Enlabs

Enlabs has announced the promotion of Jelena Nisa to group chief financial officer, after successfully leading the accounting and reporting functions in the position of group head of accounting since joining the firm in 2016.

Nisa, who is based in Riga, Latvia, boasts 20 years of working experience in the financial industry and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting and a master’s degree in History from University of Latvia.

“The new appointment is a logical continuation of Jelena’s professional career. She brings high financial competence, strong analytical and organizational skills and exceptional attention to detail. I welcome Jelena to the senior management team and look forward to achieving new heights”, commented George Ustinov, CEO of Enlabs.

Pronet Gaming

Anthony Murphy has been selected as the new head of commercial account management at Pronet Gaming, bringing with him more than 13 years of experience in the betting and gaming industry.

In the new role, Murphy will be tasked with driving business revenues for Pronet Gaming’s new and existing clients, primarily focusing on establishing long standing relationships.

Bobby Longhurst, chief commercial officer at Pronet Gaming, stated: “Anthony has an incredible track record of establishing strong client relationships and helping deliver business growth with excellent account management.

“He will play a key role in ensuring our partners maximise the benefits they gain from our platform, with the tailored approach to partnerships and proactive consultancy that we’re now known for.”

Conscious Gaming

Responsible gaming firm Conscious Gaming, part of GeoComply, has appointed Seth Palansky as its new vice president of corporate social responsibility and communications. He joins the firm after more than 17 years with Caesars Entertainment and the National Football League.

In his new role, Palansky will spearhead corporate social responsibility and communications efforts for the philanthropic organisation, which is committed to utilising advanced technology to propel social responsibility initiatives.

Anna Sainsbury, Conscious Gaming trustee and GeoComply chairman and co-founder, said: “We believe the benefits of offering a technology-driven self exclusion tool are critical for our industry to ensure we protect all stakeholders.

“We are excited to have Seth join us to front our adoption efforts and work with the industry to deliver Conscious Gaming’s state of the art solution to help simplify, streamline and stay ahead of a complex issue.”

Singular

Online casino platform provider Singular has strengthened its team after naming Phillip Pistauer as its new head of account management.

Pistauer’s appointment forms a part of Singular’s strategic enhancement of its customer relationship management division, with his role expected to deliver ‘a bespoke approach tailored to each client’.

Based in the firm’s Malta office, Pistauer will take responsibility for coordinating with existing clients and new acquisitions to build a ‘proactive service that will help both the company and its partners to reach new heights’.

Robert Dowling, Singular chief commercial officer, added: “I am more than pleased to have Phillip join our team and boost the strategic direction of Singular in serving our global tier one clients and assist their entry into newly regulated markets. The account management team will play a crucial role in this process, and I believe Phillip is the right person to take the lead.”

Full House Resorts

Full House Resorts has bolstered its board of directors via the appointment of Michael Hartmeier, who boasts 25 years experience as an investment banker and over $125m in financing and advisory assignments completed.

Hartmeier is the former group head of lodging, gaming and leisure investment banking at Barclays, as well as group head positions in hospitality and gaming for Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse First Boston.

“We have appreciated Mike’s thoughtful advice on the capital markets for many years,” said Daniel Lee, president and chief CEO of Full House Resorts. “His 25 years of investment banking experience and overall business knowledge will be valuable additions to our company’s board of directors.”

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Through Playson’s integration with the LuckyConnect aggregation API, the Pronet platform and its network of operators will gain additional gaming content from the supplier, adding to the Fugaso and Yggdrasil content it already receives.

“We have worked hard to put together the industry’s largest selection of content and this deal will further enhance our offering as we continue to support our operators,” commented Alex Leese, CEO of Pronet Gaming.

“The addition of Playson’s titles to our platform further builds on the expansive range of content we offer our partners and adds a name which customers can trust.”

Part of LuckyConnect since 2021, Playson’s entire suite of 85 slot and table games will be available to Pronet, including titles such as Book of Gold, Joker’s Coins and Pirate Sharky.

