Microgaming is proud to announce that it has been named the winner of The Spark Award 2017 for its “Idea Factory” initiative.
The Spark Award celebrates organizations that come up with plans of working in a different manner.
Previous winners of the Spark Award include Places for People and GCHQ. It is a part of “Spark the Change” which is a global movement that dedicates itself to empowering people and building happier workplaces.
The Microgaming Idea Factory was spearheaded by Lydia Barbara and is a staff-powered innovation initiative that filters, collects, refines and presents ideas on anything connected to Microgaming culture, technology and processes. The inaugural contest took place throughout last year in Microgaming’s headquarters, MGS House. There are a total of four rounds with the Decision Panel that is made up of senior Microgaming staff, deciding if the ideas put to them should be implemented or not.
The 2016 contest was won by the following five ideas, which are currently being executed:
MGM House Lotto – an internal charity initiative that uses scratch cards and lotto games.
Emoticoins Online Slot – an emoji-themed slot that is due to be released this summer.
The Market – an in-house classifieds.
New Compliance Portal – an overhaul of the due diligence process for onboarding new operators.
Ideas Workshop – a new process for target-oriented brainstorming.
Henry Walton, co-founder of Spark the Change commented that, as always, they had a number of wonderful entries to the Spark Award this year, but the judges, chaired by InfoQ editor, Shane Hastie, voted for Microgaming’s Idea Factory.
Walton went on to say that they really admired how clear-sighted and practical they were in facing a problem that most organizations have – how to broaden participation in innovation and make space, time and resources available to nurture ideas.
