Interviews
HIPTHER Community Voices: Interview with Dr. Maria Loumpourdi, founder and Managing Director of Made From Within
Reading Time: 7 minutes
In this interview, we speak with Dr. Maria Loumpourdi, founder and Managing Director of Made From Within, a CPD-accredited leadership development provider. She shares her journey into leadership and coaching, the philosophy behind her work, and how evidence-based development can drive real change—particularly in high-growth sectors like iGaming.
What originally sparked your interest in leadership development and coaching? Was there a defining moment that set you on this path?
The spark started very early. As a kid, I was always very curious and loved learning, but more than that, I loved sharing what I learned. I even remember trying to memorise a 24-volume encyclopaedia just so I could drop interesting facts into conversations. Looking back, that passion for learning and helping others grow was always there.
When it came time to choose a university path, education felt like the natural choice. I loved it (and still do), but I quickly started to feel uneasy about how rigid the school system is. More often than not, we teach what’s prescribed, not necessarily what kids want or need to learn. That made me think more seriously about adult education, where people have more agency in their development and are often more personally invested.
That decision led me to corporate learning and development. I started in the Learning & Development department of an iGaming company, and within a year, I moved into a leadership role heading L&D in the manufacturing sector. That role gave me hands-on experience in managing teams and developing as a leader myself. By that time, I had already completed a master’s in educational leadership and had been accepted into a doctoral programme. At that point, I already knew my research would focus on leadership development.
Another key realisation came when I started developing leaders. I began to see that while training is a necessary first step, it cannot, on its own, lead to lasting behavioural change. That’s when I realised coaching was the missing piece; it’s what helps people truly internalise and apply what they’ve learned. I became an accredited coach and eventually a coaching supervisor (a coach of coaches), and that shifted how I approached development.
Everything came together when I completed my doctorate and published my book, Leaders Made From Within. That was an important moment for me because it also marked the launch of my company, Made from Within. It was the point where everything aligned: my love for learning, leadership, developing others, and the belief that real change (whether individual or organisational) comes from within.
Made From Within is CPD-accredited and globally active. What inspired you to start it, and what impact are you most proud of so far?
Made From Within wasn’t a business idea; it was the result of over a decade of real-world experience, empirical research, and a deep understanding of what works (and what doesn’t) when it comes to leadership and organisational development. I spent many years building my expertise, holding senior roles in international organisations, and seeing firsthand what drives real performance and sustainable business growth. Just as importantly, I saw the common patterns that hold people and businesses back. Many of the lessons I learned (both the successes and the hard-won mistakes) shaped the foundation of Made From Within.
I started Made From Within because I wanted to offer something practical, evidence-based, and rooted in real experience; instead of unsupported theories, popular opinions, or trends. The leadership and personal development space is currently crowded, and I was very intentional about two things: 1. making sure that my background clearly shows I am not another self-proclaimed guru on social media, and 2. ensuring this wasn’t just another one-size-fits-all offering. At Made From Within, we don’t do off-the-shelf. We work closely with clients to understand their goals, context, and challenges, then build tailored solutions that reflect their reality. We’ve also developed CPD-accredited programmes for individuals and teams who want to grow in a structured and credible way.
What I’m most proud of is how much we’ve achieved in such a short time. Made From Within has already supported leaders and teams across organisations and industries, enabling behavioural and organisational change. We’re now expanding access by offering our accredited courses directly through our website, which allows more people to develop themselves on their own terms, and at their own pace.
Your career spans several industries—from banking and manufacturing to iGaming. What pivotal experiences have shaped your leadership philosophy?
While some leadership challenges (like earning trust, managing conflict, or leading through change) are universal, I’ve found that every industry comes with its own unspoken rules and unique pressures. The culture portrayed on the company website is rarely (if ever) the full picture. Experiencing these differences first-hand has taught me that effective leadership isn’t about following one fixed approach. It’s about learning when to listen, when to challenge, and how to earn credibility in novel environments.
