‘Conditions for doing business in Malta are remarkably great’ – SOFTSWISS CCO

Max Trafimovich, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at SOFTSWISS, talks about the business climate in Malta and shares insights about the fast-growing iGaming industry in this interview.

SOFTSWISS is a leading iGaming software provider well-known for its innovative crypto solutions for online gaming. Having offices in different European countries, the company is now expanding its presence in Malta, acclaimed as the European iGaming hub. 

SOFTSWISS is a famous company in the Maltese iGaming market that attracts many new players year after year. How do you rate the conditions for doing business in Malta? What characterises the iGaming industry here and what prospects do you see in this geo for your company?

We are no strangers to Malta, as we’ve been working closely with the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) and providing top-notch white label solutions under the MGA licence since 2017. A few years later we opened a physical office in Gzira, quite interestingly, by ‘inheriting’ (purchasing) it from a well-known casino game studio that had just undergone an acquisition.

Now, we’re working on growing our presence in this market because Malta, beyond all doubts, is the ‘melting pot of iGaming on the world scene and definitely the ultimate iGaming hub for Europe.

The conditions for doing business here are remarkably great. Besides a quite clear taxation, great connections with major European cities, favourable climate, and other such ‘palpable’ characteristics, the fact that so many iGaming talents and companies are located here opens up endless networking opportunities, and this could be the most valuable aspect of having a base camp here.

As we know, SOFTSWISS is expanding its Maltese office. Can you tell us more about your plans in this direction?

The ‘COVID outbreak, frankly speaking, somewhat delayed our plans in this regard, but never changed them. Now that the major wave seems to be gone, we are attracting more and more talents who are based in Malta or want to relocate to the island.

It’s important to note that this includes hiring for not only business development, account management, or administrative positions, but also technical. For example, literally this week we heartily welcomed a new Deputy CTO who joined our growing Malta-based crew.

Malta is a place of attraction for many competitors in the iGaming industry. What influences the success of iGaming products the most at the moment and what is needed to meet the requirements of the market?

We are constantly focused on being as agile as possible and on maintaining the inquisitive, creative spirit even as we have become a larger organisation with 1,300+ employees in several countries. Only by thinking outside the box could you be highly competitive in the industry that is dynamic and innovative by itself.

As for SOFTSWISS, we offer products that are uncompromisingly robust from a technical standpoint. We constantly devote efforts to making everything more flexible, more load resistant, more secure, and so on. But besides the great product, one must offer equally great post-sales service.

Our customer success managers and tech support agents go to great lengths in order to really help our partners or clients maintain their continued growth. It’s especially pleasing to note that the high level of client support was appreciated by the iGaming community: SOFTSSWISS won International Gaming Awards in the category ‘Best Customer Service Company in 2021’ as well as became the Best Customer Service & Game Aggregator of the Year at 5star Awards.

What does SOFTSWISS offer to be one step ahead of the competition?

This question is hard to answer briefly! In general, to remain at the crest of the wave you should have a vision and keep your eye on macro-trends in the industry and in society in general. Such macro-trends include, for example, the ever-growing popularity of cryptocurrencies (and we recognized this trend super early, as far back as 2013).

Besides, we could discuss the ‘socialisation’ of gaming, gamification of non-gaming industries, growing recognition of iGaming among governments worldwide, etc. This vision of trends should transform into a solid business strategy for the next few years. And it goes without saying that, to implement this strategy, you should be backed by amazing people who are not only highly competent and driven but share your values.

I’d take this opportunity to invite anyone who is ready for new challenges to look at our Careers page and write up to our recruiting team. We’ll be happy to chat.

Some events that have shaken the world – such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine – have affected the work of international companies from different industries. iGaming is no exception. As an international company with a presence in many countries, how does SOFTSWISS adapt to such changes in terms of business development and, of course, caring for employees?

The last couple of years have, indeed, been eventful, often in a negative way. The world, in general, is becoming faster, more nuanced, and crazy! This presents new challenges to businesses and people. Everyone should teach themselves to be more stress-resistant, think fast, and have the general capacity to adapt to life swings.

From the onset of the ‘COVID outbreak, we allowed our employees to stay in and work from home. This practice remains until today: for most positions, you are not required to visit the office and can work from any location on this planet.

Besides, we at SOFTSWISS have a versatile relocation program. We started it two years ago as part of our rapid expansion. The program implementation was further spurred on by the worsening political situation in Belarus after the rigged August 2020 elections.

At present, besides our large office in Belarus, we have quite spacious premises in Poland, and Georgia, plus the mentioned Malta office. All our employees can move to one of these locations, while SOFTSWISS assists them and their families both organisationally and financially.

Over 40 per cent of our staff already benefited from the program, and we anticipate more and more people to join this initiative and come to Malta as well.

In conclusion, what important events await SOFTSWISS in 2022? What new products and solutions will the company present in the near future?

We have an extensive event calendar for the next few months. The most recent event we’ve attended has been CasinoBeats in Malta and we’ll also be fully present and energetic at major forums like iGB Live, SBC Summit Barcelona, and SiGMA Malta. This year we are very active in LATAM. Our representatives had or will have Brazil, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico in their travel plans.

As for solutions, I can talk endlessly about them, as we have many products and new developments are constantly happening around them. The product that strikes me the most as super innovative and flexible is the Jackpot Aggregator. Being a powerful marketing tool, this solution provides operators with a wide range of opportunities to increase player loyalty by launching different types of jackpot games: local or global.

Also worth noting are the innovative features we’re soon introducing to our Game Aggregator: tournaments among players. It’s true that such features are already present in some of our competitors’ products, but we re-imagine this concept and take it to a whole new level. Such a taking-to-a-whole-new-level approach is quite common for us, it’s part of our DNA.