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Exclusive Q&A with Lars Kollind, Head of Business Development at iSoftBet

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We present here an insightful interview Lars Kollind, Head of Business Development at iSoftBet.

He talks here about his career, his role in iSoftBet, the expansion plans and the impressive content that the company offers. He particularly emphasizes on the aspects that iSoftBet focuses on before entering a new market. He also describes the variety and quality of games content at the company possesses.

Here we go!

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Q. Let’s start with a brief intro about yourself. Tell us about your career and interests. Our readers would love to hear that.

A. Hi! I’m Lars Kollind, Head of Business Development at iSoftBet. In my role, I work closely with our commercial and marketing teams to build and strengthen internal and external relationships, further develop sales. I leverage customer needs & insights to implement strategies that increase revenue – always on the hunt for new business opportunities, including entering new markets.

At iSoftBet, all our activities tie into our corporate values of curiosity, respect and passion as we look to bring amazing gaming experiences to players in regulated markets all over the globe.

I have spent more than a decade in senior commercial, sales and marketing roles within the gaming sector for some of the industry’s largest suppliers.

Q. You joined iSoftBet in November 2020. How has been the journey so far? Could you describe some landmarks?

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A. It’s been a period of tremendous growth, both for me as an individual and for the company. I can say that I adapted easily, thanks to the very welcoming and involved team at iSoftBet. As for highlights, my most important success has been the introduction to Latin America. Another important landmark would be iSoftBet’s content going live with Jokerstar in Germany. We have a lot more in the pipeline, and I’m excited to see how we will progress in this sense.

Q.  Tell us more about your partnership with Jokerstar in the German market.

A. The German market offers some very interesting opportunities and we’ve worked hard from a regulatory standpoint to be able to bring real value to operators there.

Jokerstar gives us a platform to reach German players in what is still a market that is in the process of finding its feet, and we are eager to see what we can achieve. It is a third-generation casino operator with more than 165 gambling halls in Germany, over 1000 employees and a whopping 200.000 customers each year, now testing the waters in the online environment.

The partnership allows us to reach a wide audience and we’re more than excited to see how our games will perform with Jokerstar.

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Q. There have been recent news reports about iSoftBet’s expansion plans in Latin America as well. What’s the present position and what would be the next steps?

A. It is no secret Latin America is a hugely exciting continent, having an expected GGR of over $2.5bn by 2025 in regulated markets [as per Vixo GamblingCompliance], with so much expectation as more markets embrace frameworks. We’ve grown strongly in the region with a number of key commercial deals, including Dotworkers, Doradobet and Universal Soft in recent months, with plenty more to come.

We’ve recently signed with MeridianBet as well, a partnership that will see our top slots live across Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Malta, as well as Peru in Latin America. Of course, we look forward to expanding even more in these areas, as well as entering new markets in the coming year.

Q. Now, could you enlighten our readers about your expansion plans?

A. Besides continuing to deliver amazing slots to the iGaming industry, we are also focusing on our aggregation platform. It brings an incredibly diverse array of content to market with impressive velocity, which can be extremely useful to operators in emerging and newly regulated markets.

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We pride ourselves on entering regulated markets swiftly and safely, with our methodical, detailed approach seeing us now live in 20 jurisdictions, most recently Greece, with two more countries in the pipeline. We will reveal more in the coming months, but there’s plenty to look forward to.

Q. Let’s shift the focus on to the games and solutions that iSoftBet offers. What makes your company stand out in the reasonably crowded gaming content space?

A. Aggregation is an important aspect of an offering for operators today and we’re dedicated to offering the most dynamic range of games for our partners to truly excel, including exclusive content in certain territories. We offer extensive benefits for both operators and providers in this sense, fostering long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships.

Our aggregation platform allows us to bring unmatched value to our partners. Bringing more than 8,000 games from more than 85 suppliers in the industry to operators via one single integration, our platform makes a huge amount of content available to them, while they can also use our collection of advanced player engagement solutions to enhance gameplay even further.

Both our proprietary games and our aggregation partner’s games can be elevated with our engagement tools – tournaments (iNgame), achievements, free spins, jackpots and cash drops, regulatory widgets, data analysis, with more to be revealed soon.

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By combining all these, we’re able to bring a highly impressive collection of content to audiences.

