Built to Last: Regulation, North America and the AI Opportunity

Kevin, 1X2 Network launched in 2002. Looking back, was building a long-lasting business a conscious goal from the outset?

The foundations of the business come from being a family-owned company. My father founded the business in 2002 and, by its nature, a family business tends to think long term. You’re building for the future, for growth, and for the people within the company as much as for the shareholders.

When you look back, there are always moments where you think you could have done things differently. There are companies that started around the same time as us that have become billion-pound businesses, but there are also many more that no longer exist. We’ve continued to adapt, sometimes thrive, sometimes struggle, but we’ve remained focused on evolving and meeting the new challenges this industry throws at us. That willingness to adapt has been fundamental to our longevity.

You’ve spoken about creating long-term value in regulated markets. How do you decide which opportunities are worth pursuing?

Every market is different. You have to assess each one from several perspectives at once: product, technology, compliance, corporate structure and commercial potential. The lead-up to regulation also varies considerably. Some markets transition from grey to regulated, while others emerge as entirely new opportunities where gaming that was previously prohibited becomes legal. Regulation isn’t the only factor, however. Political developments can be just as significant. Brexit is a good example for UK-based companies, where we had to navigate the far-reaching impact that political change had on our wider licensing structure. You have to weigh all of these variables together to understand both the opportunities and the risks.

One thing we’ve learned is that delays are inevitable. Whether it’s regulatory approvals, external advisers or internal development work, timelines nearly always take longer than expected. The key is understanding the cost of those delays and building that into your planning. Being first to market can be valuable, but it’s not always essential. Sometimes entering a more mature market with a stronger proposition can be equally effective.

North America has become a major focus for many suppliers. How do you approach market entry while ensuring you can build momentum afterwards?

For suppliers, market entry is only part of the challenge. You’re dependent on operators to actually launch your content, so having a licence doesn’t automatically mean you’re live. The costs are also significant. It’s not just application fees. It’s the time spent by compliance teams, senior management, legal advisers and technical teams. Then there are infrastructure costs such as servers and certifications.

As a privately owned company, you’re balancing those investments carefully. You don’t want to spend heavily on infrastructure that sits unused for months while approvals are still pending. It’s why project management becomes so important. Missing a single dependency can create substantial delays and significantly increase costs. In many ways, managing that uncertainty is one of the hardest parts of entering a new market.

You’ve said previously that 1X2 Network has had North America in your sights for a long time. How has that influenced product development?

Good content performs everywhere, but different markets have different preferences. A few years ago, we adopted a multi-studio strategy. Iron Dog Studio focuses on premium slot content. Prospect Gaming delivers a more retail-inspired experience, while AD LUNAM was created specifically to target arcade-style players because those audiences are fundamentally different from traditional slot players.

When entering a market, we already have a view on which studios and content types are most likely to resonate. The rest of the portfolio comes along as part of the network, and occasionally we’re pleasantly surprised by what succeeds. North America has been particularly interesting because retail slot preferences remain very influential. We spend a lot of time observing what players are engaging with in casinos, understanding the mechanics they enjoy and considering how those experiences can be adapted successfully for online play.

What lessons have you learned from Ontario that could prove valuable as Alberta prepares to launch?

Ontario has been fascinating. Initially we performed well, but our growth accelerated as we built stronger relationships with operators that were active across multiple North American jurisdictions. Over time, our content began to gain momentum because it resonated with local player preferences. Historically, suppliers focused on producing games capable of generating huge streaming moments or massive wins. There’s still a place for that, but sustainable success comes from content that appeals to a broader audience.

North American players continue to enjoy experiences influenced by retail slots. Understanding that has helped shape our strategy and has informed the way we think about future opportunities.

In such a crowded content market, how do you identify the games that will truly succeed?

The honest answer is that nobody gets it right all the time. We’ve had games that operators were desperate to launch which underperformed, and we’ve had others that exceeded expectations. That’s why distribution, relationships and data are so important. One of our biggest advantages today is our internal data platform. It allows us to identify very quickly when a game is performing strongly. We can see engagement levels, player behaviour and performance indicators early in the lifecycle.

The important thing is trust. We don’t want account managers recommending every game as a future hit. When we tell an operator that a game is genuinely performing well, we want that recommendation to carry weight. Over time, that credibility becomes incredibly valuable.

You’ve described 1X2 Network as both an entertainment business and a technology company. Where do you see AI having the biggest impact?

AI is probably both the biggest opportunity and one of the biggest threats facing businesses today. For us, the timing has been excellent because we invested heavily in data infrastructure several years ago. AI is only as good as the information it’s given. If you feed it poor data, you’ll get poor outcomes. Our data platform helped us identify everything from technical bottlenecks to player experience issues. It allowed us to improve stability, performance and operational efficiency. Now we’re building AI capabilities on top of those foundations.

The biggest gains aren’t necessarily in game creation. They’re in making the business more efficient. We’re automating processes around game launches, reporting, alerts and operational workflows. Tasks that once required significant manual effort now happen automatically. It frees people to spend more time thinking, solving problems and adding value.

There’s concern that AI could make products feel homogenised. How do you maintain the personality of your studios and brands?

That’s a really important question. I don’t believe AI should replace creativity. The value still comes from people, ideas, intellectual property and understanding audiences. AI can help build a presentation in minutes instead of hours, but it doesn’t provide the personality behind that presentation. The same applies to games. The technology can make development more efficient, but the concepts, themes, characters and experiences still need human creativity.

For us, AI is most powerful when it improves efficiency across the business. The personality of our studios, our people and our relationships remains the differentiator. There are still significant questions around intellectual property and originality, and I think human creativity will continue to sit at the centre of successful game development.

What should operators and partners expect from 1X2 Network over the next few years?

We plan further ahead than people might expect. Game schedules are typically six months of planning and development, while as a business we’re already looking towards 2030. Having said that, predicting the future has become much harder because technology is moving so quickly. Projects that once took months can now potentially be completed in a fraction of the time thanks to AI-assisted development, and that fundamentally changes the assumptions you make when planning for the future.

At the same time, we continue to monitor regulatory developments, emerging markets and wider industry trends. We try to balance long-term opportunities with short-term realities. The advantage of being diversified is that we’re not dependent on a single market. The UK remains important, but we’re also seeing growth in markets such as Portugal and Finland. As long as we’re growing across multiple jurisdictions and continuing to adapt, there’s plenty of opportunity ahead.

This industry will continue evolving because people will continue gambling. Our job is to stay ahead of those changes and position ourselves for the next phase of growth.