Virginia Russu, Head of Account Management at LuckyStreak, noted: “We have worked closely with Pronet Gaming since 2015, so I’m delighted that we can now offer them Playson’s rich library of innovative and fun slot and table games, which will enrich their customers’ offerings significantly.

“Through LuckyConnect, there is no additional integration required and the entire portfolio is available immediately”.

With its content being added to the Pronet platform, Playson’s monthly player reach has now been expanded to over two million.

Tamas Kusztos, CCO at Playson, added: “Partnering with LuckyConnect means that hundreds of operators across the world have access to our games, and that can drive significant player numbers for us.

“Just as we have seen with this new partnership with Pronet – the upswing in volumes was significant and immediate. The potential this offers us to continue to grow our business is hugely appealing.”

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There are three main areas of importance for any organisation seeking to strengthen its technological foundations: team and culture, architecture, and processes.

This is particularly apparent in the fast-growing igaming business, where lofty ambitions of success in new markets means there is a need to scale quickly. From a platform provider perspective, our industry sector needs to offer operators as many options as possible so that they can differentiate themselves from the competition by utilising quality content built on rock-solid foundations.

Taking the first of that trio of key elements, establishing a successful team means more than attracting the best people into your organisation. Of course, it is important to grow the workforce with top-quality individuals who can add value with their skills and experience. It is also about upskilling your existing employees, too, to maximise the potential of everyone in the business.

It is also imperative that a platform provider aligns around the highest possible engineering standards. At Pronet Gaming, we have adopted a foundation covering execution, collaboration, communication, influence and maturity.

It is a strategy in which we do not simply focus on technical skills, as that is no longer enough in such an international, cross-functional team. Those skills must be complemented by elements including best practice and quality design. 

The execution element focuses on the way an engineer gets things done in terms of planning, scoping, estimation, ownership, strategic and product alignment, plus the need to understand the vision of the company. 

Collaboration and communication skills are very important for a distributed and agile team, which asks for and provides feedback, supplemented by excellent standards of documentation. Indeed, we believe the quality of the documentation we provide to operators is as important as the platform itself. 

As a B2B company, we provide the platform for use by the operator. Regardless of the market, the trend is not to customise the platform for a client, but to have a platform so configurable out of the box that different clients can put together features to suit their needs without our teams having to engage in custom development on each occasion. 

Which is why documentation is very important because it makes this process easier for our customers. It is great when things are self-explanatory, but when we release new features, it is deemed mandatory that the customer can review what it does, without having to get in touch with consumer support. 

Influence means how we collaborate with other people in the business, looking at the level of impact with leadership, knowledge sharing, mentoring, hiring, onboarding and the representation of our brand. We strongly believe our brand begins within the team. 

Finally, maturity speaks to the traits that make a team member trustworthy and professional: accountability, self-awareness, respect, consensus building, handling conflict constructively and receiving feedback in order to progress. 

Highly complex

While we are concerned with our own domain with such initiatives, it is very important that as a tech organisation we understand the sector we work in. Gaming is very similar to fintech in being low-latency, high throughput software. It presents engineers with highly complex problems to be solved, which in turn makes it an attractive proposition for attracting talent. 

In order for us to be competitive in the market, solid and modular architecture and agile processes are a must. Consumers within the online gaming market can be demanding and want personalised content they can access quickly, which is presented in an easy-to-understand fashion.

This is particularly the case in newer markets, where players are less forgiving than in mature markets when presented with more complex information on-screen, or with UX/UI that is not particularly easy to navigate.

Therefore, it is important that our architecture is modular and that our processes and teams are agile. Crucially, this allows for us to achieve speed-to-market. Modular architecture incorporates both components and services and we build cross-functional teams around these components.

Each of our teams is autonomous, meaning that decisions can be reached quickly, and cross-functional teams can work according to their own road map. 

We can provide a level of automation – deployment and testing, for example – that enables operators to get to market at speed and test quickly. It is a cycle of experimentation, learning, and quick scaling.

