Interviews
Exclusive Q&A with Munly Leong, Co-founder of Balance Gaming Network
Let’s begin with your own story. What is the story of Balance Gaming? How was the company founded?
The company was founded when Munly Leong (CEO) and Goodrich Johnson were approached by an esports organization that had floundered for several years and despite their history and money raises and hadn’t so much as put on one event or even had a casual community. This led Munly to look into the current state of esports which he had never been interested in and saw the waste and poor execution that had a common root cause i.e. the people that had access to or ability to raise funding for esports often had nothing to do with gaming and were clueless about it. Super League Gaming was a particularly egregious example where the only reason that raise even happened was that CEO had worked on Sand Hill Rd prior and game from an Oil & Gas background, what the hell is she doing in esports? They recently lost $14m on $1m revenue. We founded Balance at least to take a stab at an organization that would be led and run with gamers at the core with Munly being in a unique position of both having relationships with and an understanding of external capital unlike the average gamer or even game developer. The name Balance comes from us struggling to come up with a name for the niche we had chosen which was to cater for the other 90% of the market and gaming revenue in reality that ISN’T esports from not having enough time for it and Munly referenced an one man indie developer’s name Imba Games (common Russian/CIS region term relating to game imbalance) that he had briefly known at one point, lamenting that it was a great name wasted on something that didn’t have the potential for it and Godric suggested “What about Balance?” with the potential to allude to LAN’s as well if we ever started doing those and there really hasn’t been a name that fit since.
How does it work?
Essentially a bit unique, we started off validating the concept and bringing in early revenue via just a discord and preselling the concept along with an early partnership with Skyworth (largest TV manufacturer in China) who were also launching a VR headset at to both prove we could build and grow a grassroots gaming community first and also monetize it and validate charging for the concept. Most of this happened even by month two. We’ve now taken what was a small community fighting game event intended “for teh lulz” and are building it up with sponsors, streaming support with an invitational that is intended to potentially be small scale, interactive version of EVO that was recently cancelled. More on this later We’re working backwards actually. We’re game developers at heart and are really NOT an esports company. This is being done as a fundraiser primarily as a backup plan / substitute for angel investment post Covid. Essentially our business is to start backwards compared to a typical game developer being community first, community is really at the core. From there we start with merch sales, selling events and sponsorships and are about to offer our own game / bundle deals in the near term along with a new category we still plan on pioneering called Gamer Travel (Covid was great timing huh
Our readers would like to know more about Balance Gaming. Could you elaborate the concept since it is quite unique?
Yeah. It is quite unique where even for gamers. Essentially the concept starts from both a base and the specific type of gamer we are targeting. Specifically gamers who have been able to grow up and are now struggling from a time management standpoint of not having enough time to play, or not getting enough out of their playtime when they do have it rather than spending too much time to play from the standpoint of gaming addiction which is a common assumption with us. We start from a base that gaming is geneeerrraaaaaaally Many look down even on themselves as gamers because of long time history and stigma of the activity when we were kids or younger. Even people with great businesses or solid tech backgrounds themselves often cannot make the immediate mental jump that there may be others who fit the bill and if we just reframe our thinking and rid ourselves of these starting assumptions, we may find that the peer groups we have around gaming are more valuable than many of us are assuming Recently we’ve launched a public alpha of our members site and even some of our more interesting / useful members have only gone so far as to fill out just gamer profiles while not sharing their skills, businesses etc yet and it’s not all a privacy concern either but many either underrate themselves or don’t currently live a life where being known for particular things brings in opportunities for them. I’ll list some examples here where it has happened, but these are folks that are already active in terms of networking ,professional groups and are already pre-disposed to it. I’ll share some examples below and the last being myself. What are the ways an individual gamer will benefit from joining your platform?
