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Leading internal group products at Game Lounge
The most valuable lesson that Game Lounge’s Head of Internal Group Products, Ian Wright, learned from his previous roles in the industry is that “trust is the primary currency”, he told Game Lounge Media during an interview.
Wright said that if a user, whether they are an internal employee or an external partner, does not trust the data provided by the system, then the product is a failure. He added that, with this in mind, he has brought a “transparency-first” approach to Game Lounge, “ensuring all our data pipelines are bulletproof”.
In this interview, Wright discusses his role at Game Lounge and the current state and future of the iGaming industry, as well as his experience at ICE Barcelona 2026.
Importance and function of internal products
Wright is the Head of Internal Group Products at Game Lounge Group, where he is responsibly for leading the strategy and development of internal systems which empower Game Lounge’s operations across multiple markets. He has over twenty years of experience spanning product management, software development, and business leadership.
Detailing his role, he said that he is essentially responsible for the ‘engine’ that powers Game Lounge’s global operations. He commented that while the consumer-facing sites get the spotlight, his teams build the proprietary ecosystem, the CMS, the tracking engines, and the tools that Game Lounge staff uses every day. “My job is to ensure our technology isn’t just a utility, but a competitive advantage”, he remarked.
With regard to what the term ‘internal products’ means in practice, he stated that it means Game Lounge does not rely on ‘off the shelf’ solutions for its core business. “For example, if our financial or sales teams have a specific bottleneck, we build a custom feature to solve it. These products are critical because they allow us to scale at a speed that’s impossible with third-party software. We’re not waiting for a vendor’s roadmap; we’re building our own.”
Wright commented that data and technology are inseparable when it comes to the products that his teams build. He said that his teams look at technology as the delivery mechanism, and data as the intelligence. “We don’t just build a tool to ‘store’ data; we build systems that interpret it. Our tools can flag performance anomalies in real-time, allowing our teams to pivot strategy instantly rather than waiting for a monthly report.”
Future-proofing is the biggest challenge in building internal systems for a fast-growing iGaming company, Wright stated. He said that in the case of a fast-growing company, a solution that works for ten markets today might break when the company hits thirty markets the next year. He remarked that balancing the need for immediate features with the architectural integrity required for massive scale is “a constant, but exciting, tug of war”.
Wright said that deciding which tools or systems are worth investing in or rebuilding comes down to the simple question of whether that tool or system provides a unique edge. “If a tool handles a generic task, then we buy it – but if it touches our data, our tracking, or our content delivery – the ‘secret sauce’ of Game Lounge, then we invest in building or rebuilding it,” he commented, adding that his teams prioritise that which offers the highest ‘return on effort’ for internal users.
On the matter of trends in data, automation, or artificial intelligence, Wright said that he is particularly excited about AI-driven automation for localisation. He said that moving into a new market is a massive lift in iGaming, and that using AI for cultural adaption and automated site structure in addition to translation is “a game-changer”.
ICE Barcelona
Wright attended ICE Barcelona 2026 in January. He described it as “a landmark event”, as he spoke of the fresh, high-energy atmosphere at Barcelona. He remarked that it is the one time of the year where the entire industry’s ‘brain trust’ is in one place, and where one can really feel the momentum of where the industry is headed.
For Wright, he said that the move toward ‘Hyper-Personalisation at Scale’ was “the real showstopper”. He said that the industry is seeing a massive shift were AI is not just a buzzword anymore, but is being used to create unique user journeys for millions of people simultaneously. Another standout, he continued, was the evolution of ‘Real-Time Data Orchestration’. “Instead of analysing what happened yesterday, the industry is pivoting toward ‘In-Play’ data – tools that can adjust a user’s experience or site content based on their behaviour in the last ten seconds.”
He said that events like ICE help shape the way Game Lounge thinks about product development because such events provide a “vital reality check”. Wright spoke of how such events allow for insight into what the competition is doing, while also allowing one to hear the pain points of operators and partners. He stated that an event like ICE helps Game Lounge validate its roadmap and ensures that solutions are being built for problems that the industry will face two years from now, not just today.
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