Pythia Sports appoints Matt Harbord head of product

Technology company Pythia Sports has hired Matt Harbord as its new head of product. A gaming veteran, Harbord’s most recent industry role was head of product at Sharplink Gaming in the US.

He worked on a contract basis for the tech firm for almost two years, connecting leading sportsbooks with major leagues and media partners in the fast-growing US sports betting market.

Prior to that, he was at Mustard Systems for five-and-a-half years, moving from senior quantitative analyst to product lead, before finishing his tenure at the sports data firm as head of product/operations.

During his time at the company, he led the development of a new sports betting platform, taking responsibility for the licence, compliance and fraud element of the platform, as well as working closely with the quant team to develop automated risk management strategies.

His career also includes stints at Gambit Research, Sporting Solutions, Cantor Gaming and Betfair, where he began his career in 2006 as a betting analyst within the horse racing team.

Freddy Galliers, director at Pythia Sports, said: “We are really excited to have Matt join our team. He comes with strong industry experience and we believe he will play a key role in helping us grow our business further. His specialised experience building products, harnessing advanced algorithmic trading and building proprietary models will complement our culture and vision.”

Matt Harbord added: “I’m thrilled to be leading the product delivery at Pythia Sports at what is an exciting time for both Pythia and horse racing in general. I look forward to building on the excellent foundation Pythia has put in place to expand our market offering, particularly in-play, in order to surprise and delight a new generation of customers who may not yet have experienced the visceral joy and excitement of horse racing.”

Harbord took up the post at the beginning of this month.