Interviews
Gamingtec CEO: How to build a start-up in the iGaming industry
Sapar Karyagdyyev, Gamingtec CEO, talks to European Gaming about the growth of the company and shares his tips on how to start a business in the iGaming industry.
1. What made you interested in the iGaming field of entertainment?
I had already been working in the iGaming industry for five years when the idea for Gamingteс came about. We started the project in London, in 2013, as part of Offside Gaming. The problem we set out to solve was the slow speed at which new White Label projects were developed and launched. Most B2B companies relied on legacy technologies, which caused delays. It was obvious that only new technologies and a different resource setup could change the speed of the service and launch new projects more quickly. Our speed and efficiency has become our competitive advantage and we work hard to preserve it. We also rely heavily on our partners, as there are a number of tasks that need to be delivered on their side. Therefore, we usually only collaborate with companies that truly understand the iGaming industry and its challenges. Finding the right partner is a crucial part of the working process for us.
2. Can you give any tips to companies that want to start an iGaming business?
To build a fast-growing and profitable project, you should choose the target market very carefully. Realistically assess your capabilities and ensure that the marketing strategy is thought out properly. Choose the most appropriate strategy, according to the country and legislative system: traffic, sponsoring, flyers, TV ads, or even word of mouth.
Whilst developing your company, pay attention to the quality of the team and the company culture. Hiring qualified specialists and looking for enthusiasts that can develop the project is an ongoing process. You will need specialists that not only get the job done, but can offer smart and profitable solutions.
3. What service do you provide to your partners?
Every client and partner requires an individual approach. Sometimes, we provide full turnkey solutions and other times, selected services only. Gamingtec does not develop games or payments. Instead, we find companies that specialise in it and we integrate the best products into our platform. This, in turn, allows us to focus on our core speciality, which is high-quality turnkey product.
That is what we are really good at: we can find the right and the best products, put them together and offer the final solutions that work in the most effective way.
4. Could you describe your clients? Who are they?
Most of our clients are media companies with an access and experience in acquiring customers. By partnering with us, such companies receive tools and solutions that allow us to build a profitable business.
Less often, we work with large affiliate networks; companies that decided to start their own operator businesses. Most of the time, such clients do not take into account operating costs and fail to generate a profit. Our task is to explain all the nuances of operating the business, and the costs and risks involved, so they can implement these into their business model.
5. What do you think about innovations in the betting industry? Is cybersport as promising as many experts say?
Since the last shift towards live betting and faster markets, the sports betting industry has not changed much. This shift happened over five years ago and most of the products in the industry have been commoditised by now. There has been a notable shift in the source of innovation from product providers to operators, which I think, is partly explained by the lack of innovation from product providers. When you are operating in highly competitive conditions with very similar products, you have to find the innovation elsewhere in order to stay competitive and grow.
As for cybersport, I think this is just a new type of product to be offered to customers, in combination with everything else in the portfolio. I do not believe it will be a success on its own. The main audience is underage and, like any other responsible company, we have a duty to protect them from the exposure to gambling.
6. Is there anyone who has impressed you with their approach to business? Who is an example for you?
I really like Amazon’s approach. They work with third parties, until they develop a similar level of expertise and then launch their own versions. This approach allows them to offer clients a good level of service to start with and then they can take it to the next level by perfecting the process with an in-house solution. For instance, at the very beginning, goods from Amazon in the UK were delivered by Royal Mail. Gradually, the company built its own delivery system. The results are amazing: same-day delivery, weekend delivery and higher margins, perhaps.
7. What principles do you follow when developing Gamingtec?
I follow our code of conduct principles: celebrate diversity and create opportunities for all specialists, regardless of their age, gender, or nationality. In particular, during the last two years we have increased the number of female employees, from 10% to 36%. When we hire people, we look at their competences and skills, not their gender, or religion. However, age diversity is a challenge that we are yet to tackle.
