Events

SUN, SEA, SLOTS AND SUMMITS IN MALTA

AHEAD OF MAY’S CASINOBEATS SUMMIT conference and exhibition in St Julian’s, we spoke to Enrico Bradamante, Founder and Chairman of the iGEN trade association, about the health of the iGaming industry in Malta

BY MARTYN ELLIOTT

That Malta is an obvious stop on the betting and gaming industry conference circuit is testament to the work of the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) and the island’s government over the past 20 years. The early adoption of a licensing regime for online gambling, coupled with a favourable corporate tax rate, encouraged companies such as Betsson Group and NetEnt to set up operations in Malta and a high-value industry has since grown up around them.

Today, that industry employs around 8,000 of the island’s population of 515,000 and, depending on which statistical model is being used, generates between 8.5% and 13.5% of the country’s GDP. iGaming is now firmly established as a key part of the nation’s economy, and the nation is equally well established as a crucial hub for the industry.

As Bradamante puts it: “Malta has certainly reached what we call a critical mass of competencies of skill sets and therefore, today, I would say is the home of iGaming excellence. I don't think that there is another location that has as many companies and as many staff that are working in the online gambling industry.”

The membership list of iGEN certainly backs up that view. Major global operators such as Betsson,

Betway, Entain, Kindred Group and LeoVegas sit alongside suppliers and affiliates with teams in Malta, including Aspire Global, Catena Media, GiG, Greentube and Raketech.

However, while Malta is the preeminent hub for the international iGaming industry today, there are

a number of locations that are working towards becoming rivals for that crown. Ceuta, Gibraltar, Kyiv, Manila, Sofia and Yerevan all have different benefits for companies, and Bradamante concedes that Malta no longer holds all the trump cards when it comes to attracting investment from foreign businesses.

He pointed to the availability of B2C licensing regimes across numerous

IGAMING IS NOW FIRMLY ESTABLISHED AS A KEY PART OF THE NATION’S ECONOMY

European territories as having changed the landscape and partially eroded the first mover advantage Malta once enjoyed. The availability of the B2B MGA licence remains a big draw though, as it provides a confirmation of quality that is recognised across multiple markets.

Another setback was the Financial Action Task Force’s decision to ‘grey list’ Malta in June 2021, in light of “strategic deficiencies” in its antimoney laundering regime. The Maltese government has since pledged to work with the Task Force to improve the situation, but Bradamante admitted the news had been damaging.

“The grey listing was an extremely disappointing event for the country, for the iGaming industry and for anyone involved in business here,” he said. “The banking environment has always been challenging, especially when it came to working in iGaming, but now it has become even more challenging. This is, of course,

not good news, and it has had an operational impact on companies here.”

Despite these developments, Bradamante does not foresee Malta losing its status as a world-leading centre for iGaming operators, technology suppliers and games studios in the near future. Instead, the experienced industry executive, who is also Chief Commercial Officer for Aspire Global’s content aggregator Pariplay, expects to see companies increasingly investigating the benefits of multi-office set ups.

“What we're seeing is companies having offices in different locations, in order to take advantage of the local talent pool,” he explained. “In Malta, the reality is that of the thousands of people that work in the iGaming industry, at least two thirds are foreigners. So the talent pool of local Maltese that are capable and willing and interested in working in iGaming is limited.

“The fact that one can set up an office in Gibraltar and get licences there and in Spain, shows there are good alternatives to Malta as a location, but I don't see those as replacing Malta completely. Malta still has this critical mass [of skills] and the tax. These are strong advantages when it comes to the financial operations of companies and creating shareholder value. So I think that is going to remain.”

The issue of seeking out new talent for the industry is one of iGEN’s primary focuses. Demand for high tech skills from a wide range of industries means that there is fierce competition for experienced technical staff and the best graduates almost everywhere in the world. Despite its concentration of iGaming professionals, Malta has not been able to sidestep this skills shortage.

While part of dealing with that will inevitably involve tempting workers from overseas to relocate, persuading local people that the industry offers a great career path is crucial to its future. iGen is working closely with the Maltese government to do exactly that.

“Through iGEN’s interaction with the government, I can say that the government is very keen on developing a workforce that will be matched with the skill sets that are required by the various industries,” Bradamante said.

