The Power of Connecting What Others Keep Separate

One of the things I've learned after 36 years in gaming is that innovation doesn't always come from inventing something entirely new.

Sometimes it comes from connecting things that already exist in a completely new way.

Sports betting has demonstrated this beautifully. Look at the partnerships that have developed between sports betting and media. DraftKings and ESPN are bringing together sports media, content, audiences and wagering. FanDuel took another approach through its partnership with Diamond Sports Group, bringing the FanDuel brand directly into regional sports media through FanDuel Sports Network.

Why do partnerships like these make sense?

Because each company brings something the other doesn't have.

One has the audience.

One has the technology.

One has the content.

One has the customer relationship.

Put the right capabilities together and suddenly you can create an entirely new customer experience.

I see a very similar opportunity happening today inside the casino resort. Think about how a guest experiences an integrated resort. They don't see a gaming database. A hotel database. A restaurant POS system. A loyalty system. A host system. They see one resort. And they expect that resort to know them.

That's one of the reasons I was excited to partner with QLX. More than 30 years ago, QLX began bringing together data from gaming, hospitality, food & beverage and other parts of the integrated resort to help operators better understand the complete customer journey.

Today, AI makes that philosophy considerably more powerful. With iQ-Gaming and the QLX AI Hub, operators can bring together patron data, predictive models, AI models and agentic workflows to help acquire, engage and retain customers more intelligently. But to me, the bigger story isn't simply AI, it's integration.

The sports betting industry recognized the power of connecting betting with media and content. QLX recognized the power of connecting gaming with hospitality and the broader resort experience.

And at Profound Gaming, we believe in the same principle when building strategic partnerships: Don't just ask what your company can build. Ask what becomes possible when you combine what you do best with what someone else does best.That is where some of the most interesting opportunities in gaming are being created. Innovation doesn't always happen inside one company. Sometimes it happens between two of them.

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