Aside from the networking opportunities once we scale further (or even now), we’ll have things like courses, partnerships and hell even gigs down the line in addition to more typical gaming giveaways, discounts and bundles. Instead of only selling this stuff, we’ll tie it to gaming and perhaps networking activity too with the overall theme that the gaming people would do naturally anyway would pay off in real life in ways other than money. At the very base level, we hope that this will be the most “productive” place for anyone to spend their gaming time as getting to know many of us may also open doors outside of gaming for you or at least give you a resource to tap in a lot of things outside of gaming, an analogy to things like country clubs, cigar clubs where you’re more like to meet either independently wealthy or at least time free and lifestyle designer types that one can meet through aviation we hope we end up being a similar space like that but on a broader larger scale too. It’ll be the only place in the world maybe where you can play video games where we also encourage you to ask for intros or open them yourself For “Pros vs Joes” we’re currently offering FREE ENTRY for Members, Financial Services industry (e.g. fintech, crypto, real estate, traders, brokers) , startup founders and game developers and the same/similar benefits package that players get are also available for event viewers that meet this criteria. Startup founders and game developers are just love for us
We also have something that both your better/casino audience as well as crypto guys would want to look at. One of our partners / sponsors is Gold Rush Token / Clean Mining. We’ll be offering a chance to buy CLEAN gold (more on this later) at a double digit discount exclusive to Balance, direct from some of the oldest and historically proven mines in Western Australia. That’s nothing terribly new and there are other tokens that have done it. Those coming from a financial services background will be familiar with the concept of due diligence, things like KYC (Know your Customer) and be a bit better equipped to both perform it for an opportunity like this and ultimately potentially buy-in as well. However, another layer that we’ll offer FREEBIES at a later date on is a world-first tokenization of actual gold ORE. Essentially this will be gold prospecting in a separate video game/digital form and can dramatically lower the cost of entry into the gold market. For those who don’t know, gold actually comes from gold ore which has to be processed and refined which ultimately means that only a fraction of gold can come from overall gold ore. The percent amount can between 10 to 95% before processing and so yes, someone could get very lucky but understandably many others outside of your readership here may not like to gamble. Gamblers or not however, we can offer some of these ore tokens essentially for free as both participants and viewers of our upcoming “Pros vs Joes” fighting game event that was recently postponed until both we and our partners got things more ready. We can now say that we’ll start things off officially by Sep 12th at the latest with official entry deadline by Sep 5th at the latest with trial runs starting as early as this week of the 26th. Depending on how things go and speed of re-registration we may go even earlier but this is so we don’t have to postpone again.
I should mention that not only is the ore special but the gold as well. Those that take advantage of the gold discount will also be pioneers in helping to establish a new category of gold in the global market that isn’t processed/purified via the traditional method of cyanide and mercury leaving no environmental impact that may take decades if not longer to biodegrade, hence CLEAN gold. While the mines themselves old and proven with deeper reserves still left to unlock, the process itself is new and was created by the Australian CSIRO, something like a more generally academic version of NASA that among other things, helped invent Wi-Fi. Regardless of whether anyone in our community pays anything more than an entry fee or not, through gaming, our players will have a chance in both playing a small role in the transformation of gold mining from something that is expensive and hazardous into something that is sustainable and environmentally friendly.
More info on CSIRO and Clean Mining How has been the customer response so far? Could you offer some year on year statistics?
What’s really interesting is that when we started out within the first month or two we had more paid members than free ones on concept alone. 46% conversion rate. By paid members meaning we asked people to pay $10 as a one off to validate that this is something we would pay for once we both had a system to offer digital codes in an automated or at least reliable fashion and enough value lined up where we felt we were ready to start charging monthly. Since when we’ve realized that we needed to make this tier optional as a network only has as much value as it’s members and we are still far from having an interesting enough critical mass yet. We’re not even one year old yet but in the last 2-3 months our Discord community has grown from 100 to 150 ish members now that we have someone who can spend time on it, Oliver/Sundeath who was formerly director level at Razer Europe. A big downside that hampers our growth is that we’re not something that people normally think to search for so doing media, offers and other things that can help get us exposure but we haven’t figured out or own organic traffic yet so growth only happens when we can work on it. Has the recent lock down had any effect on Balance Gaming’s growth? Could your offer details?