Nothing stands still for long in the igaming world and as a platform provider committed to handing the controls to the operator, honing our team’s skills and the processes they work by is every bit as important as creating market-leading modular software.

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The igaming and retail solutions provider says that it is striving to utilise Kaltcheva’s “extensive experience” in mobilising resources to deliver on its expanding roadmap.

Alex Leese, Pronet Gaming’s CEO, said: “Our plans for next year are ambitious, to say the least, with some big announcements on the immediate horizon. 

“With that in mind, it’s fantastic to have Nedda on board as so much of this depends on our technology capabilities being first-class. 

“The IT expertise and industry experience she brings to the table is clear for everybody to see and she is going to be a major asset to Pronet Gaming.”

Kaltcheva has previously held the position of director of engineering and CTO at William Hill International, Pokerstars and SimpleBet, as well as experience in a number of software development roles and co-founded the AI-powered betting insights company Tipstly. She also boasts corporate management experience from various roles in the US and Middle East. 

Kaltcheva stated: “I am passionate about all things technology, gaming, diversity and innovation oriented, so Pronet Gaming was clearly the right choice for me. 

“It’s such an exciting time to be coming on board, with some huge projects just around the corner. I look forward to building dynamic new relationships as these come to fruition and Pronet Gaming continues to grow.” 

Pronet Gaming is currently looking to increase its overall number of developers across all locations as it seeks to further strengthen its industry technological foundations. The appointment follows the opening of Pronet Gaming’s office in Sofia, Bulgaria, where Kaltcheva will be primarily based.

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The entity, whose offering includes online casino as well as sports betting, operates under a full licence granted by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the regulatory board for the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake.

“As a brand, truenorth.bet is well-known for the quality of its offering and regulatory integrity and I’m pleased to say that we were able to adapt to meet those challenges in a well-established market,” Colin McDonagh, Pronet Gaming chief sales officer, commented.

“We fought off stiff competition to secure the business, with the adaptability of our UI and UX ultimately proving pivotal in the decision-making process. As we go live, we look ahead to a long-lasting and successful relationship.”

The operator, which says that it has maintained a strict adherence to the regulatory framework in the face of unregulated competition, has gained the implementation of local technical requirements around responsible gaming, data protection, self-exclusion and anti-spam laws.

The agreement will also allow truenorth.bet to offer micro markets on some of Canada’s niche sports, such as sprint car racing, lacrosse and Canadian boxing.

A spokesperson at truenorth.bet said of the partnership: “We’re very pleased to have launched truenorth.bet with Pronet Gaming and are confident that the quality of the user experience on the platform will be second to none.

“Their passion for the project shone through – as did the quality and flexibility of the product – and we are confident that this innovative new partnership will put us in the driving seat as the Canadian market matures.”

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This will give the supplier access to more than 30 different variations of the game, 24/7 support, API integration and omnichannel solutions, as well as SSL and monthly updates.

Furthermore, It also offers Pronet Gaming’s clients the flexibility to choose to be a part of EvenBet Gaming’s poker community, or simply to utilise its standalone skin.

Dmitry Starostenkov, EvenBet Gaming CEO, said: “Pronet Gaming has earned a reputation as an industry-leader and we’re confident its expertise will help us solidify our status as a dynamic software developer. Our games provide entertainment to players all over the world, so this deal with a globally recognised partner is a natural fit.” 

This latest partnership further enhances Pronet Gaming’s offering as it continues to expand its sportsbook and casino platform, with a particular focus on emerging markets. 

Bobby Longhurst, chief commercial officer at Pronet Gaming, added: “The high performance of our platform depends on the reliability of its software and the quality of its content, making EvenBet Gaming an ideal partner. 

“Poker is a proven cross-channel vertical and even more appealing when it is enriched by EvenBet Gaming’s exciting multi-format gameplay and innovative approach to card game design. Operators will undoubtedly reap the rewards from the addition of this premium content.”

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The Edinburgh-based studio specialises in the creation of free-to-play and pay-to-play sports games, which are designed to appeal to customers who may not normally be interested in online casino.

