With Swintt’s Head of Business Development, Lars Kollind, celebrating his second full year at the company this December, online.casino caught up with the experienced sales and biz dev expert to learn more about his journey in iGaming, the strategies he’s implemented since taking over and the trends he thinks will have the biggest impact on the industry’s future.

Can you tell us about your journey to becoming the Head of Business Development at Swintt? What attracted you to this role?

I first started out on the B2C side of things, but after a while I decided to utilise the contacts I’d built up and start my own consultancy business. While doing that, I think the industry realised I was also good at B2B sales and I was headhunted by Aspire, who made me their Global Sales Director. I then moved to Playson where I won an iGaming Idols award, which prompted iSOFTBET to call me up and offer me the position of Head of Business Development. During all this, I’d been following Swintt after meeting David Flynn at a conference, but they had no open positions for me at the time. Eventually there was a posting for one on LinkedIn and it took about 1m 15s for me to apply. Ten seconds, later I’d reached out to Gillian Taylor on Skype asking if she’d seen my application and she said “I know Lars, we’re coming back to you” and the rest is history!

What are the key strategies you employ to identify new business opportunities for Swintt?

At Swintt, our approach has always been centered around building a strong foundation in regulated markets, ensuring we partner with operators who share our commitment to compliance and long-term growth. We believe in treating every customer, regardless of size, with the same respect and dedication. That said, our goal is to broaden our network by focusing on regulated customers across all tiers. While smaller companies might face challenges as regulations evolve, we remain dedicated to supporting their journey. However, by partnering with Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators in well-regulated markets, we can offer stability and greater opportunities for sustainable success.

How do you foster strong relationships with existing clients while still dedicating time to acquiring new ones?

During the sales process you become quite close acquaintances with the people you’re dealing with, so it’s pretty natural to ping them regularly on Skype to say “hi” and ask if they’re happy with how things are going. You then also see them at trade shows, so even though they’re already signed and live, you should try to meet with them or at least have a coffee together. If there’s an event going on like a company party, it’s important to invite them, because it helps them feel like they’re part of the Swintt family and that means they’ll promote your games further. I always try to do all these things while I’m acquiring new leads and sales.

What has been one of the most successful business development initiatives you've led at Swintt, and what made it stand out?

As I touched on above, I think primarily targeting Tier 1 and Tier 2 operators using the connections I already had has been a really important development for the company. I’d say we’re now at something like 70% Tier 1s – with the rest being Tier 2s – and two of the really big ones have been ATG and Light & Wonder. The latter really was a major win for us as it was a very complicated contract, but we managed to get it through. Our sales process has around 16 points, so I think a really big part of this was ensuring that our communications across all departments throughout the deal were first class and that we provided the best experience possible. Across sales, tech, legal and compliance, we’ve really put a lot of work into ensuring that customers are happy when they sign with Swintt.

In your experience, what are the biggest challenges facing the gaming and entertainment industry today, and how is Swintt positioned to address these?

As we’re so heavily focused on regulated markets at Swintt, one of the biggest challenges is staying on top of the constant changes and new compliance requests that frequently impact our business. Beyond that, we’re competing on a daily basis not only with new game suppliers, but also with other entertainment industries, to win consumers’ time and steer them towards our products. Fortunately, we have an amazing compliance team at Swintt who are quick to implement the latest requirements and our games – both in-house and through our recent partnership with Elysium Studios – are of such high standard that I think it’s easy for us to stand out from the competition and attract players.

How do you foresee the future of business development in the gaming sector, and what trends do you think will shape the industry in the coming years?

Given the highly-saturated nature of the iGaming market, I think companies who are looking to be successful in the long-term need to have a firm focus on quality and innovation, as these are ultimately the things that will help you stand out from the crowd. We will shortly be releasing a new game through Elysium Studios called I Hate Fairytales that combines both of these aspects and I’m really optimistic about how it will perform. Boasting an innovative theme and a wide range of bonus features within the base game, it has everything that players are looking for.

How do you stay ahead of the competition in such a rapidly evolving industry? What sets Swintt apart from its competitors?

Firstly, I would say that it’s the team at Swintt that makes our company so special. We have a fantastic group of people working across all departments of our business, from the product – which is now mostly based in Bulgaria after our acquisition of Elysium studios – to strong operations and development teams, as well as marketing and commercial. As I mentioned in my previous answer, I think it’s the uniqueness of your product that helps you stand out in this industry; and at Swintt, we believe our upcoming slots, starting with I Hate Fairytales, are really going to make a big impression on players.