Press Release

Board International Wins Australian Contract To Deploy Forecasting and Budgeting Solution For Global Sports Betting and Gaming Group

Monday, 22 March 2021 - Sydney, Australia

Sydney, 23 March 2021 – Board International, the #1 Decision-Making Platform provider, today announced that Entain Australia, part of the UK-listed Entain Group, has selected its all-in-one Decision-Making Platform, which unifies business intelligence, planning, and predictive analytics, to support momentum in its rapidly growing business operations.

Entain is one of the largest operators in the Australian market through its four local brands Ladbrokes, Neds, Bookmaker, and Betstar. The organisation employs more than 400 professionals who provide Australians with an engaging entertainment experience.

“At the start of the COVID crisis in early 2020, we realised the limitations within Excel to provide a dynamic and everchanging forecast solution that was able to run concurrent scenarios to ensure simulations could be reviewed in a timely manner,” says Anthony Novic, Director of Finance at Entain Australia.  “Having forecast models on multiple spreadsheets, created by multiple people, made it increasingly difficult to ensure data integrity and accuracy was achieved in very uncertain times.”

Following a market review of available solutions in the planning software landscape, Entain Australia set out to implement a software solution that was sufficiently dynamic, could ingest significant amounts of data, and produce quality and appealing reports for internal and external stakeholders.

As Novic explains, “we ultimately chose Board based on our experience of working with the team in the initial proof of concept phase, during which time we found the core of the product most appealing.   Being able to create unlimited possibilities to structure and customise the system in a way that best works for our business made the decision easy. Being in a relatively niche industry, a lot of the ‘off-the-shelf’ products were simply not suitable for how our business operates.  We could see that Board would allow us to tailor certain aspects to meet different business units’ needs, without requiring any developer skills.”

Entain was also attracted to Board’s ability to create detailed PowerPoint slide decks automatically, based on data from different Board dashboards.  This will save time, ensure data is up-to-date at all times, and enable the organisation’s Finance department to focus better on forecast and budget timelines.

In addition, achieving a single source of truth, along with drill-through capability to interrogate the data, will empower the wider business to make timely decisions and achieve its strategic objectives.

Entain plans to go live with Board in the next few weeks, with the first phase of deployment focused on the reporting of management accounts within the Finance and Leadership team.  A subsequent second phase, with a live integrated budget model, will be implemented before the end of June across the wider Australian business operation.

As Novic explains, “Board will give our business the necessary elements to provide a better live forecast view, and the ability to run different scenarios based on different key performance targets we set within our short- and long-term futures. Being in an industry where day-to-day operations can vary greatly, Board will give us the flexibility to succeed.” All key employees within the business, from the Customer Service division to the leadership team, will ultimately benefit from Board being implemented. By having multiple systems linked together within Board, the company anticipates a significant return on investment based on time saved in forecasting and budgeting processes, improved accuracy, and richer insights.

Nic Dennis, Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Board International, said, “It was very important to us that we could provide Entain Australia with the streamlined planning, budgeting, and forecasting solutions they needed to deliver the services and support required to drive their business growth.  Product and solution delivery innovation experience is at the heart of what makes Board International tick, and we look forward to the incredible benefits that our technology and services will bring to Entain Australia in the years ahead.”

About Board

Board is the #1 Decision-Making Platform. Founded in 1994, Board enables people to have a transformative impact on their business, helping them to intuitively explore and leverage their data in a flexible, all-in-one Decision-Making Platform. By unifying Business Intelligence, planning, and predictive analytics, the Board platform allows companies to produce a single, accurate, and complete view of business information, gain actionable insights, and achieve full control of performance across the entire organization. Thanks to Board, more than 3,000 organizations worldwide, including Coca-Cola, Ricoh, KPMG, Puma, Siemens, and ZF Group, have deployed end-to-end decision-making applications at a fraction of the time and cost associated with traditional solutions. www.board.com