The situation
Metric Gaming builds sportsbook technology for betting operators in tightly regulated markets.
To grow, its platform had to pass GLI-33, the Gaming Laboratories International standard for event wagering systems and one of the toughest sets of gambling regulations anywhere. Engineering was spread across Europe, Asia and the Middle East: 53 engineers in nine countries and seven time zones. Shortly after I arrived, the CTO stepped down and most of that responsibility moved to me.
What I did
- Ran a department-wide productivity review that surfaced blind spots in planning, ownership and support.
- Restructured teams around people's strengths and business outcomes, using urgent hiring, internal promotions and capacity changes to close the gaps.
- Introduced earlier, more thorough planning for large initiatives, with a zero-waste approach to delivery.
- Moved the platform to 16/24 support by default, using the spread of time zones instead of fighting it.
How it was built
The back end was serverless Go on AWS: small, single-purpose functions on AWS Lambda, with Kafka carrying events between them. On the front end, React micro-frontends shipped as web components, served through Next.js and Node.js, with Storyblok for content and a shadcn/ui, Radix and Tailwind CSS design system. I worked across both.
- Go
- Serverless
- AWS Lambda
- Kafka
- AWS
- React
- Web Components
- Next.js
- Node.js
- Storyblok
- shadcn/ui
- Radix
- Tailwind CSS
The result
Passed first time. The auditor's verdict: exemplary.
The platform passed GLI-33 first time, and the third-party auditor called the result exemplary. That assessment supported a $300m corporate valuation, and investors put further money into the business.
Productivity across the department rose by 36%. Operating costs fell by $1.6m a year, and $600k of that was reinvested in new hires.