One of the experiences that shaped my approach happened in my very first week as a department head in the manufacturing sector. I was asked to represent the function in a customer audit, even though I had just stepped into the role and barely had any exposure to the industry or the company. During the audit, the client questioned how certain KPIs were calculated. I hadn’t prepared the presentation and didn’t have the answer. It would’ve been easy (and probably expected) to say, “I’m new”, or shift the blame to the person who created it. But I saw it as an opportunity to lead.
I admitted I didn’t have the answer at that moment and promised to come back with it by the end of the day. When I approached the team member who had prepared the figures, they told me they couldn’t remember. This person was already on their way out of the company, having previously received feedback that they weren’t ready for the role I had stepped into. Still, I didn’t point fingers. I worked with the team to find the answer, verified the data, and returned to the client with a clear explanation. We earned the client’s trust, salvaged the audit, and celebrated with the team despite the initial mistake.
That experience grounded one of the core principles of my leadership philosophy: when you lead, you take ownership. You don’t blame others, you don’t throw people under the bus, and you don’t step back when things go wrong. If you’re in a leadership role, you take responsibility and step up even when it’s not directly your fault. That’s the kind of leader I’ve worked to be across every industry I’ve been part of.
In iGaming, rapid growth often outpaces structured development. How can coaching help companies build stronger leadership pipelines during periods of scale?
In iGaming, growth often happens so quickly that people find themselves in leadership roles before they’ve had the time (or the opportunity) to develop the skills or confidence to lead. Coaching helps bridge that gap. It provides a safe space for new and emerging leaders to speak openly about their challenges, reflect on their behaviours, set development goals for themselves and their teams, and work toward those goals with a coach acting as both a thinking partner and an accountability partner.
It’s just as valuable for senior leaders. Coaching can help them build executive presence and avoid slipping into autopilot decision-making, which, in a fast-paced environment like iGaming, can have serious long-term consequences for both individuals and the business.
I’ve seen the impact of coaching firsthand. I’ve worked with people who were on performance improvement plans (essentially on their way out), and within six months, they were promoted into leadership roles. What changed? Their mindset, their behaviour, how they communicated, how they built relationships, and how they demonstrated their competence. Coaching made that shift possible.
Coaching meets people where they are, which is exactly what’s needed during periods of rapid scale. Especially in iGaming, where employee turnover often reaches or exceeds 30% (meaning one in three employees leave each year) offering coaching, even as a smaller operator or supplier, can be the difference between losing talent (often to competitors) and building a strong leadership pipeline.
What advice would you give to iGaming companies looking to invest in leadership development for the first time? Where should they start?
My key piece of advice is this: don’t buy off-the-shelf leadership development programmes. Every year, over $360 billion is invested on leadership development globally, but only 10–20% of that has a measurable return on investment. The reason? Most programmes aren’t tailored to the actual needs of the business and its leaders.
If you want real impact, you need to start with a proper analysis of your organisation’s current leadership needs and challenges. Get clear on what effective leadership looks like in your organisation, involve senior leadership teams from the beginning, and design a programme that fits; not just something that looks good on paper. When done right, tailored programmes can achieve up to 10x the ROI.
In my book Leaders Made From Within: The Blueprint for Developing Leadership in Individuals and Organisations, I share the 5D Leadership Development Process (Define, Design, Deliver, Deploy, and Debrief), a model grounded in my doctoral research. It’s a practical, evidence-based process to building leadership capability, and it’s especially relevant for high-growth sectors like iGaming.
What skills or leadership traits are most important for success in iGaming—and how can coaching help develop them?
Success in iGaming requires a combination of leadership skills due to the industry’s fast pace, volatility, and competitiveness. In my experience developing talent in this industry, some of the most critical skills include:
- Self-awareness and self-regulation: Leaders need to manage themselves under pressure and stay grounded. Coaching supports this by helping individuals recognise patterns, triggers, and habits; and understand how these affect their performance and relationships in a structured way.
