Meet Thomas Warburton, GRID’s CBO, a betting industry veteran and one of GRID’s founders, who is now leading GRID Bet into the future of esports wagering. In this conversation, he reflects on the similarities between sports and esports, the personal growth this journey has sparked, and the challenges he’s eager to tackle next.
1. You’ve spent over 15 years in the betting industry, from SkyBet to Genius Sports. What’s the biggest lesson you’re bringing from traditional sports betting into esports?
The biggest lesson I’m bringing is that the dynamics and fundamentals – market coverage, risk, and uptime – work the same in both arenas. The difference is that in esports, there’s a lot more opportunity to improve them with superior data quality.
For good or bad, people will bet on anything. Innovation always travels well across both sports and esports because punters are constantly looking to craft narratives to which they can attach their money.
2. As someone who helped shape GRID from the ground up, how has GRID changed you personally?
It’s been quite a long time now since we embarked on this journey, and over that time, I’ve changed mainly from being a disruptor to becoming more of a peacemaker.
You learn the value of patience and calmness, and the importance of the values the team instills through fairness and an open approach.
It’s not always easy to maintain, but trying and showing frequently that you are is often enough.
3. GRID Bet marks a big step forward for GRID. What excites you most about leading this new vertical?
I think like many, this has been an expectation from GRID for a while now, the ability to convert our efforts capturing the leading rights for esports betting across the globe into a full end-to-end solution.
It’s always been our belief that esports data and its availability through the game server can elevate and set the standard for modern betting via the capabilities it provides.
Trying to work this into our product to carve out market share in a competitive space will be challenging, but it’s also something we’re very accustomed to at GRID.
That’s a pretty exciting prospect.
4. What’s a piece of advice you wish you had received earlier in your career?
I talked earlier about being calmer and more patient. I work with many people now, and I try to instill the importance of self-awareness and the impact of one’s actions on others.
I think this is probably more relevant in the workplace than anywhere else and when I look back to my earlier days I would have probably been easier and better understanding this sooner. Nobody is perfect though 🙂
5. When you’re not immersed in esports, data, or betting, how do you like to spend your free time? Does your passion for football play a big role in that?
I do love football and sport in general. I’ve not played for a long while now, but I love to watch it, bet on it, talk about it, and analyse it.
I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to sports, and I still spend weekends looking through National League statistics, often to carve out betting opportunities for my childhood team, Halifax Town. It’s good, honest work.
Look out for the next edition of Meet the Team!
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