When it comes to our offices, we try to facilitate teamwork and find channels of communication between employees. To build a cohesive team, we hold team-building activities. I really like the framework developed by Patrick Lencioni, which he describes in his book, ‘5 Dysfunctions of a team’. This framework enables employees to work through five distinct problematic areas: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results. It is a never-ending process through which we strive to achieve transparent and honest communication. I believe that our company should be a place where employees trust each other, are open to discussions and debates, are ready to commit to decisions and assign responsibilities and, of course, accomplish significant goals for our company, as well.
Match Hype has just won two industry competitions. Talk us through your product.
Match Hype brings engagement from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram into the sportsbook. Our technology automatically turns raw sports data into short videos full of sports and betting insights. We have the capacity to create up to a million videos daily in more than 30 languages. We also provide hosting and streaming of the videos, and we track everything in the video thanks to our own player. The high level of video experience and the scale make us unique in the market, and we believe that this innovation is extremely needed in the industry—and the judges in the competitions probably agree with us.
What technologies are you leveraging to deliver such a cutting-edge tool/product?
We have more than six years’ experience in developing dynamic video solutions for clients like Microsoft, HBO, and SAP, and a decade in high-end video production for similarly well-known clients. Match Hype is the essence of this. We have developed our own robust cloud infrastructure that enables us to work on a huge scale. We can also leverage the integration of third-party solutions that help us make the video content rich and engaging. The AI boom came at the right time to help us make the experience for the viewer even better.
Who is Match Hype aimed at?
We focus mostly on sportsbook operators, where we think we can bring the biggest value. But we also have clients on the affiliate and media side. Our “competition” at the moment are creative professionals who are able to create one video at a time. To cover hundreds or thousands of events daily, you need huge manpower. With Match Hype, you don’t need that—it’s all automated. Anybody who appreciates this level of efficiency will benefit.
The end users are any sports fans who enjoy engaging videos. So basically everybody.
Has this industry been slow to embrace video content and unlock the potential it offers? If so, why?
It’s hard for us to talk about the whole industry, as we haven’t been part of it for that long. But iGaming feels like a conservative industry where only truly meaningful innovations make it. Fingers crossed for Match Hype being one of them. We are confident because of our track record in other industries, and mostly thanks to the results of our dynamic videos that are already used by significant igaming industry players.
What makes video content so effective at customer acquisition? How can Match Hype be used in this regard?
People just love video content. In the last review, TikTok said that the average user spends around 90 minutes a day on their platform. Platforms like Spotify used to be music and podcasts only; now they are full of videos. You just can’t ignore that. Video killed the radio star, and a static sportsbook is next to die.
And what about retention? How can it be used to keep players engaged and coming back for more?
Imagine that a 30-second video gives you the exact insights to help you make a betting decision without spending dozens of minutes on different resources to gather all the information. People don’t want to read anymore. This is probably an even bigger strength of Match Hype than user acquisition.
What can we expect from Match Hype in the coming months?
We will establish Match Hype as an industry standard for dynamic video content. We’ll bring many more sports like tennis, basketball horse racing and. We are preparing real-time video use cases—for example, half-time updates in football—and new distribution channels like integration directly into streams. The potential is huge. Stay tuned.
Any final thoughts?
For the last year, we have talked with literally hundreds of iGaming experts, investors, and executives. Almost every one of them sees fan engagement as a huge topic in the upcoming months and years. And video will definitely play a key part in it.
Video says more than a thousand words. Give it a go—watch one of our 30-second videos and see for yourself.
Affiliate Industry
Flying high: How RavenTrack is helping operators unlock the true potential of their affiliate programs
We sit down with Adam Rowley, Managing Director at RavenTrack, to understand why data, tracking and optimisation are key to a successful affiliate program
Your tagline is “win at performance marketing”. Tell us more about how you help operators maximise their partnerships with affiliates.
It is indeed. RavenTrack is a powerful affiliate tracking solution that allows operators to track, optimise and grow through their affiliate programs. Our proprietary solution offers an advanced affiliate tracking platform built by iGaming experts – this ensures it meets the unique demands of the industry, including the need to withstand the pace and complexity of affiliate marketing in the online sports betting and casino space. RavenTrack has also been designed to be flexible and customisable so that it can be adapted to individual client requirements. This combination of qualities has seen us become the go-to affiliate software tracking provider for more than 150 brands across the world, brands that are winning at performance marketing with the support of RavenTrack.