- Building relationships and networks: In a fast-moving and relatively young industry, strong cross-functional collaboration is essential. Coaching helps leaders improve their communication, influencing, and trust-building skills, especially when leading international teams where alignment is harder to achieve.
- Creativity and innovation: iGaming leaders often face ambiguous situations without a clear playbook. Coaching provides space to step back, think differently, challenge assumptions, and explore new solutions, which is something daily operations rarely allow time for.
- Decision-making: Rapid scaling requires leaders who can make informed, timely decisions without having all the answers. Coaching helps leaders gain clarity, improve their judgment, overcome indecision, and build confidence in high-stakes or complex situations.
- Business acumen: Leaders need a broader understanding of how the business operates, not just within their own function. Coaching encourages a more strategic mindset by connecting day-to-day decisions to long-term business outcomes. For example, a commercial leader should understand product development, and vice versa. Everyone needs at least a baseline understanding of the financial and regulatory side of the business.
In short, coaching develops these skills not through theory, but through structured reflection, real-world application, accountability, and feedback.
The post HIPTHER Community Voices: Interview with Dr. Maria Loumpourdi, founder and Managing Director of Made From Within appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Baltics
HIPTHER Community Voices: Interview with the CEO and co-founder of Nordcurrent Victoria Trofimova
In this edition of HIPTHER Community Voices, we talk with Victoria Trofimova, the CEO and co-founder of Nordcurrent, the biggest game studio to come out of Lithuania and the Baltics. Since starting the company in 2002, Victoria has led Nordcurrent from a small team to an international gaming success story — all without external funding.
She shares how key decisions like focusing on mobile games, building a diverse team, and staying true to their creative vision helped shape Nordcurrent’s growth. We also dive into how she’s helping put the Baltics on the global gaming map, supporting young talent, and what advice she has for the next generation of women leaders in tech.
Nordcurrent has grown into a Baltic powerhouse since its founding in 2002. What were some of the pivotal moments that shaped the studio’s identity and success—especially as a bootstrapped company?
One key moment was our decision to focus fully on mobile gaming early on. That shift, around 2010, allowed us to scale globally with titles like Cooking Fever, which became a long-term success story. Another pivotal step was building and retaining in-house capabilities, from development to marketing, while staying self-funded. Being bootstrapped taught us discipline, resilience, and how to make bold yet thoughtful decisions without external pressure.
You’ve scaled a 360-person team across multiple countries. What have been the biggest challenges—and advantages—of growing Nordcurrent without external funding?
The biggest challenge has been growth pacing. We had to build sustainably, without shortcuts. But that’s also been our advantage; we’ve kept creative control, built long-term trust with our team, and stayed focused on profitability and product quality. It’s a different rhythm, one that favors deep thinking over hype.
Diversity in gaming is still lagging behind. What concrete steps has Nordcurrent taken to drive inclusion, and how do you embed this into studio culture, hiring, and leadership?
We don’t overcomplicate it, we hire the best people who want to build great games with us. We don’t separate or label by gender, background, or title. If someone brings talent, drive, and a collaborative mindset, they belong here. That approach has naturally led to a diverse team, including strong female leadership across departments. We focus on creating an environment where everyone is treated equally, trusted, and heard.
You’ve spoken about attracting global talent to Lithuania and the Baltics. What makes the region appealing—and what misconceptions do you often have to overcome when recruiting internationally?
The Baltics offer a great work-life balance, strong tech ecosystems, and a tight-knit creative scene. But we still need to overcome outdated perceptions; for example, that it’s cold, isolated, or lacking opportunity. The truth is, Vilnius and other cities here are dynamic and are increasingly being recognized for innovation.
In such a saturated gaming market, how does Nordcurrent approach innovation and stay relevant without falling into trend-chasing?
We listen deeply. To players, to data, and to our instincts. With over two decades of experience, we’ve built a rich internal library of what works, what lasts, and what connects. Innovation for us isn’t about reinventing the wheel every time. It’s about layering insight, emotion, and cultural nuance onto strong foundations. We don’t chase trends, we ask how a game fits into people’s lives. That’s why titles like Airplane Chefs resonate. They’re familiar yet fresh, culturally rich but globally accessible. Years of learning has given us the confidence to trust our gut and the clarity to know when to try something bold.
