SKYROCKET There is something magical brewing at Skywind Group. Managing director Oren Cohen Shwartz explains the strategy behind the phenomenal growth
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uring 2019 Skywind developed 70 new games. It rocketed into regulated markets after securing licences in the UK, Malta, Spain, Romania, Alderney and Gibraltar, while certifying its games in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. It secured deals with 888, GVC, Caliente, Kindred, The Stars Group, Videoslots and plenty more. It won the Gaming Intelligence One to Watch Award for 2020. And it also threw the best party at this year’s ICE conference in London.
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“You don’t see a lot of content provider companies release 300 games in three years. If you do not have the technology in place, you can never do that. In one year, we entered 11 regulated markets. That is unheard of. It is all about how we use technology,” says managing director Oren Cohen Shwartz. Shwartz joined Skywind Group in mid-2018 as managing director after stints at Superbet, EveryMatrix and William Hill. The company’s rocket-like trajectory has coincided with Shwartz’s arrival. There is little doubt that he has the kind of energy and enthusiasm that could put the rocket-boosters on any organisation but he is keen to credit the company’s success to a team effort. Shwartz reports to chief executive officer Hilary Stewart Jones, one of the most experienced lawyers in the industry and a former board member at Playtech. Other vital members of the team include chief technology officer Guy Balteriski and chief compliance and legal officer Ori Monheit. Balteriski and Shwartz worked together at one of the Israeli software houses William Hill acquired to create William Hill Online. Shwartz describes him as “the best techie guy ever” and he was a big influence on Shwartz joining the company. When it comes to game development, Skywind created a framework for the people who create the games – whether those are artists, game developers or mathematicians – to speed the development. The framework unifies Skywind’s studios across the world – in
Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Cyprus and the UK – and its 300 staff. “The games have a lot of shared components, which leaves them to focus on the uniqueness of the games,” says Shwartz. “Otherwise, nobody can create so many games.” In a market that produced over 1,000 new games last year, you might ask why Skywind needs so many games. Shwartz’s answer is differentiation. It has created market-specific games such as Casa de Papel for Spain and Downton Abbey for the UK. “How can you create a game that is relevant for the Swedish guy and relevant for the Romanian guy?” asks Shwartz. “You cannot. You need the development power and you need to find a cost-effective way to deliver those games for each market.” Shwartz believes the company’s engagement tools are its other USP. “You will never hear an operator tell a content provider, stop bringing me new tools. You will hear them scream that they have 80 new games. For a content provider to excel, other than having unique games in specific markets, you need good engagement tools.” The next step, says Shwartz, is adapting to the differing demands of players within markets. “Targeting specific players is getting more surgical, and you will not be able to do that if you are building games from your garage.” This is a recurring theme in Shwartz’s conversation. Skywind was founded by Playtech founder Teddy Sagi. As such, it has deeper resources than any of the multitude of startups that have begun targeting the slots market in recent years. Skywind had evolved from a close relationship with Playtech, building it social games and then games for the Asian market. Sagi’s departure from Playtech more or less coincided with a change of direction from Skywind. It did not want to be another Playtech. Skywind has an unerring focus on content. It does not want to be a platform provider, operating at the whim of consolidating operators switching to an acquired platform. And it did not want to be a service provider to the larger company. “You need deep pockets to sustain the couple of years putting the foundations in place. Skywind did not start by developing 20 games from a garage. We needed the foundation,” says Shwartz. That foundation allowed Skywind to add 20 new operators in March. It entered Denmark, Italy, Romania and Spain in the space of a month. Whether Shwartz is talking about technology or compliance, it always comes back down to the Skywind infrastructure. “The seeds for that were planted seven months ago,” says Shwartz. “Compliance takes time. Once you have the tubes ready, you can enjoy the flow of water under higher pressure.” n 11