Dominator Play explores the realities of building a casino game provider

In this article, Dominator Play explores the realities behind building an iGaming startup from scratch, from navigating product development and operator expectations to balancing innovation, distribution, and long-term commercial viability in an increasingly competitive market.

The iGaming industry loves success stories: blockbuster launches, record-breaking metrics, and partnerships announced with LinkedIn-worthy fanfare. 

But behind every casino game provider that makes it into operators' lobbies lies a less glamorous reality. Hundreds of decisions, false starts, unexpected roadblocks, and lessons nobody puts in the press release happen at every step.

As the saying goes, "You don't know what you don't know." Many of the assumptions that seem logical at the start of a provider's journey quickly collide with market conditions.

The Dominator Play CEO, Ivan Kalashniuk, and CPO, Constantin Molodtov, share their experiences of creating an iGaming startup from scratch.

When experience becomes a starting point

A story is always the thing that comes before the business. 

Apple started in a garage with 2 guys. Spotify started with 2 founders staring at an industry that was collapsing under piracy. Stripe started with 2 brothers annoyed at how painful online payments were.

Different industries, same pattern: it’s rarely a big team. It’s usually a few people, slightly obsessed with the same idea from different angles. Dominator Play sits in that same category.

Ivan Kalashniuk came from the iGaming business development. The part of the industry where you stop romanticizing “partnerships” pretty quickly. Where you learn that distribution is less a channel and more a gate that opens differently each time you knock. He’s got 7+ years of working closely with operators and helping them grow their GGR.

Constantin Molodtov came from mobile game development. Becoming the Dominator Play CPO, he brought to the table all the best mobile gamedev practices, including disciplined GDD (game design document) processes. A strong background in creating products tailored to diverse player preferences offered a fresh angle on developing iGaming titles.

“Ivan’s and my previous careers actually became a springboard for moving it forward with Dominator Play creation,” Constantin Molodtov says, “it’s a winning skill combination when one of the founders is strong in business, and another one – in product. Ivan has a clear picture of where the industry is going, while I know which types of products perform best with players.”

Constantin Molodtov added that the synergy between the two sides led to the creation of a game studio. It naturally became Dominator Play’s “superpower.” Ivan Kalashniuk, with his deep understanding of operators’ pain points, knows what can be a solution. He, in turn, brought game design, player behavior, and game math together into a working ecosystem.

All is not as it seems

In casino game development, building a provider happens in several time zones at once. You create games for the present, build processes for the next year, and make hiring decisions for challenges that haven't appeared yet.

Ivan Kalashniuk notes that it’s putting all the puzzles together that often diverges in “expectations” versus “reality.” 

“Before the first title is even created, there is no revenue curve and no KPIs that feel real. Yet money is already moving, just in a different direction,” the CEO observes. “The early stage of a development studio isn’t a normal business cycle. It’s pre-revenue game provider economics with its own rules.”

He emphasizes that, at the center of sorting out priorities, is a distortion. Everything looks structured: roadmap, quarterly goals, go-to-market iGaming product strategy. In real conditions, it behaves more like a live negotiation between 3 forces: product ambition, integration pressure, and commercial opportunity.

“From my experience, I know that, before integrations, every single point of the iGaming business strategy feels equally critical. After integrations, it gets repriced instantly: operators decide what matters and traffic exposes what doesn’t.”

The CEO says that one of the biggest obstacles new studios often face is the lack of feedback in the early stages. However, the feedback is where the performing product starts. 

“To get early feedback from potential partners, Dominator Play has launched a waiting list,” Ivan Kalashniuk says. “More than 100 platforms and operators have already joined us. This tactic allows us to get valuable insights into how we can fine-tune our upcoming products to meet operators’ demands.”

Decision tree 

Before any math models or game concepts appear, there’s a fundamental decision: What kind of provider is being built? Mass-market slot studio? Niche brand? 

It’s a decision tree that decides whether an iGaming game provider becomes a scalable supplier or just another “we also make slots” studio. It can be distribution-first, identity-first, or revenue-first. 

When studios decide to win iGaming leadership by balancing all 3, they end up switching priorities. It may depend on who is shouting the loudest: product, BD, or whoever just saw a competitor go live somewhere.

Constantin Molodtov explains that iGaming is an industry that appeals to many who want to start a business. The potential revenue becomes a honeypot. But beneath that surface appeal sits a far more complex system.

Long before the first integration, providers have to think about how a title will perform across different operators, markets, player segments, and acquisition strategies. What looks like a successful game concept on paper may require multiple adjustments before it becomes commercially viable.

"Player preferences vary dramatically between markets, operators, and traffic sources," Constantin Molodtov notes. "A volatility profile that performs well in one environment may underperform in another. The same game can generate completely different player behavior depending on how risk and reward are distributed throughout the experience."

For that reason, Dominator Play treats volatility and RTP as variables rather than fixed characteristics of a game. Instead of committing to a single model, the team builds flexibility into the product from the start.

"We include several volatility and RTP variations in every product," the CPO explains. "It's one of the most important parts of any game. And we can adjust those values live whenever needed."

Ivan Kalashniuk notes that integration accounts for only 50% of success. Co-promotions with operators play a key role. The studio develops games with marketing in mind. It gives its partners access to engagement mechanics such as free spins, tournaments, leaderboards, quests, and prize drops from day one.

The approach reflects a broader lesson many providers learn only after entering the market: success is rarely determined by the original concept alone. Once the game goes live, the market becomes a co-author.