From mobile hits to console and PC publishing—how has your portfolio strategy evolved, and how do you decide what kinds of games to invest in today?
Our mobile success gave us the freedom to diversify. With Nordcurrent Labs, we now publish PC and console games that align with our values: original IP, strong storytelling, and long-tail potential. We look for teams with vision and grit, whether it’s cozy games or narrative-rich adventures.
You recently acquired River End Games and the Cinemaware catalog. What’s the strategic thinking behind those moves, and what can players expect from these legacy properties going Forward?
River End Games brings deep narrative talent and AAA craftsmanship, which complements our publishing ambitions. With Cinemaware, we’re reimagining classics for a new generation. These acquisitions aren’t about nostalgia only, they’re about unlocking untapped creative value in ways that feel both respectful and bold.
How are you helping to nurture the next generation of game developers in the Baltics, and what role do you think studios should play in education or early talent development?
We take this responsibility seriously. As the largest Lithuania-born game developer, we feel a strong duty to help grow the industry, not just our studio. We actively collaborate with the Lithuanian Game Developers Association, support local game jams, and organize major meetups that bring the community together. Our goal is to make the gaming industry more visible, more accessible, and more appealing, especially to young people who may not yet see it as a real career path.
It’s not just about hiring talent, it’s about helping to create it. We believe studios should take an active role in popularizing the industry, opening doors, and building a future where game development is seen as a creative and respected profession.
You’re leading a company that’s rooted in Eastern Europe but competing on a global stage. How do you balance local values with global ambitions?
We don’t see it as a conflict. Our roots give us authenticity and resilience, and these are qualities that resonate globally. We build games that are grounded in strong craft and cultural richness but are universally relatable. Staying true to who we are has been our best strategy for going global.
And finally—what advice would you give to aspiring women leaders in tech and gaming who want to break into this industry and rise through the ranks?
Own your voice. You don’t need to fit a mold to lead. Surround yourself with people who challenge and support you. And remember, leadership isn’t just about a title, it’s about taking responsibility, lifting others, and staying curious. Tech and gaming need your perspective, and there’s room for you at the table.
The post HIPTHER Community Voices: Interview with the CEO and co-founder of Nordcurrent Victoria Trofimova appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Fraud in the iGaming sector is no longer the work of lone opportunists. Today’s scammers operate in well-organized, tech-savvy networks – quietly exploiting systems that weren’t built to catch them. And as the digital economy grows, so too does the complexity of fraud schemes targeting gaming operators.
Amid this evolving threat landscape, Frogo has emerged as a company redefining how fraud prevention should work. We spoke with Volodymyr Todurov, CEO at Frogo, to get an inside look at how fraudsters are changing their tactics – and what operators can do to stay ahead.
Fraudsters evolve fast – how does your system stay one step ahead without overwhelming teams with false alarms?
Absolutely, the landscape of fraud is constantly shifting and staying ahead requires more than static rules. At Frogo, we’ve developed a dynamic system that adapts in real-time to user behavior and transaction contexts. Our platform learns from both fraudulent and legitimate activities, enabling it to distinguish between the two more effectively. This approach reduces false positives and ensures that our clients’ teams can focus on genuine threats without being bogged down by unnecessary alerts.
Can you walk us through a real-world case where your platform uncovered a fraud scheme traditional tools missed?
Absolutely. One notable case involved a large-scale bot attack targeting SMS-based fraud vectors. Initially, our standard device ID-based defenses helped neutralize the first wave of the attack. However, the adversaries quickly adapted, altering their emulation tactics to bypass traditional checks. At that point, conventional methods were no longer sufficient to detect the evolving fraud.
We responded by implementing a dynamic anomaly detection framework. This involved redefining detection signals in real-time using IP intelligence and deep device fingerprint attributes – areas where our proprietary data collection algorithms provided a significant edge. By anchoring detection logic to more granular and resilient signals, we were able to recalibrate thresholds dynamically, ensuring legitimate users weren’t impacted.
