Drew's Story

Hi, I’m Drew Clarke, Senior SharePoint Solutions Developer, based at our Stoke-on-Trent Office.

I’ve worked in development roles since 2005 across various industries including insurance, finance, government, consultancy, gaming, healthcare, and education. I’ve worked with organisations but bet365 is where I’ve stayed the longest and enjoyed the work the most. My team are the custodians of the SharePoint platforms at bet365, covering development, administration, maintenance, integration, upgrades, and analysis. I enjoy the puzzle-solving nature of the role, seeing results after hard work, and knowing that a lot of our often behind-the-scenes effort makes a real difference to the business, which is true for many teams here. Teams need other teams, period, else it all freezes.

My focus is to continue developing my knowledge of SharePoint and its wider technologies, while keeping pace with the evolving technology landscape, including AI. I strongly believe that with a “no I in team” ethos, we can all benefit from a bright future here as the business continues to grow.

It's different soups with different ingredients every single day. It could be decommissioning work, building a new box; server work, testing a solution, cloud conversations, or coding in a language. It could also be learning something essential, teaching something, investigating and resolving live issues, platform maintenance, conversations with Business Analysts, Project Managers, Team Leads, Managers, Heads of, Seniors in all capabilities in the group.

A lot of what I do is brainstorming proof of concepts and building rapid solutions that serve a business purpose for a period of time, some a few years, but essentially, they are replaced over time with systems built specifically for the purpose the rapid solution was built for initially.

The platform I work with is very extensive and integrates well with many other systems here and because of this you cannot have one person who knows 100% of everything. The introduction of open-source technology in this environment has made the possibilities more akin to a football stadium full of millions of Lego pieces to build something with. It's the knowing how, and that's where I would say a typical day falls; puzzles, riddles and sometimes red herrings, so the role is very varied at the very least.

I would say it is a learning adventure. Expertise is valued here, and the environment encourages us to constantly build upon our learning. There is always something new; not necessarily IT related either, which is I think what makes us all so very busy every day. There is so much movement in the day let alone the night-time; the international aspect has brought with it a true 24/7 working model for most of us now. That said, we share a strong sense of accountability. Every person is accountable for something, granted some more than others but this is reflected and people are rewarded accordingly, which to me again seems quite fair because commitments are made both by employees and employer. We reap that which we sow; work hard, play hard.

After being here 6+ years now, it's the longest I have worked anywhere. Two days are never the same here. There are different puzzles, technical or otherwise and the people you talk to rotate all the time in all professional capabilities across the group. This has expanded recently to be an international endeavour as well. It's always buzzing; always.

Global growth, talent retention, remaining at the cutting-edge of online gambling technologies; making sure we continue to push boundaries to further improve our current stance in the industry. To adopt AI in productive, progressive, useful ways internally and externally going forwards. Be active in improving customer satisfaction, constantly reviewing internally and externally. Also continuing to make present employees feel valued and recognising they contribute to the overall success of the business.

The culture at bet365 encourages a continuous pursuit of improvement, which fuels my desire to enhance my skills and contribute meaningfully to the business.

We have an environment of constructive feedback among colleagues to support each other in striving for our personal best. We aim to make positive strides forward so we can be as good as we can be in our work.

Working with such a vast array of diverse professionals is food for the mind. It's nice to know that you don't know everything. And the great thing is, there are people here that can teach you new things. There's encouragement to develop yourself through regular training. The company invests in their people to ensure that they have skilled professionals in place to do the various things the business is aspiring to.

Iron sharpens iron would be my analogy here. As stated before, this company is full of highly intelligent individuals, both in IT and across the business. In my role I get to interact with many of these professionals, so you get insights into some of the inner workings of departments within the business. ‘Enjoying your job is nine tenths of the battle’ if someone enjoys what they are doing, where they are doing it, they will likely flourish in all other areas of their lives.

Revolutionary, cutting-edge, far-reaching, inspiring technology, secure, powerful, engaging, future-focused, best-in-class and bold.

Personable would be the word I'd use to describe how different it is here to other ventures I have been part of. I can't speak for everyone but for my role specifically, and from what I have observed of the immediate teams in my vicinity, the work-life balance is highly valued. The company recognises and respects personal circumstances, enabling people to manage their professional responsibilities alongside their personal lives. Also, as big as the group is, it still holds a family-friendly nature about it. People stay here for a long time for these reasons; yes, you are a professional, but you are also a human being. It's lovely to have a balance, which isn’t found everywhere.