At bet365, tech isn’t just a support function; it’s a driving force. With millions of users and constant demand for high performance at scale, their engineering teams face real-world challenges every single day.
Adam Davis, Senior Systems Development Manager at bet365, has been on quite the journey: from curious teen hacking together websites, to scaling up teams and re-architecting systems at one of the world’s leading online gambling platforms. In this conversation, he takes us inside the world of bet365’s engineering, from the power of Go, to what it really takes to grow high-performing teams.
Adam’s route into tech started early, encouraged by a hands-on grandfather and a healthy curiosity about how things work. He dived into computing during college, then studied games programming at Staffordshire University. The degree gave him wide exposure to everything from advanced maths to network infrastructure.
After university, Adam worked his way up from junior developer to software engineering director at an email marketing company. He owned the full SDLC and helped teams deliver at scale, which eventually led him to bet365.
"I wanted to take everything I’d learned at a 60-person company and test it in a global, thousands-strong organisation," he told us.
Leaving a company after 10 years was, in Adam’s words, "pretty scary."
"I walked in on day one with nothing to fall back on. I didn’t know the systems, I didn’t know the people, apart from my boss and the hiring manager," he said. "But I knew I needed a new challenge."
Adam used that initial period to gain a deep understanding of how bet365 delivers software, including the release process, bottlenecks, and key players. That groundwork helped shape the way he supported his team through big changes, including the company’s shift to Go.
The decision to adopt Go came shortly before Adam joined. Bet365’s legacy systems, built over many years, had grown monolithic, and the challenges were mounting.
"We had shared codebases with multiple teams working on them. The release cadence was hard. It just didn’t scale," Adam said.
Go offered a simpler, more procedural language with a lightweight footprint. For bet365, it also aligned well with a future in cloud infrastructure.
"It’s not just about picking a new language," Adam noted. "You have to keep the lights on while migrating services. That’s the hard part."
To support the transition, bet365 rolled out a company-wide Go bootcamp. New joiners (even experienced Go developers) go through the same training to learn not just the language, but the "bet365-isms" around performance, reliability, and scalability.
The real power of Go at bet365 hasn’t just been about performance (though that’s improved too). It’s been about decoupling.
"Four teams used to have to touch the same shared component. Now, each has their own services," Adam explained. "They can release in parallel. They have ownership."
Go has helped unlock faster releases, smoother testing, and better resilience under pressure, especially during traffic spikes like the Grand National.
"It’s night and day. A change can be written, tested, and deployed in minutes. Three years ago, that was unthinkable."
Adam’s team has grown from 14 to 56. That kind of growth brings challenges, but also opportunities to lead with empathy and pragmatism.
"When I joined, my first job was understanding the team’s pain points. Some things that were manageable at 14 people didn’t scale," he said.
One standout solution? A multi-tenanted environment system that allowed devs to spin up Go services on demand. It came together in just five days after a whiteboard session.
"I don’t always know the answers. But I can get the right people in a room," Adam told us. "That’s the job."
For Adam, it’s not just about raw tech skills.
"You can be technically amazing, but if you’re terrible with people, it’s not going to work."
He looks for empathy, adaptability, and relationship-building. It’s those traits that help someone progress into leadership and that make a team tick.
bet365 actively supports career progression through personal development plans, coaching, and real-world leadership opportunities. Whether you’re on the IC track or eyeing people management, the path is there, but it’s not one-size-fits-all.
Adam’s big on culture, but not the performative kind.
Strong teams, he says, are ones where managers actively listen. Regular anonymous surveys, town halls to share outcomes, and honest feedback conversations are all part of the rhythm.
"It’s like gardening. Weeds will appear. You have to stay close and deal with them before they grow."
There’s also room for social glue: climbing groups, hiking clubs, and Friday drinks. "We’re humans, not just workers," he said.
bet365 is embracing AI in a big way, both to improve developer workflows and help understand its sprawling estate.
"We’ve got tools that explain why a database is built the way it is. It condenses complexity," Adam explained.
AI is being embedded across testing, risk modelling, and infrastructure analysis. Combined with Go, it's shaping the next phase of bet365’s evolution.
Adam wrapped with advice for anyone building their tech career:
"If you’ve got a side project you’re proud of, bring it to your interview. That could be the thing that gets you the job."
He’s seen it first-hand. Candidates walking in with a GitHub repo, demo app, or just a weird but brilliant idea often stand out more than any polished CV.
Want to dive deeper into Adam’s journey and learn more about the innovative changes happening at bet365? Watch the full podcast below to get an inside look at the challenges and wins in their engineering world.
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