Exclusive interview: Pavel Bykov, CEO, FAUNUS, organisers of inaugural Spinnovation iGaming summit, talks about the future.

With Prague preparing to host the inaugural Spinnovation iGaming summit, we caught up with Pavel Bykov, CEO, FAUNUS GROUP – the event’s organisers – to find out more about the event and pick his brains about the future of the iGaming industry.

With so many iGaming summits out there, why should people add Spinnovation to their schedule?

One word explains it: Innovation.

We are focusing solely on new game concepts, both games of chance and skill-based games, and showcasing the best of both. There are some truly amazing game concepts, still based on RNG, but providing totally new GUI and gaming experiences. Analysing them and presenting the best ideas is our long-term goal.

What do feel the most important innovations in iGaming will be over the coming years?

Despite everyone talking about VR, social games and more mobile experiences, we think it will be a slow but exciting evolution of classic slots.

The first slot machine evolved from a combination of poker symbols, and while the variety of symbols and graphics have evolved significantly, the essence remains the same – it’s a winning combination.

Like any successful innovation, its going to be a long road of trials and failures, but we believe that ten years from now it will still be a winning combination, but with a completely different interface and game mechanics.

Despite the explosion of esports into a mainstream phenomenon over the last couple of years, why do you think so many operators are still failing to take it seriously?

As one of my good friends, a reputable gambling lawyer stated sadly: “There is no money there.” Unfortunately, expectations were too high – and the reason is obvious, the target audience is not really that solvent. Wait 5 years till’ they start making money and we’ll consider it again! At the same time, esports is something that drives innovations forward. We believe that competitive gaming will be merging heavily with skill-based games and social games.

Do you think regulation is going too far in some markets; for example in the UK?

If there was a ranking of the most complicated issues in the world, gambling regulation would definitely be high up there! The problem is not the gambling rules the regulators are trying to apply (eg. max bet, max hours playing, identification, risk-adjustment, licensing and certification), but non-stop changes, no unified approach and major issues regarding communication.

Regulators often fail to explain why they do what they do, so operators, as well as game studios, find it hard to adjust their models with all the changes taking place. Operators and game studios want nothing but clear and understandable rules for everyone. Once that is in place on some acceptable level, adjusting businesses will be easier.

Though the focus in the post-PASPA United States has been on sports betting, there are promising signs for igaming. With Europe becoming over-regulated and saturated, do you see the future lying across the Atlantic?

I am sorry to disappoint, but no, I do not – certainly not for the smaller guys anyway. The opening up of the USA is a positive signal, but old-school American protectionism dictates the game. Big players are certainly going to take their piece of cake, but it will take years and years to restructure the market in a way that everyone has a clear shot.

One good thing to underline is, however, is America’s start-up and innovation machine. I am sure some of the brightest and most innovative ideas will come from the US, and the local capital market will bring them to life. Let’s watch!

So many operators are still heavily reliant on affiliate marketing to deliver customers, but it does look like an increasingly out-of-date and inefficient marketing model. Where do you see iGaming marketing in the future?

In mobile. Unfortunately, traffic generation rules are changing so quickly, that its hard to say what is going to happen tomorrow. What if Facebook and its content becomes partly regulated by state authorities in live mode? What if Apple introduces planned innovations and people will be able to communicate with each other without traditional protocols?

Lead generation will always be there. But, if there are a few things to note, I would underline streams, opinion leaders and video bloggers, all on mobile, as the current best traffic sources. Affiliates will always be there, but they will always be looking for a good margin, so brands working on emerging markets can still rely on them heavily. As for traditional markets, its better to use alternative channels.

There’s a lot of talk about hyper-localised content in iGaming these days. Do you feel it will live up to its promises?

Absolutely! Only by knowing what a player wants; when, where, with whom, can you decrease acquisition costs. It will only become more and more valid.

Do you see the rise of blockchain-based peer-to-peer betting and gaming platforms as a real threat to operators?

Regarding peer-to-peer, not really. Successful peer-to-peer operation requires years and years of functioning to go through all the issues and gain the trust of players. However, blockchain itself keeps being a good match for many gambling ventures.

We know you’ve only just begun with Spinnovation, but do you have even bigger plans for next year?

