Last Updated on Thursday, 11 July, 2019 at 4:12 pm by Christian Keszthelyi
LeoVegas has grown exponentially in Malta, similarly to the whole online gaming sector. For now, our Maltese headquarters has reached a staff of several hundreds. We are expecting further growth, with high hopes for the Spanish market and with the plan to continue to leverage our knowledge from regulated markets, such as the newly regulated Swedish market. Additionally, our data-driven marketing approach offers very precise insight into customer value for all marketing channels, which makes it possible for us to plan our investments in a very agile way.
Despite its rather limited size, Malta has been a great environment for us to grow. LeoVegas started off with just five employees and today there are over 400 at the Malta office alone. As a gaming operator and employer, the Maltese market has a lot to offer when it comes to recruitment of competent talents, industry knowledge and opportunities connected to this.
The fact that Malta was the first EU jurisdiction to issue online gaming licenses was a major factor in attracting the most prominent operators of the industry. Over the years, more and more operators decided to open offices here and this trend started attracting a wider base of companies, including — but not limited to — gaming providers and payment gateways.
“We have been in Malta since October 2012 and one of the reasons we decided to base our operations here was because of the country’s advanced regulatory framework.”
– Director of Business Development Hanna Lerenius
We are lucky to be situated in the centre of Sliema with a newly-refurbished office space that more or less has it all, including terraces with almost 360 degrees views. We have worked closely with interior architects and designers to create a fun and functional working environment with plenty of space for social gatherings and events.
We sincerely believe that this initiative, among many others, makes LeoVegas the place to work for talented individuals looking for personal and professional growth. Our goal is not only to keep growing, but also to accelerate the growth. We have various short to long-term plans which should see our operations in Malta accommodating this growth. The coming years will be extremely exciting for us, as we are looking forward to seeing what the future has got in store.
New Spanish market raises hopes
We have high hopes for the Spanish market, as it is one of the biggest European markets that regulate both betting and casino games. The market has been regulated for quite a few years now and can definitely be considered one of the more mature regulated markets in Europe. At the same time, the market is growing at a high pace and we do expect both fierce competition and great opportunities.
As for any new market, it comes with a new culture to grasp and new customer and product requirements to adapt to. We have recruited native Spanish speaking personnel and an experienced country manager to make sure we will provide our players with a truly Spanish LeoVegas experience. We can definitely hear more Spanish in the corridors at the LeoVegas office in Malta.
At the same time as we are doing our utmost to tailor the LeoVegas experience to the Spanish market, we are also planning on utilising our strengths and our core – most importantly, our fantastic mobile casino product. We are entering the market with a very clear vision: “To provide the best casino experience on mobile to Spanish players”. We believe that no other brand has claimed that position and this is exactly what we have done successfully in other markets in the past. This is what we are aiming at doing in Spain.
Of course, we know that building a market and a solid player base takes time and effort. That being said, we are fully committed to making the Spanish market a success story and we prepare our business and operations accordingly.
With the entry into Spain, we also look forward to further leveraging our knowledge of operating in regulated markets. If one compares one regulation to another, there are always similarities and differences. However; the similarities always outweigh the differences. For each regulated market that LeoVegas enters, we are better prepared for the next, no matter if it comes to operational processes, marketing or product and platform development.
The latest European market that regulated was Sweden, with LeoVegas being one of the very first operators to receive a license. Because of the market’s size and strategic importance to LeoVegas as a group, obtaining the Swedish gaming license was a major milestone for us. It also means that from a Maltese operations perspective, we have experience from yet another regulated market, something which we, of course, are planning to leverage — we are ready and eager to take on Spain.
Data-driven marketing approach
At LeoVegas we measure all of our marketing activities closely both online and offline and we make decisions based on data and key performance indicators (KPIs) more than anything else — such as following a gut feeling, history or prestige.
As an example, we know the difference between customer value and different marketing sources on a quite granular scale and plan our investments based on that in a very agile way.
The result is more value for every single euro spent and important insights on where we need to improve. That can be anything from conversion rate in a specific part of the customer journey to how the audience perceives our brand communication in television commercials. This, of course, goes for all markets and is something that will be a critical success factor for us in the Spanish market.
BIO: As Director of Business Development, Hanna Lerenius is heading LeoVegas’ expansion into new markets and is driving initiatives to improve the scalability and efficiency of LeoVegas’ operations.
