Interviews
“Prove it”: how bad recruitment squanders good culture
Most gaming businesses understand that culture is a deciding factor in the competition for talent. Despite that, many of them still don’t see the recruitment benefit of their cultural capital, says Kevin Perks, Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at Van Kaizen.
How important is your culture to your talent strategy, really?
Super important. Culture is an easy catch-all term for the way it feels to work in your business. It’s about some mix of authenticity, transparency, autonomy, growth and development, emotional support, social satisfaction, working environment, and a host more things, because there’s no one-size-fits all. Assuming you tick the basic boxes of a decent salary and a well thought out role, culture is what will really attract someone to your company over somewhere else.
So a good culture is the key to attracting the best staff?
Absolutely, but attracting them isn’t enough. Think of it like B2C marketing: your culture is your product and talented staff are your consumers. Everyone in this industry intuitively understands that attracting people to check out your product is just the start of the journey. Then you have to convert them and you have to retain them. If you don’t invest in those processes, your product, your culture, it’s not doing you any good because the consumer never really experiences it.
Where do employers commonly get that process wrong?
With a good culture, attraction is the relatively easy part. If your current staff speak well of you as an employer and you do a decent job of employer branding, you’ll get over the first hurdle. People will send their CVs in, and they’ll come to interviews. For a headhunter like me, it gives me something to lead with when I drop into a great passive candidate’s inbox or get them on the phone. And boy do I sell; employers often don’t know how much free marketing they get from a headhunter pitching them to dozens of candidates for every open role!
No, where a lot of firms go wrong is on the conversion part of the journey. That’s where I spend the vast majority of my time as a headhunter. There has to be a connection between the culture you’re selling, and the recruitment process the candidate actually experiences. Everyone knows words are cheap, so the in-demand candidates are looking for real authenticity when they get to the mutual qualification process. It’s like they’re saying, “I hear you have a great culture, so prove it.”
What are the biggest red flags for candidates in that position?
Speed is the biggest one. Does it take you 10 days to decide after an interview? They just mentally crossed out the “fast paced environment” line from your job description. Is the hiring manager apologising because they need input from managers X, Y, and Z? There goes your promise about “autonomy and self-direction”. Do you have four interviews, three forms, and a standardised test? They don’t believe your “dynamic and people-oriented” claim anymore.
Sometimes the opposite is true, too. It is less common, but super-rapid processes with little obvious oversight or structure can also leave a candidate feeling like the business is chaotic, the role is poorly defined, or that there isn’t really competition for the role. Candidates like to feel they’ve earned their progress, after all.
What does the ideal recruitment process look like?
Your interview process is a candidate’s first personal experience of your culture, so it has to be authentic to what your business is like and there’s no single answer. That said, there are some benchmarks that I see working well across the industry.
It is important to outline the process and expected timelines at the beginning. This requires a clear internal process where all of those involved, from the HR manager to the hiring manager, are aligned on what is happening when. This process doesn’t need to be standardised across the organisation as different departments recruit differently, but there must be cohesion between those involved in the process.
A two-interview process works well. The first gives both sides the opportunity to discuss the role, the candidate’s skill set and ambitions, and what the company has to offer. A second interview around 3 or 4 working days later allows everyone to digest, reflect, and come back with useful questions for a deeper conversation. It is important this is a two-way process: the candidate is qualifying the opportunity as much as you are qualifying them.
Timely interview feedback is essential, for successful and unsuccessful candidates. If you have the mindset that what you are doing here is not just filling a seat, but letting people experience your culture, then the unsuccessful candidates are just as important as the successful ones. Yes, you have to interview a lot of people so feedback can be time consuming, but by the same token, what do you want those dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people to be saying about your company in a small industry in the years to come?
What’s the reward of getting all that right?
What’s the cost of getting it wrong? That’s usually easier to quantify. How much does it cost to keep a sales seat with an unfulfilled target open for four months while you find someone? What happens to the roadmap when you’re a developer short? What is the impact on your team morale if you get someone with the wrong skill mix? What will it do to your market share when the top candidate choses your main competitor? Everyone can fill a seat, eventually, the challenge is filling it quickly with the right person.
