Life at LeoVegas - An Interview with Sarah Yorston – Head of HR, Malta

Can you give me a brief history of LeoVegas from its beginnings to the present day?

LeoVegas Mobile Gaming Group was founded in 2011 by Gustaf Hagman & Robin Ramm-Ericson and the journey has been truly incredible. Starting off with an idea to revolutionize the gaming industry using smartphones as a platform, we are now not only successful in the casino vertical, but also sportsbook and live casino. Our initial success relied heavily on a close knit tech-team working with the latest mobile technology, in combination with strategic marketing and of course, a lot of passion.

Today we are around 900 people working within the group and we have offices all over Europe. LeoVegas became a listed company in 2016. During the past few years we have made key acquisitions enabling us to grow internationally in regulated markets according to our strategy. The strategic acquisitions of Winga, Royal Panda, Rocket X, IPS, Casino Grounds and Pixel.bet have brought added value and strength to LeoVegas Mobile Gaming Group in many ways.

These achievements have truly given us a receipt for our hard work and have been incredibly proud moments for all our employees.

Many gaming companies appear to invest heavily in recruitment. What is LeoVegas doing to strengthen its recruitment drive?

Getting the right people on board is key for us. I’m proud to say that we act as a global recruitment agency for the whole group. By working as one global agency, we can attract talent from all parts of the world and offer roles across our offices in Europe.

Going forward, we will focus more on using social media to reach talent globally. We will continue to test and evaluate other digital channels. In brief, we aim to use some of the marketing tactics which have made LeoVegas successful to attract talent instead of players.

What does it mean to work at LeoVegas?

We believe in offering opportunities for employees to improve their skills and better their position. Over the last couple of years, we have seen many employees reach closer to their career goals, weather that is to gain leadership experience or to specialize in a certain topic.

As an employee at LeoVegas, you are trusted with a lot of responsibility and you are expected to take initiative. We also offer some of the best benefits to make life easier. Fully paid private health insurance, sports allowances and fitness classes are some of our most appreciated benefits. In addition to that, we offer breakfast on Mondays, lunch on Fridays and a fully stocked snack-bar with healthy snacks all year around.

We organize fun and adventurous events throughout the year. We have has also been very socially active by supporting causes which go beyond gaming; such as the Wildlife Conservation Network and the Lion Recovery Fund. Our employees participated in the Business and Professional Women’s Careers Day, the Malta Community Chest Fund and in national clean-up campaigns. The Malta Pride is an initiative we have been sponsoring for two years, and we plan to support it for years to come.

What is everyday life like for your employees in Malta?

Exciting, Challenging and Rewarding! Despite our commercial success and industry recognition, what we are really proud of our most valued resource – our team!

We currently have a strong team of around 850 employees spread across our offices. LeoVegas Mobile Gaming Group is defined by the great people who form it and not the other way around. One of the aspects that is really valued by everyone at LeoVegas is the environment that we have managed to create and maintain.

At LeoVegas, our aim is to grow smarter in order to achieve rapid and sustainable growth. This works so well because we trust our employees to make wise decisions aligned with our culture and shared goals.

Focusing on Malta, what have been the biggest challenges for the company in recruiting new talent and keeping workers on-board?

Talented individuals today have a wide variety of options to choose from, which means companies need to be clear and transparent of what they offer as an employer. Salaries and benefits are seldom the main driver of loyalty. The real winners in the “war on talent” are the employers who can offer an environment catered to personal growth, where responsibility and adventure align.

We are driving several initiatives to further increase our attractiveness as an employer on Malta. For example, we are soon launching the People Growth Dialogue, a tool which makes it easier for employees to set goals for themselves. With the tool, coworkers and managers can help each other to grow as professionals and individuals which creates an even more fulfilling work-environment.

We are also refurbishing of our Sliema office. Throughout the project, we have worked closely with interior architects to create a fun and functional working environment with plenty of space for social gatherings and events. We sincerely believe that these two initiatives, among many others, will make LeoVegas the place to work for talented individuals looking for personal and professional growth.

What are the next steps for LeoVegas going forwards?

LeoVegas is at an exciting stage where we are taking a strategic perspective on how we can focus our efforts in the best way to get the best output. We are doing this by investing and developing internal tools across the business, which will create more time to focus on innovation.

In connection to this, we are having great success with our work on automating and digitalizing all aspects of the business, where our global HR team is a key driver. We are also looking forward to continue our growth into new markets and keep seeking new ways to lead the way into the mobile future.

For further information, please contact:

Hans Uhrus
Communications Director
+46 (0) 768 95 0101
hans.uhrus@leovegasgroup.com

LeoVegas vision and position is “King of Casino”. LeoVegas is the premier GameTech company and is at the forefront of using state-of-the-art technology for mobile gaming. A large part of this success can be credited to an extreme product and technology focus coupled with effective and data-driven marketing. Technology development is conducted in Sweden, while operations are based in Malta. LeoVegas offers casino, live casino and sports betting, and operates two global and scalable brands – LeoVegas and Royal Panda – as well as a number of local brands in the UK. LeoVegas is a global group in which LeoVegas AB (publ) is the parent company. LeoVegas AB (publ) does not conduct any gaming operations; rather, operating activities are conducted by subsidiaries within the Group. The company’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. For more about LeoVegas, visit www.leovegasgroup.com. For more about LeoVegas games, visit https://www.leovegas.com/sv-se/