Yes, we are starting by asking hot questions and we are planning to host Spinnovation twice a year in well-known gambling destinations like Las Vegas or Macau. Stay tuned!

A big ‘thank you’ to Pavel for taking the time to share his fascinating insights! Do you agree with him? Let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The first ever Spinnovation takes place on 30^th April at the luxurious 5-star Kings Court hotel, located in the very heart of Prague, Czech Republic – one of Europe’s merging digital and iGaming centres. To find out more about the event check out https://spinnovationsummit.com/

Insider guide to successful start-up hiring with Darren Ledger, Head of Recruitment Innovation at iGaming Elite and Nicholls Moisa.

We get it, most of us have been there through the hard work, the late nights pouring over cashflow projections and sharpening that business plan. The angst of identifying potential investors, securing the finance and actually getting the business on its feet. You’ve got a great idea, identified a niche in the market or are just going to replicate an existing business model but do it better – Sir Richard Branson’s favourite approach.

Then you need the team, a great team, not just any old team. Where do you begin? You could hire some of your friends or family, but is that really the recipe for success? You could just go out and do the hiring yourself of course, and if you are a professional recruiter, why not?

Well, the first reason not to do the hiring yourself is that the investors have probably bought into your real talents.

Whether you’re a product innovator, a genuinely experienced entrepreneur or someone with exceptional brand marketing experience, that’s where the investors expect your focus to be – not spending hours writing job descriptions, developing an employer brand, crafting job adverts and searching for an audience… before even getting around to interviewing loads of candidates. Candidates who you know, immediately upon meeting them, aren’t the right fit.

After all, how do you even know what the ‘right fit’ looks like?

There are no shortcuts to hiring the right people, the first time, every time. When you are rolling out a new start-up it’s critical to hire professionally and accurately. The implications of not doing so can be the difference between success and failure.

Why it’s critical to secure the very best recruiter for your start-up hiring:

There are few things in recruitment as exciting, rewarding and challenging as recruiting for a fast growth start-up entering a new market. But be cautious when selecting the recruiter, you are going to work with. The last thing you need is an order-taker. Don’t be fooled by a bubbly personality, that large corporate cheese eating persona and loads of industry terminology.

Test and assess that you’re getting the real deal. This is my interpretation on the kind of recruiter you need. Below is a description of how the ideal recruiter should approach your project, the perspective they need to have, and the skills and expertise they should be able to demonstrate.

A Start-up recruiter should look something like this:

The whole project and delivery excite them more than the financial remuneration.

It’s exciting because there is no pre-defined culture or template of what this organisation will look like, how it feels, communicates and functions. To use the phrase made popular by eminent philosopher, John Locke, what we have to work with is ‘tabula rasa’- essentially a blank slate.

As the recruiter you get to play an intrinsic part in defining what that culture will be, to work with your client to develop a coherent, tangible employer and employee brand that is relevant and attractive to the target audience. Having that kind of input, identifying and creating those elements combined with the opportunity of looking back 1 year, 2 years and 5 years later, and hopefully seeing a thriving, successful environment and organisation, is extremely rewarding.

It isn’t for weak recruiters

Hiring for start-ups is not for the faint of heart, and it certainly isn’t for anyone other than a recruiter with a full-compliment of sharply honed skillsets including acute consultancy skills, a high level of tenacity and commitment to hard timescales.

Not only are you defining what the organisation structure will look like, you are also working with your client to define role specifications, the right kind of experience and personality traits. That’s why it’s challenging. Every aspect from positioning the employer brand, the benefits and salary structure all the way through to candidate assessment and selection and on-boarding is critical. One false step and suddenly momentum is lost, and often opportunity and money are lost with it.

Your chosen recruiter needs to have a consummate understanding of how to identify where your target audience is, how to reach them through the most appropriate channels, where to invest accordingly across social media and professional forums, and generally how to spread the good word. Time is of the essence so they should be adept at setting and delivering to hard and fast schedules and getting all the wheels in motion.

They need to be able to assess and select candidates

You’re laughing, I can hear you. Of course, recruiters know how to assess and select candidates, it’s their job right?

Wrong.

The vast majority of recruiters have a very limited skill-set. They know very well how to qualify a candidate such as testing job location, availability and remuneration expectations. But, very few really know how to interview in depth; how to test experience and acquire evidence of this using competency-based interviewing techniques.

