INSIGHT
INTERVIEW:
PER ERIKSSON,
CEO, NETENT
In just a few years, NetEnt has transformed itself from niche developer into major online
casino supplier, claiming around a third of the €2.4bn European market. We spoke to CEO
Per Eriksson about the company’s innovation culture and plans for increasing its foothold in
Europe and beyond.
You have generated stellar revenues
and profit growth over the last reported
quarters. What has been driving this?
We launched quite a lot of new initiatives
last year, and we also entered the UK,
where we have signed up a lot of new
operators. So the growth has been coming
from live casino, our mobile platform, our
new games, new customers within the
UK, and of course new customers in other
geographies as well. However, there is still
much more to do in the UK. We are still
only on single digit market share after Q2,
as far as I know, so we still have a way to
go, which is nice to know.
Are you anticipating much impact from
the forthcoming UK point of consumption
tax, or will this be mitigated by the
underlying growth?
We still see growth coming from many
areas, including the UK, and from new
geographies. For example, Spain is now
regulating, so in the first half of 2015, we
will start to get traffic from that market
that we haven’t had before.
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How is the business structured in terms
of offices/locations, employees and their
specialisms?
Stockholm, where we do most of the
development, is the largest office, with
approximately 350 to 400 people. But we
are growing rapidly, so if I give you one
number today, it will be a different one
tomorrow! Then we have Malta, where
we have somewhere between 130 and
160 people, and do most of the sales and
We know that other people are copying our
games, because they are successful, and
we know we are driving the online casino
market, because our games are superior
to many others’. We are used to that. Our
way of staying ahead of the competition is
to always push ourselves to the next level,
to always strive for our next game to be
better than the previous one. That’s what
we are aiming for, all the time. We never
sit back and think, “We have done a good
“In the UK, we are still only on single digit market share
after Q2, so there is still much more to do there.”
marketing. Some of our product licensees
are also based there, so we take a lot of the
ideas our customers have, start to create
games for them, and then we develop
them in Sweden. The live casino studio is
also in Malta.
job now, let’s just continue to do that.” We
are not afraid of taking new steps, creating
games which are different and use new
technology. This was demonstrated earlier
this year when we launched our Alien slot,
which uses real-time 3D graphics.
Innovation and creativity have always been
important drivers of growth for NetEnt. How
do you ensure the continuation and fostering
of this culture throughout the company?
Approximately how much of your
revenue is driven by slots compared
to the other products?
In Q2, 84% of our revenue came from