“Pronet Gaming has received international recognition for both their casino and sports betting platform,” stated John Gordon, CEO at Incentive Games.

“Our entertaining games will help their clients acquire and retain players, giving them an advantage in competitive markets. 

“Pronet Gaming is an organisation that innovates with the purpose to bring value to their operator clients and this is exactly why our products are such a good match. We are truly excited to work with them and their continually expanding client base.” 

The cross-sell potential of Incentive Games’ products makes the studio’s content a timely addition to Pronet Gaming’s catalogue, ahead of a summer featuring the Copa América and Euro 2020 football tournaments. 

As Incentive’s games are Opera Mini compatible, they complement Pronet Gaming’s offering across Africa, while its free-to-play games aim to provide operators with a strong acquisition and reactivation tool. 

The latest integration further enhances the offering of Pronet Gaming as it aims to continue to expand quickly into emerging markets around the world.

Bobby Longhurst, CCO at Pronet Gaming, commented: “The continued high quality of our platform depends on the strength of its content, making Incentive Games an ideal partner as we serve our operators with a wide variety of games. 

“Their innovative approach to games design and cross-sell appeal makes them an ideal partner as we continue to serve operators with an array of premium content.”

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This will see a series of casino titles designed specifically for the region, including both original and licensed content, added to the former’s fully customisable platform.

Pronet Gaming says that this latest integration represented a further enhancement of iits offering in LatAm as it continues to expand quickly, with a strong focus on emerging markets.

“LatAm is a key region for us and to sign a deal with a supplier with a portfolio as strong as Vibra Gaming’s is a major boost for our casino catalogue in the region,” stated Bobby Longhurst, Pronet Gaming CCO.

“We were particularly impressed with Vibra’s innovative approach to video bingos and slots as well as their smart use of licensed content with localised appeal. We believe these games will help our operator partners ramp up player engagement in this market.”

Vibra Gaming offers a range of slots and video bingos, and holds the rights to international brands Popeye and The Phantom, together with regionally famous names such as Condorito and “El Potro” Rodrigo.

Ramiro Atucha, Vibra Gaming’s CEO, added: “We’ve been working for many years in the development of content for the LatAm markets and we consider this partnership with Pronet Gaming to be an essential milestone. We believe that their distribution will open a big path for us and that our content will help them grow in these latitudes even more.”

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Spanning both Black History Month and International Women’s Day, the campaign is designed to raise awareness of how others affect our professional development, and recognise the fact that people do not progress in their careers without the help of someone along the way.

“The idea behind #OpenDoors is simple,” commented Kelly Kehn, co-founder of All-in Diversity Project. “If we really want to progress and be a more diverse and inclusive industry, we need to recognise that we did not get to where we are in our career without the help of someone along the way. 

“By celebrating someone who supported your career, you are also pledging that you are willing to hold the door open for someone else who might need it. Donations to the scholarship fund are a true action where we can hold the door open for the future leaders of our industry.”

Furthermore, the #OpenDoors social media effort will also coincide with the launch of scholarship fund supporting UNLV’s International Gaming Institute’s executive development programme.

With a goal set to be to fund at least two scholarships, thus far the campaign has commitments from corporate sponsors including Penn National Gaming, Hero Gaming, Interactive Gaming Group, Insight Global, Playtech, Pronet Gaming, and Facebook Gaming.

Individuals as well as businesses are invited to contribute to the fund, and any committing over $1000 will be listed as a corporate sponsor.

“The executive development programme is such a wonderful fit and beneficiary for the #OpenDoors campaign,” added Holly Gagnon, distinguished fellow, executive development at UNLV International Gaming Institute and co-moderator of the 2020 EDP Programme. “This is about creating opportunities and better leadership through industry collaboration.”

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In the first of a three part special, we caught up with Alessandro Sposito, head of business development at ESA Gaming, Steven Spartinos, co-CEO of Kiron, Bobby Longhurst, CCO at Pronet Gaming, Richard Hogg, CCO at BetGames.TV, Ruben Loeches, CMO at R Franco Group and Sylvain Boniver, COO at Gaming1, to seek some solutions.