Yeah actually our first major growth drive that I headed up brought in many of our first 100 users, lol. That happened a month into the pandemic around Epic’s free release of WWZ. Unfortunately it was both a pretty short game content wise and people really focused on doing nothing but gaming that initial month of lockdowns. No one wanted to hear about “Balancing” and once they were done, many moved on. We did have an interesting story even ahead of time back then where when I was able to play, I encouraged two regulars at the time to talk about their lives and our mutual ASEAN region and those two ended up both doing client projects together and playing other free games together as well. One was a graphic designer and another was a music producer/student. At the time we didn’t have enough of us engaging people so eventually they left since they were largely only playing with each other by that point. Lesson learned not just for Balance and in life for me that I just need to ride waves while they are around instead of what I actually during that period which was working on some contract gamedev work at the time or building the Balance business while everyone else was gaming and would have preferred if I’d either led things or at least joined them for it.
What are the more popular games and tournaments on your platform? Could you describe the games a bit?
Our most popular is Rainbow 6 Siege and that’s a game that should be well known to you guys since it’s gone from underdog cult game to having one of t he better prize pools in eSports with strong Ubisoft support in recent years. Rainbow 6 is a series that is based on terrorist/counterterrorism originally that prided itself on realism being the first “one shot and you get killed usually” game on the market. I can still remember the LAN party where I played the original game in the series for the first time, it was quite refreshing and hilarious compared to the run and gun shooters like Doom and Quake of the day. These days the game is more similar to LoL or DOTA that is based around Heroes having different powers and abilities, some of which are deliberately designed to be counterpicks. They are perpetually “training”/fighting each other given the multiplayer only PVP context and there are generic terrorists only as AI NPC’s to beat on in generic It used to be World War Z as I mentioned which is a co-op class based zombie killing gaming that’s spiritual sequel to Left 4 Dead 2 that I actually like a lot more than it’s original inspiration and in addition to that we have some fighting game players i.e. Street Fighter, Tekken etc but that’s almost a niche within itself in gaming these days that doesnt play other stuff or interact with the broader gaming community. We’re a bit sad about this and even within fighting games themselves, the competitive level has gotten to the point where people not only just focus on one game, but even just on training one particular character and mastering all the various matchups instead. This means that they dont even play the rest of the genre or even necessarily the rest of the characters in the game! This overcompetitiveness isnt necessarily good for the fighting game industry if they focus purely on tournament type players. Happy Medicine (our resident fighting game pro, former CPT/Capcom cup, world class Bison main) and I talk about this separately in this video here – g66FBCzv_mg . We’re still done with World War Z btw, despite how the whole game can be beat in less than 4-5 hours currently and a bit more if you are doing horde mode as well, if you’re deliberately going to slow-play it and make it last, please come and join us! We’re the place for that lol.
Tell us more about the platform and gaming partners of Balance? For our “platform”, we have a few key pillars. The first is the always free Discord community where people can only just join as regular gamer and that’s fine. The next level is the membership site which is intended for people to try and look up / surface people that should try to get to know on Discord for either gaming or things outside of gaming. Maybe find out that someone you’ve been gaming with all along can also be a collaborator of some kind in real life too. We also haev an ecom store for all kinds of stuff i.e. offering our own game codes and digital goodies for sale , physical products like geek toys including “gamereats” where we’ll start with snacks and more. Lastly we want to offer “gamer travel” again as soon as we can, starting out with introducing the concept of geo-arbitrage to gamers that’s already well known to location independent and digital nomad types but is probably brand new to gamers. Essentially this means save money on gaming time (plus get more time) in a cheap locale but we can expand this to travel to places that are significant to gaming history as well given a lot of us have deep knowledge and connections with the industry. This is all going somewhere and your next question will naturally segue into that Finally, how do you see the future developing? Are there going to be any immediate developments in Balance Gaming in the near future?
Yeah we have some angel money hopefully finally coming in within the month and from that we can actually offer some more benefits that hopefully help pull in more users as well and pay for the help in community building Ultimately in the LONG TERM future, despite how all this is already quite the going concern business-wise, the whole goal is to use this cashflow to then fund game development. Both internal and external third party to us. Game development is the unique DNA that I bring to Balance personally and I’m sure you guys know especially looking at companies like Tencent how valuable things can be when you have your own IP to sell and we’ve already learned the hard way that frankly its much easier to build up communities around having your own game vs using others’ games in this new Discord age.
https://network.balancegaming.network/members/hexrays/
https://network.balancegaming.network/members/mono/
https://network.balancegaming.network/members/fathamburger/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-08-30/csiro-pours-first-australian-green-gold/10180014
https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/MRF/Areas/Resourceful-magazine/Issue-13/Golden-alternative
One of our gaming partners BRK / Gen2 Technologies where you picked this up from
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Conferences in Europe
Strategies that Scale: Evoplay’s Alex Malchenko on Cracking the Code of Localised iGaming Success
Alex Malchenko, Head of Sales at Evoplay, joins us for an exclusive conversation ahead of HIPTHER’s European Gaming Congress 2025.
