Malta carving out a niche for services ‘not on offer in other iGaming jurisdictions’

As Malta’s iGaming sector has proven its resilience during unstable economic times, it can serve as a blueprint for other innovative sectors to follow suit.

Jurgen Zammit, Head of External Relations at Malta Enterprise, says that the power of rapid scaling is a huge competitive advantage for companies setting up in Malta, “which is positioning itself as a key innovation hub for the sector.”

“The start-up and creative culture are being channelled into a vast array of products and services such as analytical tools, games development, fantasy sports and esports”, he asserts, while other areas such as augmented and virtual reality, cloud platform based on AI and innovative forms of payments are constantly in development.

As technology and service innovation go hand-in-hand, Mr Zammit says that the island is carving out a niche for services that are not on offer in other iGaming jurisdictions. “Malta can be a disaster recovery site, a base for payment companies and back office activities. The competitive pressures of recent years have seen the customer service function become more important when it comes to player acquisition and retention.”

Mr Zammit believes that this trend is expected to continue, “and Malta is expected to benefit.”

“Malta’s success as an iGaming hub is also having the knock-on effect of enticing other industries into establishing a presence of their own. Case in point: video game developers and publishing companies, as well as gamers themselves, have relocated to the Island to take advantage of business incentives and high quality of life.”