Interviews
Exclusive Q&A with Jeton Kodia Co-Founder at Oddspedia
Let’s start with a few words about yourself. Our readers love top executives talking about themselves.
My name is Jeton Kodia and I have been in the gambling business since 2009. I became an iGaming affiliate when I turned my hobby into my profession. Gambling is part of my life – I love betting, casino games, and poker. Additionally, with my first name Jeton, it was somehow destiny that I had to step into this industry. I am addicted to football, and I had to lose quite some bets on my favorite team until I learned that when you want to take betting seriously, you need to refrain from your emotional attachment to a particular team and turn your attention more to comparing the odds. Besides football and pro sports in general, I bet on pretty much anything with my friends. This ranges from prop bets about winning at Playstation games to whether my first child will be a boy or girl. There is always something going on in my life which we can bet on.
Now on to Oddspedia. What led to the founding of Oddspedia?
As I already hinted at before, I wanted to focus more on the odds at sports betting. Therefore, I teamed up with Jan, whom I know since we were 18 years old, and who is equally passionate for sports in general and football in particular. Together, we co-founded our company and website Oddspedia. The main goal of our company is to provide valuable, competitive and user-friendly services for sports betting fans, players and publishers. Since its inception and over the course of several years, Oddspedia established itself as one of the biggest international affiliates in the sports betting world.
Could you elaborate on the cutting edge that Oddspedia possesses? There are other companies that offer similar services. What makes Oddspedia “the number one sports companion” of punters?
The website aims to provide as much value to the user as possible, and the information is conveyed in a manner to ensure a great user experience. It starts with guaranteeing a reliable odds comparison – odds on Oddspedia are being scanned in real-time across more than eighty bookmakers to ensure that only the most up-to-date data is displayed. This is complemented by features not commonly found in competing websites, such as geolocation to show only relevant betting sites for the user, direct links to bookmakers’ betslips, full odds movement history and various betting tools. This is part of what makes Oddspedia one of the best sites for odds comparison. But as a matter of fact Oddspedia offers much more than that. The website has amazing sports coverage as well, providing livescore information on more than 30 different sports. Users can also explore sports statistics, bonuses and promotions, or read the latest news on their favourite leagues, teams and matches. All of this wrapped in an app-like web experience, with quick performance and a state-of-art modern design makes it easy for Oddspedia to stand out from its competitors.
You recently overhauled the Oddspedia website. What are the new features that have become user favorites?
In August Oddspedia had the biggest makeover yet with its relaunch. The new version was in development for more than a year, and enabled the development team to apply new tools and technical innovations that were simply not possible on the old site. Major front-end and back-end changes were done to improve the user experience, and the new UI provides much more natural and polished user flow. To ensure seamless operation, updates regarding back-end software, systems, processing odds nodes, and new integrations are introduced almost on a day-to-day basis.
You have also launched widgets for webmasters and digital publishers which help them monetize their website through affiliate marketing? Tell us more about the widgets and process of monetizing.
One of the main issues from editors, publishers and affiliates is providing real time data to their customers. Is extremely hard to find a proper way to do it. The Oddspedia Widgets fill the gap between the sports data feeds and the operators.
For editors, the Oddspedia Widgets have been developed as a real “all-in one” solution. These tools can be implemented into any site by simply pasting their code, providing that site’s users with real time odds data. Publishers can benefit from the live information by not only providing their users an odds comparison widget for free, but they can include their affiliate link to the respective bookmaker. Clicks are simply shared on a 50/50 basis. The way the split works is that the widgets rotate with two links, one for the publisher and the other for Oddspedia which will be applied with equal chance.
Publishers will get real time sports data without any cost for them, at same time they offer that to their customers and readers.
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the betting and gambling companies, especially the traditional forms of betting and gambling. It is not yet done yet. How have the lock-down and social distancing measures affected your business?
In every crisis there’s an opportunity. The coronavirus outbreak has had a devastating impact all over the world and on our daily lives, with many businesses in almost every industry feeling the pinch. That’s no different with the gambling industry, as most major sports were suspended in the first lockdown during spring time.
At Oddspedia we expected that the interest in sports will even grow bigger in times of social distancing and isolation. But with the vast majority of sports canceled we had to find a way to react to the situation. We focused on increasing our sports portfolio and cover almost any event going on worldwide. As crazy as it sounds, the matches from a Table Tennis tournament in Russia were checked over a million times on Oddspedia.
There are still positives that can emerge from the pandemic, with virtual sports and esports being one of them. Virtual Sports truly boomed in interest. Esports betting is a vertical in the industry that was already rising in popularity before the outbreak. But now, it’s well on its way to establish itself as a major offering for operators and affiliates, which is set to continue even after we come out the other side of virus lockdowns.
