TL; DR – As the iGaming industry evolves and expands, we begin to see consistencies in its bottlenecks. The most frequent challenges are the perpetual need to grow the provider’s portfolio, the complicated process of adapting the same game to different markets, and the non-stop hunger for new talent. Outhiring can fix a lot of these problems, but the companies’ skepticism towards outsourced iGaming development can become another hurdle in and of itself.

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The rise of iGaming has been a prominent trend of the last several years, and it shows no signs of stopping. As this industry grows, certain patterns in iGaming development come to light, and the same universal bottlenecks add up to define the most common challenges of today. In an industry as competitive as iGaming, being able to jump over the same hurdles as your rivals just that little bit faster can define your place in the market. We have talked to our Business Development Representative, Yaroslav Soloshenko, to define some of the most persistent issues in the world of iGaming, and investigate the best ways to resolve them.

The industry of iGaming is a city that never sleeps. Here, everything moves very fast, and, as a provider, you either keep up with the trends or embrace modest returns. Because of the sink or swim nature of this business, it is fairly common for providers to release several new games in a single quarter, keeping their portfolio in a state of constant expansion, instead of relying on the profits from a few solid hits. Pragmatic Play, a renowned name in the industry, reveals a new title or expands into a new market on a weekly basis, and keeps the stream of content steady with updates every few days. Yaroslav Soloshenko describes the triad of speed, quality and research as the key factors in a provider’s success.  For an iGaming startup it will be particularly challenging to get into this current where even established brands apply immense effort to stay relevant.  

Companies that operate iGaming websites have a continuous demand for new games; sometimes more games than their providers can create in-house. Introduction of outside perspective through outsourced game development can open the doors to an influx of new ideas and redistribute a part of the workload. Innovecs Games has a long track record of helping our partners out of a tight spot when ideas for new projects pile up fast and the hands they have in-house are scarce.  

It is worth noting that the mistrust to outsourcing is a separate sub-problem of this particular bottleneck. The over-competitive nature of iGaming industry spawns understandable hypervigilance in providers. According to Yaroslav, “The stakes are high. Quality of the content means everything when it comes to iGaming. Providers are afraid to fail with outsourcers, and in the world of iGaming, if you fail even once – most of your competitors will know on the next day”. Another reason companies avoid outsourcing can be as simple as company policy. Certain studios are directly forbidden from hiring third-party employees, even when it could benefit the company.

The entirety of iGaming players is by no means monolithic. As a large genre spawning its own small subgenres, it contains multitudes of different groups of users. “The audience for iGaming is not what it used to be,” says Yaroslav, “the modern market offers incredible diversity and everyone prefers different games. For example, instant win games are popular with younger millenials and Gen Z, while older players remain loyal to games that are more traditional in their dynamic and visuals”. Providers try to roll out as many games as possible to respond to the broadest spectrum of audience wishes in the perpetual fight for competitive advantage.  

Countries are also defined through different tastes. Studios frequently face the reality of their product receiving mixed reviews that vary depending on geolocation of their players. It is generally inadvisable to roll out the exact same version of your iGame across different countries and for different audiences, both because of diverse tastes and varying market regulation.  

Each country has its own iGaming regulations. It is a frequent reality, to fully finish and test a game, only to find out that the expansion into a new market abroad requires developers to add, for example, a pop-up window that will ask players to take a break at a certain time. According to Yaroslav Soloshenko, “If you add a new element on top of a finished product, it is not enough to secure just the little addition – you need to test everything from the ground up all over again. And, since iGaming is a fast industry, by this point your testers have likely moved on to a different project”. The effort to expand into a different market can by itself become one big bottleneck as the company gathers the necessary resources and undergoes certification, all the while trying to run in stride with the new trends. The development essentially splits between new games for the established market and adaptation of old games for new countries, with both of these directions being vital for the provider’s long-term success.

On the preference side, diverse test groups from all over the world will make sure your game provides different players with an equally entertaining experience. On the regulation side, it is possible to outsource your product for geo-specific certification testing in a so-called “test lab” – a company that checks whether your game runs according to the requirements of your desired market, or not. It will take an investment on your side, but will also accelerate your expansion and give you a stronger position in a new market early on in an industry where time is money. Innovecs Games can provide you with exceptional QA engineers to test your titles for compliance.

There is always more content to make and more markets to enter, and that means that there are always more people to hire. The intensity of iGaming is both caused by, and causes perpetual hunger for talent. If you visit the vacancy section of different providers, it is highly likely that most of them have open spots. VentureRadar lists TrueLayer, Seon, GeoComply, Chalkline Sports and House Masters at the start of their Top iGaming Companies list, and, at the moment of this article’s creation, all of them are hiring.  

But, according to Yaroslav Soloshenko, the demanding nature of this industry is not all there is to it. Plenty of professionals are still prejudiced against the very concept of iGaming. “It is still hard for people to embrace that this is just another form of entertainment. The process of adjustment is slow. Especially in Eastern Europe, there is still plenty of critique coming towards iGaming, mostly based off of outdated knowledge of this industry,” says Yaroslav. Misconceptions about iGaming create a significant human factor in the hiring process. Even a job offer with generous pay and transparent company policy can get turned down in favor of an offer with less benefits, as long as it has nothing to do with iGaming. 

Since the attitude towards iGaming differs across different countries, depending on their collective past with this industry, as well as the regulations currently in place, you might have better luck reaching out to foreign empoyees and allowing them to work remotely. Outsourcing is, yet again, a reasonable route to explore. In iGaming, competitive salary and a nice benefits package may not be the main driving force for everyone, but they never hurt your chances of winning people over either.

The industry of iGaming shows no signs of slowing down. On the contrary, the competition only promises to pick up as new online casinos and providers enter the playing field to get their share. This means that the hunger for new content and new people to make it is not going anywhere, and the need to adapt to international markets will remain relevant as the companies fight for new territory. Providers will have to battle their own reluctance to outsource, all the while contributing to the ongoing cultural shift in favor of iGaming. 

Innovecs Games has helped many a partner reach their fullest potential with innovative casino, iLottery, and instant win games, as well as poker, sportsbooks, and virtual scratchcards. Feel free to reach out to us for an expert consultation on ways to improve your iGaming development.