What Makes an iGaming Start-up Fundable in 2026?

With pioneering Live Casino supplier, Avanti, recently securing a second stage of funding for its €10m Seed Round, we caught up with the company’s Co-founder, Gustaf Hagman, to learn more about the main factors any would-be investors should evaluate when considering a new start-up.

In a thriving industry like iGaming, there are certainly no shortage of great ideas, but ideas alone are not enough to make a successful business. 

The reality is, no matter how revolutionary their concept might be, the majority of start-ups are dependent on funding before their vision ever sees the light of day, and this presents an interesting quandary for any would-be investors.

With so many innovative companies out there competing for what is, ultimately, a limited supply of capital, it can be hard for financiers to know where their money is likely to make the best return. Having successfully raised funding myself over multiple decades, however, I’d like to share my thoughts on some of the main factors that can help distinguish a good investment from a bad one.

Dare To Be Different

First and foremost, before committing their backing to any new start-up, investors should always ask themselves, “how does this product differ from what’s already available and is there an obvious gap in the market that it can potentially fill?”

Given the saturated nature of iGaming, start-ups that simply provide a fresh twist on an existing vertical, for example, building slots with different bonus mechanics or table games in new formats, will typically be fighting an uphill battle when it comes to carving out their market share.

As the incumbents in these areas are often established companies with far greater resources, a start-up will need something truly groundbreaking in order to have any chance of competing with them from a weaker starting position – and while unicorns do exist, it’s usually a much safer bet for investors to not swim against the tide and put their money where the competition is less fierce.

Distribution Wins

With that being said, ironically one of the biggest mistakes investors make is to focus exclusively on the product. While a good product is important, in iGaming, distribution often matters more, so investors need to ask themselves, “who is going to buy this and how will it reach the market?”

Over the years, I’ve seen countless companies build impressive technology, innovative game mechanics, and beautiful user experiences, only to discover that getting their product in front of customers proves to be a significantly greater challenge than actually creating it in the first place.

While products can be copied, features can be replicated and technology is constantly evolving, trusted commercial relationships and proven distribution channels typically take years to build. A start-up that has an efficient integration strategy and a clear route to market will, therefore, often outperform a technically superior competitor who doesn’t have these advantages in place.

For this reason, I’d argue one of the strongest indicators of a start-up’s long-term viability is not actually the quality of its product today, but rather the quality of its distribution strategy tomorrow.

Success That Scales

Building on this idea of looking ahead, once a financier has identified a start-up whose product they believe fills a niche and has an obvious route to market, the next step should be to look at how that company’s offering can potentially be scaled over time if it proves a resounding success.

In this respect, there are two major factors that ought to be considered; namely, is the company’s infrastructure agile enough to adapt to increased demand and anticipate any future regulatory changes, and can its product also be grown in a way that’s truly sustainable over the longer term?

A good indicator of how well a start-up can deliver on these points is how flexible its tech stack is and how well it complies with current responsible gambling legislation. Investors should look not just at currently-acquired certifications, but also project ahead and ask, “if requirements change, is this product able to react swiftly, and what kind of operational costs would such a pivot entail?”

As any worthwhile start-up will have short, medium and long-term goals, investors should also carefully consider the company’s business plan. Are they in it for the long haul and does their plan have provisions in place for how they will expand should their product turn out to be a hit? Equally, are these provisions built within a self-sustaining model, or will further investment be necessary?

Experience Matters

One final consideration to be made is the strength of a new company’s founding team. Just because a start-up is new, that doesn’t mean the people behind it are too, and investors can often glean a lot about how a business will be run from the expertise of the founders behind the wheel.

More often than not, start-ups are created by iGaming veterans who have identified gaps or pain points in the industry over the course of their careers and then struck out on their own to fix them. If a start-up’s founder already has experience at another big company, it’s more than likely that they’ve seen an opportunity somewhere and will have a good idea of how best to capitalise on it.

At Avanti, we recently celebrated finalising the second instalment of our €10 million Seed Round based on the strength of all the factors above. By having a truly unique product that’s compliant even in countries where Live Casino is heavily regulated, incredibly quick to market and infinitely scalable, we’ve shown a little investment can soon turn a great idea into a game-changing reality.