Play the Pärt: Coingaming's new CEO on ushering in a new era

“Women don’t just form part of the HR or accounts teams here,” quips Coingaming Group’s new chief executive officer, Maarja Pärt. The Estonian ends her passionate answer regarding the representation of women in the upper echelons of the industry with humour to perhaps cover an ugly truth. Besides Denise Coates at bet365 and Paris Smith at Pinnacle, there are very few women in gambling who can adorn their business cards with those three famous letters: CEO. Pärt has now joined that exclusive club after replacing long-time Coingaming head Tim Heath in September 2020, as the Australian stepped up to exclusively establish his venture capital firm, Yolo Investments, which provides vital capital for the Tallinn-based firm. Pärt served as the group’s chief operating officer from February 2018 before taking up the reins as CEO, in what she tells EGR Intel has been a “full-on rollercoaster” journey. “Sometimes I find it hard to believe myself. My journey started over 10 years ago when I joined the team when we had just six people and we were in the poker industry. I joined the company while I was studying finance as a customer support agent,” she says. Quickly, Pärt began to build a team as a finance manager before becoming the group’s chief financial officer in 2015. The whirlwind transitions in her career were catalysed by the disruptive nature of Coingaming during those early days, “when money was never the main KPI”, and those close-knit colleagues dived in at the deep end. “Back then, we were always so excited to try something new and disruptive, and we really didn’t care about the outcome. We just wanted to try out cool stuff and enjoy our work. “That certainly has empowered me with this experimental culture, and this sort of approach throughout my years of working together with Tim and other key stakeholders,” she adds. The warmth and respect with which Pärt holds for Heath is evident, and the passing of the torch from master to protégé represents a culmination in her development. She reveals discussions regarding the handover of power had been taking place for a significant period, with Coingaming having reached a critical mass in its lifecycle. “It was a discussion that had been ongoing for a few months. [2020] put things in perspective for us and we realised the group had matured. In the last four years we have grown the business from 100 employees to nearly 500. It’s a different business today and we are in a completely different position. “It became evident that for us to continuously challenge the status quo, we needed to expand our ecosystem. Tim has a focus on our venture capital arm which plays a major role to continually seek new reasons to invest, which Coingaming will benefit from,” she says.

Go for it

Gambling industry boardrooms tend to find themselves inhabited by men, a by-product of braggadocio and the brash image the ecosystem has fostered over decades past. In the EGR Power 50 list, just six companies list women as their key executive, with Coingaming joined by bet365, Pinnacle, Casumo, Marathonbet and Française des Jeux. Pärt says she is “extremely proud” to be in a position of power in the industry as a woman, and in turn has opened the hatch and lowered the ladder on the glass ceiling, avoiding the need for breakages with former head of VIP Anita Brinke replacing her as COO. “I’m extremely proud. And I’m not just proud about myself but I feel empowered by the duo that is in place together with Anita. It feels extremely exciting to stand next to her. This is a unique duo, especially if we look at the industry overall and I would say that having this strong balance within the management team is contributing to our success,” she notes. And what would Pärt’s advice be for women in less enviable positions, looking to make inroads in the industry? Go for it. “As a female leader in a male-dominated world, be bold and embrace your strengths, but remember who you are – and stay true to yourself. I have been blessed as well because Coingaming, in its value and culture, is quite unique and, to be honest, I have never felt that I’ve been treated any differently because of my gender. However, I know this is not always the case, so I would recommend strong ladies to pursue their dream and simply go for it,” she muses.

Baptism of fire

Despite the elation of reaching a personal pinnacle, Pärt’s transition to CEO came in one of the most economically damaging years in living memory, with Covid-19 disrupting the industry and impacting livelihoods across the world. The pandemic saw workers shunted into makeshift home offices while the infamous sports shutdown saw revenue plummet and chaos reign. Pärt looks to separate the pandemic into two halves – one emotional, one business – both of which were impacted beyond comprehension. She says: “No one in the world could have foreseen the circumstances that we’ve been going through. For employees, it’s been a hell of a difficult year and I think emotionally speaking it has been very, very difficult. “However, if we speak business-wise, then I think challenging times are what define us and we were positioned strongly. While the circumstances were challenging, we try to see opportunities instead of obstacles,” she adds. Backed by financial muscle, Pärt goes on to detail how Coingaming opened its own live studio within five weeks, as well as unveiled a state-of-the-art 3,700 sq m office space in Tallinn, representing significant markers of progress against the firm’s competitors. “When the difficult times hit and some of our competitors had to lay off staff or close projects, this was the time for us to use the opportunity. It reminded me of our true DNA and our capabilities. We’ve never shied away from a good challenge,” she proudly explains. Besides the infrastructural improvements and the bricks-and-mortar evidence of growth, Coingaming also secured new sponsorship agreements with Premier League clubs Arsenal and Southampton, posted record financial results and finished 27th in the EGR Power 50.

