Igaming Elite, the newly established talent acquisition specialist for the remote gaming industry, has seen “fantastic” response since launch a month ago, director of recruitment Dean Nicholls told The Times Business.
The brainchild of two igaming recruitment professionals – Mr Nicholls and director of operations Matt Buff – Igaming Elite seeks to offer high standard services by leveraging its directors’ knowledge of the gaming industry and implementing new ideas to fine-tune talent search.
It joins the growing local recruitment market but is one of just a handful of dedicated igaming talent agencies based in Malta.
Mr Buff and Mr Nicholls were keen to showcase what they identify as their firm’s primary differentiating factor – attention to detail – at Igaming Elite’s launch.
Major clients already secured through recommendation and networking were contacted individually through personalised correspondence. Clients were introduced to incentives and first invoice launch offers.
Additionally, within its first week, more than 200 people joined Igaming Elite’s networking page on LinkedIn, and 90 people have ‘liked’ the company’s Facebook page so far.
“Clients were pleased we took the time to write to them personally and pay more attention to detail,” Mr Nicholls said. “The response was very positive. We also plan to make extensive use of social media – it is essential for online recruitment within specific age groups and disciplines.”
The founders, both of whom have worked for specialist recruitment firms in Malta for the past few years, are currently focused on gaining a foothold in the local industry. Existing and new business is serviced through efforts to foster relationships with clients and networking.
“We will first build a solid base before seeking organic growth,” Mr Buff explained. “Malta’s gaming market is very large and about half of the 350-odd licenced companies are currently operating on the island. That is besides subsidiaries and the financial services and software providers.
“There are also many interesting developments in the international industry: the US is about to be licensed, Australia is coming on stream, the Netherlands is one to watch. Importantly, Italy is about to boom and has the potential to be the largest market in Europe. Some operational companies in Malta are preparing to break into the Italian market and the immediate future will be interesting. We have some good contacts which are keen to penetrate the Italian market and we are able to secure people opportunities there, particularly for Maltese chief executives as we have close links with many.”
Mr Buff explained how expanding the firm’s client portfolio involves considerable research and building on existing contacts through a personal approach and through business networking sites liked LinkedIn, besides recommendation.
Igaming Elite will also seek to differentiate itself where candidate search was concerned. Talent acquisition, Mr Nicholls added, was the most challenging aspect in the market. Social media will be used extensively for lower to mid-level vacancies, with special offers like ‘refer-a-friend’ schemes tied to bonuses and commissions.
“We will service the higher level posts personally and invest considerable time through contact building: It is all down to how we present ourselves as a business. We will also advertise on our portal, where a news feed will be launched soon. The portal is receiving positive reviews and we have had considerable traffic in just a few weeks.”
Igaming Elite will also go down the more traditional routes like job sites, although, admittedly, not extensively as most agencies resort to recruitment portals.
“That alone would not justify our fees,” Mr Nicholls emphasised. “We work hard behind the scenes so that the talent pool is different than other agencies’. The gaming industry goes round in circles sometimes and retention in some companies can be fairly poor.
“However there is significant change in the industry at the moment: it is becoming increasingly corporate and talent is being identified from other industries like finance, e-commerce, and e-commerce retail and even major online brands.”
The directors said Igaming Elite will recruit in Malta and internationally to match talent with Malta-based posts initially, as it works to build trust within a growing client base. The company pledges to qualify posts carefully before embarking on search and short-listing for up to 85 disciplines at executive level, or in areas such as marketing, business development and sales, operations, customer support, payments and fraud, e-commerce, compliance and legal.
Igaming is also looking to build its own team from the current two. The directors are keen to engage staff not necessarily experienced in igaming specifically but in recruitment methods: people with the skill to identify talent.
Mr Buff and Mr Nicholls said they would ideally like to add Maltese staff to their team “to give something back” and demonstrate their commitment to Malta. One or two candidates from other European countries would also bring a multi-national dimension to the firm and add other languages and cultural awareness to its proposition.