iGaming company culture isn’t built in a boardroom. It’s woven into the fabric of every company. It is a feeling, a rhythm, a way of being that people either buy into or quietly reject. In iGaming, where speed and pressure define most working days, that rhythm often falters.
Many operators talk about being “people-first.” Yet when deadlines tighten, or regulators apply new rules, values that looked good on a slide deck can vanish in the noise.
Claire Adamou, VP at Saroca and Head of Operations at American iGaming Solutions, has experienced this tension from both sides, having led teams and coached executives across the global gaming ecosystem. In an exclusive interview with SiGMA News, she explains that fixing iGaming company culture starts not with slogans, but with behaviour.
“Culture isn’t what’s written on the wall,” she says. “It’s what people feel on a Tuesday afternoon when everything’s going wrong.”
What post-pandemic culture really looks like
Since the pandemic, iGaming firms rebuilt culture around trust and daily behaviour. Betbazar and Microgaming have adopted hybrid working that keeps flexibility and inclusion close. Games Global talks about “culture add,” not “culture fit.” The mindset lifts diverse teams and lets personal development breathe.
At LeoVegas, the iGaming company culture has matured from something you see and feel in the office to something you build through trust and mutual respect. The company’s leaders now place accountability and teamwork at the heart of their operations, ensuring that culture isn’t just a slogan, but a shared daily responsibility.
This change is visible in the numbers. Zipdo reports that over half of iGaming HR teams now prioritise diversity and inclusion, while four in five companies fund annual training schemes. Engagement has increased by nine percent in firms that embrace flexibility. Those small percentages represent thousands of people finally feeling seen. For how boards are tying culture to oversight and data, see a SiGMA News exclusive on why AI in responsible gambling is now a boardroom priority.
Why iGaming company culture can’t be solved with slogans
Adamou believes most firms fall into the gap between intention and action. “Many iGaming companies proudly talk about valuing their people or driving innovation,” she explains, “but when pressure increases, those values can quickly slip into the background.”
Performance metrics take priority over people. Teams hear about collaboration but experience silos. Leaders preach inclusion but normalise burnout. The result is a slow cultural drift. Employees start saying, “That’s just how it is here.”
“You feel it before you see it,” Adamou adds. “Conversations get quieter, trust starts to fade, and engagement follows.”
In an industry built on data and quarterly growth, culture rarely changes overnight. It erodes in silence.
Why a healthy culture isn’t a gamble
Good iGaming company culture, Adamou argues, needs both design and heart. It starts at the top, with leaders modelling empathy and accountability. But it only becomes real when everyone else breathes it daily.
“You can’t manufacture culture with posters or perks,” she says. “It grows when people feel safe, heard, and valued.”
Remote work now sits at the centre of many teams. SiGMA News recently spoke with Marvin Cuschieri, who said that a company has already lost the talent war if it still treats hybrid work as a pandemic-era indulgence. According to Zipdo, most iGaming HR leaders include remote or hybrid models in their talent strategy. Claire has led and coached distributed teams for years and offers three practical ways to maintain trust.
Keep cameras on in team meetings. Treat video calls like real rooms. Exceptions exist, but visibility should be the norm.
Open with human check-ins. Spend the first few minutes asking how people are doing. It signals that attention to people sits alongside attention to performance.
Build psychological safety on purpose. Remote leaders cannot always see struggle. Invite feedback, make support routes clear, and encourage early signals when something feels off.
Some iGaming companies are already proving that people-first can work in practice:
Alea provides free lunches for employees, a gym and sauna on site, and even access to a hyperbaric chamber for staff and their families.
Catena offers every employee their birthday off, four flexible leave days per year, and a wellness budget for gym membership, healthcare, or personal development.
These aren’t perks. They’re gestures of trust. They show that wellbeing isn’t an afterthought but a performance strategy.
From HR slogans to regulatory risk
iGaming company culture isn’t just about staff happiness. It’s a risk variable. In a compliance-heavy sector, internal silence can be dangerous. Regulators read culture through behaviour. They look for evidence of accountable decision making, timely escalation, and clear audit trails. They examine how safer gambling and AML controls work in real life, not only in policy, and also monitor whether staff feel secure in raising concerns before issues escalate into breaches.
Adamou has seen good companies lose great people because trust broke down. “When that happens, communication stops,” she says. “In iGaming, where integrity and compliance are everything, that silence can be costly.”
She believes a strong culture starts with small, consistent actions that reduce regulatory risk:
- Align values with what’s actually measured.
- Make wellbeing and development part of KPIs.
- Encourage open discussion about mistakes and learning.
- Invest in leadership that builds empathy, not just technical skill.
- Celebrate quiet wins and acts of kindness.
When an iGaming company’s culture collapses, HR becomes a complaints department, and managers spend more time firefighting than leading. When it works, those same departments become growth engines.
As Adamou puts it, “Ops and people leaders are the bridge between strategy and reality. They model integrity and create psychological safety. Protecting trust isn’t about ticking boxes; it’s about giving people permission to speak before a problem becomes a crisis.”
Leadership succession reveals what a company truly values. Claire argues that culture and succession move together. When selection, development and promotion reflect stated values, teams feel aligned. When they do not, the gap widens and trust thins. She notes external research indicating that organisations with strong leadership development cultures are more likely to run effective succession planning.
The warning signs often appear in behaviour long before they are reported. Turnover rises and engagement falls. High performers leave quietly. Managers avoid difficult conversations. Values are often praised in meetings but are frequently overlooked in decision-making. HR becomes a shield rather than a partner.
Fixing iGaming company culture means starting small
Real change isn’t loud. It’s built through repetition and the consistent moments that shape behaviour long after the slogans fade.
Claire Adamou leaves leadership with one question.
“Would our people describe our culture the same way we do?”
If the answer is not yes, that is where the work begins. Fixing iGaming company culture is not a branding exercise. It is the daily alignment of words with actions, as well as with how people actually feel at work. It is also a compliance decision. The operators who get this right keep their best people and earn something rarer in this industry. They earn trust that lasts.
Don’t just read the news — stay ahead of it. Subscribe HERE to SiGMA’s Top 10 News countdown for stories shaping iGaming’s future, weekly insights from the world’s biggest iGaming community, and exclusive subscriber-only offers.
