SOFTSWISS and Pentasia Malta Expert Event Reveals Why Hiring in iGaming Gets Harder in 2026

SOFTSWISS and Pentasia, an iGaming recruitment agency, hosted a talent-focused expert event in Malta. It gathered HR and executive leaders from across Europe to discuss the key challenges in iGaming hiring today and to offer practical frameworks for companies looking to stay competitive in the talent market.

Titled Talent Trends: Expert Discussion, the event presented the recently released 2026 iGaming Talent Trends report based on survey responses from over 90 B2B and B2C industry leaders and enriched with operational and recruitment data from SOFTSWISS and Pentasia. The panel featured Natalia Perkowska, Deputy Chief HR Officer at SOFTSWISS; Denis Romanovskiy, Chief AI Officer at SOFTSWISS; Alastair Cleland, Managing Director at Pentasia; and Andrew Cook, Head of Conexus Leadership at The Conexus Group.

Natalia Perkowska highlighted a key shift in candidate expectations. Senior professionals now evaluate a potential employer through what she described as a "digital stress test". They prioritise product roadmaps and decision-making speed over office perks. Employer transparency and operational clarity have become critical factors in accepting offers.

The people you actually need are not task executors. They are system architects. When highly experienced professionals read a job description full of repetitive duties, they often see only busywork and move on. The companies that win in the next few years will stop hiring specialists who fit the current process. They will hire people who can design the next process.

Natalia Perkowska

Deputy Chief HR Officer at SOFTSWISS

Pentasia’s keynote examined the changing structure of the global talent market. Companies adopting remote-first hiring models can access talent pools that are roughly 340% larger than those available through local hiring alone. As competition for skilled professionals intensifies, expanding talent geography has become a survival strategy. The most in-demand candidates today are those working at the intersection of disciplines, such as technology and compliance or data and fraud prevention. These hybrid professionals are rare and require more than a salary to attract.

The companies need to build what we call internal ‘Talent Factories’. This means continuously developing skills and creating environments where experts can deliver impact quickly. Because in today’s market, the world is not your office. The world is your talent pool.

Alastair Cleland

Managing Director at Pentasia

The panel also addressed the growing role of AI in hiring and team structures. AI literacy is becoming a baseline requirement, while demand is rising for specialists who can supervise and manage AI systems. At the same time, Denis Romanovskiy noted that reduced hiring at junior levels is creating a potential long-term gap in mid-level talent, raising questions about how companies will build future expertise. He also shared that while companies search for exceptional senior talent, candidates at that level often look similar on paper, making genuine differentiation harder to assess and therefore harder to find a good fit.

Following the Malta event, SOFTSWISS and Pentasia will continue the discussion online. A LinkedIn Live panel titled “Stop Losing Talent: 7 Smart Steps for Hiring in 2026” takes place on 20 March at 13:00 CEST. Registration is now open.

The 2026 iGaming Talent Trends report, which offers practical frameworks and tools for building effective teams in a complicated regulatory climate, is available for free download on the SOFTSWISS website.