Pitch ICE, the progressive initiative which was introduced by Clarion Gaming over a decade ago to help nurture the development of start-ups and fledgling businesses in the gaming space, has received a huge increase in the number of entries.

The 2025 edition of Pitch ICE, which will be the first to take place in Barcelona, has attracted 73 entries compared to the 27 received for London 2024.

The Pitch ICE sessions taking place on Monday 20th January and Tuesday 21st January (11am – 12:30pm) will see 12 trailblazing start-ups present their business plans to a prestigious panel of judges and compete for the chance to win $50,000 (US) in deliverables courtesy of Pitch ICE sponsor NYCE International.

The short-listed enterprises are: EmpowerYourPlay; MFC Games; ChatBet; HotTakes; Betpass; SavageTech GmbH; Vulkan Systems S.L.; Reincleanchips AS; XGENIA; The Game Safety Institute; FootAR SA and AcePay.

The judging panel is made-up of leading voices in gaming and venture capital, including:

• Kelly Kehn, Co-Founder, Defy the Odds
• Harmen Brenninkmeijer, Executive Chairman, NYCE International Ltd.
• Mona Motwani, CEO & Founder, Ixia Capital
• Adam Rosenberg, Senior Advisor, Gaming & Leisure, Blackstone
• Farzad Peyman, CEO, NYCE International & Partner, Virya Gaming Ventures
• Tom Waterhouse, CIO, WaterhouseVC
• Miquel Martí, CEO, Tech Barcelona
• Garron Whitesman, Owner, Whitesmans Attorneys

Stuart Hunter Managing Director at Clarion Gaming is delighted that ICE remains at the forefront of gaming’s enterprise culture. He stated: “I am extremely proud that ICE has played an important role in bringing together the gaming ecosystem in such a way and being a facilitator of opportunity for companies which may be small in size but who are giants in terms of their creativity and potential.”

He continued: “The fact that this is the largest number of entries that we have received reflects the spirit of innovation that drives this amazing industry. Our new home at Fira Gran Via Barcelona will be full with exhibiting companies that began with a brilliant idea and through a mixture of inspiration and hard work grew to be where they are today.

“Pitch ICE 2025 will showcase the brightest ideas which have the potential to shape the future of gaming. With the generous support of our sponsors NYCE International and the insight of a judging panel whose expertise you simply couldn’t buy, I hope that we can collectively help turn those brilliant ideas into outstanding businesses.”

ICE Barcelona will be home to the industry’s best ever line-up of exhibitors comprising the world’s biggest and most respected innovator brands from every gambling vertical. The industry’s leading trade associations, strategic bodies, regulators, CEOs of tier-1 operators and games creators will all be at Barcelona in record-breaking numbers underlining the show’s reputation for being the ‘Davos of Gambling’.

With over a decade of experience in the gambling and FinTech industries, Tetiana Volkova has risen to become a key figure at Infingame, an iGaming aggregator renowned for its tailored solutions and cutting-edge technology. From starting her career in client support to shaping strategies in B2C and B2B roles, Tetiana’s journey has been defined by her ability to adapt, innovate, and deeply understand the complexities of the markets she serves.

In this exclusive interview, Tetiana discusses her path to Infingame, the advantages of partnering with aggregation platforms, and how localised content and emerging trends like AI and social casinos are shaping the iGaming landscape. She offers a behind-the-scenes look at how Infingame stays ahead of the competition and supports operators in delivering unmatched player experiences across diverse markets.

Can you begin by introducing yourself – how did you come to work at Infingame? 

I have been working in the gambling and FinTech industry for the last 10 years, starting on the support side, before shifting my focus towards client retention, B2C sales as well as B2B account management. At Infingame, I have gained some great insight into the supplier side of this exciting industry, which has offered a unique perspective when compared to my previous experiences in the industry.

Prior to joining Infingame, I worked for a number of operators who were active across a range of different markets. This experience has shaped my role at Infingame, giving me insights into some of the pain points that our partners may face when working with different platform providers.

Infingame is a very broad, multifaceted business that is constantly evolving and striving to be the best aggregator on the market. Having previously only worked with payment aggregators, working as an iGaming aggregator has been a new, exciting experience for me.

When I first joined Infingame, I was captivated by the collective drive towards success, and how invested everyone in the team was to achieve greatness. The core values and vision of the future resonated with me, and I decided I want to become part of the team. I haven’t looked back – I have learnt so much since working here and am very excited to see what the future holds for Infingame!

In your view, why should operators consider partnering with an aggregation platform such as Infingame?

I think that there are several benefits to working with an aggregation hub, such as Infingame. The first, and arguably the most impactful, is the efficiency and support network that we can offer.

Imagine how consuming it is, both in terms of time and energy, to go directly to 100+ providers that your brand wants to work with. Firstly, you have to identify why they’d be a good partner, negotiate commercial terms with them, conduct KYC and AML procedures, not to mention legal and compliance checks. And then, once you’ve done all that, you then have the huge step of conducting the technical integration, which can take a considerable amount of time!

Not all operators have the resources for this – often their development teams are already swamped with technical updates, adding new features etc.

Partnering with an aggregator can significantly reduce that technical and time burden of partnering with several providers. At Infingame, we take on the support and delivery of a whole host of games – we have more than 16,000+ games from 200 providers on our platform – thereby freeing up the operator’s team to focus on other, more pressing areas.

In the last few years, one trend that we have also noticed is that many providers prefer to work exclusively through aggregators, as they also see a lot of convenience and benefit in using the services of intermediaries. We can deliver that content and more, all via a single API!

