Who hasn’t dreamed of making millions? Many of us plan how to spend it—holidays, cars, and countless luxury villas dotted around the world. Or perhaps we think we would give it all away to our favorite good cause.
Gustaf Hagman and Robin Ramm-Ericson are among those who have made a fortune from online gambling. However, rather than chancing their luck on the slots or other games, they were the brains behind the mobile-first casino, Leo Vegas. Their mobile casino site is popular around the globe. In Britain, it is listed as one of the top slot sites on the review page at online-slot.co.uk. As more US states and other countries have opened regulated online markets, Leo Vegas was also perfectly placed to deliver these entrepreneurs some winning rewards. The duo spotted an opportunity—that mobile would become dominant.
It all started in 2011, when the Swedish pair first came up with the idea of a mobile-first online casino. By 2012, they had launched their first games, which could be played on PC, mobile, or tablet. The pair realized that mobile technology was set to change the world. At the time, most people were focusing on web-based solutions. However, they believed mobile was the future.
They had been inspired by playing around on an iPhone 3. Watching how the image moved as the phone rotated gave them an idea. What if you could make a game for the iPhone that replicated the roulette wheel at a casino? Their idea turned to gold, and last year, MGM acquired the business for a cool $604 million. Hagman owned over 8% of the company at the time, and Robin Ramm-Ericson owned 5%, despite having previously sold $5 million worth of shares.
It is fair to say that the two have done incredibly well in their collaboration. Hagman has been involved in online gambling and entrepreneurship for over 20 years. He was previously the CEO of Net Gaming AB, founded in 2003.
His first venture came about in 1999 and was called VSMarket.com. It allowed players to bet on stocks. Odds were put on shares and stocks increasing or decreasing over a one-day, three-day, or week-long period. At the time, the Federal Wire Act had not outlawed online gambling, and Hagman says the business had a sizeable audience. However, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2000, hit stock markets hard, and the business was liquidated in 2003.
He established Eurobet Nordic AB before realizing the future was mobile and set up Leo Vegas with Ramm-Ericson. He still likes to mix the stock market and gaming, as he is in charge of stock market issues for the company. He has made his wealth by ensuring the company achieves the goals of the investors and the board.
Ramm-Ericson describes himself as an entrepreneur and passionate free diver. As the first rule of freediving is never to do it alone, this is a rule that he seems to have successfully used in business as well. As co-founder and chair of Leo Vegas, he and Hagman have buddied up to create a world-leading business model. Educated at the Stockholm School of Economics and Stanford University, his primary focus has always been business.
The pair says that a massive part of their success was the decision to build its own platform rather than try and piggyback onto existing infrastructure. As they were a relatively small start-up, they found they were not prioritized when creating their business using generic software systems. Also, because they were mobile, no one was up to speed with what they were trying to achieve. Work began on the Leo Vegas platform in the spring of 2013 and went live just over two years later, allowing the duo to steer their own destiny.
