Oksana Tsyhankova: “Soft2Bet sights are set both in and outside of Europe”

Oksana Tsyhankova, COO at Soft2Bet, reflects on the company in 2022 – a year of innovation and growth.

Exclusive interview.- After a successful year for Soft2Bet, its COO Oksana Tsyhankova, granted an exclusive interview to Focus Gaming News in which she evaluated the company’s performance in 2022 and the next steps in 2023.

What was the highest point of the year for the company? 

This year was very productive for Soft2Bet as the company has achieved several milestones, including that we secured two licences – the Irish and Danish Licences. We also received 6 awards (Highly Commended by EGR Nordics, Won Workplace of the Year by SiGMA Americas, Unique selling point by SiGMA, White-label supplier by Starlet awards, and our management has received 2 awards), and we grew to over 1,000 employees, including several leading figures in the industry; Gilad Naim, Yoel Zuckerberg, and Ed Clark. Our team also successfully participated in 6 events (ICE, IGB Amsterdam, SiGMA Americas, Brazilian iGaming summit, SBC, SiGMA Malta), where we showcased our successful casino and sportsbook brands. 

Speaking of projects, the launch of our brand, Betinia in Sweden was one of our greatest achievements, and one of the biggest challenges thus far. However, in a very short time span it is proving to be a very successful project. 

One of the highlights of the year was the presentation of Betinia and its mobile application. What can you tell us about the Sweden market and Betinia?

Each and every new launch is very different. Our Swedish brand, Betinia, is different from YoYo Casino and Campobet for various reasons. Betinia has 3,000 casino games from over 56 of the top game providers. There is also a wide variety of games that users can enjoy, including table games, jackpots, live games and the site has an arcade lobby.

Another notable factor is the project’s exclusive environment Club Royale, where it holds live events and Betinia SE has numerous exclusive live casino tables. The brand also has over 30 kinds of sports spanning from live betting, football, ice hockey, sportstoto and more.

The brand has its own distinct style featuring a fun blend of eclectic design elements such as its cool characters. So far, the brand was added to the SGA licence which enables the brand to create an innovative experience for players, through its various gamification. Its most stand-out feature by far is its “moderate gamification”.

This enables players to travel to different sports arenas located in different capital cities. It is a stunning journey which includes an animated map with real-life locations. As a result, the brand’s MoM has grown significantly as well as the number of customers interacting with Colossus and the City tournaments. 

This was all created in accordance with the strict regulations of the Swedish market and it is now showing extremely good results. The brand’s retention rates have increased by 40-75%, in comparison with our other two brands that we operate in Sweden.

“There are other factors that contribute to this growth but we attribute a large part of this to the ‘moderate’ gamification that we pioneered with Betinia. These good results indicate that this addition was the right decision for us.” 

Oksana Tsyhankova, COO at Soft2Bet.

Once the desktop version was launched, we started to work on the mobile application. This was particularly important as Soft2Bet’s gamified brands are extremely attractive to the players in this market. 

The app enables Swedish players to enjoy placing bets on Betinia easily through its user-friendly design and its gamification features. It is also fully optimised and convenient for players who want to play games on-the-go. Our team is also working on adding more games, providers and other features to our brands in order to create more fun gameplay for users.

This year the company celebrated its sixth anniversary. What can you say about the six-year journey of Soft2Bet? 

We have a yearly tradition to celebrate the Company’s birthday with our employees and our partners in Cyprus. This is key as it helps our company to grow, to develop and to move forward.

Last September marked Soft2Bet’s 6th Birthday, and we invited more than 250 of our partners to our special Soft2Fest in order to celebrate our successful partnerships that have been instrumental to the company’s success. All guests needed to do was pack their luggage and Soft2Bet took care of the rest.

This was a fun 2-day celebration which consisted of a Gala dinner at the Parklane hotel, on the first day, and then a second day full of exciting water sports activities, a lunch at Columbia beach, and Soft2Fest Beach Party.

Back in 2016, we started with a few professionals in the company, and now we have over 1,000 staff from all over the world. We spent the last 6 years making significant contributions to the innovative world of online gaming. This journey is unforgettable as we are learning a lot, sharing ideas and creating unique and highly-gamified products.

These include the launch of a total of 53 websites, 10 of which are Soft2Bet’s brands. 2 of the company’s most successful brands, Betinia and YoYoCasino’s new apps have also been extremely successful. 

“There is much more to come from Soft2Bet and we continue to move forward, forging more successful strategic partnerships with industry pioneers, and bringing more success to our partners, through the hard work and dedication of our staff, who are at the heart of the company.”

Oksana Tsyhankova, COO at Soft2Bet

Gamification is a strong point when it comes to Soft2Bet’s casino and sportsbook solutions. This is aimed at elevating players’ experience and distinguishes the operator group from their competitors. In fact, sport gamification in particular is very important to Soft2Bet. The MGA version of Betinia includes achievements, weekly challenges, a chance for users to collect cards belonging to their favourite team or athlete, a cool Free Bet shop, as well as a cup and Colossus.

In this, everytime users accumulate a certain number of Betinia Points, users will unlock one of the Colossuses, which leads to another cash prize of up to 8,000 EUR. 

Another Soft2Bet brand, Winota is a cabaret themed casino with lots of key gamification features. It is highly-interactive with its cool imagery and easy navigation. When it comes to gamification, Winona has created Cabaret Stars and Stages.

The first awards players Cabaret Star Cards as they progress along the map. They can then exchange these for Winota Coins, or customise their character. Users even get to enjoy opening new stages to switch up the background of their account.

How much did the iGaming industry evolve in the last year?

Industry is evolving fast, and if companies want to be successful they need to adapt to all the changes that occur in the markets and the local licences. This must then be reflected in the content that they share, as well as in new features implemented in different brands etc.  

Soft2Bet’s products are extremely safe and secure. They also have numerous Responsible Gaming tools that ensure that players have peace of mind. These include a Self-Control test, a Cool Off feature, a Play Limit feature, a Deposit Limit feature, a Session Limit feature, a Reality Check, and a Self-exclusion feature. We also have dedicated live customer support that are ready to help players whenever necessary. 

Which other markets are you exploring?

We have numerous plans in motion at the moment and we look forward to making the announcements. We are planning on obtaining numerous new local licences so that we can further expand the services that we offer to our clients.

“Our sights are set both in and outside of Europe. Stay tuned for the news and updates from our side.”

Oksana Tsyhankova, COO at Soft2Bet.

You also explored the potential of the Latin American igaming market, how much do you think it’s going to move forward next year?

The LatAm market is one of the most attractive for operators and we also market thoroughly in this territory. We will definitely continue working and expanding in this respect, and our team has many upcoming plans that will be confirmed shortly.

What surprises are you preparing for 2023? 

We have some massive projects that are in the final stages and we are preparing to announce them during Q1. 

We also have our sights set on an extremely promising market – Greece. Actually, we have already submitted an application to the Hellenic Gaming Commission, the country’s gaming authority.

In general, we are also planning to develop and improve our current brands through the addition of more diverse games from a larger range of providers. This will enable us to continue increasing our players’ level of engagement, and to ensure the time they spend on our projects is even better.