Exclusive Q&A with Lars Kollind, Head of Business Development at iSoftBet

We present here an insightful interview with, Lars Kollind, Head of Business Development at iSoftBet.

He talks here about his career, his role in iSoftBet, the expansion plans and the impressive content that the company offers. He particularly emphasizes on the aspects that iSoftBet focuses on before entering a new market. He also describes the variety and quality of games content at the company possesses.

Here we go!

Q. Let’s start with a brief intro about yourself. Tell us about your career and interests. Our readers would love to hear that.

A. Hi! I’m Lars Kollind, Head of Business Development at iSoftBet. In my role, I work closely with our commercial and marketing teams to build and strengthen internal and external relationships, further develop sales. I leverage customer needs & insights to implement strategies that increase revenue – always on the hunt for new business opportunities, including entering new markets.

At iSoftBet, all our activities tie into our corporate values of curiosity, respect and passion as we look to bring amazing gaming experiences to players in regulated markets all over the globe.

I have spent more than a decade in senior commercial, sales and marketing roles within the gaming sector for some of the industry’s largest suppliers.

Q. You joined iSoftBet in November 2020. How has been the journey so far? Could you describe some landmarks?

A. It’s been a period of tremendous growth, both for me as an individual and for the company. I can say that I adapted easily, thanks to the very welcoming and involved team at iSoftBet. As for highlights, my most important success has been the introduction to Latin America. Another important landmark would be iSoftBet’s content going live with Jokerstar in Germany. We have a lot more in the pipeline, and I’m excited to see how we will progress in this sense.

Q.  Tell us more about your partnership with Jokerstar in the German market.

A. The German market offers some very interesting opportunities and we’ve worked hard from a regulatory standpoint to be able to bring real value to operators there.

Jokerstar gives us a platform to reach German players in what is still a market that is in the process of finding its feet, and we are eager to see what we can achieve. It is a third-generation casino operator with more than 165 gambling halls in Germany, over 1000 employees and a whopping 200.000 customers each year, now testing the waters in the online environment.

The partnership allows us to reach a wide audience and we’re more than excited to see how our games will perform with Jokerstar.

Q. There have been recent news reports about iSoftBet’s expansion plans in Latin America as well. What’s the present position and what would be the next steps?

A. It is no secret Latin America is a hugely exciting continent, having an expected GGR of over $2.5bn by 2025 in regulated markets [as per Vixo GamblingCompliance], with so much expectation as more markets embrace frameworks. We’ve grown strongly in the region with a number of key commercial deals, including Dotworkers, Doradobet and Universal Soft in recent months, with plenty more to come.

We’ve recently signed with MeridianBet as well, a partnership that will see our top slots live across Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Malta, as well as Peru in Latin America. Of course, we look forward to expanding even more in these areas, as well as entering new markets in the coming year.

Q. Now, could you enlighten our readers about your expansion plans?

A. Besides continuing to deliver amazing slots to the iGaming industry, we are also focusing on our aggregation platform. It brings an incredibly diverse array of content to market with impressive velocity, which can be extremely useful to operators in emerging and newly regulated markets.

We pride ourselves on entering regulated markets swiftly and safely, with our methodical, detailed approach seeing us now live in 20 jurisdictions, most recently Greece, with two more countries in the pipeline. We will reveal more in the coming months, but there’s plenty to look forward to.

Q. Let’s shift the focus on to the games and solutions that iSoftBet offers. What makes your company stand out in the reasonably crowded gaming content space?

A. Aggregation is an important aspect of an offering for operators today and we’re dedicated to offering the most dynamic range of games for our partners to truly excel, including exclusive content in certain territories. We offer extensive benefits for both operators and providers in this sense, fostering long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships.

Our aggregation platform allows us to bring unmatched value to our partners. Bringing more than 8,000 games from more than 85 suppliers in the industry to operators via one single integration, our platform makes a huge amount of content available to them, while they can also use our collection of advanced player engagement solutions to enhance gameplay even further.

Both our proprietary games and our aggregation partner’s games can be elevated with our engagement tools – tournaments (iNgame), achievements, free spins, jackpots and cash drops, regulatory widgets, data analysis, with more to be revealed soon.

By combining all these, we’re able to bring a highly impressive collection of content to audiences.

Q. New technologies and innovations come up in a number of verticals related to gaming: Crypto currency, blockchain, machine learning, big data analysis, you name it. Is the rapid emergence of such innovations a challenge or an opportunity for a business developer?

A. Not only do we work in iGaming, but we are a tech company at heart, and keeping our finger on the pulse of developments is vital. Our CTO, Neal Garman, recently released a white paper detailing our seven-year plan, where he outlines the important steps not just iSoftBet, but the industry needs to make to ensure we remain a vibrant entertainment sector.

In such a fast-paced environment, it is no surprise to see more innovation occur and we endeavour to do our best to lead the conversation.

Q. Finally, a question on iSoftBet’s tagline: Serious Fun. That’s really a cool one! How did it come about?

It is all about aligning with our new company ethos. “Serious Fun” comes from us ensuring to deliver our partners and our people fun experiences in a professional way. The talent, creativity, and dedication of our teams make this possible, all while following our mission and vision, and respecting our values.

Our vision is to create amazing gaming experiences and our mission is to deliver high quality products that inspire, innovate and entertain, by always placing our people, partners and the player at the heart of what we do. Our values are Respect, Curiosity, and Passion, representing the core of our company culture.