Why is tracking so important to the ultimate success of an affiliate program?
Tracking is the glue that holds marketing and sales together in the online arena. But effective tracking requires a platform that delivers reliability, accuracy and a seamless UX so that users can easily dig into the data and generate valuable insights. Speed and reliability are crucial so that operators don’t miss a single click or conversion. To track data effectively, operators (and their affiliate partners) need tools such as pixel and postback capabilities and geo-targeting. The former allows affiliates to track customer activity in real time which helps them maximise the revenue of the brands they work with. When it comes to intelligent geo-tracking, it allows users to identify and aim to funnel traffic through specific locations.
But tracking is just one part of the process and success of an affiliate program– online sportsbook and casino operators must be able to take the data they have tracked and use it to optimise campaigns, both internally and those being run by their affiliate partners.
What does optimisation look like? How does RavenTrack help its customers do this?
Traffic source provides a lot of spoke for optimisation, especially when it comes to things like which affiliate is performing best, changes to traffic, ROI and conversion rate optimisation. With RavenTrack, operators have the insight they need to do this. They can also give their affiliates access to data via their own internal reporting systems – this is done via our two-way API – to help determine which campaigns and creatives are delivering the best results. Operators also need to optimise the commercial agreements they have in place with their affiliate partners, and this means being able to offer them a range of options including CPA, revenue share, CPL, CPM and hybrid.
As operators – and their affiliates – get more experienced at using data and tracking, they will want to customise reports to a pretty granular level so that they can optimise to a much deeper and greater extent. Customisable reports (we have more than 20 reports available), marketplace and dashboards are just a few of the tools we provide to help operators and affiliates optimise campaigns and work to the commercials that deliver for both parties.
And how does all of this come together to help both operators and affiliates scale at pace?
Our fixed-cost model means operators can create as many campaigns for their brands as they like without the worry of additional costs. This in turn makes growing their program pretty straightforward. With a long list of commission structures available (which can be customised by the client) for their affiliate partners, operators can ensure the growth of the program is reflected in the growth of the wider business, ultimately allowing them to maximise profitability from affiliate marketing activity while at the same time ensuring their partners are fairly compensated for the quality traffic they send.
Migrating to a new affiliate tracking platform can cause major upheaval. How do you help operators through the process?
We know that moving to a new platform can be a big decision and a significant undertaking, but we have plenty of options to make it a seamless process from start to finish. This includes working with the affiliate program team to run their old and new program side by side to ensure there is absolutely no drop-off in traffic or lost data. Our UK-based account and customer support team is always on hand to assist during the migration process, and once operators are up and running with RavenTrack – this includes helping them get the most out of our platform and tools.
RavenTrack has only been around for a handful of years but has already achieved great things. What can we expect in the months ahead?
We hit the market in 2018 and haven’t looked back. Today, we work with 150 brands, processing more than one billion clicks per month and £2billion in deposits to date. The operators using RavenTrack to run their affiliate programs have generated more than £500 million in revenue and counting. Our numbers speak for themselves and no matter the size of brand or affiliate program, our solution is the key to unlocking the true potential of affiliate marketing. As for the months ahead, expect more platform updates, new tools and some big-name partnership announcements.
In recent years, the online gaming landscape has witnessed a surge in innovative and engaging titles that capture the interest of players worldwide. Among these, first ever flying crash game by SmartSoft – JetX emerged as a standout game, particularly gaining substantial traction in Africa. This article provides an in-depth examination of JetX, a popular online crash game, and explores the expertise behind its creation. By focusing on the game’s features, the developer SmartSoft Gaming, and insights from an interview with the Vice President Commercial, we aim to highlight the factors contributing to JetX’s success and its impact on the gaming industry.
