Founded in 1967 by CEO Fred Done in a Salford betting shop, online betting giant BetFred has come a long way As one of the largest online betting companies in Europe, Betfred.com offers a full range of 24/7 sports betting, online casino, online games, bingo, lotto, online poker, and virtual sports as well as pool betting. The company recently undertook a multi-million pound revamp of the 50,000-square-foot Spectrum building as its new HQ in Warrington, with Aetria from Datapath emerging as the solution for comprehensive content flexibility.
[Toto... We're Not in Kansas Anymore—'Wizard of Oz' Hits the Vegas Sphere]
With a wealth of video data and technology running round the clock, the company wanted to improve its digital signage messaging, with several displays in prominent positions throughout the building. Content was to come from a variety of sources, including employee messages, news, live TV and company information. Consisting of two 4x3 video walls in the main office area and a 3x2 video wall, plus a single display, in the reception area, the requirement was to use a single user interface for control of content across all displays, powered by Aetria.
For Duncan McDonald, head of retail support at BetFred, past experiences of working with Datapath made them the frontrunner for supporting technology following a considerable HQ investment. “When our CEO, Joanne Whittaker, decided to embark on a huge refurb for our head office operation, she invested about £10 million in turning this iconic building, which goes back to the 1970s, into something that was really going to appeal to our employees,” he said.
“From a technology standpoint, it needed to spark innovation and stimulate growth & creativity among our teams. Our relationship with Datapath goes back nearly ten years—to when we asked them to help with our sportsbook installations in America. For us, Datapath was the obvious choice. We needed that wow factor. We needed, something that turned people's heads and gave them a positive place to focus for employee news, for live TV, for information about the company and its goals as well as targets and things that we’re working on.”
At the heart of the video management, and working in tandem, are Datapath’s VSN V3 video wall controller, along with a VSNMicro 600 supporting pixel management in BetFred’s reception area.
Equipped with several Image 2K graphics cards and VisionSC-HD4 capture cards, the system allows for full ‘any content, anywhere’ capability, with Aetria-WC-PRO software allowing operators to easily switch content sources or display templates.
Following installation, Datapath provided a comprehensive commissioning service to BetFred staff, giving them side-by-side support to ensure optimal efficiency with bespoke templates and layouts, as well as ensuring operators had instant access to the tools required for full display control. During the commissioning phase, any pain points can be addressed, giving complete peace of mind to BetFred’s end users.
With the project now up and running for several weeks, McDonald has high praise for both the installation process and the end result. “It does exactly what you expect it to do, and It does it very well,” he concluded. “The installation itself was seamless, and the operation of it since has very much ‘set it and forget it’ from the point of view of a technical install, which is ideally what you want.
“From the very beginning, the planning, installation and ongoing support that we have received from Datapath has been, as it always is, absolutely outstanding. We knew early on that we'd made the right choice. You want something to just go in and do what it says it's going to do really well. This system from Datapath does exactly that.”