Evoplay, proud Pen & Paper Sponsor of this landmark event, continues to pave the way in iGaming with pioneering content, creative game design, and strategic market expansion.
With over a decade of B2B sales experience, Alex has played a lead role in entering regulated territories, forging new Bingo and Lottery partnerships, and launching fresh business directions – making him the ideal voice to explore insights around localising content for different markets: challenges, nuances, and successful strategies.
Alex, with your background scaling new markets and products, what challenges have you encountered with content localisation in the iGaming space?
When we enter or grow in a new market, we look at its own specifics. In some markets, the main challenge is regulation, whether it’s strict certification rules, requirements on game content and promotions, RTP levels, or even small details like how session time is displayed. That’s why we take time to understand the rules, the culture, and what local players actually want.
One good example is our instant game Penalty Shoot-Out: Street, which we created for Brazil and its strong football culture. The challenges there were both technical and regulatory, since Latin American markets often have very different rules. In some countries, just certifying the game isn’t enough — additional RGS and RNG certificates and official confirmations are also required.
On top of that, we had to make sure the gameplay matched what players expected. With Penalty Shoot-Out: Street, we achieved this by combining fast bets, quick results, a familiar theme and the thrill of every goal, and it worked.
Another case is our Hot Triple Sevens, a worldwide-popular slot, which we’ve refreshed with new mechanics like Hold & Win. Then we re-skinned the game to suit different audiences — for example, American Sevens and Fogo do Brasil 777 — to make them resonate more with local styles and tastes.
When games are built with the right themes and mechanics for a specific market, they feel more engaging and relevant to players, which can significantly boost their appeal. That’s why localisation is something we put thought into every time, learning from experience, working with partners, testing locally and improving as we go.
When it comes to Evoplay approaching localisation for a new market, what are the first strategic frameworks or priorities you put in place?
In short: regulation, communication with partners, and understanding players. When entering a new market, we carefully study all aspects, analyse the situation, and build a strategy. This includes legal, commercial, marketing and financial components, among others. Of course, for a complete picture, we also look at competitors’ experience, talk extensively with local participants, and study players — sometimes launching special campaigns independently, sometimes in collaboration with partners.
In this regard, Evoplay has made significant progress this year, reaching a new level. To support this approach, we also run campaigns that help us better understand players and their preferences. For example, the Oath of Steel campaign with SlotsCalendar, featuring a shared prize pool, invited players to take part and share their feedback, which we looked at thoughtfully. Similarly, we worked on a joint game with SlotCatalog, drawing on insights from their player preference analytics. Initiatives like this give us a better sense of what players enjoy and help us shape our games for different audiences, supporting our broader approach when entering or growing in new markets.
Could you share an example where you had to adapt a game significantly – theme, mechanics, or language – to resonate with local players? What were the specific market nuances you had to tune into?
In our business, every game must meet regulatory requirements, and it’s normal that adapting a game for a specific market requires some extra adjustments. A good example of this is the lottery vertical, which is quite different from standard iGaming. In our business, every game must meet regulatory requirements, and it’s normal that adapting a game for a specific market requires some extra adjustments. A good example of this is the lottery vertical, which is quite different from iGaming. Here, we need to follow particular rules regarding content and promotions, along with other market-specific restrictions.
Other bright examples of our games adapted to local markets include mythology-inspired hits like Temple of Thunder II Bonus Buy and Roman Rule, as well as the previously mentioned American Sevens and Penalty Shoot-Out: Street. These games work well because everything comes together — the theme clicks with players, the visuals fit the concept, and the mechanics are engaging. I’d also highlight the simplicity of the games and their user-friendly UX/UI, which players appreciate no matter the region.
