Anna Sainsbury's guest appearances

Anna Sainsbury

GGB Magazine Podcast

BIV Today

The GI Huddle

AfternoonT - Stories from Successful Canadian Founders

Dan Burgar

Mitchell Demeter

Jack Newton

Cybele Negris

Ian Crosby

Peter Zeihan

Matt Wilson

Bill Bryson

John Horgan

Don Cherry

Jennifer Lee

Matt Smith

Michael Lee

David Jacoby

David Williams

OwlTail

GeoComply

GeoComply's Anna Sainsbury kicked off 2022 by returning to the CEO role of the cybersecurity firm she co-founded more than a decade ago. She joins BIV Today to discuss the explosive growth her company has enjoyed, what it takes to become a unicorn in B.C. and what's ahead for GeoComply. Tyler Orton hosts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GeoComply's Anna Sainsbury kicked off 2022 by returning to the CEO role of the cybersecurity firm she co-founded more than a decade ago. She joins BIV Today to discuss the explosive growth her company has enjoyed, what it takes to become a unicorn in B.C. and what's ahead for GeoComply. Tyler Orton hosts.See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

GeoComply CEO Anna Sainsbury

Anna Sainsbury is the Chairman of GeoComply and has worked in the area of compliance for the gaming sector since her first role at Technical Systems Testing (TST) in 2005.  In 2011, Anna setup GeoComply, an innovative new company aimed at filling a crucial missing piece of the US iGaming jigsaw: the ability to accurately locate players to within State borders and to detect and block popular location spoofing technologies such as VPNs and DNS Proxies that allow a player to manipulate their location data.

Anna Sainsbury is the Chairman of GeoComply and has worked in the area of compliance for the gaming sector since her first role at Technical Systems Testing (TST) in 2005.  In 2011, Anna setup GeoComply, an innovative new company aimed at filling a crucial missing piece of the US iGaming jigsaw: the ability to accurately locate players to within State borders and to detect and block popular location spoofing technologies such as VPNs and DNS Proxies that allow a player to manipulate their location data.

Anna Sainsbury of GeoComply

In less than 10 years, GeoComply has become the go-to company when it comes to geolocation technology for iGaming and sports betting organizations. Co-founder Anna Sainsbury says success means that she must give back to the community, and helped to develop Conscious Gaming, a nonprofit enterprise dedicated to spreading the word about responsible gaming across the industry. Conscious Gaming’s PlayPause tool allows players to understand how to employ responsible gaming strategies. But a possible universal self-exclusion list will make it easier for the industry to identify players with problem gambling issues at all gaming touchpoints. She spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros from her home in Vancouver in January.GGB: Please explain the genesis of Conscious Gaming and why you believe this organization could be very important to the industry. Anna Sainsbury: Because I’m the founder of a geolocation company, we had the ability to see how many users would cross the border to gamble wherever we operated. As I joined the board of the American Gaming Association, where they have a lot of initiatives supporting research and education into responsible gaming, I realized we have a need for products and technology to help support the research that is coming out and to create what the regulators want to see. We’ve seen some really great research coming out, but no one has been able to take that science-based knowledge and develop it into a technology.Because we have that oversight, we knew the need. We know that at this moment, self-exclusion is handled on a state-by-state basis. So if you’re in New York, you just have to go across the river to be able to gamble in New Jersey or go to Vegas twice a year. As more states legalize sports betting, casino, poker, lottery, the exposure is greater. So our goal is to expand self-exclusion from the primary state where they are excluded to all the states that would participate.You’ve reached an agreement with Pennsylvania to bring your programs to that state. Are you talking to other states as well?We’ve had a tremendous amount of interesting and insightful conversations with state regulators and legislators in numerous states about what the capabilities are. We’re also talking to multiple operators and platforms.We don’t want this only to be Conscious Gaming. It only works if we all recognize that this is something we want to improve.Lots of operators are putting into place their own responsible gaming programs, but they are proprietary and individual. Would you like to see a universal program put into place?Philosophically, there’s no way that we should be competitive on responsible gaming. The only way we will all win is if we’re actually taking care of people’s needs.For Conscious Gaming, we are more than happy to be a platform that integrates multiple different methods. We want to build confidence in this approach. We’re trying to get the greatest participation by emphasizing that there is no cost for anyone to participate. It’s completely free, completely open. We want it to be community-based, so we’re taking feedback from anyone that has an interest in this issue.So, is this just about operators and suppliers?No, we’re reaching out to everyone involved in the space. For example, some regulators have told us there’s a need to block players in professional and amateur sports leagues from participating, so we’ve extended the free solution to all the leagues so they can use it as a centralized database share with their members so operators would know not to accept bets from anyone on that database.What about cashless payments? There’s a concern that this could exacerbate problem gambling. How would your system assist in the effort to combat that?We’re doing a lot of research about what cashless means to responsible gaming efforts. We believe we can directly integrate into those cashless solutions so that someone who has self-excluded anywhere in the U.S. would not be able to participate with cashless gaming.