It has been seven years since Oddspedia was launched. Most of these times, you focused mainly on Europe, especially the German-speaking countries. You are now venturing in to South America. How has the user response so far from the Latin American countries, who certainly love their football? Any plans to start operations in Asia?
Our entry into the South American market has been very successful. The audience there is extremely passionate about sports and betting, and they show a great demand for our product. Of course, we provide local users with well-targeted information from local bookies in their native language. We began with the integration of Spanish and Portuguese languages for our product, then we structured our content to be as engaging as possible for local users. It’s no secret, that for users from Brazil, as well as for other Latin American countries, football is the most popular sport. So when entering our website, we meet users with the most interesting football matches from their local leagues. These are shown first and then followed by popular worldwide championships.
This personalized approach is very successful and we have good and stable traffic coming from these countries
Several Asian countries, like Japan for example, are very interesting for oddspedia, as well. However, we deem it highly important to find the right partner when entering a country like that. It is crucial to have the right partner who is fond of the language, can translate and adapt to the correct betting terminology, and possesses local SEO knowledge. We envision to grant sublicenses for oddspedia if the right company to partner with comes knocking on our door.
The technology is moving at an unimaginably high speed. How do you think artificial intelligence and machine learning would impact the betting industry, and specifically the odds comparison
Automation based on machine learning has been key within ecommerce for years and the igaming industry should apply insights gained in other sectors. Offering a personal user experience in a responsible environment comes from understanding and catering to each individual player’s needs from an entertainment point of view. AI is a type of software or hardware that learns – and it could be programmed to learn mostly about users and their behavior and utilize those insights to drive the developments of new, hyper-personalised gaming and internet betting experiences. The technology is being applied to learn our habits, our likes, and our relationship patterns. Online gaming is an industry that runs on data, such as results, stakes, percentages, odds, stats, and so on. All of these numbers are constantly crunched, calculated and analysed behind every major gaming platform. For this reason, ML is actually playing a growing influential role in the sector, changing the game for both online gaming businesses and their players
Finally, what would be your key advises to any new entrepreneurs starting something new in the gambling industry or affiliate marketing sector?
Don’t start something just on your own if you are a newbie. First, dip your foot in the water and gain some experience in the industry. I would recommend starting with a job at a bigger affiliate company or in affiliate marketing at an operator. If you are smart, you can learn a lot quickly and avoid a bunch of costly mistakes you might have made otherwise. In the next step, you can try out your own ideas. By then, you already have a sound understanding of the industry, which allows you to make even better products right from the beginning and the timeframe until you are able to realize a return on your investment is likely to be much shorter, as well.
Conferences in Europe
Speaking the Player’s Language: Promatic Group’s Take on Game Localization in CEE

The Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025 brought together some of the brightest minds in the iGaming and tech industries – and the conversation didn’t stop when the curtains closed. As this year’s General Sponsor through its Promatic Games brand, Promatic Group made a powerful impact on-stage and behind the scenes. In a dynamic keynote presentation titled “Localizing Slot Games: Does the Central European Player Need Localized Content?”, Maciej Makuszewski, iGaming Director, and Luka Oblak, Head of Product Design, explored how cultural nuances shape player engagement and game performance across regional markets.
Now, post-event, we caught up with Maciej Makuszewski to delve deeper into the topic of localization, player behavior, and what makes content truly resonate in Central and Eastern Europe.
Maciej, your keynote at the Summit offered compelling insights into how culture and language affect game engagement. What do you believe is the biggest misconception about localization in the iGaming industry today?
It is that it is enough to hire a translator of a game to deliver localized content. This is not the end of the road – on the contrary – this is just the beginning. This may sound like saying the sun rises in the east, but I still would say there can be a lot more attention paid to giving games a local touch.
But coming back to translations, nowadays, even at this basic level, we can observe so many pitfalls and mistakes that could have been avoided if people really had the player at the core of their strategy. I guess we are past this time in history of globalization that unified products and content simply entered new markets with no tailoring whatsoever and there was demand for them, because there hadn’t been much of a choice of anything else. We’d like to see companies try harder when they enter new markets. I hope we will become one that actually gets the hyperlocalization just right.
You and Luka presented some standout cases on localized content. Could you share one example that truly surprised your team – either by outperforming expectations or revealing a cultural insight you hadn’t anticipated?
I guess that would be the transformation of a simple fruit game launched as Red Hot Jackpot in Poland, into a rich animations theme game it became in Nigeria. The nigerian version of Red Hot Jackpot is called Naija Wheels and it is the exact the same math model and game logic as Red Hot Jackpot, but what makes it appealing to the local customers of slot halls in Nigeria is its hyperlocal theme. Naija Wheels is a funny story of things you see in Lagos traffic. So instead of a Cherry symbol you have a symbol of a police officer. Instead of a plum symbol, you have an okada driver from Lagos etc.
Very different game themes, same logics, same business effects – the game is a great performing slot in Poland and a superb hit in Nigeria.
