Island sees significant growth in eGaming sector, leading to increased jobs and revenue from licence applications

24 March 2021

Digital Isle of Man, an Executive Agency within the Department for Enterprise, has seen substantial growth within the eGaming sector over the past year, in terms of both revenue from licence applications, and job creation through growth of on-island businesses.

The past 12 months have seen a huge increase to the number of applications for eGaming licences, with the Gambling Supervision Commission (‘GSC’) reporting the highest number of licences that the Island has supervised at one time, currently 55 with several more in the pipeline, which represents a 30% increase on the previous year.

The Digital Agency is responsible for attracting new eGaming business to the Island through a collaborative approach to business development. This, combined with a new content-led marketing strategy, has resulted in a number of new companies considering and moving to the Island.

Last year, the introduction of a ‘Strategic Partner’ model within the Agency, saw a stronger strategic focus to support the growth of on-Island stakeholders, with dedicated partners working closely with gaming and ancillary businesses to facilitate job creation and growth. Working with industry to understand growth plans, the Agency plans to support the creation of 150 additional jobs within the eGaming sector by the end of the year.

Daphne Caine MHK, member for Digital Isle of Man commented:

‘eGaming continues to be one of the strongest sectors of our economy and it is encouraging to see this evolving industry continuing to grow, benefiting our Island. Alongside the growth of our existing businesses, the additional jobs that new businesses bring to the Island has a hugely positive impact for the sector. A recent example of this is Gamesys, a FTSE 250 leading operator of online casino and bingo-led brands, who are in the process of creating an initial 20 jobs in the Island and have recently announced their move into 55 Athol Street a Tevir group property.

‘eGaming contributes 17.6% to the Island’s GDP and the licences that the GSC processes are a huge part of that, it is fantastic to see the high volume of applications now being processed and as we continue to look forward, the numbers remain strong and consistent.

‘I commend the work being done to continue to grow the sector, the benefits to working closely with our on-island businesses cannot be overlooked and will continue to a primary focus for the Department.’

Lyle Wraxall, CEO Digital Isle of Man, added:

‘A key factor that is driving growth of the gaming sector in the Isle of Man is its commitment to the development and continued success of the eGaming companies with a base on the Island. Digital Isle of Man supports this by striving to build and maintain solid foundations for our Island businesses to succeed, offering quick fire advice and tackling obstacles to ease business decisions and burdens along the way. The introduction of our Strategic Partner model last year has allowed for a stronger focus on support for our on-island businesses.

‘We are excited to be able to facilitate and support growth for our stakeholders on the Island. Not only have we seen our on-island businesses grow, we will also be looking to expand our own team internally over the next few months. The Digital Agency, both within our office-based team and across the Digital board will be looking for new team and board members to drive forward our exciting initiatives and support our ongoing and new propositions.’

Tom Luesley, Director of Crimson Panda also commented on the recent boost in job vacancies:

‘Since the inception of Crimson Panda last year we have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of activity in the gaming sector both with operators and companies supplying into the space. There has been demand across all our services demonstrating organisation’s commitment to recruiting, engaging and retaining their talent. The upshot being we have to expand quickly to keep pace.’