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WHAT’ S BEHIND THE SPATE OF REDUNDANCIES?
While news of layoffs and cutbacks can sound the alarm, it’ s not necessarily a sign of an industry in decline. In many cases, in fact, many experts simply see a natural course correction after the boom of the coronavirus years.
This phenomenon was highlighted by Bally CEO Lee Fenton on an earnings call back in 2023, as many online gaming companies started laying off their staff apace.“ The pandemic boosted our business and we continued to hire at full pelt,” he told investors.“ I now can see that we may have overhired in some areas and I take full responsibility for that.”
In Malta, TalentBet CEO Lam has seen several examples of major companies going on a hiring offensive in growth phases, only to cut back at a later date.
“ Companies scaled up very fast and then once they settled a little bit, or the market settled, they realised they don’ t need all of these people,” she says.“ It’ s not that they don’ t need that role; it’ s that they don’ t need that many people in that role.
Innes believes the industry took a bit of time to adjust to new postpandemic realities.“ During Covid times, it was certainly the case that a lot of companies had a boom in terms of customer volumes,” she says.“ It may have taken a bit longer for these customers to stop playing, or the real ramifications to be felt internally with a lot of operators and suppliers.” Once they did, however, the layoffs began.
Another major driver of redundancies is the industry’ s increasing consolidation: as big brands complete mergers and acquisitions, they often look for other ways to cut costs and make efficiencies.
This was the case back in 2022, when 888 bought up William Hill’ s
non-US assets for £ 2.2 billion. The acquisition was followed by numerous redundancies – including on the Rock. At Malta-based Hero Gaming, meanwhile, dozens were laid off in 2023 in a restructuring process designed to pave the way for new acquisitions.
More recent spates of layoffs have been reported at Entain’ s Gibraltar office, as the operator has restructured a lot of its UK-facing business over the past couple of years, to target renewed growth efforts in the core market.
REGULATORY BURDENS AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Alongside some of the more traditional reasons for cutting staff – like M & A deals and efficiency savings – recent redundancies have also been prompted by new developments in the industry.
For remote gambling companies, emerging gaming hubs like UAE are exerting a strong pull, with some companies deciding to make cutbacks as they move their operations to new locations.
“ Companies scaled up very fast and then once they settled a little bit, or the market settled, they realised they don’ t need all of these people”
Sennette Lam, TalentBet
In other cases, it’ s fresh regulations that are threatening jobs in offshore jurisdictions: in key gaming markets like Brazil and the Netherlands, for example, staff are required to be based in the country, putting operators under pressure to relocate their workforce.
Another major shift in the industry has been the growth of new technologies. Long considered hype, artificial intelligence( AI) has started to make its presence felt in the volatile gambling job market.
“ There have been a few companies recently that have announced redundancies because they’ re replacing certain positions with AI,” Innes explains.“ That’ s something that’ s only really been witnessed truly in the last six months or certainly the first part of this year.”
At the moment, the automation of certain roles is mostly affecting those in junior positions. That includes customer-facing roles like fraud and payments communications with customers. Nevertheless, automation through AI is likely to remain a major topic in the coming months and years as brands look for ways to cut their costs and leverage new technologies.
Of course, this won’ t necessarily remain one-sided: Innes believes that as AI develops, new business opportunities and jobs will emerge with it, such as project managers who can help companies implement new AI-driven processes and solutions.
“ The scale is tipping in the redundancy side at the moment,” she says.“ But I do believe that it will level itself out.”
LIFE AFTER REDUNDANCY
In Malta’ s bustling economy, Lam says redundancy tends to be a short-term situation for most in iGaming, with good candidates getting snapped up quickly.
74 • ISSUE 138 • iGB L! VE 2025