CasinoBeats: Is the conversion of sports betting customers a blip or will they stick around?

Alessandro Sposito: Some sports betting customers who have ventured into other verticals during the last few months will inevitably return to their first love. For them, the pull of live sport, the following it attracts, and the partisanship it offers are just too strong.

But there are clearly large numbers who will have enjoyed wandering off-piste and will no longer be confined to the nursery slopes. Having a continued presence of alternative products in and around sportsbook will be crucial to maintaining their interest in variety.

They need to be offered an alternative that complements rather than intrudes upon the sports betting experience. That will take skill when it comes to the marketing of these products obviously, but the products themselves need to suit the customer profile. That is the key to ensuring the conversion is not just a blip.

Steven Spartinos: There’s no question that when live sports return, the number of bets placed on sports fixtures will surge, especially when it comes to mainstay markets like football and horse racing.

We expect that this will cause a short-term reduction in betting volumes on verticals that have spiked during the hiatus as punters can once again bet on their favourite teams. Current data has indicated, however, that customers who have been introduced to virtuals recently have enjoyed the experience and will still try their hand on the games, since their high frequency nature allows players to enjoy their favourite sports with almost instant results.

We therefore expect a large proportion of newcomers will have been converted for the long term, having grown accustomed to this quick-fire style of play, and will continue to enjoy the games alongside their usual sports betting activity. 

Bobby Longhurst: COVID-19 hit suppliers and operators, especially those with a focus on sportsbook, with a number of obstacles to overcome. However, many operators were quick to address the shutdown of live sports and recognised the opportunity to expand their offering with virtuals and esports, as well as additional casino content. Many of our partners have been able to attract a number of existing sports bettors to experience this influx of new products.

It’s now up to the industry as a whole to ensure that players do stick around, with an even greater focus on retention techniques to keep them engaged. Much of that will depend on the quality of the new gaming experiences players have become accustomed to during this period. We’re confident a strong segment of bettors will keep returning to esports and virtual events even when live sports returns, mainly because they’ve enjoyed the new content on offer. 

Richard Hogg: From what we’ve seen with our partners, as many as 70 per cent of players stopped betting at all during the cancellation of live sport. From those that did migrate over however, we’ve certainly observed good numbers, particularly in South Africa, where player retention for games sits as high as 35 per cent. 

The fact that our games intrinsically attract a lower spend with far more regular play (as well as lending themselves to the fixed odds outcome format), has ensured that we have been popular with sportsbook customers.

Given the parallels, we’re confident we’ll have many sports betting customers who will stick around now that they’ve been introduced to the brand. For most other ‘replacement’ products however, such as virtuals and esports, I expect players to go back to what they know, as they offer very few crossovers.  

Ruben Loeches: From my point of view, it’s all about the profile of the player. When it comes to customer loyalty, one fundamental element must be taken into account. The way in which the player came aboard. Those acquired organically versus ones that have come through the door via an aggressive acquisitional campaign are not the same. 

For casino, this is where the gaming experience is key. If we’re talking about a promotional campaign, it is very likely the player will enjoy the offer and leave. But, if the experience has been positive, agile and uneventful, then the percentage of your return as an operator increases exponentially. Those who have devoted the last few months to improving their user experience will be reaping the rewards – and will see plenty more stick around. 

Sylvain Boniver: The overarching media narrative seems to be that sports betting customers have migrated en masse to casino because of disruption to live fixtures. Our own statistics do not bear that out.

Indeed, 83 per cent of our sports betting players have stopped gambling during the current hiatus on live action. Perhaps a controversial view, but we can conclude that rather than turning to the casino sector in search of alternatives, most sports punters simply stopped betting altogether. 

Of course, from those that did cross there is of course potential for them to stick around with the right offering, but in the case of live sports – I do anticipate that the proportion that did migrate will likely return to the action as soon as they can. After all, it’s what they know best.  

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