In your view, what are the non-negotiables when designing localized slot content for Central and Eastern European markets? Are there elements developers often overlook?
There are so many local markets in the CEE that it is really hard to unify this. But in a nutshell – we know in our region, highly volatile fruit themed games are very popular. Having said that, it is not a surfire way to success. You may want to localize the content even further through cultural and humor references.
The ROI of local-branded slots is often debated. Based on Promatic Group’s experience, when does it make strategic and commercial sense to invest in hyper-local content – and when is it better to focus on broader appeal?
It all depends why you do this and how you measure the ROI. If you measure a single game ROI this might be a trap. It will very much depend on the math model and features of the particular game. Apart from revenue stream, there are also costs to be considered. If we’re talking about a “game reskin” then certification will be something you can optimize and so on. There are numerous ways to tackle this issue. Sometimes you can come up with a hyper local game and just launch it somewhere else to test if it works, which will boost your revenue stream and the total ROI. All in all we are very happy with our local approach and we intend to stick to it.
Let’s talk about the future. With shifting player expectations and tech advancements like AI personalization, how do you see the localization strategy evolving over the next 2–3 years at Promatic Group?
I would expect this hyperlocalization becomes a commodity in the industry. This will also require a lot of human factor so that it is done the right way. AI will speed things up, but I believe that the human touch will be key. We already have amazing tools, but using them the right way is what will make a great difference.
The post Speaking the Player’s Language: Promatic Group’s Take on Game Localization in CEE appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Compliance Updates
Navigating Legal Frontiers: Nordic Legal’s Vision for the Finnish Gambling Market

The Prague Gaming & TECH Summit 2025 brought together top experts across the iGaming and tech landscape, and Nordic Legal stood out as the event’s Scandinavian Legal Expertise Sponsor. A renowned legal advisory firm in the Nordic region, Nordic Legal continues to shape the future of gambling legislation and compliance in Europe.
In this post-event interview, we caught up with Pekka Ilmivalta, Head of the Finnish Office at Nordic Legal, to dive deeper into the firm’s insights on the upcoming Finnish gambling reform, the legal challenges it poses, and the opportunities it presents for operators preparing to enter the market.
Finland is preparing to launch its regulated gambling sector in January 2026. As an expert with over 20 years of experience in the gambling industry, how do you view its draft legislation and the current state of the Finnish gambling market?
Finns are used to gambling online, and the size of the market is close to 2 billion euros in GGR. As the market share of the national monopoly operator, Veikkaus, has declined to around 50 percent, nearly half of the gambling spending already takes place outside the Finnish regulation. Therefore, the gambling legislation reform is really needed.
The Government Proposal now being dealt with in the Finnish Parliament is generally a comprehensive and a good package. As the political parties are quite unanimous about the need for the reform, I expect the parliamentary discussion to concentrate on the balance between responsibility measures and the features making the market interesting enough for the operators to enter the regulated market. Especially marketing, use of affiliates and bonusing will, and should, be discussed.
I believe that the Parliament will approve the new legislation early next autumn and that the B2C license application process will be able to begin already in January next year.
The Finnish legislative review council has raised concerns about potential increases in gambling harms under the new regulatory framework. What measures do you believe are necessary to mitigate these risks, and how could Finland balance market liberalization with responsible gambling practices?
Personally, I think that gambling harms must be taken seriously. However, as almost half of the Finnish gambling now happens outside the regulated market, I am convinced that succeeding in channelization is a crucial starting point to really mitigate gambling harms. Therefore, attractiveness of the market and measures against the black market are extremely important. Furthermore, self-exclusion and responsible gambling tools are, of course, needed for the players. Generally, I believe that AI assisted monitoring could and will have an important role in preventing harmful gambling in the future. To really work, responsible gambling tools need to be both pragmatic and relevant for each individual player.
Considering Finland’s upcoming gambling reform, what legal and operational challenges should gambling operators be prepared for, particularly regarding compliance and player protection? Which key trends do you see shaping the market’s future?
As it seems now that affiliates and welcome bonuses will be banned, operators will have to find other means to build their brand and acquire customers. Even though traditional marketing and sponsoring are widely acceptable, I would expect to see innovative solutions to stand out from the probable marketing avalanche during the first months after the market opening. Perhaps new kinds of sponsorships or retail activities? Or even enhanced player protection measures to gain a competitive edge?
Overall, I would advise operators to start their market entry preparations early enough. The licensing procedure could take several (6 to 9) months. Also, adjusting to the local technical and player protection requirements might not happen overnight.
What insights could help Finland create a balanced and effective gambling market?
