Exclusive interview with Lars Kollind, Business Development Manager at Playson

European Gaming caught up with Lars Kollind who is spearheading the brands strategic plans to continue expanding its operational portfolio worldwide, both vertically and horizontally.

You joined Playson in January this year. How is your experience so far?

Kollind: Hello and thank you for the opportunity to share my experience at Playson.

When I joined the company, I expected a young provider, still figuring things out, however in the few months I’ve been here I have been pleasantly surprised to understand the company is well-established, with clear goals and direction, and with a great culture focused on quality of workplace experience. Playson games are popular among operators and players alike due to their high-quality graphics and animation, supported by a robust and reliable technical set-up that ensures a seamless experience.

On a more personal level, I am greatly enjoying the atmosphere in the company. Values such as collaboration, teamwork, peer support and responsible autonomy are at the core of company culture, which is why we work as a closely-knit pack. At the same time, this allows me the freedom to be myself and motivates me to give my best in my role.

Playson has signed some major clients recently, such as Leo Vegas, ComeOn, and Hero Gaming. Tell us more about the new deals and strategic aspects behind each deal.

Kollind: It’s no secret that we are proud of these recent partnerships and they have given us added impetus to re-evaluate our operations. The company has operated for a long time as a small-to-medium-scale, dynamic studio, with laser focus on quality of product and support. Recent deals with tier one operators and other suppliers have provided us with the context to understand that our position in the market is changing. We are moving with confidence towards the core of European iGaming, increasing our regulated market footprint and our ambitions.

What was your specific role role in these deals?

Kollind: It is common practice in the company to appreciate the team-effort even across every achievement, no matter how large or small. It’s true, actually, that even top performers reach out to a large number of professionals from other departments in order to secure a deal. These particular deals were coordinated by our Sales Manager and my involvement only started after the deals were signed.

How do the new deals auger for Playson’s future? What are the new deals in the pipeline?

Kollind: The most important message sent by these deals is that Playson is a mature, stable and reliable provider that is here to stay – and grow. Our engines are revved up and we don’t expect to slow down our expansion process any time soon. We have some significant announcements to make in the coming months so watch this space!

Are there any plans to expand Playson’s footprints to the USA and Asia? Big things are happening or about to happen in the USA and Japan in the gaming sector.

Kollind: For the time being Playson is focusing on its core markets and only contemplating non-European territories from afar. We expect markets such as the US and Asia to take decisive steps towards regulation and developing the necessary framework for harbouring safe, compliant and responsible gaming, bit this will take time. This year we are committed to expanding our presence exclusively on regulated European markets, but next year it’s not out of the question that we may consider other regulating and/or regulated jurisdictions as well.

Playson has already published more than 70 omnichannel games? Are you going to launch any new games soon, like the Blackjack suite in HTML5? Would love to hear more details.

Kollind: Our HTML 5 Blackjack game is already live and performing well. We are committed to releasing two to three new games every month with new and exciting themes and highly engaging features and functionality that players love and keep coming back to time and again.

Playson has published some much sought-after games in its history. How does the planning go before developing and publishing the games? Could you also tell us more about some of the most successful games in Playson’s portfolio?

Kollind: Our game development process is extensive and we take a meticulous approach to themes and details within each product ensuring our products meet the right compliance standards, are customized to the market we are looking to target and the player segment we are catering for.

We always look at the history of what is popular with certain player demographics, however we also innovate as much and as often as possible with new features such as “daily” jackpot implementations.

Our classic titles such as Legend of Cleopatra are still a major success for us. Players love this 100-bet line game that can pay out huge wins across the pyramid-type reels.

Playson’s offices are spread across four countries: Malta, Ukraine, UK and Greece. How do you manage to maintain a coherent work culture? Any special human resources policies?

Kollind: We may be spread across several global locations, but we embrace a connected working culture and we’re constantly in touch with each office. This has proven to be a huge success for us internally with increased productivity, plus it’s also great to have our employees spread out so we can meet our clients as often as possible based on the geography of staff. Each location is designed to appeal to local talent, and we have carefully planned this within the hiring process.

You are participating in CEEGC 2019 at Budapest on 24-25 September. What do you think is special about CEEGC? Why this event is important to your company?

Kollind: This is the fourth Central and Eastern European Gaming Conference and Awards (CEEGC & CEEG). With several countries within the region opening and regulating this market is becoming increasingly important and we’re very much looking forward to meeting new and existing clients in September.

Our General Counsel, Andrei Andronic, is taking part in a compliance panel at the event in Budapest and it will be great to learn and network with our peers on issues such as compliance and investment opportunities in the regulated Central and Eastern European jurisdictions including Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Croatia and Slovenia, and the Emerging CEE jurisdictions, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland.

We really value having a presence at events such as this, particularly in exciting, emerging territories.

You have had about 15 years of experience in the gaming industry. How do you look back at your career?

Kollind: I’m very proud of my personal achievements but my focus is very much about building on the reputation Playson has built during that time and the significant plans and announcements we have for the coming months and years. We have some seriously exciting developments to discuss soon that I can’t wait to share.

Finally, do you think artificial intelligence is going to change the industry? What are Playson’s plans to tackle the opportunities and challenges that emerging disruptive technologies pose in the gaming sector?

Kollind: AI is clearly the buzzword of the moment, but I don’t see many companies making many inroads here. We use advanced AI technology to both improve our internal processes and our 70+ omni-channel slot games. It is helping us design better performing and more targeted localized content and this will only grow in value over time.