The results were decisive: bot attack efficiency dropped sharply from over 80% to just 3.5%.
What’s something about fraud detection that most businesses get wrong? And how does Frogo challenge that?
A common pitfall we see is operational rigidity – many businesses rely on static rules and general-purpose triggers that result in high false positive rates. This not only burdens anti-fraud teams with unnecessary manual reviews but also degrades the experience for legitimate users, especially loyal or VIP customers.
For example, it’s typical to see blanket rules like “manually verify all payouts over X euros.” While that may seem prudent, in reality it’s inefficient. It overlooks low-value, high-frequency fraud – such as bonus abuse – and disproportionately flags legitimate high-value players.
At Frogo, we take a different approach. Our system adapts rules dynamically based on customer behavior and segmentation. A trusted VIP user with a long-standing reputation shouldn’t be reviewed multiple times a day. But if a wave of new €5 accounts starts exhibiting bonus-hunting behavior, they should run immediate scrutiny – regardless of transaction size.
By aligning detection logic with behavioral context and player reputation, we reduce noise, increase fraud catch rates, and protect real users from unnecessary friction.
How does Frogo automate risk logic without sacrificing the flexibility businesses need to reflect their unique policies and traffic patterns?
At Frogo, we don’t see automation and customization as opposing forces – they operate in different dimensions. Our focus is on automating the customization of risk and scoring policies in a way that respects each client’s specific risk appetite and user behavior.
We achieve this through dynamic triggers. Rather than hardcoding arbitrary rules – like “five failed top-ups per minute equals fraud” – we apply adaptive scoring thresholds that align with real-world usage patterns.. For example, our system might detect that, for a certain payment method and user segment, more than 1.3 failed top-ups per minute is statistically anomalous – because it exceeds the 98th percentile of historical behavior.
But that same trigger adjusts automatically. If the next day a payment provider experiences a technical issue and normal users start retrying more often, the threshold might shift to 2.7. What was anomalous yesterday may no longer be today – and our system adapts accordingly to reflect evolving traffic patterns.
As a result: the clients retain full control over their risk strategy, while Frogo ensures their policies scale efficiently, adapt in real time, and minimize false positives – even in volatile traffic conditions.
Beyond detection – how does Frogo help companies investigate and understand fraud at a strategic level?
Detection is just the beginning. Frogo’s graph-based forensic tools and AI models provide a comprehensive view of the relationships between accounts, transactions and behaviors. This allows companies to identify patterns and vulnerabilities that might not be apparent through traditional analysis. Our analytics layer offers insights into trends and forecasts, enabling businesses to understand the broader context of fraudulent activities and make informed strategic decisions to mitigate future risks.
Fraud might be getting smarter, but so are the solutions built to fight it. Platforms like Frogo are helping operators move beyond reactive security measures and into a space of strategic, data-informed defense. In an industry where trust is everything, that shift might just be the difference between staying one step ahead – or falling behind.
Disclaimer: Frogo’s fraud prevention solutions are developed in full compliance with applicable data protection laws, including GDPR. All behavioural analysis is performed on anonymised or aggregated data, with full transparency and control provided to our clients.
The post Portrait of a Fraudster Then and Now: How Scammers’ Habits and Tactics Are Changing appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Interviews
Inside the Matrix: A Conversation with EveryMatrix Founders on Europe, Expansion, and Staying Hands-On
By Maria Emma Arnidou, Event Marketing Director at HIPTHER, for the European Gaming Media
During the recent EveryMatrix Media Day at the company’s opening of their new London office, Co-Founders Ebbe Groes (CEO) and Stian Hornsletten sat down with press to share key insights into their strategic vision. In this exclusive Q&A, we explore their views on the European Market, the evolution of EveryMatrix’s business model, leadership philosophy, and the company’s experience in the ever-evolving U.S. market.
Europe is filled with local heroes. It’s far more fragmented than most people think.