Operating in regulated markets obviously adds complexity. How do you strike the balance between compliance (e.g., legal, cultural mandates) and maintaining the brand’s creative integrity during localisation?
In situations like this, branded games are a good approach. Creating them involves working closely with partners, discussing details such as logos and technical settings like RTP or bet ranges.
At the same time, we like to experiment with small creative touches to see what really clicks with players. A good example is The Easter Catch slot, an updated version of our worldwide popular The Greatest Catch, especially designed for the Easter holidays. Taking this approach keeps the game flexible, meets legal and cultural requirements, and still feels like our brand. Tailoring it for the partner and their audience also makes the game more engaging and usually leads to better performance.
You’ve been instrumental in forging Bingo and Lottery partnerships. How does localisation differ when tailoring for those verticals versus standard casino-style titles?
First of all, I want to emphasise that Bingo and Lottery are quite different from standard iGaming. These are established verticals with their own history, unique communities, and regulatory features. The lottery market is also largely monopolised and moves at a slower pace compared to the fast-moving world of iGaming.
Some online lotteries, while offering more dynamic and engaging experiences than paper versions or traditional online formats, are subject to many restrictions. For example, design themes common in slots are often prohibited, RTP requirements differ, and other regulatory rules apply.
When it comes to trends in this area, the World Lottery Association sets the pace, and other lotteries tend to follow their lead.
Evoplay entered this sector to bring a fresh, innovative perspective, showing how classic games can be reimagined for a new generation of players and enthusiasts seeking new experiences. The projects we’re currently developing here hold great promise and add a fresh spark to this traditional space.
Thank you, Alex, for walking us through Evoplay’s thoughtful approach to content localisation and the art of balancing strategy with respect for local flavor. We can’t wait to hear more from you and other industry leaders live at the European Gaming Congress 2025.
Join us at the European Gaming Congress 2025 | 30–31 October | Warsaw
The post Strategies that Scale: Evoplay’s Alex Malchenko on Cracking the Code of Localised iGaming Success appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
You’re the Founder and CTO of AmaraTech—what inspired you to start the company, and how has your journey shaped where you are today?
Our Story: Technology Innovation Born from Purpose:
AmaraTech IT Solutions, founded in 2020 in the Washington, DC metro area and expanding strategically into Africa, dedicated to transforming communities through technology. Our journey began with a profound experience in Liberia, a country riddled by 14 years of brutal civil war, witnessed the limitations on human potential and economic growth due to inadequate technology infrastructure. This experience sparked a deep commitment to making advanced technology accessible for all, enabling organizations to flourish amid challenges. We truly believe in technology’s amazing ability to empower and transform communities everywhere.
Intro Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wstteIwaSKk
What’s one big lesson you’ve learned as a founder that you wish you knew earlier?
Learning to say no as a founder is one of the most critical yet counterintuitive skills for startup success. The natural instinct is to say yes to every opportunity, partnership, feature request, and meetings, but this creates resource dilution, product confusion, and team fatigue that ultimately kills focus and progress. Startups with limited time, money, and energy must recognize that every “yes” is an implicit “no” to something else, and that niche dominance beats broad mediocrity. The cost of learning this lesson late includes providing so many products that confuse users, burning resources on low-impact initiatives, and missing opportunities in core focus areas. Successful founders develop “hell yes” criteria, create decision frameworks, practice graceful declines, and conduct regular priority audits to maintain laser focus. The paradox is powerful: saying no to more opportunities allows you to say a much bigger yes to what truly matters, creating clearer product vision, stronger team alignment, better resource utilization, and ultimately more fundable and successful business.
In your view, what makes great managed services today—and how do you bring that to life in the work you do?
At AmaraTech, we believe great managed services today go far beyond traditional IT support—they require proactive, AI-driven cybersecurity intelligence tool that prevents threats before they impact business operations. We deliver this through our integrated ecosystem approach, where cutting-edge threat detection, cloud infrastructure, and business applications work seamlessly together under 24/7 SOC monitoring. What sets AmaraTech apart is our commitment to being true strategic partners: we develop deep industry expertise to understand each client’s unique compliance requirements and operational challenges, then translate our technical capabilities into measurable business outcomes like revenue protection and competitive advantage.