Even fewer understand how to evaluate personality traits and behavioural attributes. Usually this is because recruiters are working against the clock to just get a candidate’s CV forward and they are reluctant, even afraid to ask the hard questions.

Getting a candidate face-on and digging deep as to why their average tenure is less than 2 years isn’t easy. It takes skill and tact to get them honest. For a start-up you need tenacious, agile, resilient and willing employees and assessing those things requires excellent communication skills and emotional intelligence.

They need to be accountable for the long-term outcome

Let’s be honest, all the research shows that the 3rd highest reason start-ups fail is hiring the wrong people. Making the wrong hire in any organisation can be hugely costly, but bad hiring decisions can be catastrophic for start-ups.

They can derail an entire growth strategy, leave investors frustrated and even questioning their decision to back a project in the first place. Estimates vary wildly depending on the source, but based on 20+ years experience in Talent Acquisition, I have no doubt that a wrong hire costs at least twice the candidate’s salary in lost productivity, cost of hire, workflow and team cohesion, among many other negative effects.

Find a recruiter who is willing to put their money where their mouth is. How do you do that, I hear you ask? Identify a recruiter who will provide extensive long term guarantees of up to 1 year from the point of hire. Add retention bonuses into the reward structure for the recruiter – I came across a recruiter recently who works with a company who pay him a % bonus in cryptocurrency when a new hire passes the 6 month point, and then pays another % at the 12-month point.

Pay them up front

Yep, I saved the worst until last.

Forget about the contingency pay on success format. Recruiters, just like you, have mouths to feed and incur costs. Pay them a retainer but set conditions fixed around mutually agreed timescales, transparency and delivery.

On this basis, a good recruiter will disclose to you how much their social media marketing for your project is costing, they’ll invest in professional copy and content writers and source additional expertise where necessary. But they won’t fund all these vital ingredients indefinitely out of their own pocket. If, as is often the case with start-ups, timelines shift once the wolf is at the door, that’s when shortcuts start to be taken, and there are no shortcuts to great hiring strategies.

When I work on a new start-up, I am transparent about pretty much every cost I incur. If I’m using a design agency to create briefing documents, advertising content and PPC through social media channels, I explain precisely how much it is costing and where your investment is going.

Let’s be honest, no self-respecting decent recruiter is in it for the up-front fee. The gravy comes at the end and the real meat comes with the repeat business and a relationship that flourishes over a years. If you’re hesitant about putting some skin in the game, you’re talking to the wrong recruiter.

The author, Darren Ledger, is Head of Recruitment Innovation at both Nicholls Moisa and iGaming Elite.

Interested in iGaming and blockchain recruitment? Make sure you also read our exclusive interview with Fran Moisa, Managing Director at Nicholls Moisa & iGaming Elite.

We talk about the state of the iGaming and blockchain talent market in Malta and Gibraltar with James Walsh, co-founder of recruitment startup iGain.

With the iGaming, blockchain and cryptocurrency industries booming in Malta, and Brexit uncertainties plaguing Gibraltar, we caught up with James Walsh, Co-Founder of Malta-based specialist recruitment startup iGain, to find out more about the current state of the talent market.

What made you decide to start am iGaming recruitment company, given its quite a crowded market?

It is a crowded market but there is also significant growth in iGaming right now throughout Europe. While we focus on iGaming we also see an increasing number of candidates we work with moving to emerging markets such as Blockchain and Cryptocurrency. iGaming has always been cutting edge in terms of technology, payments and fraud management and we see these skills are in high demand in other industries.

We have also recognized that there is a gap in the market for a more ‘old school’ and hands on recruitment consultancy to enter the market. We have very quickly built some solid partnerships with some of the largest global operators who have been looking for a more reliable recruitment partner.  We believe in quality over quantity and always strive to introduce highly qualified candidates with the right cultural fit to our partners.

At AYO.NEWS we’ve repeatedly heard both recruiters and employers warn about a skills gap and the crisis of unsuitable education. Do you have any thoughts on this?

This is certainly a narrative that you repeatedly hear in the industry today. However, you can also notice that there are some companies out there that never complain about the skills gap or unsuitable education.