You discussed emerging markets in your presentation. What about Europe – is it considered saturated, or are there still areas of growth?
Ebbe Groes: I really don’t think Europe is saturated at all. In fact, big parts of it are still underdeveloped. Take France for example, it doesn’t allow online casino. Germany has effectively banned it. That’s two of Europe’s three largest economies where casino is either outlawed or nearly impossible. So yes, there is still plenty of room for growth.
Stian Hornsletten: And the market is getting more concentrated around a few bigger players, but even then, it’s not as centralized as in the U.S.
Ebbe Groes: Exactly. Europe is filled with local heroes. You won’t find many players dominating across the board. Kindred, Betsson – they’re strong, but when you go country by country and look at market share, the picture is very fragmented. Even with the economies of scale in marketing – say you sponsor a Premier League team – you’re still not getting the full return unless you’re present across multiple markets. That’s what makes Europe so different from the U.S., where a few big players hold all the cards.
We started with a sportsbook. Now we’re building an ecosystem.
EveryMatrix today operates across multiple verticals with a deeply diversified portfolio. Was this the vision from the start, or did it evolve as the company grew?
Stian Hornsletten: The vision definitely evolved quickly as we grew. We started with OddsMatrix, a B2B sportsbook product that was meant to be an off-the-shelf, managed solution – something that didn’t exist back then. Within a year, we had already expanded into turnkey and PAM solutions. By 2010–2011, we had launched the CasinoEngine and started specializing in product verticals.
We’ve always been very innovation-driven. We keep developing new products – some of which are still under wraps – and R&D remains one of the most exciting parts of what we do. Today, most of our top 10 clients are turnkey. While we still offer standalone modules, our growth has come from cross-vertical synergy.
Despite this scale and complexity, you both remain deeply involved in the company’s day-to-day operations. How do you manage to stay on top of everything across products, people, and processes?
Ebbe Groes: It helps that we’ve been here from the start. I wouldn’t want to be hired into this role now and try to learn everything from scratch – but I’ve had 18 years to absorb it all. We’ve built the company in a way that each vertical operates almost like its own business. For example, the sports division has its own CTO, product team, trading team, and even its own support function. That independence gives us breathing room.
It allows me to focus on high-level strategy, like acquisitions – take FSB, for instance. That required a lot of focus at the start, but eventually it will transition into the core business and require less direct involvement.
Stian Hornsletten: Over the years, we’ve also developed strong planning, reporting, and KPI structures across the business. That consistency makes it easier to monitor everything and integrate new divisions. Whether we open a new office or onboard a new team, we already have the systems in place to support them.
Ebbe Groes: And the same goes for finance and HR. When we opened the London office, the HR team already knew how to handle it – we’d opened three the year before. That kind of maturity allows us to move fast without creating chaos.
“In Europe we have 150 competitors in content; in the U.S., maybe 10.”
And what about the U.S. – a market many see as the holy grail of iGaming? What’s your current position there?
Ebbe Groes: To be honest, the U.S. was a tough lesson. We entered hoping to provide a full turnkey solution, but the market didn’t evolve the way we expected. Many well-funded B2C operators pulled out, and that left little demand for companies like us to offer the full stack. We pivoted to focus on one thing: our own gaming content.
Stian Hornsletten: We’re now live in four out of five regulated U.S. states for our own content, and we have agreements with all the major operators. Some new games from SlotMatrix are set to launch by summer, and they’ve already shown strong performance elsewhere – which gives us hope. If we manage to capture even 1–2% market share with our own content, that would already be meaningful.
But it’s been a long and costly process. Every state has its own regulatory requirements, separate hosting, and certification needs. And if one state’s not ready, operators won’t promote your games nationally. It’s frustrating, but it also reduces competition. In Europe we have 150 competitors in content; in the U.S., maybe 10. So if we can endure, there’s long-term potential.
The post Inside the Matrix: A Conversation with EveryMatrix Founders on Europe, Expansion, and Staying Hands-On appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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