Q. New technologies and innovations come up in a number of verticals related to gaming: Crypto currency, blockchain, machine learning, big data analysis, you name it. Is the rapid emergence of such innovations a challenge or an opportunity for a business developer?

A. Not only do we work in iGaming, but we are a tech company at heart, and keeping our finger on the pulse of developments is vital. Our CTO, Neal Garman, recently released a white paper detailing our seven-year plan, where he outlines the important steps not just iSoftBet, but the industry needs to make to ensure we remain a vibrant entertainment sector.

In such a fast-paced environment, it is no surprise to see more innovation occur and we endeavour to do our best to lead the conversation.

Q. Finally, a question on iSoftBet’s tagline: Serious Fun. That’s really a cool one! How did it come about?

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It is all about aligning with our new company ethos. “Serious Fun” comes from us ensuring to deliver our partners and our people fun experiences in a professional way. The talent, creativity, and dedication of our teams make this possible, all while following our mission and vision, and respecting our values.

Our vision is to create amazing gaming experiences and our mission is to deliver high quality products that inspire, innovate and entertain, by always placing our people, partners and the player at the heart of what we do. Our values are Respect, Curiosity, and Passion, representing the core of our company culture.

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Conferences in Europe

Speaking the Player’s Language: Promatic Group’s Take on Game Localization in CEE

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The Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025 brought together some of the brightest minds in the iGaming and tech industries – and the conversation didn’t stop when the curtains closed. As this year’s General Sponsor through its Promatic Games brand, Promatic Group made a powerful impact on-stage and behind the scenes. In a dynamic keynote presentation titled “Localizing Slot Games: Does the Central European Player Need Localized Content?”, Maciej Makuszewski, iGaming Director, and Luka Oblak, Head of Product Design, explored how cultural nuances shape player engagement and game performance across regional markets.

Now, post-event, we caught up with Maciej Makuszewski to delve deeper into the topic of localization, player behavior, and what makes content truly resonate in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

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Maciej, your keynote at the Summit offered compelling insights into how culture and language affect game engagement. What do you believe is the biggest misconception about localization in the iGaming industry today?

It is that it is enough to hire a translator of a game to deliver localized content. This is not the end of the road – on the contrary – this is just the beginning. This may sound like saying the sun rises in the east, but I still would say there can be a lot more attention paid to giving games a local touch.

But coming back to translations, nowadays, even at this basic level, we can observe so many pitfalls and mistakes that could have been avoided if people really had the player at the core of their strategy. I guess we are past this time in history of globalization that unified products and content simply entered new markets with no tailoring whatsoever and there was demand for them, because there hadn’t been much of a choice of anything else. We’d like to see companies try harder when they enter new markets. I hope we will become one that actually gets the hyperlocalization just right.

 

You and Luka presented some standout cases on localized content. Could you share one example that truly surprised your team – either by outperforming expectations or revealing a cultural insight you hadn’t anticipated?

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I guess that would be the transformation of a simple fruit game launched as Red Hot Jackpot in Poland, into a rich animations theme game it became in Nigeria. The nigerian version of Red Hot Jackpot is called Naija Wheels and it is the exact the same math model and game logic as Red Hot Jackpot, but what makes it appealing to the local customers of slot halls in Nigeria is its hyperlocal theme. Naija Wheels is a funny story of things you see in Lagos traffic. So instead of a Cherry symbol you have a symbol of a police officer. Instead of a plum symbol, you have an okada driver from Lagos etc.

Very different game themes, same logics, same business effects – the game is a great performing slot in Poland and a superb hit in Nigeria.

 

In your view, what are the non-negotiables when designing localized slot content for Central and Eastern European markets? Are there elements developers often overlook?

There are so many local markets in the CEE that it is really hard to unify this. But in a nutshell – we know in our region, highly volatile fruit themed games are very popular. Having said that, it is not a surfire way to success. You may want to localize the content even further through cultural and humor references.

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The ROI of local-branded slots is often debated. Based on Promatic Group’s experience, when does it make strategic and commercial sense to invest in hyper-local content – and when is it better to focus on broader appeal?

It all depends why you do this and how you measure the ROI. If you measure a single game ROI this might be a trap. It will very much depend on the math model and features of the particular game. Apart from revenue stream, there are also costs to be considered. If we’re talking about a “game reskin” then certification will be something you can optimize and so on. There are numerous ways to tackle this issue. Sometimes you can come up with a hyper local game and just launch it somewhere else to test if it works, which will boost your revenue stream and the total ROI. All in all we are very happy with our local approach and we intend to stick to it.

