Salaries which by Maltese standards are considered to be very high are still deemed by the online gaming industry as not competitive enough compared to other countries, according to a survey.
The study on Maltese iGaming salaries in the industry by Bostonlink – a recruitment company in the gaming industry – shows that salaries among executives working in Malta are still not competitive when compared to competing iGaming centres, particularly London and Gibraltar.
The survey found that while executive pay in Malta continues to be competitive and high performers can demand impressive salaries, average base salaries last year ranged between €90,000 and €140,000 a year.
The recruitment company, however, emphasised that there "are a lot" of gaming executives in Malta earning significantly more than the average base salaries.
The survey shows that when excluding benefits and perks, a CEO of a gaming company in Malta can expect to earn some €140,000 a year.
However, this is only the average, as many are earning up to €200,000 a year.
At the same time, other average salaries of top executives range from €130,000 for a marketing director to €120,000 for a number of positions from chief operating officer to an IT director and €90,000 for an HR director.
On the other hand, for less important positions in the industry, the survey found that salaries ranged from €20,000 for customer support staff to €80,000 for managers and heads of department.
The Bostonlink survey also revealed that firms with a well-structured relocation programme tended to have more settled, productive employees, staying in the job for the long term.
“Technical hiring is a major headache for the iGaming sector,” the survey found, “and there is an imbalance between supply and demand”. The online gaming industry in Malta has flourished in the past decade with thousands of foreigners, particularly citizens of EU member states, relocating to Malta.
The industry pays high salaries compared to the local economy and is leaving a lot of economic spin-offs particularly in the rental property market and the leisure industry.