As a female leader in a male-dominated world, be bold and embrace your strengths, but remember who you are – and stay true to yourself

Speaking on the group’s best-ever finish in the rankings, Pärt said: “It felt absolutely amazing. The Power 50 is obviously one of the main benchmarks for us, so we were preparing for this. We even had some in-house betting for where we would end up! “Obviously, last year, we were 28th and the year before that 44th, so it has been humbling as much as it has been rewarding, and I am truly convinced that we have yet many more steps to climb on that ladder.”

Boom or bust?

Coingaming’s two flagship brands, Bitcasino.io and Sportsbet.io, hold a substantial share of the industry’s crypto market, which Pärt puts down to the operator’s fast and committed drive into the vertical in the mid-2010s. In an era when bitcoin could be purchased for $300, compared to the $35,000 it is worth today, the soothsayer-esque vision from Heath, Pärt and others at Coingaming have left the group in a healthy position. Pärt says: “I think we’ve been lucky as much as we’ve been hard-working. There are so many rumours out there and not everyone is comfortable with it [cryptocurrency], so it’s been a nice sort of edge. When we entered the crypto industry, the number of users was a lot lower. This has certainly given us a six-year advantage compared to our competitors, but if I look at the situation overall, we expect that at some point crypto will become stronger and stronger,” she remarks. The commitment to the vertical has been plain to see from the beginning of the journey, with Pärt detailing when Coingaming looked to secure its Estonian gaming licence, the group made the €1m deposit using cryptocurrency. Pärt recalls the anecdote to EGR Intel: “According to our knowledge, we were the first ones to do it in Estonia, if not the Baltics. We had to get our wallet audited by financial auditors, but they had never done it before. They didn’t know where to get the rate or how to prove the value of it. So, there has been quite a bit of back-and-forth teaching going on.” While in the current climate it’s easy enough to bask in the glory of one’s decision-making and strategic planning, crypto remains very volatile, with acceptance from the mainstream still a long way off. However, Pärt argues that a combination of external factors and a growing understanding of the mechanisms behind crypto could see it propelled into the mainstream in the near future. Pärt notes: “When you look at the world’s economy with globalisation and the challenges and costs around that with traditional banking, that is non-existent in crypto. It’s so fast, it’s so efficient and I think more and more users are finding their way around it and people are using it on a regular basis. It’s not simply an investing instrument or something whispered in undertones, it has found its way into regular families and regular audiences.” Jealousy is an inevitable aftershock of success, and as the crypto operator of the moment, the crown upon the Coingaming head will be greedily eyed by rivals. However, Pärt has laid down a welcoming gauntlet for her competitors, speaking to the power of improving the wider ecosystem rather than hoarding the lion’s share. “To everyone and anyone who is looking to enter the crypto market, I say bring it on. The more people that know about crypto, the more people that use crypto and the more operators that promote crypto will help validate the overall potential in the market, not to mention expanding our customer base as well. I’m very much looking forward to any progress in terms of crypto,” she notes.

A new era

The embryonic period of Pärt’s appointment has been formed under intense pressure. The legacy left by Heath, no matter how close a mentor and confidante, will bring about direct comparisons with her choices. The pandemic, although hopefully nearing its end, will have drained both her and her employees. But she is determined to succeed, and a plan of attack is already in action. Coingaming is working to develop in-house technologies around data science and automation, while it is set to launch two new brands in the future. Pärt reveals: “We want to continue to be the crypto leaders in the industry and I think a big part of that is educating our users, so we have two projects up our sleeves. One is Learncrypto.com which is more for a regular user to learn the ABCs of crypto and see what’s in it for them. And from a banking perspective, we are looking to launch Coins.io, which we are convinced will revolutionise the industry.” While there is a wry smile from Pärt when she refers to her tenure as a new era, she is resolute and focused to leave her mark on a company which she has been connected to since her university days. “My mantra is to make Coingaming stronger than ever. Within the last four years, we have grown so rapidly, and this now requires an additional level of structure and reorganisation. We need to bring in a bit more framework and process to the growing business. “For us to be able to pursue and build on our success we cannot work in silos anymore, all of us need to come together. Every single puzzle piece in our ecosystem needs to work together towards the goals that we have set for ourselves. That is going to lay a very strong foundation to take on more crazy projects and build up new brands,” she concludes.