What difference does a headhunter make?
External perspective on your processes. A view across the industry of recruitment best practices. Confidentiality and an arm’s length when approaching staff at competitors or in sensitive positions.
In my mind, though, the most overlooked benefit is having someone that is wholly results based. At Van Kaizen we don’t take a base salary, we earn solely on commission. No placement, no income, really focuses the mind and drives me and my colleagues to find the very best people out there.
And how do I do that? By selling your culture, person to person, over the phone, to dozens of candidates for every shortlist I build. Over the years, that is hundreds of people getting their first tailored experience of your culture.
Just make sure when the shortlist lands, your processes prove I was selling the truth.
Nik Robinson, CEO at Big Time Gaming, talks about the challenges studios face when it comes to sequel slots such as its just-launched Danger! High Voltage 2.
Congratulations on the launch of Danger! High Voltage 2. Tell us more about the game and what players can expect.
Thanks! We’re absolutely thrilled to launch Danger! High Voltage 2—it’s an electrifying sequel we think fans of the original will love. When we released the first Danger! High Voltage, the response was phenomenal, and players kept asking for even more high-octane action. So, we set out to turn things up to 11 with this release.
The game cranks up the excitement with our Megaways™ engine, giving players up to 117,649 ways to win on each spin. The base game is supercharged with volatility and powered by the MegaDozer, perched right above the reels, ready to drop Scatters, Wilds, Multipliers, and other electrifying surprises into play. Then there are the two fiery free spin bonuses—Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!!—designed to keep players on the edge of their seats.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be Danger! High Voltage without the unforgettable soundtrack by Electric Six! Get ready for some serious foot-tapping and headbanging because this game truly brings the heat.
How does the second instalment differ from the original Danger! High Voltage slot you launched back in 2017?
This time around, players are transported to an electrifying thrilling industrial scene, and introduced the groundbreaking mechanic MegaDozerTM mechanic sitting up top, ready to unleash Scatters, Wilds, Multipliers, and surprises.
It’s amazing to see how much slot game design has evolved since we launched the first game in 2017, and Danger! High Voltage 2 is a testament to that evolution. This time, we’ve built it around our Megaways™ engine, which amps up the gameplay with up to 117,649 ways to win on every spin.
We’ve also kept the player choice element for the Free Spins round, but we didn’t just stop there. Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!! are brand-new bonus features that make every spin a symphony of excitement. It’s a whole new level of Danger! and a thrilling way for players to experience just how far we’ve come in delivering cutting-edge slots.
What made the iconic song from Electric Six the perfect soundtrack for creating a slot game around?
When we set out to create Danger! High Voltage 2, we knew we had to keep the core essence that players loved—the name and that iconic Electric Six soundtrack—but from there, this game is a totally new beast.
It’s insanely catchy and the perfect soundtrack for spinning the reels. For me, it stirs a strong feeling of nostalgia, taking me back to the early 2000s when the song was riding high in the charts. The more I listened to it, the more I became convinced it would be huge fun to create a slot game around the song. The lyrics lend themselves to bonus features (Fire in the Disco! Danger Danger! Or the original High Voltage & Gates of Hell), and the disco theme works really well as an online slot because it is so visual and colourful. With the original, we were able to capture the essence of the song and bring it to life, which is why Danger! High Voltage became a runaway success. Danger! High Voltage 2 turns the volume up to the max and we fully expect it to rise to the top of the charts, just like the original did.
Just how hard is it to launch a follow-up to a hugely successful slot game? What are the main challenges in doing so?
Launching a follow-up to a hit like Danger! High Voltage is no easy feat—it’s a bit like making the sequel to a blockbuster movie. You need to build on the experience offered by the original game, keeping true to the core theme and gameplay while making sure it offers something new and different. Stick too close to the original and it won’t deliver the excitement players are seeking, move too far away from it and you can end up with a significant disconnect from the original. But we reimagined the visuals and mechanics, integrating our Megaways™ engine as it adds massive win potential with up to 117,649 ways to win and to keep the gameplay engaging. We took risks with a completely new mechanic MegaDozer™ and introduced two brand-new free spin features, Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!! which had to be meticulously tested to ensure they deliver the right blend of fun and volatility. It becomes a bit of a balancing act whereby you need to keep core elements the same or similar and then bring in new elements that take the whole package to the next level. It’s easy to see why the second album is often the toughest for musicians.
