Magnus Silfverberg

Betsson aims to give players the best gaming experience available online. However, as the industry is very dynamic and ever changing, Magnus Silfverberg, CEO and President of the organisation, notes the challenges that come with running one of the Europe’s largest and most prestigious online gaming portfolios. “The ongoing re-regulation of the European betting and gaming market is, of course, a big challenge that we all face. This means that we need to adapt the company to a new situation, we need to add more compliance, and we need licences in more locations.

“When I joined, we only had a Malta licence; now we have Malta, Denmark, Italy, Estonia, and within the next few years there will be re-regulation in the UK, the Netherlands, and potentially the other Nordic countries. That is a big challenge and big change, but more importantly, it’s a large opportunity for a company like us. Generally, the bigger you are before a regulation, the more likely you are to be a winner in that market. Since we now are a top player in the Nordic market and the Netherlands, we believe we are very well positioned for this change and will probably gain rather than lose from it. So that is a big opportunity.

“And then, of course, there’s the growth of the company. When I joined Betsson we had 250 people and now we have 1,000, and that growth of course creates challenges; we need to build a robust organisational structure to manage that change. Adding to that, we have done some successful M&As in the past, where the integration has been, in some cases, quite challenging. However, in hindsight, we came out very well and did a good job on that.”