Roman Balashov (BETON): why a technological advantage has become the industry's baseline standard

Creating an online product in the gambling industry begins with a technological foundation typically provided by an external partner. A team’s in-house expertise shows in how it develops that system, adapts it to the business’s needs, and implements its own technological solutions. This is the approach described by the CEO and owner of CITYCODE LLC (brand BETON), Roman Balashov, in a piece for IT Community.

A Harvard Business Review article reported on the implementation of artificial intelligence in business processes. Its author concludes that merely having a technological solution now rarely provides a noticeable advantage, calling this state parity.

According to Balashov, that logic accurately describes the situation with fast verification — the tool BETON relies on in its product. A few years ago, completing verification in two minutes was considered a significant advantage, but, as the owner of CITYCODE LLC shares, “today that speed has become part of the market’s baseline standard.”

At BETON, verification of new users is handled through KYCaid and relies on automated document recognition and biometric checks. Balashov says these solutions were once available only to a few large players, but now they have become an industry standard. “This part of the product serves as the foundation on which the rest is built,” he says.

The development team can focus resources on improving features that have already become industry standards. Such updates allow the product to meet market expectations. At the same time, a separate area of work remains the creation of new solutions and the expansion of product functionality.

BETON’s online system’s technical foundation is refined together with a technology partner. The brand team alone defines the tone of communication with the audience, the user experience, and internal standards. “In-house expertise lives where the ready-made solution ends,” emphasizes Roman Balashov.

When the technological component of a product meets market standards, differences between companies can show up in other aspects of their operations—particularly in how they interact with people, their social initiatives, and their willingness to take responsibility for their actions.

“A company’s attitude toward sport and the community around it doesn’t appear in press releases and isn’t described in update documentation,” he adds, stressing that such an advantage is hard to copy because it is based on real actions.

Balashov concludes that reliability, speed, and stable product performance remain basic requirements for its operation. Further development depends on the decisions the team implements based on the existing technological infrastructure and on the approaches to creating and improving the product.