I believe that the new legislation will provide a good enough framework for a functional gambling market. However, based on experiences from Sweden and Denmark, I would point out two practical aspects crucial to making the new legislation effective: First, there needs to be collaboration between licensed operators and the new regulator. Dialogue and a mutual will to find solutions should be the common mindset. Secondly, the regulator hopefully has enough resources (tools, persons and persistence) to interfere with the black-market operations, which will evidently still exist also after the reform.
Nordic Legal has extensive experience advising European governments on regulatory best practices. How can your firm assist operators looking to enter the Finnish market and navigate the evolving legal landscape?
With our deep knowledge of Finnish legislation, extensive experience from regulatory developments in other jurisdictions, and strong industry relationships, we are well-positioned to support operators and B2B suppliers entering the Finnish market. We can offer comprehensive guidance not only on compliance and licensing, but also on navigating strategic challenges, ensuring our clients are well-prepared for a dynamic and shifting legal landscape. Our proactive approach enables us to identify regulatory changes early and help clients stay ahead of industry developments.
The post Navigating Legal Frontiers: Nordic Legal’s Vision for the Finnish Gambling Market appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
Interviews
Exclusive Q&A With Bar Konson, Chief Business Development Officer at NuxGame

Online casinos are in a race to meet the growing demands of players, but many operators are being left behind. Slow payment systems, high transaction fees, and outdated software are limiting growth and hurting the player experience. But with the right tools, operators can break free from these limitations and create fluid, player-first experiences.
Bar Konson, Chief Business Development Officer at NuxGame, offers solutions that many operators have been waiting for. With NuxGame’s crypto-ready turnkey platform, operators can quickly solve common issues and roll out future-forward digital casinos that appeal to modern players. The crypto market is growing fast, with an expected $5 billion by 2030. Find out in this interview how making the most of crypto can take your casino to the next level and leave competitors behind.
The impact of crypto in iGaming is undeniable. Bar, do you believe Bitcoin is here to stay, or are we just seeing the beginning of a temporary trend?
The truth is, Bitcoin and crypto are here to stay, and it’s not just a “cool new thing” for players. They offer fast transactions, more security, and a level of transparency that players are increasingly looking for. The iGaming scene is modernizing, and those who aren’t adopting crypto solutions are definitely going to fall behind. You don’t want to watch everyone else pass you by.
So how does NuxGame support the crypto trend? What makes your platform stand out in this fast paced environment?
At NuxGame, we’re not simply handing over a crypto solution and calling it a day. We provide a fully integrated crypto casino software solution that supports multiple cryptocurrencies, but more importantly, we’re here for you every step of the way. Our customer service managers understand that each operator has unique priorities, so we work closely with you to make sure that everything works exactly the way you want it. The dashboard shows everything in real-time, while players get quicker transactions and a better overall game. And the best part is that you’re not left alone with the system integration. Our team is always ready to make your operations work exactly how you want.
I know you’ve got a lot of experience with turnkey solutions. What makes NuxGame’s turnkey casino solution a perfect fit for operators looking to add crypto into their business?
The whole idea behind a turnkey casino solution is to give operators everything they need to go live as soon as possible. When you add crypto, that means offering everything from crypto-friendly payment systems to blockchain-backed gaming for transparency and security. But the important part is that it’s not merely about putting a “crypto” label on your website and leaving it at that. We provide full integration with multi-coin support, crypto bonuses, and even real-time analytics. For operators, it’s the peace of mind that comes with knowing that upon making the switch, everything works — and it works fast. No waiting, no stress, just a revenue-boosting crypto experience. And you’ll be seeing profits in no time. Because you’ll get the tools to start engaging players immediately.
Bar, let’s talk about the notable transition from traditional casinos to online. Are operators who come from land-based casinos jumping on the crypto train? How are they adapting?
Absolutely! A lot of traditional operators are taking their first steps into the online scene and realizing crypto’s impact in it all. They already have local brand recognition, and now it’s time to take that trust and build it online. The great thing is, with crypto, they don’t have to worry about those annoying international payment delays or high fees. We help them adapt without the growing pains, offering localization for both payments and content. It’s basically taking what they already know and applying it to the online space: no need to rebuild everything. You’ve got your brand and audience — now let us help you go digital. It’s that easy.
One last thing: with all the changes happening in the iGaming space, especially with the crypto’s growing presence, what do you think operators should be focusing on in 2025?
2025 is all about speed and adaptability. Markets are moving at record pace, and operators who are stuck in the “perfect platform” mentality are going to miss the boat. Players expect fast, secure experiences, and with crypto, that’s what they get. But to keep up, operators need to launch fast, learn fast, and be ready to grow quickly. That means not over-complicating things: you don’t need to build from zero when you’ve got the right tools. With platforms like ours, operators can quickly adapt to trends, integrate new features, and focus on what really matters: delivering a fantastic player experience. The market’s moving, and those who move with it are the ones who win.
The post Exclusive Q&A With Bar Konson, Chief Business Development Officer at NuxGame appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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