BC: Can you share a bit about your journey leading up to co-founding BetComply and becoming its Chief Compliance Officer?
MDG: I’ve been doing compliance consultancy for several years doing license applications, overhauling compliance frameworks and connecting providers. BetComply is the result of a few great minds coming together at the same time.
Connecting technical compliance, regulatory expertise and legal services and bringing them under one roof just made sense. And the results speak for themselves, clients absolutely love it.
BC: In the dynamic world of compliance, what challenges do you find most intriguing, and how do you navigate them at BetComply?
MDG: Our landscape is changing fast, and I don’t mean that as a buzzword. We have complete jurisdictions being overhauled, new licensing regimes coming in play, merger & acquisitions, increased scrutiny, and audits. And regulators expect operators and providers to deliver what they expect from them, not just to adhere to the letter of the law.
That playing field is where we flourish. You need to be able to read any law or regulation and create a workable process out of it, that reaches compliance but also enables the company to be commercially viable. The team of consultants we compiled in my role as Chief Compliance Officer are true experts in their niche, and they have industry experience.
BC: As a co-founder, what values do you believe have been crucial in shaping BetComply’s success?
MDG: Integrity and bluntness.
Integrity shows in the way we manage clients and projects. Consultants sometimes have a reputation of overselling and underdelivering. They sell the dream, deliver not even 80% of what they promised but they do charge 180% of what they estimated.
We treat projects and assignments as if they are our own. When you treat it as a personal achievement or failure, you run the extra mile (or hour). Not to charge the hour, but to deliver the project.
Bluntness shows in the way we provide advice; clear-cut and practical. No political speeches and words and sentences to fill up a page. We translate difficult law and regulations into workable processes, so you need to be able to explain that like how I explain my work to my family at birthdays. It’s not about sounding like an expert; it’s about transmitting the message to someone that is not.
BC: What innovations or developments in the compliance industry do you find particularly exciting or noteworthy?
MDG: The development we are seeing in AI is exciting. What makes it particularly exciting as a compliance consultant, is explainability. It’s already difficult to explain current regulations, frameworks and processes to a regulator or an outsider. Explaining how AI functions, how it adheres to compliance regulations and where it lacks is going to extremely difficult. But I like difficult.
BC: What motivates and excites you most about the future of BetComply and the impact it can have on the industry?
MDG: We can already see the difference that we are making and the potential that has for our future. We created BetComply to disrupt and do better as an industry.
From experience we know companies struggle with navigating between law firms, consultants, test labs, developers, providers to get their product into market. They navigate their idea through all these hoops, everyone charges crazy fee, no one works together, and ownership lacks. 10’s of invoices, no results.
BetComply is and will even more become, the place to go to with these needs. Clear timeline, clear pricing, clear points of contact. Allowing you to focus on what you do best, while we take care of the rest.
BC: As a co-founder, how do you maintain a healthy work-life balance, and what strategies have you found effective in managing the demands of both?
MDG: Marry someone great and talk to them a lot.
I married a superwoman, that surely helps. Doing anything that is considered big, challenging, or adventurous requires you to have a strong foundation back at home. She doesn’t always understand how I do these things; I surely don’t understand how she does what she does. But we both understand we do it together. So, we talk, a lot.
BC: Outside of the office, what hobbies or activities do you enjoy to unwind and recharge?
MDG: I have great kids, two dogs and a farm in Portugal. Spending time outside with them, by the river, in the forest, doing anything. Building a tower of blocks (just to destroy it again) with your 2-year-old can be rather relaxing I found.
BC: If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?
MDG: It would probably be some regular, normal person from an interesting time like the Industrial Revolution or the Dark Ages. I find it more intriguing to listen to someone ordinary in an extraordinary time than to talk to someone who thinks of themselves as very important.
BC: Do you have a favourite travel destination or a dream vacation spot you hope to visit in the future?
MDG: I still haven’t been across the Big Pond. And I keep telling myself every year that I’m going. So I’m going, this year.
BC: What’s an interesting or quirky fact about you that people might not know but would find intriguing?
MDG: I have a history in teaching creative writing, poetry, stories, and songs, to troubled youth and prisoners in mental health wards.
