Lawson: “We look forward to 2021 with great enthusiasm and are confident we will have huge success”

You have more than 13 years of experience in the gaming industry. What have you learnt so far about players and why did you decide to launch Mobius Interactive on the last year?

Having spent a predominant amount of time in various aspects of gaming operations, I have always been on the front line with customers, nurturing them through their player journey from sign up to VIP, so you get to form your ideas from these interactions. In doing so, I have learned the true value of brand loyalty and of gaining that player trust, based on the feedback I have received from their positive experiences. The concept of Mobius Interactive and our three opening brands: Mobius Bet, Aragon Casino and Club Double was conceived by our VP of Marketing, Nick de Freitas. In its early stages, I could see the strength behind the three diverse and unique brands in the regions we are currently targeting. Mobius Interactive Ltd is the overarching brand tying these brands together and the core brand values extend all the way through to the Mobius Affiliates platform, which pushes the brand concepts and ideas even further. We also have a full loyalty program being implemented right now and we will be topping that up in the new year with our gamification program. I believe that the combination of the brand stories, customer service and loyalty, together with this gamification program, will seriously empower our brands to succeed in all markets we enter.

I want to share some data with you. In 2019, online gaming industry outperformed both movies and music industries by more than US$100 billion. At the same time, the Esports segment is expected to rise from US$1 billion in 2019 to US$1.7 billion in 2021. What do these numbers represent for Mobius, its array of products and the relationship with bettors?

The future bodes very well for Mobius Interactive Ltd and is one of the main reasons we decided to launch during lockdown. We were the initial proponents of Esports over the past few years, but with limited success until now, due to the sports betting players not being too keen to interact with Esports, mainly due to the length of times these Esports tournaments run, as opposed to general sports, which games have much shorter duration. Obviously, in lockdown, and without the usual sporting activities, all of this changed. We could see the rise in Esports viewership and went full out to launch our three diverse brands, which we did with a small team within three months, a record time in the gaming industry. With regards to the range of products, we have sports betting, Esports, casino and live casino. This is great for cross-selling to various audiences and is perfectly matched to our target markets, so we look forward to 2021 with great enthusiasm. We are confident we will have huge success, because of our combined strengths in having worked with these products over many years in the online gaming industry. In fact, we have been approached –even before we launched– by Esports tournament companies wanting us to showcase their tournaments on our websites. They have contacted us to close several deals, which we will be activating throughout 2021 and onwards.

Why have you chosen UltraPlay as platform partner? What benefits has this decision brought to your company?

We chose UltraPlay as our platform partner because they focus heavily on Esports and they are multiple award-winners in their field of expertise. In addition, they offered us the range of products mentioned above and worked with us to get to launch as quickly as possible. They saw the potential that we could bring to their platform, based on our knowledge of the industry. In addition, they have a large team of Traders, who give our Customer Service team advice daily and, in return, our experienced Customer Service team give them advice on player behavioral needs and expectations.

What is your point of view on the Latin American iGaming market and players? How is your company working to increase its influence in the region?

Latin America is still largely untapped and mostly unregulated now. However, a number of territories are moving to becoming regulated environments, which is great for us, as we are currently operating under a Curaçao license, like most start-ups do in our industry. We intend to be providing our products and services in as many countries of this region as possible. We have had years of experience working in this continent; have Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese support, with several big deals we are currently negotiating with our partners in LatAm. Moreover, we are working with our associates to secure grassroots marketing activities all the way through to having the potential to partner with land-based casinos in these countries, driving the online gaming activities for the group.

You have been defined by colleagues and former associates as a leader and a mentor. How would you describe yourself as a leader? What is your leadership style to better transmit your ideas and goals to your collaborators?

Well, that’s very kind of them to say so. I think the best way to describe my leadership style is proactive and engaging. I consider it’s very important to lead from the front line and the only way you can do that is by understanding the individual tasks that the various departments are required to work through on a daily basis. This hands-on front-line experience has given me a unique perspective of the complexity of the issues the teams face every day, and this has always helped me to relate and problem solve with colleagues in a very efficient manner. Certainly, in a startup situation, you can encounter many challenges, so it’s important that you can work closely with your respective teams to help them solve these issues quickly, allowing them to make decisions which will impact the business positively and learn and grow at the same time. I have learnt from experience of running multiple teams, in big organizations and startups scenarios, building from the ground up, that when you give the team members responsibility, allowing them to set their own goals and KPIs for personal and professional growth, they work proactively to make a positive impact on the business overall. Happy staff, successful business!

You are a fan of Blockchain technology and Bitcoin as a currency of exchange. In which way are these tools revolutionizing the gaming industry?

Yes, most definitely, what Blockchain technology has done over the past few years for the gaming industry is to firstly allow the sector to offer additional payment methodologies, which are safer for the player base in the form of secure wallets. Secondly, it offers lower costs with regards to international payment processing and the payouts being almost real-time, using the player’s own encrypted ledgers. We are seeing improved payments on betting with crypto currencies like Bitcoin, which is one of a number of crypto depositing options we offer on all of our Mobius Interactive brands. Crypto is becoming more trusted globally. In fact, it is competing with gold right now, so I think it’s very safe to say the future for our industry is incredibly bright and we have a lot of exciting new technologies to look forward to in this field.

How to get young generation of players not only to be passionate about Esports and virtual gaming, but also to invest their money by betting on them?

Young players have been leading the way for many years now in Esports, to my mind –it is what we can learn from them– to service their needs better in this space. The competitive aspect of Esports lends itself to the sports betting arena quite naturally, as they play to win and there are so many variables in play during tournaments. We have already developed our Esports guide on Mobius.Bet website, in conjunction with Ultra Play, which was created to train spectators and gamers alike on all aspects of the Esports games and how to bet pre-game and in-play.

What are your plans for the next 2 years? What projects are you eager to execute on those sleepless nights in which you design the future of your company?

Our plans are to consolidate our brands in all the regions we enter and to go public on a number of exchanges in Canada, the UK and Europe. Once we have done this, we intend to raise funds to enter the US market, which is a competitive and challenging environment, as the different States all have their own rules and regulations. However, the potential for growth there is huge, so worthwhile undertaking this enormous endeavor to solidify our company’s growth and position it for the future.