 

Let’s talk about the future. With shifting player expectations and tech advancements like AI personalization, how do you see the localization strategy evolving over the next 2–3 years at Promatic Group?

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I would expect this hyperlocalization becomes a commodity in the industry. This will also require a lot of human factor so that it is done the right way. AI will speed things up, but I believe that the human touch will be key. We already have amazing tools, but using them the right way is what will make a great difference.

The post Speaking the Player’s Language: Promatic Group’s Take on Game Localization in CEE appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Compliance Updates

Navigating Legal Frontiers: Nordic Legal’s Vision for the Finnish Gambling Market

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The Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025 brought together top experts across the iGaming and tech landscape, and Nordic Legal stood out as the event’s Scandinavian Legal Expertise Sponsor. A renowned legal advisory firm in the Nordic region, Nordic Legal continues to shape the future of gambling legislation and compliance in Europe.

In this post-event interview, we caught up with Pekka Ilmivalta, Head of the Finnish Office at Nordic Legal, to dive deeper into the firm’s insights on the upcoming Finnish gambling reform, the legal challenges it poses, and the opportunities it presents for operators preparing to enter the market.

 

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Finland is preparing to launch its regulated gambling sector in January 2026. As an expert with over 20 years of experience in the gambling industry, how do you view its draft legislation and the current state of the Finnish gambling market? 

Finns are used to gambling online, and the size of the market is close to 2 billion euros in GGR. As the market share of the national monopoly operator, Veikkaus, has declined to around 50 percent, nearly half of the gambling spending already takes place outside the Finnish regulation. Therefore, the gambling legislation reform is really needed.

The Government Proposal now being dealt with in the Finnish Parliament is generally a comprehensive and a good package. As the political parties are quite unanimous about the need for the reform, I expect the parliamentary discussion to concentrate on the balance between responsibility measures and the features making the market interesting enough for the operators to enter the regulated market. Especially marketing, use of affiliates and bonusing will, and should, be discussed.

I believe that the Parliament will approve the new legislation early next autumn and that the B2C license application process will be able to begin already in January next year.

 

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The Finnish legislative review council has raised concerns about potential increases in gambling harms under the new regulatory framework. What measures do you believe are necessary to mitigate these risks, and how could Finland balance market liberalization with responsible gambling practices?

Personally, I think that gambling harms must be taken seriously. However, as almost half of the Finnish gambling now happens outside the regulated market, I am convinced that succeeding in channelization is a crucial starting point to really mitigate gambling harms. Therefore, attractiveness of the market and measures against the black market are extremely important. Furthermore, self-exclusion and responsible gambling tools are, of course, needed for the players. Generally, I believe that AI assisted monitoring could and will have an important role in preventing harmful gambling in the future. To really work, responsible gambling tools need to be both pragmatic and relevant for each individual player.

 

Considering Finland’s upcoming gambling reform, what legal and operational challenges should gambling operators be prepared for, particularly regarding compliance and player protection? Which key trends do you see shaping the market’s future?

As it seems now that affiliates and welcome bonuses will be banned, operators will have to find other means to build their brand and acquire customers. Even though traditional marketing and sponsoring are widely acceptable, I would expect to see innovative solutions to stand out from the probable marketing avalanche during the first months after the market opening. Perhaps new kinds of sponsorships or retail activities? Or even enhanced player protection measures to gain a competitive edge?

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Overall, I would advise operators to start their market entry preparations early enough. The licensing procedure could take several (6 to 9) months. Also, adjusting to the local technical and player protection requirements might not happen overnight.

 

What insights could help Finland create a balanced and effective gambling market?

I believe that the new legislation will provide a good enough framework for a functional gambling market. However, based on experiences from Sweden and Denmark, I would point out two practical aspects crucial to making the new legislation effective: First, there needs to be collaboration between licensed operators and the new regulator. Dialogue and a mutual will to find solutions should be the common mindset. Secondly, the regulator hopefully has enough resources (tools, persons and persistence) to interfere with the black-market operations, which will evidently still exist also after the reform.

 

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Nordic Legal has extensive experience advising European governments on regulatory best practices. How can your firm assist operators looking to enter the Finnish market and navigate the evolving legal landscape?

