The online gaming industry has witnessed significant growth over the past decade, with companies like winmasters playing a crucial role. Founded in 2014 by Thomas Tzokas, winmasters operates in several regulated markets across Europe, including Cyprus, Greece, and Romania. As the CEO, Thomas has steered the company towards substantial growth and market expansion.

In this interview, he discusses key factors behind winmasters' success, the impact of mobile gaming, and the potential for Cyprus to become a major hub in the gaming industry. He also shares his insights on the future of online gaming and winmasters' strategic plans for the coming decade.

The driving force behind the success of winmasters is the team. winmasters is built by a dedicated to our cause team of experts. The core team is on board since the beginning and most of them left their careers in global gaming firms to follow me to this venture. In winmasters, we invest in our people, I am pleased to see them developing their careers and attaining higher positions within our organization. We operate only in regulated markets, thus integrity and players’ safety is pivotal. This is recognized by the industry stake holders/regulators, and most importantly our clients.

We listen to our clients’ needs. We have implemented extensive surveys and customer focus groups which have indicated areas that we need to improve, as they are considered pivotal for our players’ satisfaction. In response to that, we have dedicated our resources to meet those needs at the highest level. More specifically:

1. Clients demand higher odds, in order to maximize their returns. We ensure that we offer top odds in the majority of the sports events, in the markets we operate.

2. Personal care: People hate bots and “canned” responses to their requests. We provide personal customer assistance by specialized agents across all our communication channels (telephone, chat, email etc.).

3. We offer straight-forward, easy to understand bonus offers and promotions without hidden words and “gimmicks”, that are common in other operators. 

Gaming went mobile in the last few years. 90% of the playing activity is done via phone. This fact has created many challenges coupled by enormous opportunities for companies like winmasters. We capitalize on this trend and we have an annual growth rate of 40% across the markets where we operate, while the industry global growth rate is below 18%.

Cyprus is a regulated market of modest size, with a lot of competition. Significant growth will be attained once online casino is regulated as well. I believe this is the main differentiator, when comparing Cyprus with other European markets. When referring to global gaming trends, there is a growing interest for casino games while the interest for poker is descending steadily in the last 7-8 years.

Besides the obvious tax revenues for the state that will be multiplied if online casino is regulated, I see a big opportunity for Cyprus to become a technology/gaming hub that can easily compete with Malta, the metropolis of remote gaming in Europe. Cyprus has all the prerequisites to succeed: it is well regulated, has excellent banking, legal, corporate, accounting and auditing services. On top of that, Cyprus has a well-educated bilingual population.

Our growth plan is based on the following three pillars:

a.    Grow our regulated footprint by increasing our market share on the existing markets and by entering in new regulated markets.
b.    Constantly improve our product portfolio and services by investing in people and by introducing new casino games and sports betting functionalities. 
c.    As mobility is the present and the future for gaming, we are constantly investing in mobile and app technology. 

What: winmasters

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Who: Thomas Tzokas studied Business Administration in the USA at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and NYU in New York. He holds an MBA in corporate restructuring and venture development. In 2014 he founded winmasters, a fast-growing online gaming company licensed in Cyprus and other European countries with the aim of expansion into new regulated markets. Since then, he has been acting as CEO of the company. He has extensive experience in the online gaming and technology industry. From 2000 to this day, he has been a top management executive in leading companies in the industry, such as bwin, IGT/Lottomatica, Neurosoft and Park Avenue Gaming, with positions of increasing authority such as CEO, General Manager and Board Member in Europe and in the US. He also possesses extensive business experience in the media and e-marketing sector through successful projects in various European markets. Thomas Tzokas currently holds the position of Vice President at the Hellenic Gaming Association, where he serves as one of the founding members and plays a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction and fostering the growth of the online gaming sector in Greece.