Arthur Sheikhaliev, DELULU Gaming: “We want to be a hub that connects a lot of people, a lot of bright minds”
Shows & conferences - 12 October, 2026
During SBC Summit Lisbon 2026, Focus Gaming News sat down with Arthur Sheikhaliev, CEO and Founder at DELULU Gaming, to discuss the company’s rapid start in the market, its content strategy and its plans to build a presence beyond the games themselves.
Sheikhaliev explained that although DELULU has only been on the market for two months, it “feels like a lot”, because the company spent more than a year in development before launching. For him, SBC Summit Lisbon is “a confirmation of what we started in London”, when the company first showed it was “bringing something to the table”. DELULU now has more than 300 operators in its portfolio and more than 250,000 players, which he acknowledged is “not a big number compared to others”, but “we’re just starting”.
Asked how the company grew so quickly, he credited a combination of factors: aggregator and platform partners, several direct integrations with big companies from day one, a hard-working commercial team and key account managers, and “definitely the content and the team behind it”. “Day one we were at 133, and right now we’re more than 300,” he said.
In a market where hundreds of thousands of games have been developed, DELULU currently has just seven. Sheikhaliev said the aim is to grow the portfolio “without losing quality”, building on its first title, MLK Voyage, which he described as the company’s “biggest mental investment” in market research. To keep the brand distinctive, DELULU treats its games as a shared “multiverse”, with every character part of the same universe. Its mascot, a seagull called Steven, began as a doodle by the creative director who felt MLK Voyage’s artwork was missing something, and now appears in every game and on the stand, with wings 4.6 metres wide.
Looking at early player data, Sheikhaliev said the focus is on retention rather than acquisition. “Engaging is easy,” he said, but getting players to come back is “the hardest part”. Many players leave not because a game isn’t fun but because they run out of time to reach the bonus, or because “after 50 spins it gives nothing”. A slot, he said, has to make an impression like entering a room with “shoulders wide, smile, you look sharp”, and “that’s exactly how the slot should behave, not just look”. DELULU is monitoring performance metrics for every game, adjusting current titles where needed and investing in the player experience of future releases.
Finally, Sheikhaliev spoke about DELULU Port of Call, the company’s C-level event for more than 400 guests, which extends the success of its London event. The aim, he said, is to become “a hub that connects a lot of people, a lot of bright minds”. The previous edition was “huge”, and the Lisbon one was set to be “even bigger”, with the company already planning to go bigger still in Rome.