“Whether it's through MCAST, which is a College of Arts, Science and Technology up to 18 years old, or at university, there are some specific courses and professional courses that are done as part of public education and private education. GamingMalta is also very involved in this through its COO, Ivan Filletti. So I would say the government is doing its utmost to promote and support us, but ultimately, the students need to choose those curricula and want to work in the online gambling industry. All these are things that will take time.”

Anyone from overseas currently

MALTA HAS CERTAINLY REACHED WHAT WE CALL A CRITICAL MASS OF COMPETENCIES OF SKILL SETS

looking for a new job in the online casino or sports betting industry may find Malta is very welcoming.

He added: “Right now, through the iGEN members, there are over 700 open vacancies primarily based in Malta for staff of various skills, from customer support to affiliate marketing to account management and finance roles. We have developed a very useful portal, whyiGaming.eu, that assembles all these vacancies and then a candidate can just search them very easily and apply for the job directly to the hiring company.”

One other thing the Maltese government and the island’s iGaming community is keen to support is the continuation of the start-up culture. Success stories such as LeoVegas and Casumo have earned Malta a reputation as the place to build a gaming business from scratch.

Bradamante, who has established a number of companies in recent years, believes conditions today are difficult for start-ups, largely because the task of finding a local bank prepared to work with iGaming businesses is close to impossible. However, those able to arrange banking services - perhaps via a fintech bank like Finductive in Malta, or based elsewhere in the EU - will discover there is plenty of support available in Malta.

“The government, in particular through GamingMalta, has now established an incubator programme, with premises in a new office in Zejtun in the south of the island. The very smart facilities are attracting gaming and they're attracting video gaming. This is something that of course helps,” he explained.

“In general, I would say that the entrepreneurial spirit is very much here. There are a lot of skilled staff, skilled professionals that are willing to take the jump into a new studio start-up, a new casino start-up, a new affiliate business. But it is difficult and it's being made more and more difficult, I would say.”

While there may be a number of challenges to be addressed, there is still plenty to recommend Malta to the industry at the moment. However, in a high-tech sector such as online casino, standing still is simply a precursor to going backwards. So Bradamante expects to see some developments in the coming years to keep Maltabased companies at the forefront of the industry as gambling is legalised in more markets in the US, Latin America and Africa.

“Looking at what the MGA could do with its licence, they could approach some of these developing countries such as Brazil or African nations and propose to them that they adopt the MGA licensing regime, in exchange for, of course, some tax monies that will go in their direction,” he suggested.

“Getting the Maltese licence approved in an African country like Nigeria, for example, or ideally, Brazil, and somehow leveragings the experience and the infrastructure that already exists within the MGA for some of these new markets. This is something that MGA CEO Carl Brincat is looking into doing.”

The iGEN Chairman also expects the innovation that the Maltese industry is famed for to continue to produce exciting new products and big improvements to existing games.

“The live element and the social element are things that are still on the horizon when it comes to research and development. I think there's still a lot more that can be done when it comes to live games,” he said. “Evolution Gaming has done a fantastic job in bringing new products, new concepts into the industry, but I think there's a lot more innovation coming in that area. There's some interesting concepts like live spins that are being explored.”

The next big industry innovations, how to tackle the skills shortage, the prospects for emerging markets and the future of live casino are among the topics on the comprehensive conference agenda for CasinoBeats Summit 2022. For Bradamante, these types of conference discussions are key to enabling collaboration across the industry.

He explained: “Conferences have played and will continue to play a very important role in the dissemination of new ideas. They allow these conversations, whether it's in the form of sessions where there is a lot of education taking place and ideas that are being shared. Or it's in the networking events, it's in the dinners, in the social part, where the creative juices start flowing and new ideas get created from the discussion.

“Certainly now in a post-COVID situation, everybody is really eager to get together and to meet other human beings in person and to, ideally, hug and high five. People are tired of being at home, so want to be able to meet friends, colleagues and competitors.

“A big part of the success of Malta has been the events, like the conferences. The fact that people are able to meet, socialise, get to know each other and get to trust each other, whether they are doing business today or they are competitors. I think it's a very important component of the chemistry of what makes Malta unique and successful.” •

SUCCESS STORIES SUCH AS LEOVEGAS AND CASUMO HAVE EARNED MALTA A REPUTATION AS THE PLACE TO BUILD A GAMING BUSINESS FROM SCRATCH

The CasinoBeats Summit 2022 conference and exhibition will take place at the InterContinental in St Julian’s, Malta on 24-26 May. It is part of Spring iGaming Week, which also includes the KPMG Malta Gaming eSummit and the CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards