Q&A: Tommi Maijala, iGame Group CEO
The head of the Nordic-facing gaming group on the group's multi-brand strategy, new markets and expansion into different verticals
Last week, Nordic-facing iGame Group confirmed it was preparing for an IPO having completed a merger with fellow operator Plus One Dreams last year.
The multi-brand operator began life as a poker operator back in 2006, but grown swiftly in recent years since switching its focus to casino in 2011 and now employs more than 100 staff in offices in Malta and Estonia
The firm operates a number of brands, including Leijona Kasino and Casino Huone, which are primarily aimed at the Finland market and has a growing presence in Eastern Europe.
We caught up with CEO Tommi Maijala to discuss the advantages of taking a multi-brand approach, going hyper-local and the new markets the firm is exploring.
eGaming Review (eGR): How did the multi-brand strategy come about?
Tommi Maijala (TM): The multi-brand strategy is in part down to our background, and the fact that we’ve been consolidating a lot in Scandinavia. We have actually killed probably ten additional gaming brands in recent years, but because of our track record with acquisitions we are still operating a lot of brands.
We have chosen a hyper-local approach in several markets. For example, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, we have the Bohemia Casino which has been successful. We built that from scratch just to gain a local presence. We have most of our traffic in casino, and quite a few of our competitors who prefer a strong single brand strategy also open up localised brands for different markets in casino. The single brand works better in my opinion for sportsbook.
eGR: Is casino going to remain the focus?
TM: For the time being we are limited with sportsbook. We have a white-label sportsbook, but don’t consider it competitive against the big brands. We are mainly using it for player acquisition. In the summer we will open a proper bingo product. We already have a female-orientated brand, Hertat. The bingo product is built by Relax Gaming, which is partly owned by Unibet, so that is one area we are looking at for expansion.
eGR: What are your key markets and which new markets are you exploring?
TM: At the moment the Nordic region is the key to us – it accounts for around 85-90% of our revenues. But we have an ongoing study looking at new markets. We launched a year ago in the Czech market and followed into Slovakia with the same brand.
We are looking at neighbouring countries in Eastern Europe, and trying to tick the right boxes with regulation, VAT and payment methods. We have two different approaches for new markets. Either we go in with an existing brand, or we look at an acquisition we can place on top of our own platform.
eGR: Is the UK of interest?
TM: We’ve been thinking about the UK for a while, especially last year when the licences were given out for the first time. But at the time we were in the middle of our merger, so we didn’t have the resources to dedicate to it.
It remains constantly in discussions, and we are considering how we should approach it. Whether we should acquire somebody, team up with somebody or just go in with our own brands. It’s definitely an interesting market and in the next two years we expect to be present there.