Alina Mihaela Popa, ICONIC21: “Clients’ needs always come first – their feedback shapes our visión and drives our innovation”

ICONIC21’s CCO spoke to Focus Gaming News about the company’s upcoming debut as an exhibitor at ICE Barcelona and the products and solutions ICONIC21 is working on for this year.

Exclusive interview.- ICONIC21 will make its debut as an exhibitor at ICE Barcelona, unveiling an ambitious 2025 roadmap featuring new verticals, branded solutions, and innovative live casino projects to solidify its industry presence.

To know more about ICONIC21’s attendance at ICE Barcelona, Focus Gaming News spoke to Alina Mihaela Popa, CCO at ICONIC21, who shared the company’s plans for the event.

What are ICONIC21’s main goals and priorities for exhibiting at ICE Barcelona this year? How does the event help strengthen your brand’s presence in the gaming industry?

It’s our first time exhibiting as ICONIC21. And it’s the first time the event is being held in Barcelona, which stirred quite the excitement in the industry. Everyone is waiting patiently to see how the new setup will look like and how this memorable, yearly event will change with the move. It’s the “World Gaming Week” as they call it, and pretty much our entire network is attending. 

This comes with a lot of value for our brand – educating the audience, gaining presence, positioning ICONIC21 as an in-demand supplier for both real-money gaming and sweepstakes operators, and – of course – closing more and more deals. The beginning of 2025 will surely remain memorable for our company, thanks to ICE. 

We’ll get into detail regarding our rapidly expanding portfolio and footprint. We have a solid roadmap for 2025 and those who visit our stand will get a chance to explore it together with us. We’re eager to present our new verticals – slots and RNG – as well as our new live casino projects, including the progress we’ve made with dedicated studios.

ICONIC21 is known for its branded solutions, including dedicated studios and custom games. Could you share examples of recent collaborations or innovations that highlight this offering?

Operators started focusing more and more on getting those personalised, branded solutions. They come with tremendous benefits for them – a high degree of customisation (with the operator having the power to choose exactly what games and what features should we build), increased trustworthiness, increased loyalty from the players, better brand recognition, more marketing opportunities, and at the end of the day, higher profits. 

These dedicated solutions are popular with real money gaming operators, but they became almost a must rather than a nice to have in the sweepstakes world, where live casinos slowly but steadily started to take over. We built a high-performing studio for a sweepstakes operator in 2024, and we have more in the works for 2025, with demand coming from both sides.

“Operators started focusing more and more on getting those personalised, branded solutions.”

Alina Mihaela Popa, CCO at ICONIC21.

What key products or services will you be showcasing at ICE? Are there any new live dealer or casino games being introduced at the event?

First off, we have several releases that we are going to push in January – not only live casino, but also different verticals. We recently announced that our portfolio now includes slots, so we’ll bring these games closer to our audience, digging into why they’re special and how they are performing. 

ICE is the ground to follow up on that, but we’ll also discuss the plans we’re having for the rest of the year. We’ll be talking about a new game show, lots of new RNG releases, expanding the number of live casino tables we have, expanding the Gravity series and many more. The list is long and we’re ready to go through it with our potential partners.

How does ICONIC21 ensure that its solutions align with clients’ specific needs? What feedback or trends from your clients have influenced your development strategy for 2025?

Part of our philosophy is that clients’ needs always come first. We keep a very close relationship with our partners, keeping their feedback in mind whenever we develop a new product. We’re also flexible with our roadmap – if a client comes to us with a good idea for improvement or a specific product that’s in high demand with their players, we do our best to bring those visions to reality. 

The addition of slots, RNG and expanding the number of live casino tables we have, adding a crash game to our offering or soon launching a game show all come after careful consideration of client feedback and player demand. Our commercial team is doing a brilliant job in keeping close to our partners, and not only – our entire C-Level suite treats clients with openness and that shows in the way they communicate with us. 

“Part of our philosophy is that clients’ needs always come first.”

Alina Mihaela Popa, CCO at ICONIC21.

The gaming industry is evolving rapidly. What trends in live dealer and casino gaming do you think will dominate in the coming years, and how is ICONIC21 adapting to them?

The wave we’ve been riding is the adoption of live casinos in the sweepstakes world. More and more sweepstakes operators are focusing on live casinos, even more so, on dedicated solutions of live casino. On top of that, the industry seems to be lacking innovation in features and the UI/UX experience that players have, another ground that we have been exploring thoroughly. 

If we look at the big fish in the igaming industry, we can also notice the preference towards one-stop-shop suppliers, that can adapt to the demand and scaling of any operator. Having lots of games and a considerable footprint makes you a good candidate for any casino out there. And that’s the direction we’re taking. 

As we look toward 2025, what exciting developments or expansions can we expect from ICONIC21? Are there any new markets or partnerships you are focusing on?

2025 will start with launch after launch of new products, plus developing dedicated studios and expanding our team, locations, number of tables, number of games, of verticals and so on. It will be a year of fast expansion and steady growth, two aspects that will definitely bring ICONIC21 to the industry’s attention. We’ll be more present and more active on all grounds, getting closer to both operators and players. By the end of the year, we aim to expand our product portfolio even further, celebrate remarkable successes alongside our partners (and, in turn, our own), and cultivate a strong, vibrant community that appreciates the quality and trust we foster at ICONIC.