Q&A: Fredrik Elmqvist, Yggdrasil Gaming CEO

Yggdrasil Gaming enjoyed a strong 2015 following a string of client wins, the launch of new games and platforms, and the gaining of an all-important UK licence.

Speaking to EGR after publishing a 357% rise in 2015 revenues, Yggdrasil Gaming chief executive Fredrik Elmqvist looks back on 2015 with much satisfaction but knows the next 12 months will be equally as important as the gaming supplier looks to crack the competitive UK market.

“Our aim at Yggdrasil is not to become the biggest provider in the market, but we certainly aim to be the best,” he says. “The early signs for 2016 are looking extremely encouraging.”

EGR quizzes Elmqvist on the firm’s plans for the UK market, the growth of the firm and what we should expect in 2016.

eGaming Review (EGR): Last year was a transformative 12 months for Yggdrasil. What was the highlight?

Fredrik Elmqvist (FE): It is tough to pick out a single highlight from what was an absolutely fantastic year for Yggdrasil. Perhaps the moment which really set up our success and put us on track in 2015 was the launch of our iSENSE 2.0 HTML5 platform.

The flexibility iSENSE 2.0 has given us has allowed us to do things we never could have done when we still worked in Flash, and really much of our growth can be traced back to that.

EGR: What are your thoughts on the UK market and the partners you have signed there so far?

FE: The UK can be a very important market for Yggdrasil. We’ve had an encouraging start given that we only received our licence towards the end of last year, but this isn’t a surprise because operators were knocking on our door asking, ‘when are you going to be licensed in the UK?’.

Many of those we’ve signed up were already working with us in other jurisdictions, and now the challenge will be to add new operators to the list. Of course the UK is a tough market to crack, perhaps even the toughest given the ferocity of competition, but if you want a seat at the top table in this industry, you’ve got to prove you can compete there.

EGR: Why did you decide to apply for a licence in Gibraltar?

FE: We were invited to apply for a Gibraltar licence by the regulator out there and felt that it was important to have a presence in the jurisdiction, just as so many of the operators we work alongside do. Our market coverage of Malta is already comprehensive so it makes sense to look at another jurisdiction.

We have been getting growing interest from operators in Gibraltar, so it makes sense that we are licensed there. We recently signed bet365, and we expect to add more Gibraltar-licensed operators too.

EGR: Should we expect the rate of customer sign-ups to slow this year or does the pipeline remain as strong as ever?

FE: Since we are opening up in Gibraltar we are of course looking to establish sustainable partnerships with the leading players there. But our priority has never been to sign every operator on the market.

We are far more interested in signing operators who share our view, and can be agile partners who want to do something innovative. We want to work alongside firms who appreciate the value of what we bring to the table. Anyone looking for a cheap supplier can look elsewhere.

EGR: The size of the company mushroomed in 2015 and you continue to hire. Has this changed the culture of the company at all?

FE: We grew faster than we expected over the past 12 months, but we are staying true to the Yggdrasil ethos. We will shortly move into a new office in Malta, the Tagliaferro Business Centre, which also houses a number of major operators including Mr Green, Cherry, PokerStars and Betclic Everest.

The space has room for us to grow up to 50 staffers, so we’re looking ahead to the future. We’ll also expand our Poland office later in the year, and the plan is to find a space which can house 80 people. We have already begun to recruit new heads to fill these positions.

We now have staff of 17 different nationalities, which must make us the multi-cultural supplier in the industry per capita. We’re finding creativity comes from collaboration between people with differing backgrounds.

EGR: What will be the main focus for Yggdrasil in 2016?

FE: If much of 2015 was spent on getting our signed clients live, then 2016 will be about expanding on these existing partnerships. We have already established a number of great relationships with some major partners.

Much of the growth we’ve seen in Q4 and the first months of 2016 has come from expanding and deepening these partnerships. Put simply, operators are already making a lot of use of our marketing tools, and our games are receiving a larger and larger share of operator’s marketing spend.