"2025 will be a transformative year for iGaming companies, with a significant increase in technology adoption"

The gaming industry begins 2025 with the certainty that its expansion process will continue, even faster than ever before. As part of this growth, new technologies will play an increasingly important role.

Within this scenario, Imagemaker, a multinational software development company with more than 25 years of experience, has developed customized artificial intelligence applications for its clients, including Walmart, Banco Santander, and MetLife.

Last year, Imagemaker brought on board two experienced iGaming executives, Cristian Acuña as CCO and Jaime Moscote as Commercial Director in Colombia. With their experience, the company has launched its iGaming Hub in Colombia to support the rapidly growing iGaming and casino industry.

Both executives shared in an exclusive interview with Yogonet their plans for 2025, including their imminent participation in ICE Barcelona 2025, and much more.

Where do iGaming and casino technology stand in comparison to other industries?

Cristian Acuña: The iGaming industry has experienced continuous growth year after year, reaching double-digit rates in many markets. To keep up with or surpass the market, the key lies in 'player retention,' which is achieved through excellent customer service and quality content. Disruptive technology often gets left behind, with the prevailing mindset of: 'Why invest in the latest technology if we are already growing fast?'

Conversely, industries such as e-commerce and fintech/banking are highly mature. In these sectors, customer service is a standard expected by consumers. Therefore, competitive advantage is driven through investments in technology. For example, Walmart allocates 2.3% of its revenue, approximately $15 billion, annually to automation, customer experience, artificial intelligence, and other technologies.

Jaime Moscote: While the iGaming sector may seem to lag behind other industries, we expect that by 2025, as the iGaming consumer market matures, casinos and B2B suppliers will begin to increase their investments in technology to stay ahead of the curve.

How do you see the process of scaling technology investments in iGaming?

Jaime Moscote: As iGaming companies grow, they achieve economies of scale that allow them to redirect time and resources to new initiatives. This creates an ideal opportunity for internal digital transformation. One of the biggest challenges is a change in mindset. Companies often need to adopt software development best practices, such as DevOps and agile methodologies. Many firms, especially those where one of the partners is the CTO, face difficulties in letting go of legacy systems they have built from scratch. While emotionally attached to their creations, these firms must modernize to achieve sustainable growth.

Cristian Acuña: The optimal approach is to keep the development of core technologies related to the company's core business in-house, while outsourcing secondary tasks, such as API integrations or peripheral applications. In addition, bringing in niche specialists, such as artificial intelligence or machine learning experts, to integrate with internal teams can accelerate the innovation cycle.

What can you tell us about Imagemaker's iGaming Hub?

Cristian Acuña: We believe that 2025 will be a transformative year for iGaming companies, with a significant increase in the adoption of technology, especially artificial intelligence applications. These innovations will improve various aspects of business operations, such as customer service, personalized game recommendations, fraud detection, and automation. To support this, we have established our 'iGaming Hub' to help iGaming companies scale quickly.

Our approach starts by assessing your roadmap. We build a dedicated team that includes software developers with diverse specialties and a management team that integrates Scrum Masters, Delivery Managers, and Agile Coaches. This structure ensures compliance with best practices and provides clients with transparency and visibility into performance, no matter where they are in the world. Importantly, these teams are fully dedicated to customer projects.

Why operate from Colombia?

Cristian Acuña: Locally, the initiative is led by Jaime, who brings extensive iGaming experience having worked at Genius Sports and operator WPlay.co. His deep knowledge of the challenges and growth opportunities for iGaming companies positions him perfectly to guide this new project.

Jaime Moscote: Imagemaker is a global company with around 500 employees, of which more than 100 are based in Colombia. We have a solid infrastructure in the country to support recruitment and operations. In addition, Colombia has a mature iGaming market and a large talent pool of specialized iGaming engineers. Colombian engineers also stand out for their excellent technical knowledge and high level of English, which makes them highly competitive globally.