Q&A: River iGaming CEO on building a business from scratch

Oslo-listed River iGaming has created a resilient five-year plan including expanding its multi-brand B2C offering and establishing a fully-fledged B2B arm. The operator boasts backing from Cherry owner Morten Klein and two Norwegian private equity funds.

Initially, investors presented River CEO Kent Staahle with plans to diversify the Norwegian investment environment, which has traditionally covered the oil, fish and real-estate industries. From there the operator was born and floated on the Oslo exchange in the hope that an interest in egaming would be generated among local investors.

“So they are really looking into having more differentiation on the stock exchange,” Staahle says on the subject. “I think GiG [Gaming Innovation Group] haven’t had the traction they expected or wanted in the Norwegian market and there is a big knowledge gap between Norwegian investors and Swedish investors when it comes to gaming.”

Staahle sits down with EGR Intel to delve into the inner workings of the nascent company.

EGR Intel: How did River iGaming come about?

Kent Staahle (KS): River started up 14 months ago in November 2017 with me and my computer in Oslo, Norway. However, the initiative started up before that with two major family offices in Norway that got in contact with Morten Klein, a majority owner of Cherry, to discuss how to set up a gambling company. Both investors were predominantly industrial builders that are very into technology, but they had no knowledge about gaming. It was a good match between them and the three of them are now the main owners and investors in River iGaming. They then reached out to me with my background in finance in the Nordics. I’ve previously been a director of a private bank and I managed hedge funds, and they knew of me from that business.

EGR Intel: Having come from a background in finance, how did you find the transition to gaming?

KS: It’s been a very interesting transition. From the outside, the industry is seen as needing structure and it’s actually happening in line with all the different regulation and consolidation in the market. I think having the background I and my investors have is the perfect match to bring new technology and structure into the business and that’s the main driver behind River.

EGR Intel: How has the process of establishing a business from scratch gone from an operational perspective?

KS: Everyone talks about how difficult it is to recruit staff but we haven’t found that. We have a line of people wanting to work with us as word has spread in Malta. I think, firstly people see who is behind the company and what we have achieved in such a short time. We are across three countries and have five brands live and we are already serving on the B2B side with our marketing offering. We are moving fast but also we are solid and people that come to work with us are good ambassadors of the business. [Our staff count] is growing each week and we are up to around 50 people now and still growing. We’re based in Oslo, London and our main hub is here in Malta.

EGR Intel: What was the thinking behind launching Finnish instant cash-out casino brand Casonic first?

KS: Casonic is an instant cash-out product that uses BankID, so it’s directed at the Nordic market and maybe Germany. We are in the process of achieving a Swedish licence, so as soon as that is in place we will also launch in Sweden. Finland is just to make the market aware of our product. We are also really focusing on how we use the technology, in particular the marketing technology. We also own a company called Media Fusion which is a highly integrated marketing tool for the operations of our company. We’re not focusing very much on TV commercials and the other usual marketing suspects. We’re working instead on how to use new technology to acquire customers and focus on retention, which I think is something that needs to be done better in this sector.

EGR Intel: Are you operating your technology in-house or are you operating entirely on Gaming Realms’ (GMR) Grizzly platform?

KS: As of now we are using XCaliber on VegasCasino and the Gaming Realms Grizzly platform on Casonic. We will at some point have 100% control over our value chain and we are, as of now, developing ownership and total control over the data stream of our customers. That’s in gaming technology, marketing technology, payments and so forth.

Kent Staahle

EGR Intel: What was the reasoning behind purchasing Gaming Realms’ B2C arm?

KS: The reasoning behind the initial acquisitions was to formulate a business structure on the operational side. The first acquisition we did was VegasCasino and the second one was going into the UK with the four [Gaming Realms] brands. The strategy behind that was to help us gain customer knowledge and data and we will mix that with our in-house technology as we go along. Slingo brands are owned by GMR still so we will have a collaboration with them on [offering the brands online] in the future.

EGR Intel: Why did you choose to go down the acquisition route over establishing entirely new businesses?

KS: That is because of cash flow into the company. I am also a business man and so I want to have a good combination of cash flow and development and we are a company that will focus more and more on in-house development and B2B business but you need to have both options available and focus on both.

EGR Intel: What is your relationship with Gaming Realms like and how has it developed since the acquisition?

KS: We have a very good relationship and that is one of the reasons we established such a good agreement the first time round. We are working very closely and that is why we have chosen to put Casonic onto the GMR platform. There will be more movement down the line with GMR in the coming months and years.

EGR Intel: What are your long-term plans for a River iGaming B2B arm?

KS: I think we will have our first customers in late 2019 and then grow exponentially on that in 2020 and 2021. We have a 360 vision on the sector so we want to be great at all the different value chains of a gambling business. Today we’re looking more as a B2C company, but we think the real long-term value lies within having control over data and providing a better product to both our in-house brands and to external clients in the market. I think we will be heavily B2B facing in future, but we are going to go down both routes so I won’t discard anything on the B2C side by saying that.

EGR Intel: Why did you decide to go public so early on and what was the thinking behind listing on the Oslo stock exchange?

KS: One of the main visions our investors had was building a venture within the Norwegian investment environment because historically Norway has oil, fish and real-estate and that’s really it. So they are really looking into having more differentiation on the stock exchange. I think GiG (Gaming Innovation Group) hasn’t had the traction they expected or wanted in the Norwegian market and there is a big knowledge gap between Norwegian investors and Swedish investors when it comes to gaming.

EGR Intel: What are you working on launching next?

KS: We are working on a concept which we are going to launch in Q2 which is a gamification orientated casino offering.