With intense regulatory scrutiny and the looming business transition, Camelot required robust data foundations to ensure operational continuity, maintain compliance, and protect the National Lottery brand. Any system failures or data inconsistencies during the transition could have resulted in regulatory fines and reputational damage.
The Aim
Transform the data environment from liability to asset, modernise core systems to ensure data integrity, and enable a seamless, risk-mitigated transition to Allwyn. The aim was to fortify compliance capabilities whilst building a scalable, future-proof data platform that could support faster decision-making and operational agility.
Challenges
Camelot knew its data held critical business value, but the existing environment was compromised and the platform was impeding agility. Facing the licence transfer, the team confronted architectural and operational issues that posed direct threats to business continuity:
- Compromised data integrity: The legacy data reconciliation engine was unreliable and lacked transparency, forcing teams to perform manual, ad-hoc checks to validate data, creating operational risk and jeopardising trust in critical business and regulatory reporting.
- Architectural debt and fragmented systems: The data platform’s architectural debt resulted in fragmented systems and slow data ingestion processes that could take up to two months, preventing swift responses to market demands and limiting the ability to launch new games or promotions quickly.
- Business transition risk: With the company’s future ownership in question, a successful and fully auditable data environment was essential for a smooth licence transfer; any system failures during transition could have resulted in regulatory fines and brand damage.
- Budget constraints amid transformation: With changes to the National Lottery licensing, Camelot had already initiated spend reduction but needed to ensure core systems continued to operate, requiring careful budget allocation and smart decisions to minimise overheads whilst avoiding increased risk.
These combined challenges threatened operational continuity and regulatory compliance, signalling the need for a phased, strategic data platform modernisation.
Strategic Solutions
Analytics8 partnered with Camelot/Allwyn in a phased initiative to transform the data environment, focusing on rebuilding core systems and data practices to ensure integrity and operational efficiency.
- Strategic health check and roadmap. We conducted a thorough health check that identified and quantified the key risks and inefficiencies in ageing infrastructure, then developed a prioritised roadmap with careful budget allocation to ensure the platform continued to support the National Lottery whilst minimising overheads.
- Modernising the reconciliation engine. We replaced the legacy reconciliation and reporting systems with a modern, scalable, and auditable data framework that automated data validation and provided clear, transparent reporting, eliminating manual processes and fortifying compliance.
- Streamlining data ingestion. We implemented a new data ingestion framework to dramatically accelerate the onboarding of new data feeds, cutting the time from months to days and providing the business with agility to respond to market changes and integrate new game data with unprecedented speed.
- Enabling data-driven decisions. We modernised the data warehouse and BI platforms, establishing a single, unified source of truth for all player, game, and financial data, enabling gaming executives to make faster, more informed decisions based on reliable and timely insights.
- Seamless transition enablement. We ensured a smooth handover from Camelot to Allwyn through well-documented, stable systems and comprehensive knowledge transfer, protecting operational continuity for the National Lottery.
Technologies: Modern data warehouse, BI platforms, automated reconciliation framework.
Results
Camelot/Allwyn’s data platform modernisation delivered critical business value and enabled a successful transition, including:
- Enhanced regulatory compliance: The new reconciliation structure provided a robust, auditable data trail, essential for meeting the strict requirements of the Gambling Commission and protecting the company from regulatory fines and licence disputes.
- Operational agility restored: Streamlined data ingestion and automated processes provided the speed and flexibility needed to support new product launches and marketing campaigns, significantly improving time-to-market.
- Seamless business transition: Allwyn inherited a stable, well-documented, and high-performing data environment, critical for smooth transition and maintaining operational continuity for the National Lottery.
From reactive to proactive data environment: Modern, scalable foundations replaced fragmented legacy systems, creating a future-proof platform that can support Allwyn’s growth ambitions, including new product development and advanced analytics.