INSIGHT
ACT EARLY
TO ATTRACT
TOP TECH TALENT
A new internship-industry partnership between Stride Gaming and King’s College London is now up and
running. Keen to bolster its technology expertise and to attract, and eventually retain, the best graduates,
Eitan Boyd reports on why the scheme is proving to be a success
THE WORLD HAS WOKEN UP to
the value of data analytics and business
intelligence, and there is fierce competition
to attract talent in these areas.
Naturally, as the demand for data
scientists grows, more students will want
to embark on a career in the field which
means they’ll be looking for opportunities.
To gain a valuable edge in recruitment,
companies must start building relationships
as early as possible. For Stride Gaming,
this meant going back to university.
Working partnership
Earlier this year, we launched an internship
programme with King’s College London
to recruit some of the best minds in
business intelligence and data analytics.
Our experience showed that the gambling
industry as a whole could do more to
publicise the innovative and tech-driven
nature of its work. As well as taking pride
in our product, we realised we should also
promote the processes that get us there and
the cutting-edge work we do every day to
stay ahead of the curve.
With the advent of machine learning
and rapid developments in data science, our
work is always changing – there are always
new technologies and there is always
something to learn.
We’re always looking for innovation,
for the next competitive edge. While this
is all part of the day-to-day work for those
of us on the inside, it’s exactly the kind of
challenge that excites talented young men
and women.
Stride tasked King’s College students
and employees to design a tech-driven
innovative environment. We emphasised
the technology element of our work,
highlighting the processes the students
would be involved in and the techniques
they would learn.
As a company and an industry we have
some of the most talented technology
teams, and the chance to gain real-world
experience via an internship alongside
leaders in their field was enough to capture
the imagination of these ambitious students.
Our interns work closely with our
experienced tech team to help build
and design algorithms that wi ll power
our product and platform features.
This work involves quantitative analysis
and complex statistical modelling,
which will produce cutting-edge
industry insights and form part of wider
research and development. Internship
programmes can help students develop
“Interns are a fantastic way to bring new
and innovative ideas into the team”
Talented young people want to work in
an energetic environment, somewhere fun
and interactive. With this in mind, we ran a
fun-filled, pizza-fuelled induction day at the
end of the recruitment process, rather than
hold a series of interviews. We ended up
with three talented interns, and their impact
at Stride has been very positive. Before
launching straight into a recruitment drive,
it is important operators consider how best
to present the work they do to appeal to the
talent they’re hoping to attract.
existing data and mathematical knowledge
into commercially sought-after work
experience and know-how.
Our aim is to turn these students into
fully fledged employees. By starting early,
we are providing them with training and
kick-starting their careers, so that when they
venture into the world of work we are at the
top of their list of potential employers.
Commercial aims
Interns are a fantastic way to bring new and
innovative ideas into the team. Companies
can benefit from a fresh set of eyes and
use this perspective to their advantage by
working closely with interns to develop
and test new hypotheses. Furthermore,
the interns are working with the latest
technologies on exciting projects and
gaining highly marketable skills, and in our
case the fact that data science and business
intelligence are such in-demand areas
makes it all the more beneficial.
EITAN BOYD is CEO of Stride
Gaming. He has more than
17 years’ experience in the
igaming sector. He was a
founder of the GlobalCom
bingo network (now the Dragonfish
platform and one of the largest bingo
networks worldwide), which was sold to
888 Holdings plc for US$42m in 2007.
Boyd was also responsible for building
the Wink Bingo network until it was sold
to 888 Holdings plc for £60m in 2010.
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