Through transparent reporting, continuous innovation with leading cybersecurity vendors, and flexible engagement models that scale with growth, we don’t just manage technology—we architect security-first solutions that drive business success. When you partner with AmaraTech, you’re not getting a vendor; you’re gaining a cybersecurity-focused technology advisor dedicated to keeping your business protected, compliant, and positioned for innovation in an increasingly complex threat landscape. My passion for helping organizations embrace progressive technology drives successful business transformation and seamless technology integration, positioning our company as a leader in next-generation cybersecurity solutions.
Do you see any gaps in the tech industry that you think more companies should be addressing?
The cybersecurity industry urgently needs to develop AI-native security frameworks that can match the speed and sophistication of AI-powered attacks, which are scaling exponentially while traditional defenses remain linear. Current cybersecurity frameworks are built on reactive, signature-based models that cannot adapt fast enough to counter AI-generated attack variations, creating dangerous gaps in real-time threat response.
The industry must prioritize developing adaptive security architectures that integrate human expertise with AI-driven defense systems, democratize advanced security tools for organizations of all sizes, and establish rapid threat intelligence sharing networks that operate at machine speed. At AmaraTech, we’re addressing these framework gaps by building AI-enhanced security operations that evolve with threat patterns, making enterprise-grade adaptive defenses accessible through managed services, and creating collaborative intelligence systems that amplify human analyst capabilities rather than replacing them. The critical challenge is shifting from traditional periodic security updates to continuous, proactive AI-native frameworks that can defend against tomorrow’s threats today—because the window for reactive cybersecurity approaches is rapidly closing in an AI-accelerated threat landscape.
How do you keep up with the fast-changing tech landscape—especially when it comes to things like cybersecurity, compliance, or AI?
As cybersecurity threats evolve at unprecedented speed with AI-powered attacks and constantly shifting compliance requirements, AmaraTech maintains its competitive edge through a comprehensive intelligence ecosystem that combines strategic vendor partnerships, real-time threat monitoring through our Security Operations, and active participation in threat intelligence sharing communities. Our team maintains cutting-edge certifications while operating hands-on testing labs for emerging AI security technologies, ensuring we can rapidly assess, deploy, and scale new defensive measures across our client portfolio within hours of threat emergence. This systematic approach to continuous learning—from regulatory compliance partnerships to client-driven insights and internal knowledge sharing—positions us as a proactive cybersecurity advisor who anticipates and prepares for threats before they impact business operations. While many MSPs react to security incidents, our commitment to staying ahead of the threat landscape through multi-layered intelligence gathering and rapid adaptation capabilities ensures our clients receive protection against both current attacks and tomorrow’s emerging cyber challenges, making cybersecurity readiness a competitive advantage rather than a reactive necessity. It enables organizations to thrive in our increasingly connected, threat-aware digital landscape by fostering inclusive partnerships that bridge technology gaps and accelerate innovation adoption across diverse business sectors.
What’s coming up next for you and AmaraTech—any big plans, goals, or ideas you’re excited to roll out?
I’m currently leading the development of a groundbreaking AI-powered cybersecurity platform designed to revolutionize security management for businesses and organizations through advanced technology integration and intelligent automation. This comprehensive solution leverages custom AI models built on cutting-edge large language models to enhance user interaction and automate complex security workflows, delivering protection through a dual-module architecture. The platform combines systematic Vulnerability Management—featuring automated assessment, structured remediation workflows, and continuous monitoring capabilities—with advanced Threat Intelligence that generates operation-specific insights tailored to each organization’s unique risk profile, industry sector, and business context. By delivering actionable threat intelligence for informed risk assessment and strategic remediation planning, this innovation empowers organizations to systematically identify, prioritize, and address security risks while maintaining regulatory compliance, ultimately improving overall security posture and delivering personalized cybersecurity experiences that create measurable business value across diverse client platforms.
The post HIPTHER Community Voices: Alieu Kamara – Founder and CTO of AmaraTech appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
It’s not just black and white label
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Wiztech, says white labels are all about striking the balance between pros and cons, but for some, it’s impossible to achieve and that’s why it’s important to consider other options.
