Sportsbet, Australia’s biggest corporate bookmaker, has been recording high double digit EBIT growth for the past several years. However, despite this, the company realises that neither the past nor the present are any indication of the future, and as such is making moves to shield itself from disruption and from competitors from Australia and abroad.The company has invested in idea contests to solicit ideas from across its workforce and now runs innovation programs, where cross-functional members from across the organisation come together for three months to explore new business models and foster employee driven innovation.

Sportsbet realised that it wasn’t enough to simply throw people together without giving them any direction as the normal “avoid failure at all costs” corporate way of thinking differs from the “fail fast, learn fast” mentality that startups possess. We worked with the team to help them adopt the mindset, methodologies and tools required to successfully explore new business models and disruptive innovation, using elements of both design thinking and lean startup to enable the quick, effective and economical testing of market appetite for new concepts. Check out the video below to hear how it went and what Sportsbet’s Innovation Manager had to say.

“I would definitely recommend the lean startup bootcamp to other companies. It’s a great way for employees to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and being in a startup and it really encourages them to push the boundaries and diverge from their normal way of thinking.” – Oliver Hoy, Innovation Manager at Sportsbet