Episode 38: Dan Phillips to discuss product innovation at iGB L!VE
Right to the Source welcomes its first guest in a while this week. Dan Phillips, CEO and Founder of NEL Advisory, joins Robin Harrison and Ed Birkin ahead of iGB L!VE to discuss product innovation and the recurrent grey market debate.
Product innovation: evolution or illusion?
Before diving into the industry talk, Dan shares what it was like starting out as a dealer at a basement casino in Soho in 1996. Thirty years on, he brings a seasoned perspective to one of the episode’s central questions: has the industry actually innovated?
Ed thinks not. Bet builders are just multiples repackaged, prediction markets are regulatory arbitrage, and live casino has been around forever. Robin argues that real innovation is iterative problem-solving rather than headline-grabbing product launches.
Dan lands somewhere in the middle: the industry is better at merging concepts than creating new ones. You cannot uninvent something, so the only sensible move is to embrace it.
Where all three find common ground is on AI. Dan’s view is that its real value lies in true personalisation, not in Amazon-style recommendations. Ed agrees the potential is there, having watched the industry talk about personalisation for 15 years without delivering it.
The grey market debate
Do operators that built their businesses in unregulated markets deserve credit for eventually going legit? Ed, Robin and Dan all land in different places on this one. Tune in to find out where each of them stands, and the hint is that nobody fully agrees.
Getting ready for iGB L!VE
What is Open Space?
As part of iGB Executive, the Open Space session at iGB L!VE brings operators, suppliers and product leaders into the same room for something deliberately different from a standard panel.
Taking place on Wednesday 1 July, from 2:30pm to 4:00pm in the South Gallery at ExCeL London, the format is audience-led and runs under Chatham House rules – no recording, no report, just open conversation.
Dan will be facilitating, moving between breakout tables and pushing the debate where needed. Around 70 people have signed up, and when asked in advance what they wanted to discuss, 36% said AI, 12% customer engagement and retention and 11% payments.
The session will also feature live voting and open idea sharing. As Dan puts it, the point is to have conversations that simply do not happen on panels.
Where to find your RTTS hosts
Ed will be on the taxation and channelisation panel at 2:00pm on Wednesday 1 July as part of the Africa Summit, and on the prediction markets and World Cup panel at 2:00pm on Thursday 2 July.
Robin will be hosting a fireside chat at the Startup Accelerator on 30 June and MCing the Africa Summit on 1 July. If you see any of them, do go and say hello.
If you want to revisit any previous episodes before the show, the full Right to the Source series is right here. See you at the show!