GETTING TO KNOW…
Getting to know: CODETA
When a new online casino announces: “We truly believe that we will be next big player in the market” it’s hard not to be skeptical. So we caught up with Codeta’s Executive Chairman, Edward Ihre, for the lowdown.
C
Edwarde Irhe with Yrsa Thunholm, COO Codeta
asino International Online [CIO]: Edward, tell us about Codeta and why you’ve chosen now to create your own casino
Edward Lhre [EL]: The idea of setting up our own
casino - and positioning it to be a live casino-focused one - had been with me for years. I am very good friends with Fredrik Österberg, Founder of Evolution Gaming, so by following their unprecedented journey, the feeling and conviction of doing so grew stronger and stronger. What finally made me do it was a trip down to Asia to visit my older brother (who is Founder of world-renowned brand consultancy company, Lynxeye Brand Consultants) in April of last year. After sitting down with him, only then did I understand the full potential of that positioning and the need for us to take it! The goal became clear too: to create the world’s leading table games casino.
CIO: Who are the key personnel at Codeta and
what’s their background? EL: I’m Executive Chairman and have been in the industry since 2002 at various MD and other Director-roles with companies such as PokerStars, Ladbrokes, PokerRoom/bwin and Parbet. Yrsa Thunholm is COO at Codeta; her previous roles include Business Development Director at Catena Media. Daniel Nilsson is CMO, with previous roles including Senior Business Development Director with Schibsted (the largest Nordic Media company with business interests in over 30 different countries). Simon Johansson is Head of Acquisition having been Affiliate Director at Ihre Consulting Ltd for four years. Julia Fredriksson is CRM Director. Her previous roles include CRM Manager at Unibet.
CIO: What made you feel it was time to launch? 88 SEPTEMBER 2016 EL: It was a combination of hearing/knowing how
fast the live casino segment was growing and understanding that the product itself had no unique leader within it. As well being an admirer of the product, I strongly believe that live casino is a product that attracts highroller/high value customers but could also be a product that will eventually recruit NEW customers altogether to try out online casino in general. I believe that the current casino operators (where the vast majority are focused on slots) are making the same mistakes as our industry did with poker, i.e. communication with customers became increasingly complicated, not to say misguiding (poker used rakeback, etc.) so unless you are already an initiated online casino customer I don’t think that people understand the communication or value the proposition that operators are advertising. Also, having worked with over 150 different gaming
clients over the years, we felt we could do it better altogether, both in terms of execution, and certainly in terms of product, market and consumer knowledge and insight(s).
CIO: What was the majority of your 13-month planning period taken up doing? EL: We spent a good six months in research phase
where we did everything from gathering market data (I have to say it was surprisingly hard to get good statistics on the size of our industry) and our niche specifically, but first and foremost, consumer insight gathering and analysis. We conducted quantitate studies as well as quality ones. We did player interviews, focus groups, testing etc. I would be surprised if ANY gaming company has spent that much research EVER, before launching. We did all of
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