From operator to supplier: bridging the gap in safer gambling

After 15 years working on the operator side of the industry, leading player safety, I thought I’d seen it all. But working with operators from the supplier side has shown me just how many different ways player protection can be approached and how much creativity and agility there is across the industry. It’s been inspiring to see how innovative teams can be when adapting to their specific markets and challenges.

The operator perspective: responsibility up close

Working for an operator means being right at the frontline of player protection. You see the impact of decisions in real time, whether it’s an intervention that helps someone regain control or a missed signal that leads to harm. It’s human, emotional and constantly under the watchful eye of regulators, the media and your own conscience.

Convincing senior management to prioritise sustainability over short-term goals isn’t always easy. Responsible gambling (RG) teams spend as much time educating and influencing as they do analysing data, proving that doing the right thing and doing good business can align.

Despite those efforts, the work can feel fragmented. Teams deal with inconsistent tools, data silos and market-specific rules that make it hard to take a unified approach. Operators sit closest to the risk, but often furthest from scalable solutions.

From operator to supplier: a broader role

After years of building frameworks and navigating regulatory waves, I wanted my work in player safety to have a broader impact. As one person or one team within a single operator, you can make meaningful change, but the reach is finite. Joining a supplier like Mindway AI allows that same experience to support dozens of teams facing similar challenges. It’s a chance to help those sitting in the same seat I once did, the ones trying to win business buy-in and prove that player protection is both a moral and commercial imperative.

On the supplier side, you’re no longer doing player protection day to day, you’re designing the systems that empower others to do it better. That comes with a different kind of responsibility, less immediate, but much broader in scope.

At Mindway AI, we’re a technology company at our core, grounded in neuroscience and data science. That focus allows us to dedicate ourselves entirely to building the most advanced, reliable and scalable safer gambling tools possible.

Many capable teams build strong in-house tools, but without dedicated scientific expertise and long-term development capacity, those systems often meet immediate needs without evolving. Regulation moves fast, and what’s compliant today might be outdated in a month. A homegrown system is rarely future proof, whereas suppliers have the infrastructure to adapt at speed. The best approach isn’t choosing between in-house or supplier-built, it’s collaboration. Operators should co-design with suppliers, combining operational context with technological expertise to create sustainable solutions.

I now bring my lived operator experience into every client conversation, providing advice, asking difficult questions and helping teams translate complex player data into action. I also understand their reality – revenue matters. None of us are working for a charity. Real progress happens when commercial goals and ethical responsibility are aligned, not at odds.

Collaboration over division

The biggest learning from seeing both sides is how much they depend on each other. Operators bring empathy and context – they understand people. Suppliers bring

science, scalability and consistency. When those perspectives meet, player protection becomes more than a compliance exercise, it becomes a competitive advantage.

Building mutual trust between operators and suppliers will define the next phase of player protection. Transparency, shared understanding, and open collaboration are key to achieving it.

From buyer to builder

There was also a personal culture shock in joining the supplier side. I still remember my first big industry conference after the move. Suddenly, I wasn’t the one being sold to, I was the one doing the selling. I was inviting people to dinner instead of being invited, talking about product roadmaps instead of asking about them. It was a fun, slightly surreal reminder of how your perspective changes depending on which side of the table you sit.

But the goal doesn’t really change. Whether you’re designing the technology or using it, we’re all trying to make gambling safer, smarter and more sustainable.

Working on both sides of the fence has taught me that the biggest progress comes when perspectives meet in the middle, when science meets experience, and when ambition meets empathy.

Would I make the move knowing what I know today? Absolutely. The ability to help shape how the industry protects its players makes every challenge worthwhile.

Yardena Almagor is customer success manager at Mindway AI. With 15 years’ experience at one of the UK’s biggest gambling operators, Almagor is a true leader in safer gambling and player protection.

From heading product innovation to serving as head of player safety, she has championed safer, more responsible play at every turn.

Now, as customer success manager, Almagor helps clients get the very best from Mindway AI’s safer gambling and compliance solutions, making the industry safer, smarter and stronger.