It reminded me of interviews from 2006 when interviews were a one size fits all affair -- the "walk me through your resume and do you have any questions" style interview. I met with the CPO, 2 would be peers and the CBO.
The Role
It interested me - owning the entire betting product with some level of P+L ownership. However, there were also red flags. The org just went through a merger and it would appear there is still some solid / dotted line spaghetti in place as well as a desire absent vision of growing market share.
The Org / Culture
It is owned by a private equity firm (Vista, I believe) and in every one of my conversations with US employees (Stats), it was relayed that they are run by "Operators" -- implication being -- you are a number that produces numbers and when an imbalance happens, you will be let go. Again, a merger between Stats and Perform recently happened (within the past year) and there seems to be tension between the US (Stats) and UK (Perform) teams.
The Team
Until February of 2020, the org didn't have product leadership, nor proper product frameworks and is only now adopting and implementing the scaffolding required. The team seemed solid, but the new CPO is also the CMO -- many hats to fill, many fronts to manage.
The Business
Data and content for media, teams and sportsbooks. However, I do not believe Vista really knew what they were buying when they acquired Perform, as there is no "lines" business. This alone puts the statsperform offering behind all competitors. Also, they are solely focused on the European market and not the emerging US market which is most likely because they are not acquiring the rights to US league data. Their overall market share is likely to plateau if not shrink requiring them to become defensive with stagnating revenues. Time would not be on the side of whoever takes this role.
Interview Process
Chit chat without structure or purpose is the best way to describe it. No structured strategy, tactics or analysis cases -- I just repeated myself 4 times and tried to dig deeper into the culture and business with each subsequent interview. The process was quick -- interviewed with the CPO in week 1 and with the other three the following week. Since my last interview (3 weeks ago), I have not heard back from anyone in the organization. Though I am not surprised I was not offered the role, I do find the lack of communication rather unprofessional.