Malta has become one of the most important regulatory hubs for international i-gaming companies. One of these companies is Betsson, from Sweden, and speaking to its chief executive officer responsible for the Malta operation one gets the idea that they are quite happy with the arrangement here, maybe except for one thing: electric power.
i-Tech met Betsson Malta’s young CEO Magnus Silfverberg in his cramped small office in Ta’ Xbiex. The magnificent view of Marsamxett harbour makes up for the restricted space which by no means restricts the ambitions of the company.
“Since I joined Betsson I have not had any issues with the technological infrastructure provided by the local telecom operators. The mission critical connection between Malta and mainland Europe is quite smooth. On the other hand it has not been as smooth in terms of electric power provision. For us it’s critical that we are up and running. We have live traders here setting the odds in real time. If these guys do not have electricity and connectivity we lose money!” a distraught Mr Silfverberg told i-Tech.
On the other hand he has words of praise for the Maltese ICT skills.
“When we recruit we do it Europe-wide and get applications from all over the continent, and these include the Maltese. There are good ICT people that are Maltese. Most of the technicians are indeed Maltese and they are very skilled.”
Betsson.com online gaming portal provides poker, casino, sports and other betting, bingo, games and scratch cards. It is reputed as one of the fastest gaming sites in the industry. The site is hosted in Malta thanks to a co-location service and it is ranked first in terms of fast performance and availability.
Betsson was founded in 1963 with traditional casino games. It launched its first online gaming site in 1996 and in 2003 acquired Betsson.com. It acquired a license to operate from Malta in 2004, exploiting the favourable conditions offered by Malta to international gaming companies. It moved to the Ta’ Xbiex office in 2006 and in the space of three years doubled its work force in Malta.
In 2009 it won the Responsible Gaming/Most Socially Responsible Operator Award at the E-Gaming Review Awards. Indeed it had in place important safeguards such as deposit limits and self-tests for gamers.
Since Betsson is a Swedish company, the main administrative headquarters is in Stockholm with a small office employing just a few people and a team of developers working on a critical development for the entire group, some 80 people in total. Malta is the nerve centre of all Betsson’s operations and employs around 200 people, most of them foreign. Of these, only 20 are in ICT development and the rest are involved in the provision of the gaming services, including the setting of the odds, customer service and marketing.
Betsson also has an office in Kiev where it develops payment systems and another in Manila where the development of sports booking systems is done.
Mr Silfverberg admits that although from outside it looks like a very exciting industry, it is a very challenging one.
“It is a very difficult environment to operate in. One very important factor is to be extremely flexible. It’s Betsson’s number one mantra – be dynamic and fast.”
Apart from power cuts, Betsson has to face another challenge, this time a legal one. The company, together with other i-gaming companies, has been battling against state monopolies in EU countries. It is proving to be a hard struggle.
“The war against monopolies in the gaming industry is like a wave with ups and down. Recent changes in the European Commission brought changes in policy and we had a hard time to defend our position, which is that the EU is a single market and we have the right to do cross-border trading.”
Betsson is so convinced of its position against monopolies that two years ago it challenged the government state monopoly in Sweden by opening its own shop which became quite popular. A court ruling forced the company to close it down a few weeks ago but it was re-opened last week. Despite this setback, Betsson remains one of the best performing i-gaming companies on the stock market.
In the meantime, the relationship with Malta was further strengthened this year when it sponsored a new award that recognises the best academic research in gaming.