Success story

Taking business to a whole new level with learning

2021 was an extraordinary year for Kambi. The B2B provider of premium sports betting services to licensed B2C gaming operators grew its sports betting network significantly, adding eight new partners across Europe, the Americas and Australia. But that’s not all; the business won eight industry awards, acquired the esports data, content, and odds provider Abios, and launched its services in a further five US states, which now allow legal sports betting following the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Indeed, 2021 was a major year of growth, bolstered even further by the adoption of professional learning and skills development that would take the team behind the world’s most powerful sports betting network to a whole new level.

The Challenge

Engaging the workforce in technical and soft skills development

With offices in Malta, Bucharest, London, Manila, Sydney, Uppsala, Philadelphia, and Stockholm, and a growing workforce – 1,000 passionate and highly skilled people – it was essential that Kambi embraced learning. The business realised that its Engineering team – the brains developing the company’s exciting and innovative products – required access to specific skills development and training.

“We had the platform in place to host our learning but didn’t have the quality content available to pull people to it,” explained Dan Allen, Global Learning and Development Manager at Kambi. “We wanted a learning offer that would cover the technical skills for our Engineering and Sportsbook teams primarily, as they cover around 80 per cent of the headcount. What we also wanted to ensure is that we also provided the soft skills for personal development in areas such as management and leadership. The Sportsbook solution was industry-specific, so we found that supplier within the industry. LinkedIn Learning was chosen based on the fact they could cater for both the technical skills for the Engineering team and the rest of the business and soft skills for personal development.”

The Solution

Fully immerse yourself in learning

Kambi has worked with LinkedIn for some time and uses Recruiter, Job Slots, Company Pages, and Enterprise. Kambi trialled LinkedIn Learning in September 2020 and the feedback was phenomenal. Dan continued: “We engaged the entire workforce prior to the trial period and gave everyone access to the platform when the LinkedIn Learning trial went live. We conducted surveys and held workshops to discuss people’s likes and dislikes and we asked our engineers to review specific content. Once we had received all the feedback from the trial, we content mapped all the information, fully immersed ourselves in the trial, and fully tested LinkedIn Learning.”

The feedback was “overwhelmingly good”, and in January 2021, Kambi adopted LinkedIn Learning. Dan added: “When we adopted LinkedIn Learning, our workforce – especially our Engineering team – were already engaged. The trial gave them an insight into the learning platform so by the time we rolled it out, they knew where to find things because they had had a chance to explore.”


Meeting development and compliance objectives

Kambi purchased 1,000 LinkedIn Learning licenses. The business wanted employees to learn. LinkedIn Learning gave the company access to “any-time learning”. For instance, if a member of the Engineering team wanted to learn a new skill, they could find a video and quickly learn something new.

Kambi trains employees using a mix of LinkedIn Learning and Kambi-created content. In fact, the second most popular Learning Path is one that the business has developed itself – 'what is DevOps?' Even more popular is Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) training.

“We used to have our own expert visiting each office delivering training around online security, including OWASP training, to satisfy our audit requirements,” Dan commented. “Every year, we must demonstrate that we are training our employees on this topic. LinkedIn Learning now helps us massively, not only from a developmental perspective but also from a compliance perspective. LinkedIn is important to us.”


With great content, you can achieve great things

According to Dan, Kambi’s Engineering team is driven and strives for personal and professional development. With the right blend of learning, the right content, and the product, the company can achieve great things. However, Kambi did not just adopt LinkedIn Learning because it wished to deliver specific technical skills training. LinkedIn Learning was also embraced as Kambi wished to focus on manager development.

Dan and his team created The Manager Academy. When managers signed up for the workshop, they received useful information with links to relevant coaching and training.

“I curated lots of content around the different pillars of being a manager,” Dan explained. “This was sent out to all management and replicated within our learning hub so that managers could easily assign learning to their teams.”


The 70-20-10 method

Kambi has a consistent approach to learning. With every communication campaign or launch, learning is included as standard, and senior management is involved in communication too.

For example, OWASP training was launched by Kris Saw, Kambi’s Chief Technology Officer, and Paul Jones, Kambi’s SVP People and Culture, who believe that key stakeholders should be engaged in the process.

“We attach learning to every initiative,” Dan added. “Last summer, I held a series of Lunch and Learn workshops. Managers would attend and then choose the learning for the next session. We learn, we discuss, and we implement. It’s the 70-20-10 method. We spend 10 per cent of our time on formal learning, 20 per cent of our time doing facilitated learning and discussion, and 70 per cent of our time gaining experience and putting what we have learned into practice.”


High quality content = engaged workforce

Dan has even more learning initiatives planned for the coming 12 months. Each new campaign has learning attached to it and prior to any management workshop, Dan recommends Learning Paths and courses so that managers can bring insight into the workshop sessions.

“We wanted to make sure that the learning we had access to was high quality to keep people engaged and we have found LinkedIn Learning content to be just that.

“You need a credible learning offer, and we definitely have that at Kambi.”

Dan said that LinkedIn Learning gives Kambi flexibility, and LinkedIn Learning data bolsters his statement. Kambi employees love LinkedIn Learning’s flexibility – which enables learning to be easily accessible for all.

“Our Engineering team have embraced learning,” Dan concluded. “We know this because we have seen a massive increase in learning. Before adopting LinkedIn Learning, we worked with an alternative content provider. We have gone from 200 hours of learning with our old provider to more than 4,000 hours of learning with LinkedIn. The adoption of LinkedIn Learning has been a real success; I’m proud of our achievements and I am proud of how our employees have embraced the platform.”

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