What Makes iGaming Such a Unique Industry

I have spent more than 24 years working in iGaming, and even after all this time, I still find it difficult to describe the industry properly to someone outside it.

It is fast, unpredictable, exciting, frustrating, innovative and occasionally completely crazy. Things move at a speed that would probably shock people from more traditional industries. Companies launch, grow, change direction, merge, restructure and sometimes disappear before you have even worked out exactly what they do.

People join the industry for all sorts of reasons. Some plan their careers carefully. Others arrive almost by accident, intending to stay for six months, and are still here fifteen years later. I'm not sure how many people genuinely grew up dreaming of a career in iGaming, but once you are part of it, it has a strange way of keeping you.

My own career has taken me through different companies, countries, roles and areas of the business. I have co-founded online casinos, worked closely with players, built and managed teams, and spent years across VIP, player operations, loyalty, retention, product, CRM and behavioural insight. I have seen the industry from different sides, during very different periods, and I'm still learning from it.

That experience, together with the relationships and knowledge I have built along the way, eventually led me to found The VIP Connector. Not because I wanted to recreate one part of the industry, but because I wanted to bring more of it together: Operators, Talent, Intelligence, Community, Academy, AI and Opportunity.

What makes iGaming unique has never been only the technology, the products or the money. It is the people, the pace, the constant change and the fact that no two days, or careers, ever seem to follow quite the same path.

You Never Really Stop Learning

Twenty-four years sounds like a very long time. Some days it feels like it, especially when I remember the technology we were using when I started. But one of the things I love about iGaming is that experience never means you have finished learning.

The industry changes too quickly for anyone to believe they know everything. Technology develops, regulation changes, markets open and close, player behaviour evolves, and new products appear constantly. AI is now changing the way companies work, communicate and understand their players, just as mobile completely changed the industry years before.

Experience gives you perspective. It helps you recognise patterns, ask better questions and sometimes sense when something is not working before the numbers confirm it. But it should never make you believe that your way is the only way, or that what worked ten years ago will automatically work today.

Some of the most interesting conversations I have now are with people who have far less experience than I do but see something differently. I may understand the history behind a decision, while they understand a new technology, market or way of communicating that did not exist when I began. Both perspectives have value.

Perhaps that is one reason so many of us stay in iGaming. Just when you think you understand the industry, it changes again.

The People Are What Make It

For an industry built almost entirely online, iGaming is incredibly personal.

It is a global industry, but also a surprisingly small one. People move between companies, countries and roles, and paths cross again and again. Someone you worked with ten years ago may become a client, a collaborator, a candidate, a competitor, or the person who introduces you to an opportunity you never expected.

That is why relationships matter so much.

Throughout my career, the most valuable connections have rarely started with a transaction. They have started with a conversation, a shared experience, mutual respect or simply someone taking the time to understand another person properly. Some relationships have lasted across several companies and different stages of our careers. Others have disappeared for years and then returned at exactly the right moment.

It is very easy to look at iGaming through companies, products, markets and revenue. Of course, all of those things matter. But behind every successful operator are people making thousands of decisions, solving problems, supporting players, managing teams and trying to keep up with an industry that rarely stands still.

The same is true when looking at someone's career. A CV can tell you where a person worked, how long they stayed and what their responsibilities were. It cannot tell you how they think, how they treat people, what they learned when something went wrong, or what they may be capable of in the right environment.

That only comes from conversation.

After 24 years, I can say that some of the greatest opportunities in my career came from relationships, and some of the most important lessons came from people I met along the way.

Technology will continue to change the way the industry operates, and AI will become a much bigger part of how we work. I find that genuinely exciting. But I also believe technology should enhance relationships, not replace them.

Because whatever changes next, iGaming will always be an industry built by people.

And Then, of Course, There Are the Players

We can talk about platforms, products, data, technology and strategy, but without players, there is no industry.

I have spent a large part of my career working closely with players, particularly VIP players, and they have taught me more about human behaviour than any report ever could. No two players are the same. They have different motivations, personalities, expectations and reasons for playing. What makes one player feel valued may mean absolutely nothing to another.

That is what makes working with players so interesting. You are constantly trying to understand behaviour, often from a combination of data, conversations and instinct. The numbers may tell you what someone is doing, but they rarely tell you the full story of why.

It is also why I have never believed in treating VIP players as one group. A high-value player is still a person, not simply a revenue figure on a screen. They remember how you speak to them, whether you listen, whether you understand what matters to them and whether the relationship feels genuine.

Over the years, I have seen operators get this very right and very wrong. It is not about giving away the most or saying yes to everything. It is about knowing the player, communicating honestly and bringing commercial understanding and human understanding together.

Why I'm Still Here

I have watched iGaming grow from a much smaller and very different world into the global industry it is today. I have experienced the opportunities, the challenges, the constant change and quite a few moments that could only happen in iGaming.

It is not a perfect industry. No industry is. But it is full of intelligent, creative, resilient and sometimes wonderfully unconventional people. It gives people the chance to build international careers, move between countries, create businesses, develop new ideas and keep reinventing themselves along the way.

After more than 24 years, I'm still curious about what comes next.

I'm still meeting people who teach me something new. I'm still interested in what drives players, what makes businesses succeed and why some relationships last while others disappear. And now, through The VIP Connector, I'm bringing together the areas of the industry that have shaped my own career.

Perhaps that is what makes iGaming so unique. You can spend decades working within it and still feel that the story is far from finished.

If anything in this article connected with you, or you would simply like to continue the conversation about our wonderfully unique industry, I'd love to hear from you.