In just a few short years, the iGaming industry has become one of the biggest in the world. Expected to reach as much as $103 billion by 2025, this fast-paced, innovative industry is growing by the day and offers numerous career opportunities for everyone from new graduates to experienced professionals.
What is the iGaming industry?
iGaming is an umbrella term that covers online activities like real money gaming, sports betting, lotteries, bingo, competitions and online poker. Industry leaders include gaming platforms such as PokerStars Casino and specialist game developers like Ubisoft.
However, there are hundreds of other companies operating within the various verticals, including comparison and directory sites like Oddschecker, sports betting operators and even cryptocurrency start-ups.
Types of roles
Just like in most modern tech companies, there are a wide range of career opportunities open to candidates in iGaming organisations across the board. Having previous experience of the field isn’t always necessary for senior managerial roles – even though prior experience is certainly an asset, there are plenty of job opportunities that require a minimum of expertise (if any at all).
The types of roles that companies recruit for span everything from customer support assistants to financial accountants, HR advisors and product placement executives. Naturally, having an understanding of specialist areas like coding, programming, customer retention, affiliate management, SEO or product design will make you a more attractive prospect, but there are still plenty of entry-level opportunities available in both the major organisations and smaller companies.
In most companies within the field, the IT and Marketing departments are usually the biggest and have the most varied roles. Typical roles can include:
- IT Support
- Database Administrators
- Front End Developers – using languages like CSS, HTML, JavaScript to maintain the front end of company websites
- Software Developers – building gaming products using C#, Ruby, Python, .Net Java etc
- Mobile Developers – creating specialist apps including native and HTML5
- Technical Managers – responsibilities include ownership of the full development cycle for a specific product
- SEO specialist – managing optimisation, conversation and analytics
- Social Media specialist – creating and managing the social media side of a brand using platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc
- Graphic Designers
- Copywriters
- CRM specialists
- Media Buyers – responsible for purchasing and managing ad space, PPC etc
- Affiliate Managers – developing and managing relationships with partners and advertisers
Locations
A job working in iGaming is truly an international career, with most companies offering their staff relocation packages, opportunities for travel, paid expenses, etc.
The biggest iGaming hubs are currently Malta, Gibraltar and the UK. Over the next few years a lot of expansion is likely to happen in the newly developed US iGaming market, so that too may become a future industry hub.
The larger iGaming corporations and groups with numerous brands in their portfolio typically operate specific brands in different countries. It’s not uncommon to work for brands based in cities as diverse as Hyderabad, Costa Rica, Dublin, Isle of Man, Belgrade or Kiev.
Career development prospects
Since prior industry experience isn’t a prerequisite for breaking into the field of iGaming, many companies will actually offer some type of formal course or introduction to the industry, depending on the particular role. For the most part you can expect on the job training; simply being employed in the industry will expose you to vast amounts of knowledge and information, so expect to learn quite a lot in a short time.
Being such a young, innovative industry, the iGaming industry is an ideal choice for candidates who are looking to fast-track their career. Rapid career progression and development is a reality in this industry, with potential, talent and commitment prioritised and rewarded with promotions, lucrative salaries and even opportunities to present at industry events and conferences.
Even if a career in iGaming isn’t a long term goal the industry is still a great place to start a career, particularly for entry-level candidates looking to carve out a future working in technology, marketing, IT or even fraud and finance. The industry can be an excellent place to learn valuable and essential skills that are easily transferable to future opportunities.