Tom is an Associate in the Betting & Gaming team within the Firm's Interactive Entertainment division. He advises clients in the gambling and video games sectors, which include multinational operators, platform providers, games developers, investors, and financial institutions.
Tom has both private practice and in-house experience advising on a wide range of cross-border commercial contracts matters, such as games licensing agreements, games development agreements, platform agreements, IP and data licensing arrangements, sponsorship deals, as well as consumer-facing terms of service. Tom also specialises in providing regulatory, advisory, and compliance advice on complex investigations and enforcement proceedings, multi-jurisdictional corporate transactions, international restructurings, licence applications, and on consumer, advertising, and promotional marketing law.
Tom is a regular attendee and speaker at overseas industry conferences, and has had work published in industry publications.
Key Experience
- Prior to, and since joining Mishcon, Tom has been seconded to Sky Betting and Gaming, Entain plc, and Hard Rock Digital, where he worked closely with legal and business leads on a variety of high-value commercial contracts matters.
- Drafting and negotiating a substantial volume of complex, cross-border commercial contracts for an LSE-listed betting and gaming operator opposite market-leading software suppliers, including games development agreements, platform agreements, and games licensing agreements.
- Drafting a template sportsbook framework agreement in connection with the launch of a global betting and gaming supplier's sportsbook platform in Europe.
- Drafting consumer-facing terms of service for a Nasdaq-listed mobile games developer and publisher, a Nasdaq-listed US sportsbook operator, and a leading online prize competition operator, to comply with consumer law and gambling regulatory requirements.
- Advising a global betting and gaming supplier on the unauthorised livestreaming of its casino games and intellectual property, and making related improvements to its template framework games licensing agreement.
- Advising numerous licensees and individuals in connection with regulatory investigations brought by the Gambling Commission.
- Preparing legal opinions for mobile games and prize competition operators regarding the legality of offering unregulated products and competitions to the UK market.
- Advising an ASX-listed global gaming supplier on the multi-jurisdictional gambling regulatory aspects of its £1.2bn takeover of a Nasdaq-listed gaming and content provider and its recommended £2.1bn takeover of an LSE-listed global gaming supplier.
- Advising a US institutional asset management company focused on blockchain technology in connection with its investment into an online cryptocurrency casino operator.
- Advising a US cryptocurrency liquidity provider and multi-stage investor on the gambling, corporate, tax, and financial services regulatory frameworks in numerous European jurisdictions in connection with its international expansion.
Career History
Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Legal Secondee, Hard Rock Digital
Legal Secondee, Entain plc
Legal Secondee, Sky Betting and Gaming
Trainee Solicitor, Squire Patton Boggs LLP
BPP University, Legal Practice Course
Newcastle University, Law LLB