From an operator perspective, what key factors are they looking for when adding new games to their platform?

At Infingame, we are very fortunate to be working across a whole host of different markets. With that in mind, we understand that each operator we work with will differ in their requests – be it in terms of game types, providers, regulatory requirements, etc. The casinos that we work with value our ability to personalise the products we offer to suit their specific needs; after all, an ‘off the shelf’ product is no longer sufficient if you want to become a market leader.

We offer a whole host of casino games on our platform, from crash games and live casino to social casino and crash games. Not to mention an exciting range of gamification tools, including tournaments, big win replays and the fastest spin time in the iGaming industry – all of which have been tailored to help our operators increase player engagement.

Our operators also value technical stability and reliability – you cannot become a reliable brand if your technology is not up to scratch. Our development team has done a great job at ensuring our aggregation platform can handle large volumes of traffic, with a 99.9% uptime.

At the same time, we are seeing more of our partners show an interest in new mechanics and features that can attract Millennial / Gen Z players. Our combination of exciting games, engagement and retention tools and technical excellence helps position operators to effectively tap into this increasingly tech-savvy audience. We have ensured that each of our games can be optimised for different devices and localised to suit the unique player preferences within each market. This includes offering a range of local currencies and languages, as well as incorporating promotional content and jackpots, etc.

Infingame places a heavy emphasis on curated, localised content that meets the needs of players in each market you operate in. How do you go about understanding player preferences? And how does this help you offer a personalised experience on a market-by-market basis? 

I have worked with end users of operators for several years, and I think that fully understanding the behaviours of players in each market that you operate in can give you better insights into understanding what players might want from games.

At Infingame, we have true specialists for each market that we operate in. Each market specialist is responsible for understanding the intricacies of audiences within that specific jurisdiction; this is done by constantly analysing player data and using these insights to improve the products and tools we have available on our platform. This knowledge is furthered by having teams based on the ground – this helps us stay well versed on the developments taking place in real-time. This allows us to remain laser-focused on specific markets and truly support our partners in gaining an edge over the competition.

Also, do not forget that communication with clients and partners is a two-way street, so a huge part of our work consists of receiving feedback from operators and providers, working with their requests and effectively navigating the challenges that they face, which allows us to be among the first to know about all the trends sweeping the iGaming industry.

As we edge closer to the end of the year, what are some of the biggest changes that you expect to see across the iGaming industry? Will certain technologies / markets dominate conversations?

The iGaming industry has changed a lot over the last few years; this has been particularly evident throughout 2024 as new trends and technological developments have continued to shake up the industry. This, I believe, will continue long into 2025.

On the whole, the gambling industry is now looking towards Latin America, especially Brazil. The ever-changing news about Brazil’s regulation has certainly captured everyone’s attention – this market is brimming with opportunities, although competition will most definitely be fierce. It is going to be difficult to guess what exactly will happen there in 2025.

I also see significant interest in the sweepstakes and social casino market, which have huge potential – this is a trend that I believe will continue to become increasingly popular across new markets. We are one of the first aggregators to actively enter this field and we see that providers are also interested in expanding in this direction and are actively updating their content to meet very specific requirements.

I am also very interested in the fate of my native Ukrainian market, which is very difficult to predict now. I am afraid that wintertime can be very harsh for Ukrainian operators and players, since due to constant attacks on the energy structure, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure continuous operation and stability of games for both providers and operators.

Paysafe (NYSE: PSFE), a global payments platform, today announced that it has received approval from the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) for a payment institution (PI) license for the country’s launch of its regulated online sports-betting and gambling market. The license allows Paysafe to expand its payment partnerships with iGaming operators into Latin America’s most populated country as well as support Brazilian merchants in a range of other industries with eCommerce payments. The PI license enables Paysafe, which also recently joined the Brazilian Association of Fintechs (ABFintechs), to deepen its substantial footprint in the regulated Latin American iGaming space. The 90+ regulated global iGaming jurisdictions where Paysafe currently has a presence include Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, and, most recently, Peru, whose new regulated market went live in early 2024.

With a population of 212 million and projected sports-betting turnover of $34 billion by 2028, Brazil is expected to eclipse all other Latin American jurisdictions in size – and Paysafe is strongly positioned to support the market’s growth potential. In addition to being able to extend its established partnerships with leading international operators into Brazil, Paysafe offers a suite of payment choices catering to Brazilians’ diverse payment preferences.

By partnering with Paysafe, Brazilian operators can offer their customers Skrill and NETELLER, the most established digital wallets developed specifically for iGaming, as well as a range of other alternative payment methods (APMs) via Paysafe’s SafetyPay payment gateway, including instant bank transfers using BCB’s Pix payment system.

Beyond online sports-betting and iGaming, Paysafe’s PI license allows the company to support Brazilian eCommerce, travel and entertainment merchants as well as digital content creators with its suite of APMs.

“With this expansion, Paysafe is poised to better serve the Brazilian market with payment solutions, including the regulated Brazilian iGaming market, which will mark a new era for not only Latin American gaming but also the global space, with the country becoming the third largest betting jurisdiction on earth,” said Rob Gatto, Chief Revenue Officer at Paysafe. “We’re delighted to bring our deep payments, regulatory and compliance experience into play in this important new market to support Brazilian operators’ growth with our payment solutions following our new payment institution license, which will also allow us to streamline online transactions for local travel and entertainment merchants.”