The question you need to be asking is what are these companies doing differently? From our experience, they hire from the same talent pool but often take the time to build career progression and educational upskilling to existing staff members to fill their internal vacancies.

In a candidate driven market such as Malta it is common to jump between jobs relatively quickly and in iGain’s experience it is common to see candidates looking for moves after just several months in a role. Perks such as gym memberships and free food are no longer cutting it and investing in staff development is really where companies are differentiating themselves today.

With rocketing living costs and completely inadequate infrastructure, are you finding it tough to tempt people to relocate to, and more importantly, stay in Malta?

Tempting people to move to Malta has always been relatively straightforward, the food, laid back culture and 3,000 hours of sunshine is enough for most people. Getting people to remain in Malta however has become more difficult in recent years especially for more entry level or junior roles.

At a recent meeting with a HR manager for one of the largest iGaming operators in Malta we were informed that the average term for an entry level position has fallen by 40% in the last 2 years. The main feedback from exit interviews with these staff is that they simply cannot afford to live in Malta due to rising rental costs. We are seeing corresponding salary increases to counter this and at iGain we work closely with our partners to inform them of changing market rates and to benchmark roles.

Gibraltar-based businesses have, quite understandably been glossing over Brexit, but with the chaos and uncertainty now playing out, and big operators making contingencies to leave the rock, are you finding it difficult to fill vacancies in the territory?

The uncertainty of Brexit has left a lot of business both large and small with uncertainly and questions about what is coming down the line. We have seen very large operators such as Bet365 announce their decisions to relocate to Malta and decide not to take any chances.

For smaller business however they may not have the cash-flow or finances to make such a move until they are left with no choice. This places them at a distinct disadvantage. For the jobs market in Gibraltar we have seen a slowdown in recent months, but this really seems to be a short-term pause while business evaluate Brexit. Some of our clients have new roles ready for iGain to advertise but we have been asked to hold off until April 12th.

On your blog you promote diversity, but how are you finding things on the ground? Is the igaming industry, which for so long has been white male dominated, finally catching up with the rest of the world?

As iGaming continues to grow, move into new geographies, offer new products and increase in mobile adoption we are seeing a shift in the demographics of players. This will naturally change the balance in terms of who decided to move into iGaming and we are already seeing a big increase in Women in the industry.

More and more companies such as PaddyPower Betfair also manage diversity programs and the industry in general has really gotten behind these initiatives. This is replicated in the candidates that we work with and in fact most senior positions that iGain have filled in 2019 have been women.

Malta is definitely taking a global lead in blockchain and cryptocurrency, but it is a fact that most blockchain companies employ relatively few people. Are you finding any issues with oversupply or undersupply of blockchain and crypto skilled talent?

As a still relatively young market we have not noticed an oversupply of talent in the industry. Blockchain and Cryptocurrency are still trying to find their place with mainstream consumer adoption, and this does bring uncertainty to the market. We see this with the candidates that we work with and some trepidation at times for people to make the jump.

At the same time, we have worked with some Blockchain companies who are really growing quickly and snapping up talent in Malta and beyond. Overall it is not showing any signs of slowing down and as Blockchain technology continues to evolve we will continue to see growth in this sector, and it is an industry that iGain will focus considerable resources on.

Are you concerned about the increasingly hostile public and political attitude towards the gambling industry across Europe? Do you think it puts people off from entering the industry?

I think the reality is that the gambling industry has always suffered from a negative viewpoint. While operators and regulators have made huge strides in preventing problematic gambling there is always going to be more work to do. This is something that larger operators understand very well and actively canvas for increasing regulation.

As more markets become regulated and more controls are put in place to ensure gamblers are sensible and enjoy the fund side of the industry there will be no problems. We are also seeing increasing requirements for legal and compliance and other regulatory roles to go along with the traditional cutting-edge technology in the gambling industry which is continuing the trend of attracting top talent.

Its certainly a fascinating and exciting time to be involved with iGaming, blockchain and cryptos, and nowhere is more central to the action than Malta, and James seems to have a very good handle on this, so iGain looks set for a bright future. Thank you to James for taking the time to chat with us, and we look forward to catching up with iGain to see how things are progressing again soon.

If you’re looking for that perfect new iGaming, blockchain or crypto career move, check out iGain today at http://www.igainrecruitment.com/