Amelco launches Amplify AI development platform for betting operators

Amelco has launched Amplify, an AI development platform that the company says allows betting operators to build, test and deploy product changes by prompting the system. According to Amelco founder and chief executive Damian Walton, the platform generates code and handles testing and deployment across apps, websites and back-office systems. Amelco's clients include Fanatics, Hard Rock Bet, Flutter and Entain.

“You will own that IP”

Amelco says Amplify sits on top of the sportsbook, account, payments and casino technology its largest clients use. Operators can redesign front ends on web and mobile, add product verticals or rewrite betting rules, such as how a market suspends after a key event in a particular sport. They can connect their own trading models and algorithms and test them for performance and pricing accuracy, watching how a new bet type behaves against the market in real time. Amelco claims changes that once took months can now take weeks, sometimes days.

Amplify is not tied to a single AI model and can draw on what Amelco describes as a spectrum of AI engines, building knowledge within its own framework so it does not call an external model for every task. Operators can run their own AI engine in-house for privacy and cost reasons, and are not exposed if a model from a particular vendor is blocked because of geopolitical issues. Walton said the platform is also a cost management tool.

Amplify is sold to operators' product and technology teams. Walton said it is intended to let domain experts without technical knowledge build what they need, rather than writing a specification for developers. Test reports can be tailored to their audience, and Amelco stays on hand to make sure nothing is generated that would jeopardise the operator's business.

Amelco licenses its platform to clients instead of selling them the source code, yet whatever they create on top of it through Amplify remains their property. Walton put it plainly: "You will own that IP". Amelco's platform is not a prerequisite for the product, which "can work completely independently" even though it also works alongside the platform. Requests have already come in from clients wanting to use it with third-party platforms and systems built in-house, frequently to regain control of legacy code accumulated over the years. Others have asked about swapping some paid third-party software-as-a-service tools for alternatives built around their own data.

Walton said Amelco built its business on tailor-made platforms for large operators and that entering the white-label market goes against its approach because white-label products are almost the same for everyone. He said operators that want support will receive it, but that Amelco is not requiring itself to be on the critical path.