The i-gaming industry is growing rapidly throughout Europe, with plenty of companies hiring right now. Internet gaming has become a powerful industry, growing from a niche pastime to a multi-billion euro market.
Such rapid growth has brought great opportunities to Malta, where i-gaming companies have relocated, attracted by the lenient tax regulations and the access to gaming licences which are much easier to obtain. Companies such as BetClic, Expekt, Betsson, to mention but a few, have brought with them a wealth of employment opportunities and great economic benefits to the island.
The Castille Resources Financial Salary Report for 2011 has showed i-gaming is one of the employment sector where a certain percentage of job candidates are recruited from abroad due to the specific nature and language skill required, enticed with generous relocation packages as the report. However it’s evident from queries to our website and our Facebook page that Malta has an abundance of candidates who are readily available to fill many of the positions in this sector.
To understand the typical i-gaming employment opportunities one must understand the make-up of each department.
• Customer service department: These are the people who deal with customers’ enquiries on the phone and e-mail or via online chat. Common job titles are: customer service agent (different languages), translator, outbound agent, VIP host, customer service team leader, and head of customer service.
• Payments and Risk: It may sound scary, because of the ‘risk’, but it’s not. It’s one of the most important departments in every i-gaming company as they look after players’ funds. Common job titles include payments analyst, fraud analyst, risk analyst, head of payments, and head of risk.
• Marketing: They are to promote and advertise the website so that customers know about it and are happy to use it. The marketing department is often divided into ‘acquisition’ and ‘retention’ teams. The acquisition team is responsible for acquiring new customers through different channels (for example online or offline advertising), whereas the retention team works on building and maintaining good relations with the customers and try to keep them active for the longest time possible by offering them various incentives (promotions) and special events (for example invitations to land based poker tournaments or football games). Common job titles include affiliate manager, head of affiliates, campaign manager, direct marketing specialist, direct marketing manager, marketing manager, head of marketing, and marketing executive.
• Product Development: This is the department which is responsible for building, maintaining and developing the product. There are usually dedicated product managers for casino, poker and sports book products. All of them think what to do to improve their products so that they’re better than the competition. They work closely with graphic designers, web developers, search engine optimization (SEO) analysts and programmers who are part of the product development department. Common job titles include product manager, web designer, graphic designer, SEO analyst, web content manager, country manager, and account manager.
• Information Technology: IT people are to keep the business up and running. The main aspects of the company that they oversee are hardware, software, and networking & communications infrastructure. Many i-gaming companies have their own software development teams that design and then create backend tools used by other employees during their day-to-day work.
Common job titles include the IT manager, network administrator, server administrator, IT support manager, software architect, database administrator, database developer, chief technical officer, and project manager.
• Analytics: The analytics department usually consists of data analytics or statisticians who analyse the company’s vast data resources in order to find patterns and learn about players’ behaviours to help marketing department build more targeted promotions. Common job titles include data analyst, business intelligence analyst, business analyst, junior data analyst, statistician, and econometrician.
• Finance / HR / Administratio: Like every other company, i-gaming companies must have their finance, human resources and administration departments. Common job titles include finance manager, accountant, HR manager, HR analyst, head of finance, head of HR, and administration manager.
One of the most common questions potential job seekers as us here at Castille is: Do you need experience to work in i-gaming? When applying for a new job it is always good to have some previous experience, in i-gaming, however this is not a must for many of the companies. The industry is still quite new and there aren’t too many i-gaming skilled professionals compared to banking or insurance industries for example.
The most important traits are that you want to learn, develop your skills and broaden horizons. The best advice as always is keep viewing job opportunities at our websites, and make sure you keep ahead of the Game by keeping in touch with I Gaming trends, seminars events.
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Mr O’Brien is a guest copywriter with Castille Resources Ltd, a local ICT and finance recruitment specialist.