For most operators, a white label solution seems to offer the best route to market. But is that actually the case?
I’ve been working in the industry for more than two decades now, and over that time, I’ve worked on both sides of the fence – so on the white label operator side and on the white label provider side. This gives me a deep understanding of the pros and cons of white label solutions, and this understanding ultimately led me to launch Wiztech. To answer your question more directly, white labels are always about striking the balance between the pros and cons they present – for some operators, a balance can be found, but for others, it can’t. Ultimately, it comes down to knowing what you want from your platform or technology stack, and whether a white label can meet those requirements with the budget and resources you have available to you.
So, what are the pros and cons of a white label platform?
There are plenty of upsides to white labels, and that’s why they’re used by so many operators. The main advantages are speed to market and cost effectiveness – you can literally go from first discussions to your online casino being live in a matter of weeks. The upfront fees are relatively small, and, in most cases, you pay a revenue share back to the platform provider. This can tighten margins a little, but it means you don’t have to have a large capital reserve to get going. Another benefit is that you can take on as much or as little of the operation as you like – for some, they will let the platform provider take care of the operational aspect while they focus solely on marketing and customer acquisition. Other upsides include licensing, with the white label partner securing and being responsible for the licences they hold.
Drawbacks. The biggest for me is the lack of differentiation you get with a white label. The many brands that run on the platform often look very much the same, just with different logos and branding. After a few months of operating your online casino, you’ll likely notice friction points that you’ll want to address, but the rigid nature of white-label platforms means it’s incredibly difficult to smooth out even the smallest of bumps in the road. It’s also incredibly difficult to roll out unique features and functionality as the development team is usually working through a backlog of requests – most of which are for the friction bumps that need ironing out. Factor in the frequent regulatory changes that happen, and the need for the development team to respond to them, and it’s easy to see how hard it can be to improve the experience being offered to players.
How can operators strike a balance between the pros and cons of white labels?
It comes down to understanding the capabilities of the platform provider and whether they offer customisation and localisation. If they don’t, the operator needs to determine if this is a price they’re willing to pay in exchange for the speed to market and cost effectiveness that white labels provide. Of course, some white label providers do offer support and are happy to help when it comes to developing and deploying bespoke features and functionality. But in my experience, most don’t have the capacity for this, even if they say they do. For me, the balance is found by accepting the limitations of white labels and working within the (often pretty rigid framework) they provide. There are plenty of examples of operators that have done this and have gone on to run very successful brands in highly competitive markets.
Is there an alternative to white labels?
The most obvious alternative is to develop a proprietary technology stack, but this approach comes with just as many, if not more, pitfalls. Building a platform from the ground up is incredibly expensive and tremendously risky, and this is why so few operators outside of the industry power players have been able to pull it off. And even those that do often encounter issues such as ongoing maintenance, tech debt, staffing and compliance. But there is a middle ground between white label and proprietary, and it can be found with smaller platform providers whose technologies offer the agility, flexibility and adaptability required for operators to launch highly customised, almost bespoke, online casinos and sportsbooks.
How does Wiztech fit into the platform mix, and how do you support your partners in achieving their goals in often highly competitive markets?
At Wiztech, we champion modular tech and the likes of AI and automation. By embracing these, we have been able to build powerful yet highly customisable casino and sportsbook solutions that are also fully compliant in tightly regulated markets. In our experience, being able to quickly respond to regulatory changes provides a competitive advantage to our customers. In Mexico, for example, our client Winpot has been able to deliver a unique player experience while always ensuring compliance. And this is against a backdrop where regulatory changes often come with very little notice. Our technology can adapt quickly while Winpot continues to capitalise on the growing demand for entertaining online casino products and experiences.
But just as important as our technology is our approach to our partners. This sees us undertake a comprehensive onboarding process where we spend a lot of time understanding the client’s “why” before we map out the “what” and the “how”. This has proved to be incredibly effective and ensures that our clients can get the most out of the flexibility of our platform and the high levels of customisation and personalisation it provides.
The post The White Label Dilemma: Finding the Right Balance for Your iGaming Business appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
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Central Europe6 days ago
CT Interactive grows its certified game portfolio in the Slovak market