About SmartSoft Gaming
Founded in Georgia in 2015 by industry experts, SmartSoft set out to create a one-of-a-kind casino games provider that offers high-quality gaming experiences worldwide. By combining interactive features with captivating visuals, we blend gaming and gambling to deliver more engaging, entertaining, and superior experiences. Our mission is not just to attract players but to enhance their enjoyment.
To gain further insights into the development of JetX and the vision behind its creation, we spoke with the Vice President Commercial of SmartSoft.
Rusa Javakhishvili Vice President Commercial of SmartSoft shared insights and analytics from African countries, and outlined future plans. Rusa joined SmartSoft two years ago as Head of Finance and Strategic Projects. In early 2024, she transitioned to the commercial side as Head of Account Management, and is now Vice President of Commercials, overseeing several regions, including Africa.
What was the general concept and inspiration behind JetX?
In recent years, the online gaming landscape has witnessed a surge in innovative and engaging titles that capture the interest of players worldwide. Among these, JetX has emerged as a standout game, particularly gaining substantial traction in Africa. The main concept of the game is that it is easy to play, the player is involved in the decision as much as possible, it is fast and within the fast-paced world we think that it delivers exactly what players need for an enjoyable experience.
How does JetX differentiate itself from other crash games in the market?
At SmartSoft, we appreciate our relationships with partners, it’s very important to us. We constantly think and work to create a valuable product and maintain strong connections with them. SmartSoft’s portfolio includes a diverse range of online casino games, each designed to offer unique features and interactive gameplay but JetX is the literal gem!
JetX is an online crash game that combines simplicity with excitement, offering players an engaging betting experience. This dynamic gameplay requires both luck and strategy, appealing to a broad audience seeking quick, high-stakes action. JetX stands out due to its user-friendly interface, real-time gameplay, and mobile compatibility, making it accessible and enjoyable for players on the go. Its growing popularity in Africa can be attributed to its exciting gameplay mechanics and the potential for significant winnings.
What strategies did you employ to ensure JetX appeals to a diverse audience, particularly in Africa?
When we expanded into the African market, we knew it’s a big and diverse region, so it’s important to understand each country individually instead of seeing it as one market. With our partners’ help, we’re working hard to learn about each country’s marketing practices and what types of games people enjoy. It’s a challenging task, but the African market is a top priority for us, and we’ve allocated resources to quickly build our knowledge in this area.
How has JetX been received by African players compared to other regions? Are there any notable differences in player behavior or preferences?
The African market is one of the most interesting and significant for us, and we believe it has great potential. It is a highly dynamic and exciting market, where players are exposed to a wide variety of games. Their enthusiasm for diverse content gives us inspiration and motivation to create games specifically tailored to their unique preferences and needs. Moreover, they are quick to engage with new releases, eagerly embracing fresh content when it aligns with their tastes and expectations. Although Crash products were introduced only recently, they have quickly become a favorite among consumers. We expect this trend to continue growing.
How do you assess player feedback and incorporate it into ongoing game improvements?
This is a crucial aspect for us. That’s why, in collaboration with our partners, we consistently review key feedback on our games and strive to incorporate it as much as possible into new versions. We strive to bring enjoyment in everything we do – whether it’s in our work environment, or for the end users. Our goal is to delight both the customers and ourselves with our work. Therefore, we integrate gaming’s fun elements into gambling to maximize enjoyment. This approach fuels our drive to innovate and create playful experiences, redefining the gambling industry and making it more entertaining;
What future developments or updates can players expect for JetX?
Our product has undergone numerous changes since its inception, with many more improvements planned. These changes are aimed at delivering the best possible user experience for players while ensuring the product remains of the highest technical quality.
How has the success of JetX influenced SmartSoft’s approach to game development?
JetX, the first Crash game created in 2018, holds a special place as one of the company’s most beloved titles. Its global popularity is evident, and we’re thrilled that players enjoy it. At SmartSoft, having a diversified portfolio is crucial, which is why we release new games every year. As pioneers in the Crash genre, we ensure that we continually expand our offerings. Our goal is to provide players with a wide range of high-quality games they can trust to deliver an enjoyable experience.
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