In less than 10 years, GeoComply has become the go-to company when it comes to geolocation technology for iGaming and sports betting organizations. Co-founder Anna Sainsbury says success means that she must give back to the community, and helped to develop Conscious Gaming, a nonprofit enterprise dedicated to spreading the word about responsible gaming across the industry. Conscious Gaming’s PlayPause tool allows players to understand how to employ responsible gaming strategies. But a possible universal self-exclusion list will make it easier for the industry to identify players with problem gambling issues at all gaming touchpoints. She spoke with GGB Publisher Roger Gros from her home in Vancouver in January. GGB: Please explain the genesis of Conscious Gaming and why you believe this organization could be very important to the industry. Anna Sainsbury: Because I’m the founder of a geolocation company, we had the ability to see how many users would cross the border to gamble wherever we operated. As I joined the board of the American Gaming Association, where they have a lot of initiatives supporting research and education into responsible gaming, I realized we have a need for products and technology to help support the research that is coming out and to create what the regulators want to see. We’ve seen some really great research coming out, but no one has been able to take that science-based knowledge and develop it into a technology. Because we have that oversight, we knew the need. We know that at this moment, self-exclusion is handled on a state-by-state basis. So if you’re in New York, you just have to go across the river to be able to gamble in New Jersey or go to Vegas twice a year. As more states legalize sports betting, casino, poker, lottery, the exposure is greater. So our goal is to expand self-exclusion from the primary state where they are excluded to all the states that would participate. You’ve reached an agreement with Pennsylvania to bring your programs to that state. Are you talking to other states as well? We’ve had a tremendous amount of interesting and insightful conversations with state regulators and legislators in numerous states about what the capabilities are. We’re also talking to multiple operators and platforms. We don’t want this only to be Conscious Gaming. It only works if we all recognize that this is something we want to improve. Lots of operators are putting into place their own responsible gaming programs, but they are proprietary and individual. Would you like to see a universal program put into place? Philosophically, there’s no way that we should be competitive on responsible gaming. The only way we will all win is if we’re actually taking care of people’s needs. For Conscious Gaming, we are more than happy to be a platform that integrates multiple different methods. We want to build confidence in this approach. We’re trying to get the greatest participation by emphasizing that there is no cost for anyone to participate. It’s completely free, completely open. We want it to be community-based, so we’re taking feedback from anyone that has an interest in this issue. So, is this just about operators and suppliers? No, we’re reaching out to everyone involved in the space. For example, some regulators have told us there’s a need to block players in professional and amateur sports leagues from participating, so we’ve extended the free solution to all the leagues so they can use it as a centralized database share with their members so operators would know not to accept bets from anyone on that database. What about cashless payments? There’s a concern that this could exacerbate problem gambling. How would your system assist in the effort to combat that? We’re doing a lot of research about what cashless means to responsible gaming efforts. We believe we can directly integrate into those cashless solutions so that someone who has self-excluded anywhere in the U.S. would not be able to participate with cashless gaming.