Darshan Shah

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Darshan Shah and I’m Head of Delivery at Betway

What initially drew you to Betway?

I have a friend that works at another online gambling company, he talked very positively about the experience he had. When I looked at the job description when I initially applied, it matched my skill set. I was excited by the opportunity of working in a technology company where you’re working with intelligent people who are looking to deliver new solutions and actually keep improving.

How has your career developed at Betway?

I’ve been quite lucky in the fact that the people I have worked with have allowed me to grow a lot. So, I started as a mid-level Business Analyst, and in my five years here I have gone from being a mid-level to a lead, a manager, and now head of department. A lot of that comes down to the people around me, helping me to grow and develop, and just believing in me.

What is a typical day at work like for you?

We don’t do typical days! Every day is different. I have been in this current role for nearly a year now, so I’m pretty settled into it now and trying to understand how we can do things more efficiently. I’m involved in a lot of projects and processes that I haven’t been involved with in previous roles here so I’m always learning. In this role, I’m thrown into things on occasion too which can be very interesting.

I like to also focus on certain challenges that I am trying to work on aside from the day job. We’ve just introduced a new prioritisation approach which we’re trying to refine. I have had a lot of positive support from senior management with this, and it does take a while to get used to but it is all looking really promising!

How has Betway changed in your time here?

We’ve grown quite a bit! When I started there was around 400 people in the London office, now there is around 700! The more things grow, the more people you have to get to know, and the pandemic certainly had an impact on this.

We went from being in the office every day and seeing faces every day, to being completely remote, which can sometimes make it harder to build a direct relationship. But the return to the office has been great, it is really nice to see and talk to people you haven’t seen or even spoken to for two years!

In terms of my work, the workload has increased significantly, but that goes hand in hand with the progression I have taken.

What's special about Betway?

I love being surrounded by such fantastic people. While it’s inevitable that there will be change, people will leave and new people will join, we continue to attract incredible people that I love working with and really enjoy spending time with. I’ve been here six years for a reason! There are some unbelievably smart people to learn from and a great culture here.

It’s nice to see everyone grow and develop too. The culture and community we have here at Betway is honestly really special. Everyone is friends here, no one is “just a colleague”. You want to spend time with them, you want them to flourish in their roles: you want them all to succeed!

Can you list the most challenging but exciting aspects of your role?

The most challenging aspect of my role is that there is constant demand, and always a request for more and more, which can bring challenges in negotiating and making sure we don’t over-commit ourselves too much as a team.

In terms of exciting, I think it’s the hope that we can keep working on how we can reduce the number of random requests and have a clear roadmap of what we are working on. We do have some out of the blue projects thrown at us and that can be exciting as it is something different, but you want these to be a rare treat and not the norm!

What is your favourite project you have worked on at Betway?

So it’s not technically a proper project, it is a team building initiative that we have run in our department for five years called Deliverbots. It is a team building exercise across the department where you get split into two or more teams, and you get tasks to complete. It’s a bit of a Taskmaster hybrid, and it’s a chance for the team to work with other individuals they wouldn’t necessarily work with. You spend an afternoon doing it, with the intention of getting to know everyone, learning something new, and have fun while doing it.

Last year we included the Analytics and Insight teams too, so it was really fun getting to know a whole bunch of people we had never met before, and everyone really loved it! While there is a lot of investment involved in getting it in place, when it goes well it is such a rewarding experience!

What three words would you use to describe Betway to potential new starters?

Culture, Fun, Challenging.

To have a good business CULTURE is really important. While you may be able to do this role in a different business, it’s the people and the culture that Betway has adopted that makes it so special.

I try to instigate FUN in everything I work on, but it is my version of fun, so people may not necessarily understand it! I’m quite an unorthodox thinker but it’s made me some great friends over my time here.

CHALLENGING… it’s quite demanding and there is always a lot on, but at the same time it is a way for everyone to learn and develop.

You have 30 seconds, what makes working at Betway so good?

It’s the people that we work with. Whether I am at home or in the office, I will always chat to people, and I really enjoy spending time with the people I am working with. I work with some incredibly smart people, and it’s really rewarding working with people you can learn from every day. It means that not only can I grow, but the people around me continue to improve as well!