This completely virtual SBC Digital Summit has been nothing short of an overwhelming success. All week, the global gaming industry has had incredible insight into what is happening as a result of the coronavirus, as well as what is coming in the future. Bringing everything to a close today, emphasis was placed on two hot topics that are becoming more relevant as the gaming ecosystem changes – how to manage operations remotely and how affiliates are playing a major role in the evolving space.

Representatives from KPMG Malta, Matthew Scerri and Claudine Borg Azzopardi, provided an invaluable contribution to how companies can stay focused and complete their goals while employees adapt a remote working environment. Like never before, the gaming industry is having to rely heavily on the self-discipline and responsibility of its employees, individually sheltered from the rest of the world due to stay-at-home orders across the globe. While making such a drastic and sudden switch from an office to a remote environment can potentially cause issues, there are ways to mitigate any problems that might emerge.

It’s important that businesses provide clear guidance on the tasks and responsibilities that are delegated out to the workforce. They have to ensure that everyone understands the proper internal structures, so employees know where to turn for answers, and they also need to be ready to support wellbeing and social cohesion in spite of the physical separations. There are some challenges that will have to be mitigated, such as how to keep motivation high and how to properly evaluate performance, but companies that develop strong regimens of communication and detailed workflows will be able to easily overcome these issues.

Following that highly enlightening and insightful presentation, it was time to take a look at the world of affiliates in the gaming industry. Two separate seminars were held to cover both the marketing side of the operations and how the space is going to evolve going forward, and brought together several representatives from affiliate and gaming channels that are helping to shape the sector’s future.