Jewel Beat
For many companies in highly regulated digital sectors, the path to meaningful growth is littered with well-intentioned ideas that fizzle early.
Anywhere you look in the regulatory landscape of technology — financial services, health tech, or iGaming — the same pattern emerges: the pace of wanting to grow often far exceeds the pace of being ready to grow.
In iGaming, this pressure is intensified by fast user uptake, constantly evolving regulatory frameworks, and rising expectations from players across different markets.
Yet for leaders like Uri Poliavich, growth is never just about speed. It’s about building for the long haul, combining capital, strategy, and a deep understanding of industry dynamics into one coherent view of innovation.
Why Long-Term Thinking Matters in iGaming
The online gambling world is blowing up, but the headlines usually miss the nuts and bolts of how it’s actually happening.
By the numbers, we’re looking at a market worth nearly $79 billion right now, and that’s expected to double by 2030.
It’s not just a fluke; it’s being fueled by everyone having a smartphone in their pocket and more governments finally deciding to bring the industry into the light with actual regulations.
To put that in context: that’s nearly doubling in size over six years. Yet growth at the macro level masks the operational reality for individual operators.
Launching in new markets isn’t like flipping a switch. It involves navigating local regulatory regimes, adapting technology stacks to diverse compliance standards, and earning trust with players — all before you can claim any meaningful traction.
That’s why a long-term perspective isn’t a philosophical luxury. It’s a competitive necessity.
Soft2Bet Invest
When many tech executives talk about “innovation funding,” they mean rapid prototyping and quick exits. Under Uri Poliavich’s strategic guidance, Soft2Bet Invest takes a different tack — one rooted in the very dynamics that make regulated markets both challenging and rewarding.
Launched as a €50 million iGaming innovation fund, Soft2Bet Invest isn’t just about writing checks. It’s about supporting entrepreneurs and early-stage companies that can realistically tackle the complex problems inherent to this space, whether that’s platform optimization, data insights, or scalable compliance tools.
Soft2Bet Invest later earned the “Outstanding Contribution to Gaming 2024” award at SiGMA East Europe, underlining the industry’s recognition of its role in nurturing emerging talent.
This approach makes sense for a sector projected to grow significantly over the next decade but where players and operators alike expect seamless, trustworthy experiences. Funding tomorrow’s solutions — ones that tick both regulatory and user experience boxes — requires patience, pairing capital with deep industry knowledge and a willingness to see value over the long term.
Building With Discipline in a Fast-Moving Market
Growth in iGaming is often portrayed as an arms race: who’s first in a new market? Who has the flashiest interface? Who’s grabbed the largest user base this quarter?
When you look under the hood, you realize that lasting success actually has a much slower, steadier rhythm. Soft2Bet’s track record reflects this reality. Since its creation in 2016, the company has expanded into 19 regulated markets, investing early in a proprietary platform designed for stability and adaptability.
That foundation has helped it earn industry respect, including multiple accolades at the 2025 Global Gaming Awards EMEA, where Poliavich was recognised as “Executive of the Year” and the company’s gamification platform MEGA earned Product Launch of the Year.
What Disciplined Investment Looks Like
Not all funding strategies are created equal in a regulated environment.
Soft2Bet Invest focuses on backing founders that:
- Treat regulation as a core design requirement, not a barrier.
- Build technology with long-term scalability in mind.
- Play well with existing platforms rather than trying to start from scratch.
Lessons From the Broader Industry Numbers
If you need proof of how intense this industry has become, look at the numbers—they’re mind blowing. Whether the market hits $167 billion by 2030 or blows past $286 billion five years later, the point is the same: we aren’t just seeing a bit of growth.
We’re watching the entire landscape shift. It’s a perfect storm of smartphones being everywhere and governments finally getting comfortable with the idea of legal betting.
This isn’t just hype for a press release; it’s a total overhaul of how the world plays. But they also mean that competition will intensify, and players who want to stay relevant over the next decade can’t rely solely on early market wins.
Why AI Is Becoming Central to iGaming Operations
AI has moved past the hype stage in iGaming—it’s now the actual engine under the hood.
As markets grow, companies are leaning on AI to handle the heavy lifting like spotting fraud, tailoring the user experience, and managing the legal red tape that used to require an army of people.
The real issue is sheer volume. Once a platform hits a certain size, the data becomes a mountain that no human team can climb.
AI models, on the other hand, can sift through millions of transactions in seconds to flag risks or predict when a player is about to walk away.
That’s why AI adoption is growing at double-digit rates. For operators, it’s not about being “techy”—it’s about survival. Without this kind of automation, trying to grow just becomes too expensive and messy to manage.
Integrating AI Without Breaking the System
From an operator and investor perspective, successful AI integration in iGaming tends to follow a few consistent principles:
- AI has to be transparent. If you can’t explain how it made a decision, it’s never going to fly with a regulator.
- Bad data in, bad results out. You need high-quality, legal data sources or the whole model is built on a lie.
- Keep a human in the driver’s seat. Automation is perfect for the grunt work, but it’s not a “set it and forget it” thing.
This is where Soft2Bet Invest really proves its worth.
AI startups in this space usually have great tech but zero clue how to survive the brutal reality of regulation or system integration.
By pairing cash with actual operational “know-how,” the fund makes sure these tools don’t just work in a lab, but actually hold up when they hit the real world.
Building for the Next Phase of iGaming
The next phase of iGaming is basically a survival test. With rules, data, and player demands all hitting a boiling point, the old-school systems are starting to crack.
You can’t just keep patching things up; you need a setup that actually grows with the chaos so you aren’t forced to hit the “reset” button every time the industry shifts.
Through a combination of disciplined leadership, targeted investment via Soft2Bet Invest, and a pragmatic view of innovation such as AI integration, Uri Poliavich’s approach highlights what it takes to build iGaming businesses that are prepared for what comes next, not just what comes fast.
