The human capital challenge in iGaming: APERCON addresses the retention of key profiles in the face of SiGMA and Gambling Insider:
The main challenges facing the iGaming industry globally are typically addressed from a regulatory or technological development perspective. However, the long-term viability of operators still hinges on a strictly human variable: managing high-performing teams and attracting reliable leadership. In a recent exclusive interview with SiGMA News, Hanna Radchenko, CEO of the strategic consulting and recruitment group APERCON, analyzed the structural shortcomings the sector faces in recruiting professionals for executive positions in iGaming.
Throughout her presentation at the SiGMA forum, the executive argued that alignment with corporate values and personal integrity should take precedence overspecific technical skills during the selection process for executive leadership positions . In a high-speed market where digital tools and development platforms become obsolete in increasingly shorter cycles, personality traits and the ability to manage operational crises represent a far more stable assetfor corporations.
Internal discipline as a risk control tool
Contrary to the common narrative that links online gaming with extreme flexibility and constant disruption, Radchenko positioned methodological discipline not as a hindrance to innovation, but as an indispensable safeguard for the business. The operational variability of the sector and the high economic cost of errors in areas such as regulatory compliance or financial security demand organizational structures capable of mitigating arbitrariness in strategic decision-making.
This analytical approach also modifies the traditional understanding of high employee turnover, a phenomenon frequently attributed to the dynamics of new generations of workers. From APERCON’s perspective, high rates of talent drain are often a symptom of unstable corporate cultures or recruitment policies based solely on short-term financial incentives. Organizations with strong corporate governance structures are considerably less vulnerable to these labor market fluctuations.
Structural solutions to the shortage of specialized profiles
The debate over whether senior management should be recruited from within or from outside the market was resolved by Radchenko by considering each company’s growth stage. While external recruitment addresses the need for rapid expansion or urgent, confidential replacements, developing internal succession plans requires long-term stability and guaranteed resources.
To address the shortage of qualified professionals in critical areas, ranging from product and operations management to VIP customer retention and crypto verticals, the APERCON group plans to launch a specialized educational platform aimed at middle and senior management. This initiative seeks to break the reactive trend prevailing in the industry, where companies systematically compete for the same limited pool of active professionals, artificially inflating recruitment costs without generating new capabilities within the global iGaming ecosystem.
More details, available in Spanish