#34: The Untapped Edge in iGaming

Our industry is facing a paradox. Every year, we pour millions into tech stacks, products, and marketing campaigns. We obsess over player acquisition costs, retention metrics, and platform performance. We chase the latest innovations, whether it's AI, blockchain, or whatever buzzword is trending on LinkedIn this week.

Yet, for all our sophisticated tools and cutting-edge technology, we consistently overlook the most powerful lever for long-term success: our people.

This isn't just another "people are our greatest asset" platitude. Having spent nearly two decades in this industry, moving from operator to investor, I've watched countless companies follow the same pattern. They'll spend a fortune optimising their tech stack or marketing funnel but hesitate to invest meaningfully in their team's development.

The irony is stark. We operate in an industry where talent is scarce, competition is fierce, and the complexity of our challenges demands high-performing teams. Yet, we often treat talent development as a nice-to-have rather than a strategic imperative.

The cost of this oversight is hidden but enormous. It shows up in the subtle erosion of innovation, the gradual decline in project execution, and the slow but steady loss of our best talent to competitors. Most dangerously, it manifests in our inability to adapt quickly to market changes – something that's becoming increasingly critical in our rapidly evolving industry.

But here's what's interesting: while most companies are caught in this trap, a few operators and suppliers are quietly building extraordinary competitive advantages through systematic investment in their people. 

This isn't about warm and fuzzy HR initiatives. It's about hard-nosed business strategy. In an industry where technology is increasingly commoditised and regulatory barriers are constantly shifting, your team's ability to learn, adapt, and execute is often the only sustainable edge you have.

Let's explore why most companies get this wrong and, more importantly, what the winning playbook actually looks like.

The Three Deadly Mistakes iGaming Companies Make With People

The gap between what we say about valuing our people and what we actually do is vast. But it's not because leaders don't care. It's because we've normalised practices that actively undermine performance and growth. Here are the three deadliest mistakes I see companies making:

The "Leave Alone-Zap" Culture

This is endemic in our industry. We leave people alone when things are going well, only engaging when there's a problem. It creates an environment where people play it safe, avoid risks, and focus more on avoiding mistakes than driving innovation. This is organisational poison and contributes to the lack of innovation, which is one of the industry's biggest weaknesses.

The "Hire and Hope" Approach

We're excellent at identifying talent. We can spot a strong product manager or a brilliant developer from a mile away. But once they're through the door? We often just... hope they'll figure it out. There's rarely a structured development path. The level of training required to keep developing staff in this industry is virtually nonexistent. It’s one of the reasons we started 15-Minute Mastery. The curiosity and will to improve and push boundaries is lacking. And this is shown by how we approach developing our people.

The "Annual Review Theatre"

This might be the most damaging practice of all. Saving feedback for annual reviews is like trying to steer a speedboat by looking at its wake. In iGaming, where market conditions change weekly, and player preferences shift monthly, annual feedback cycles are comically outdated.

But these mistakes aren't just theoretical problems. They create real business impacts:

• Slower innovation cycles because people aren't empowered to take calculated risks

• Higher recruitment costs as we constantly need to replace talent rather than develop it

• Reduced agility because teams aren't getting the regular feedback they need to adapt quickly

• Lost opportunities because great ideas die in environments where safety trumps innovation

What's particularly frustrating is that fixing these issues doesn't require massive budgets or complex systems. It requires something far more fundamental: a shift in how we think about managing and developing our teams.

The strongest businesses in our industry are the ones that have fundamentally rethought how they approach people development. They've moved away from these outdated practices toward something more dynamic, more continuous, and ultimately, more effective.

And that's what we need to explore next - the new playbook helping some companies build extraordinary competitive advantages through their people.

The New Playbook for Building High-Performance Teams

Let's cut through the noise and focus on what works. After either witnessing or building a lot of teams in this industry, the winning playbook for building high-performing teams isn't complicated. It's just uncommon.

Clear Goal-Setting That Actually Works

Forget vague objectives like "improve revenue" or "increase retention." The best teams in iGaming operate with crystal-clear expectations. Every person knows exactly what success looks like in their role and, more importantly, how their work connects to the larger mission.

It’s more than just setting KPIs. It's about creating a line of sight from individual actions to company outcomes. When people understand not just what they need to do but why it matters, their decision-making improves dramatically.

The Power of Immediate Feedback

In an industry that moves as fast as ours, waiting for quarterly or annual reviews is organisational malpractice. The best leaders I know have mastered the art of immediate, specific feedback. When something works, they acknowledge it immediately. When something needs correction, they address it promptly.

This creates a culture of continuous improvement where people aren't afraid of feedback – they actively seek it out. It's about making feedback a normal part of daily operations, not a special event to be dreaded.

Creating Learning Environments

The most successful companies in our space have figured out how to turn every challenge into a learning opportunity. They've created environments where:

• Questions are encouraged, no matter how basic they might seem

• Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, not career-limiting events

• Knowledge sharing is built into the fabric of daily operations

• Innovation is rewarded, even when the experiments don't succeed

The key is consistency. These aren't one-off initiatives or annual training programs. They're daily practices that become part of how the business operates.

The best part? None of this requires massive budgets or complex systems. It requires something far more valuable but often more scarce: attention and intention from leadership.

The focus needs to be on getting the fundamentals right, day after day. And create an environment where people can do their best work, learn continuously, and drive the business forward.

The Long Game

When I think about the future of iGaming, I'm increasingly convinced that our biggest breakthroughs won't come from AI, blockchain, or whatever technology is trending next month. They'll come from teams that have been systematically developed to think better, move faster, and execute more effectively than their competitors.

Because while technology can be bought and platforms can be replicated, there's no shortcut to building a high-performing team. It's a competitive advantage that compounds over time and can't be easily copied.

The question isn't whether investing in people is important. The question is whether you'll have the discipline to play the long game while your competitors chase the next shiny object.