#36: The Leverage Point

Look around the iGaming industry, and you'll notice something peculiar. Some leaders seem to move mountains while others barely shift pebbles - despite working equally hard.

Take the recent surge in AI adoption across the sector. While most operators scrambled to integrate ChatGPT into their customer service, a few leaders were quietly building proprietary AI systems that would revolutionise their entire business model. Same opportunity, vastly different impact.

This difference isn't about intelligence, experience, or even work ethic. It's about understanding leverage points - those precise moments and places where a small shift creates an oversized impact.

The most successful leaders in our industry have figured out something crucial: Impact isn't about doing more things. It's about doing the right things at the right time with maximum leverage. They've learned to spot these leverage points while the rest of us mistake motion for progress.

The Leverage Illusion

Our industry has developed an unhealthy obsession with productivity. We measure everything, track every metric, and pride ourselves on being "data-driven." But this hyper-focus on activity often blinds us to where real leverage exists.

In systems thinking, leverage points are places in a complex system where a small change can produce enormous shifts in everything else. Think of them as the fulcrum in a lever - the right positioning multiplies force with minimal effort.

Yet most iGaming companies confuse activity with leverage. They track hundreds of KPIs daily, hold endless meetings about incremental improvements, and celebrate small wins while missing opportunities for exponential growth. This is the leverage illusion - the belief that more activity automatically equals more impact.

The reality is that in complex systems like the iGaming market, the highest leverage points rarely exist where we're looking. They're often found in places that seem counterintuitive at first glance. While most operators obsess over conversion rates and customer acquisition costs, companies like Stake focus on building cultural relevance through strategic partnerships and community building - activities that compound over time rather than deliver immediate measurable results.

Understanding leverage points requires shifting from linear to systems thinking. It means looking beyond immediate cause-and-effect relationships to understand how different parts of the system interact and influence each other. The most impactful leaders have learned to spot these points of maximum leverage, where minimal input creates cascading effects throughout the entire system.

The key insight isn't that we should work harder or track more metrics. It's that we need to develop the ability to identify where in the system our efforts will multiply rather than add.

The Three Forms of Leverage in iGaming

Understanding leverage points is one thing. Knowing which types of leverage to apply is another entirely. In iGaming, three distinct forms of leverage exist, and the most successful operators have learned to stack them together for maximum impact.

Code and Product Leverage

Code and product leverage represent the ability to build something once and scale it infinitely at near-zero marginal cost. In iGaming, this manifests through platform development, product gamification mechanics, and AI-driven customer experience solutions. The key characteristic is that while the initial investment may be substantial, it creates exponentially growing returns over time.

This leverage extends far beyond basic automation. The most sophisticated operators build self-improving systems - from risk management algorithms that learn from every bet to predictive analytics that become sharper with each customer interaction. It's about creating digital assets that compound in value rather than depreciate.

Capital Leverage

Capital leverage in iGaming works differently from traditional industries. It's not just about having money to spend - it's about structuring that capital to create compound effects. This includes strategic investments in technology, market expansion, and brand building. The most effective operators use capital leverage to create moats that become deeper over time, not just to fuel short-term growth.

Network Leverage

Network leverage might be the most powerful yet least understood form of leverage in our industry. It manifests through distribution networks, strategic partnerships, and community building. The key characteristic of network leverage is that its value grows exponentially with each new connection, creating powerful network effects that become nearly impossible for competitors to replicate.

When these three forms of leverage are stacked together, they create what systems theorists call "reinforcing loops" - where each form of leverage strengthens the others. Code leverage makes capital more efficient, which enables broader network effects, which in turn provides data to improve code leverage, and so the cycle continues.

The most impactful leaders in our industry don't just use these forms of leverage independently - they deliberately design their operations to create these reinforcing loops, where each form of leverage amplifies the others.

Beyond Leverage

Understanding leverage points is only half the equation. The real challenge facing iGaming leaders isn't just identifying where leverage exists - it's having the courage to act on this knowledge when everything in our industry pushes us toward short-term, measurable activities.

This reveals the ultimate paradox of leverage: The more potential impact an activity has, the more it requires us to resist our basic instincts. Our brains are wired for immediate feedback, for the dopamine hit of quick wins and daily metrics. Yet the most powerful leverage points often require us to delay gratification, to trust in compound effects that may take months or years to materialize.

Perhaps this is why some leaders create 10x more impact than others. Not because they work harder or know more, but because they've developed the wisdom to distinguish between activity and leverage - and the courage to choose leverage even when it feels counterintuitive.

The question isn't whether you can spot the leverage points in your business. The question is whether you're willing to bet on them when everyone else is chasing quick wins.