Radar is a relatively new entrant into the gaming industry space. But the provider of location-based products and services has plenty of experience. Founded seven years ago by Nick Patrick and Coby Berman, the company processes more than 100 billion API calls per year for companies including Dairy Queen, T-Mobile, and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
At the recent Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Patrick, who serves as CEO, recognized the complexity of providing services to the gaming industry.
“I would say we fundamentally see it as a geofencing challenge with fraud detection and a compliance layer on top,” Patrick said. “… How do you collect geolocation data, how do you make sure you trust it, how do you do it in a way that’s reliable and efficient?”
Patrick was attending his first G2E, but Radar has previously worked in the gaming space with Sleeper, a fantasy sports app. The myriad layers of compliance in various jurisdictions are obstacles that need to be addressed by the company in the gaming industry.
“There’s definitely added stakes and added complexity,” Patrick said. “But at the end of the day, I think the technical challenges around seeing if you’re inside a particular state or inside a casino geofence, we really excel at those technical challenges.”
Before co-founding Radar, Patrick worked with Berman at Foursquare, the location-based social app. He notes that Foursquare had challenges similar to problems that occur in gaming: People spoofing their location to check into places they weren’t actually at to unlock badges is similar to sports bettors trying to log into apps when outside legal jurisdictions.
After founding Radar, Patrick and Berman talked to operators and vendors who were seeking “more cost-effective” geolocation solutions that were developer-friendly and could power location use cases outside of mere compliance. Notably, operators and vendors sought solutions for in-stadium betting experiences or on-property casino app experiences.
“A lot of start-ups entering the gaming space have engineering teams that are looking for modern, flexible tools,” Patrick said. “That’s a big part of our approach. … Our customers have a really high bar when it comes to accuracy and reliability. We work with delivery tracking companies that need to make sure that location tracking works, and that it’s reliable and accurate. We work with big retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods, who want to understand when you’re in-store with a high degree of accuracy. Dairy Queen, they want to make sure they’re preparing your orders at the right time based on location.”
Those tools, Patrick thinks, can be formulated to meet the needs of gaming operators and companies.
“We’ve been around for a while and have worked with these big brands that, as consumers, we all know and love,” he said. “We’re processing 100 billion calls per year across a billion devices. … A lot of the compliance, regulatory stuff is new for us, but we’re able to work through that.”
