Interview with Lars Kollind, head of Business Development at Swintt

Having enjoyed a stellar start to 2023 during which the company signed countless high-profile partnerships and entered a number of new regulated markets, we caught up with Swintt’s Head of Business Development, Lars Kollind to learn a bit more about the in-demand software studio and what we can expect to see from them in the coming months.

Can you tell us a bit about Swintt’s history and how the brand started in the online gaming industry?

Swintt was founded in 2019 by David Flynn, who came into his role as CEO with a huge amount of industry experience and a great reputation within online gaming. He was soon joined by another David – David Mann – and over the years Swintt grew from these two employees to the 40 we have today. In that time, David Mann progressed in his role from CCO to current CEO, with David Flynn moving over to the board of Glitnor Group, the parent company of Swintt. From those humble beginnings, Swintt has forged a reputation as one of the industry’s go-to software providers while developing over 110 slots and live casino releases.

What sets Swintt apart from other software companies and how do you differentiate your products?

The quality of our team makes a big difference. Over the years, we’ve assembled a talented group of industry experts that has allowed us to forge really strong relationships with all our customers. From a product perspective, however, the biggest differentiating factor is probably our recently launched SwinttStudios partnership program. This initiative is genuinely unique when compared to other aggregator partnership programs as we really go all-in to support the studios we work with, from the initial onboarding onto our RGS through to technical, commercial and marketing support later on.

Swintt has partnerships with some of the industry’s leading online casino operators. Can you tell us a bit more about how you develop these relationships and what they mean for the brand’s growth?

This again goes back to the talented team that we’ve put together. Everyone employed at Swintt shares the same attitude and values that have helped to form our company culture over the years – and they’ve all been in the industry long enough to know how to form good relationships with customers. I think this has enabled Swintt to build up a very strong reputation within the industry, which of course makes it far easier for us when we approach new partners as they know we’re a name they can trust.

What does the process look like for developing a new casino game at Swintt from concept to launch?

From a conceptual perspective, the first thing is to look at the competition and see what’s popular in terms of mechanics and themes. This can be done via market research or by having account managers speak to operators to see what’s popular or gaining in popularity on their platforms. Once a concept is decided it then moves onto the games team for development and we’ll often try to add a unique Swintt spin – like we do with our Xtra series – to bring something new to the market. After launch, we pay close attention to feedback from customers, streamers, and affiliates to further refine this process.

Swintt has expanded into a number of new regulated markets recently – can you tell us a bit more about where you’re currently focused and some of the challenges you’ve faced while getting there?

Generally speaking, our goal is to always try and ensure our games are available in as many regulated markets as possible. We’re going to be live in the UK soon – which is something we’re all very excited about – and customers can expect to see a big push on that front. Beyond that, some of the other markets we’re really focused on include Ontario, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. In terms of challenges, ensuring you’re compliant with each country’s regulations is a big one, but also catering for player tastes in each market as well – something we do really well with our SwinttPremium and SwinttGames portfolios.

What industry trends and themes are getting popular now and how is Swintt responding to them?

This obviously depends a lot on the market you’re operating in, but I’d say players are generally getting more demanding in terms of what they expect from a game. These days, it’s important to be innovate and ensure you bring something new to customers – and this is what we try to do with our Xtra series of games. These titles all combine immersive themes with ground-breaking bonus mechanics, such as the unique Tiki free spins feature found in our popular Aloha Spirit XtraLock^TM slot.

How does Swintt ensure games are fair and safe and what steps do you take to maintain player trust?

Player safety is at the heart of everything we do at Swintt and we always make sure we follow all the rules regarding player protection in every market that we operate in. In terms of maintaining player trust, we try to get as close to the end user as possible by taking on board any feedback we get from streamers and affiliates. We also do everything we can to portray gambling purely as an entertainment.

What’s Swintt’s vision for the future of online gaming and how are you working to shape that future?

We believe online gaming will continue to grow and we hope regulations will become more reasonable – for players, game providers and operators – to facilitate that growth and not drive customers to unregulated sites. In terms of how we’ll work towards this future, Swintt will continue to support player protection and responsible gambling by adhering to all applicable laws in the regulated markets we operate in while also promoting casino gaming as an entertainment.

Can you tell us about any exciting new projects that Swintt customers can expect to see this year?

We’ll be onboarding more boutique studios into our SwinttStudios program, but we will also be focusing on our in-house development and produce more titles for the next generation of casino player via our SwinttGames line-up while continuing to provide classic slots from the SwinttPremium range. In terms of specific titles, we’ll be continuing our partnership with Vinnie Jones for two exciting upcoming releases – The Crown Reloaded and Crazy Footy – the latter one of which we’ll be promoting at our SBC Barcelona stand where guests can also enter a fun penalty shootout competition to win great prizes!