‘Graduates are essential to our growth as a business’ – bet365

In the past six months, bet365 has hired 36 graduates for its Technology Department, reflecting a self-admitted belief in the essentiality of graduates to its business growth.

Turning to social media, bet365 welcomed its graduate starters and welcomed future applicants saying, "believe it or not, we are still hiring".

The company, which is one of the largest iGaming operators in the world, employs a total of 5,000 people in offices across the world, including Malta.

bet365's continued drive to hire graduates in tech positions reflects a wider skills shortage in the iGaming industry, where industry insiders have sounded the warning over shortages of staff to fill particular positions.

It is a phenomenon which, at least in Malta, has been particularly pronounced. Speaking to iGamingCapital.mt, some experts identified a pandemic exodus of expats from the island as contributing to difficulties finding employees for particular positions.

For example, Krysta Muscat, Head of Recruitment from Betting Connections said: "Once the pandemic hit, there was a noticeable halt due to the unknown and our efforts to source staff had to shift from relying on the relocation of foreign candidates to sourcing local talent which was more challenging at the beginning".

On the other hand, Phil Pearson, Chief Operating Officer at iGaming Group explained that even before the pandemic, "the main problem for iGaming is finding quality skilled people in very specific roles".

This is caused by the "overpaying of those roles in big companies and a lack of market experience for junior positions".

One possible long term solution to both of these problems, which seems to be being explored by bet365, could be to acquire promising young staff soon after their graduation and build their skills and company loyalty from there.