In episode 7 of Kinectify Conversations, Sean Topchi interviews Seth Schorr, CEO of Fifth Street Gaming, about current trends in online gaming, esports, and betting. Schorr discusses ways sports book operators will differentiate their products in the future, and how startups that focus on enhancing the end-user experience will drive innovation.

In addition, Schorr provides his perspective on potential markets and demographics that have not yet been fully utilized, highlighting the importance of the Latino market both in the United States and internationally. Topchi and Schorr also discuss insights on the importance of empathy in leadership, the need to embrace failure and take risks, and how creativity can be cultivated by challenging assumptions and thinking differently.

ABOUT KINECTIFY

Kinectify is an AML risk management technology company serving gaming operators both in the US and Canada. Our modern AML platform seamlessly integrates all of the organization's data into a single view and workflow empowering gaming companies to efficiently manage risk across their enterprise. In addition, Kinectify's advisory services enhance gaming operators' capacity with industry experts who can design and test programs, meet compliance deadlines, and even provide outsource services for the day-to-day administration of compliance programs.

To learn more about Kinectify and book a demo, click here.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Shannon Adair: Welcome to Kinectify Conversations. My name is Shannon Adair and I'm the Director of Client Success at Kinectify. Our mission is to share the experience, expertise, and insights from gaming industry leaders that comes from years of navigating the complexities and impact of compliance. On this episode, we have special guest…

[00:00:22] Seth Schorr: My name is Seth Schorr. I'm the CEO of Fifth Street Gaming.

[00:00:26] Shannon Adair: Also with us today…

[00:00:28] Sean Topchi: My name is Sean Topchi and I'm the Director of Business Development at Kinectify.

[00:00:33] Shannon Adair: Thanks for joining us today and remember to like and subscribe to the podcast. You can also learn more anytime at kinectify.com. That's K I N E C T I F Y.com

Seth, thanks for joining us today. Can you give us a little background on yourself?

[00:01:08] Seth Schorr: Every time I am asked that question, I feel like I have to go farther back in time, which makes me feel older every time I have one of these interviews. But I'll give a little bit of historical background if that helps and if that's interesting to you.

[00:01:24] Sean Topchi: Absolutely.

[00:01:25] Shannon Adair: Certainly.

[00:01:26] Seth Schorr: I'm sitting here at the downtown Grand Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas where I am the Chairman. And I'm about three blocks away from the Golden Nugget where I actually moved into 40 years ago around this time when I was about six years old. So… I was introduced to the gambling industry at a very young age.

Don't worry, I won't take you through 40 years of my life.

[00:01:50] Shannon Adair: Yeah. That was farther back than I expected.

[00:01:52] Seth Schorr: I have to say when I think about the gambling industry, it really does go back to that early exposure as a kid and all the opportunities I had throughout my life to work in different areas of this business in many ways has led to the position I am in today.

[00:02:10] Sean Topchi: So that's very interesting. Again way earlier back than we thought, but obviously there was probably quite a few stops along the way that got you to your CEO spot at Fifth Street Gaming. What was the experience you came up on?

Was it, through the [operations] side, the marketing side, the finance or, a mixture?

[00:02:26] Seth Schorr: Sure. So I had an opportunity to work for Mirage Resorts for much of my early career. I was in Macau about, gosh, 23 years ago on the ground there as a part of the first boots on the ground.

And I really was exposed to all areas of the casino business from a very young age. About 16 years ago I decided to take a slightly different path than to continue to climb the ladder in the corporate environment and had the opportunity to raise some funds and buy my first casino which at the time was called the Speedway Casino in North Las Vegas. We have since taken it through two different rebrands.

Went from the Speedway Casino to the Lucky Club Casino back in 2008. And a few months ago we reopened this property as the Ojos Locos Sports Cantina e-Casino which was very exciting for me to be able to rebrand this casino, which means a lot to me as it was the first casino we acquired many years ago...