Big Time Gaming seems to have cracked the code when it comes to sequel slots with the recent launch of Bonanza Falls so you must have been able to overcome these challenges.
We’re fortunate to have such strong original titles like Bonanza and Danger! High Voltage as a foundation for our sequels, but make no mistake—it all starts with the team’s incredible work in crafting these iconic games in the first place. When you have a solid base, it gives us the freedom to innovate boldly. For instance, with sequels like Bonanza Falls and Danger! High Voltage 2, we introduced fresh mechanics like MegaDozer™, Win Exchange™, Bonus Coins, which add entirely new dimensions to gameplay. These features aren’t just updates; they’re true evolutions that deliver exhilarating experiences and keep players coming back.
Our team embraces these challenges head-on, bringing excitement and a touch of fun to every sequel we produce. And while these games build on the legacies of the originals, they’re crafted to stand tall on their own merits. Bonanza Falls and Danger! High Voltage 2 don’t just rely on the reputations of their predecessors—they’re outstanding games in their own right, designed to thrill players new and old alike. It’s about creating something fresh while capturing the magic that made the originals so beloved.
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.
TEAM VITALITY UNVEILS A SPECIAL EDITION JERSEY AND NEW CAMPAIGN FOR PERFECT WORLD SHANGHAI MAJOR 2024
Saroca Unveils the Transformational Leadership Program for 2025
Play’n GO announces partnership with Austrian state lottery operator Win2Day
Week 47/2024 slot games releases
WEC24: PUBG MOBILE Tournament Concludes with Outstanding Success
EGT Digital is shortlisted in 5 categories of BEGE Awards 2024
EGT is a finalist in several categories of BEGE Awards 2024
EGT’s latest innovations to shine at the 15th edition of BEGE Expo
Tekkorp Launches Strategic Initiative To Capitalize On African Market
TRUMO LAUNCHES INSTANT OPEN BANKING PAYMENTS FOR FINNISH IGAMING REFORMS
Genome launches SEPA instant payments, adding another valuable feature for iGaming companies
NODWIN Gaming partners with Japanese gaming company KONAMI for ‘eFootball Diwali Showdown’
ALLIANCE PARTNERS TABCORP AND 1/ST CONTENT COMPLETE DEAL WITH THE JOCKEY CLUB OF TURKIYE TO DELIVER TURKISH RACING TO AUSTRALIA VIA SKY RACING
BOS on Sweden’s signing of the Macolin Convention: Welcome, but unreasonable to only include state gambling companies in the work against match-fixing
NSW Govt Appoints New Board Members to ILGA
ICONIC21 makes Romania debut with Princess Casino
-
Latest News4 days agoMake every pixel personal: Opera GX facelift lets you match your browser to your setup down to the smallest detail
-
Africa6 days ago
South Africa: Tribunal Grants Lottoland Interim Relief – Orders Google to Grant Lottoland Access to its Advertising Platform
-
Latest News4 days ago
Casino Management System Market to Reach USD 29.09 Billion by 2032 | Enhanced Security and Operational Efficiency Drive Growth | Research by S&S Insider
-
Latest News4 days ago
Fast Track Celebrates Third Year as a Great Place to Work Certified™ Tech Company
-
Latest News4 days ago
IBIA Upgrades Technology Platform to Strengthen Global Betting Integrity Efforts
-
Latest News4 days ago
Crypto Sportsbook, Sportsbet.io’s player wins huge $3.2m jackpot from $5 spin
-
Latest News4 days ago
ACR POKER ADDS BLITZ BONUS BOOST TO NOVEMBER CALENDAR AS $20 MILLION GTD WINTER OSS ENTERS FINAL DAYS
-
Industry News6 days ago
FDJ Announces its First Bond Issue
