March 11-13 : World Game Protection Conference , Rio Hotel Casino , Las Vegas . Produced by World Game Protection . For more information , visit WorldGameProtection . com
March 12-13 : NEXT Summit New York 2025 , Convene , New York City , New York . Produced by NEXT . io . For more information , visit next . io / summits / newyork .
March 31-April 3 : Indian Gaming Tradeshow & Convention , San Diego Convention Center , San Diego , California . Produced by the Indian Gaming Association . For more information , visit indiangamingtradeshow . com .
8 Global Gaming Business DECEMBER 2024