81 Wins

What is 81 Wins?

Tech Race Summit 2026 takes place on 10 September in Warsaw. It gathers the experts working on the technology behind today’s digital businesses.

According to Kastukevich, Tech Race Summit is filling a genuine void. Although he has seen plenty of business-focused conversation in iGaming, there is almost no dedicated space for engineering and technology discussions.

The event is positioned as knowledge-sharing infrastructure for the industry rather than a SOFTSWISS sales platform. With SOFTSWISS positioned as host rather than presenter, the focus stays on where senior technologists think the industry should be putting its investment and attention over the next six to twelve months.

About 81 Wins

Within the survey, none of the respondents selected AI or automation as their primary tool for managing VIP portfolios.

Instead, spreadsheets and business-intelligence dashboards each accounted for 30%, and CRM platforms followed at 24%. Only 15% used AI/automation tools in any capacity, and then only as secondary aids.

Large and demanding portfolios were highlighted as a key challenge, with 64% of managers overseeing 100 or more VIPs, while one in five managed more than 500. 

How to play 81 Wins

Macquarie’s Beynon agrees with that sentiment, pointing to the relative stability of gaming companies through tough economic stretches such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Bankruptcies in the sector have been low relative to the broader market, he notes, and both land-based and digital companies have reason for optimism moving forward.

“It’s certainly not lost on us that this sector has underperformed for several years in a row just because it doesn’t have either the growth of say, tech companies, or the perceived free cash flow-insulated businesses, which we believe it does…We’ve thought there’s been value in the sector for a few years, particularly this year,” he told iGB.

Jess has covered the global gaming industry since 2022. A native of Reno, Nevada, he’d like to note that it’s Ne-va-da, not Ne-VAH-da.