With our deep knowledge of Finnish legislation, extensive experience from regulatory developments in other jurisdictions, and strong industry relationships, we are well-positioned to support operators and B2B suppliers entering the Finnish market. We can offer comprehensive guidance not only on compliance and licensing, but also on navigating strategic challenges, ensuring our clients are well-prepared for a dynamic and shifting legal landscape. Our proactive approach enables us to identify regulatory changes early and help clients stay ahead of industry developments.

 

The post Navigating Legal Frontiers: Nordic Legal’s Vision for the Finnish Gambling Market appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Interviews

Exclusive Q&A With Bar Konson, Chief Business Development Officer at NuxGame

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Online casinos are in a race to meet the growing demands of players, but many operators are being left behind. Slow payment systems, high transaction fees, and outdated software are limiting growth and hurting the player experience. But with the right tools, operators can break free from these limitations and create fluid, player-first experiences.

Bar Konson, Chief Business Development Officer at NuxGame, offers solutions that many operators have been waiting for. With NuxGame’s crypto-ready turnkey platform, operators can quickly solve common issues and roll out future-forward digital casinos that appeal to modern players. The crypto market is growing fast, with an expected $5 billion by 2030. Find out in this interview how making the most of crypto can take your casino to the next level and leave competitors behind.

The impact of crypto in iGaming is undeniable. Bar, do you believe Bitcoin is here to stay, or are we just seeing the beginning of a temporary trend?

The truth is, Bitcoin and crypto are here to stay, and it’s not just a “cool new thing” for players. They offer fast transactions, more security, and a level of transparency that players are increasingly looking for. The iGaming scene is modernizing, and those who aren’t adopting crypto solutions are definitely going to fall behind. You don’t want to watch everyone else pass you by.

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So how does NuxGame support the crypto trend? What makes your platform stand out in this fast paced environment?

At NuxGame, we’re not simply handing over a crypto solution and calling it a day. We provide a fully integrated crypto casino software solution that supports multiple cryptocurrencies, but more importantly, we’re here for you every step of the way. Our customer service managers understand that each operator has unique priorities, so we work closely with you to make sure that everything works exactly the way you want it. The dashboard shows everything in real-time, while players get quicker transactions and a better overall game. And the best part is that you’re not left alone with the system integration. Our team is always ready to make your operations work exactly how you want.

I know you’ve got a lot of experience with turnkey solutions. What makes NuxGame’s turnkey casino solution a perfect fit for operators looking to add crypto into their business?

The whole idea behind a turnkey casino solution is to give operators everything they need to go live as soon as possible. When you add crypto, that means offering everything from crypto-friendly payment systems to blockchain-backed gaming for transparency and security. But the important part is that it’s not merely about putting a “crypto” label on your website and leaving it at that. We provide full integration with multi-coin support, crypto bonuses, and even real-time analytics. For operators, it’s the peace of mind that comes with knowing that upon making the switch, everything works — and it works fast. No waiting, no stress, just a revenue-boosting crypto experience. And you’ll be seeing profits in no time. Because you’ll get the tools to start engaging players immediately.

Bar, let’s talk about the notable transition from traditional casinos to online. Are operators who come from land-based casinos jumping on the crypto train? How are they adapting?

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Absolutely! A lot of traditional operators are taking their first steps into the online scene and realizing crypto’s impact in it all. They already have local brand recognition, and now it’s time to take that trust and build it online. The great thing is, with crypto, they don’t have to worry about those annoying international payment delays or high fees. We help them adapt without the growing pains, offering localization for both payments and content. It’s basically taking what they already know and applying it to the online space: no need to rebuild everything. You’ve got your brand and audience — now let us help you go digital. It’s that easy.

One last thing: with all the changes happening in the iGaming space, especially with the crypto’s growing presence, what do you think operators should be focusing on in 2025?

2025 is all about speed and adaptability. Markets are moving at record pace, and operators who are stuck in the “perfect platform” mentality are going to miss the boat. Players expect fast, secure experiences, and with crypto, that’s what they get. But to keep up, operators need to launch fast, learn fast, and be ready to grow quickly. That means not over-complicating things: you don’t need to build from zero when you’ve got the right tools. With platforms like ours, operators can quickly adapt to trends, integrate new features, and focus on what really matters: delivering a fantastic player experience. The market’s moving, and those who move with it are the ones who win.

The post Exclusive Q&A With Bar Konson, Chief Business Development Officer at NuxGame appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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