Relax Gaming

Relax Gaming CEO, Martin Stålros, has overseen a period of change for the supplier over the past two years. In this candid interview, he unpacks the company culture, shares a new product innovation, and lays out the global strategy heading into 2027 and beyond. Read the interview as posted by iGaming Expert here.

It’s been over two years since you took the reins at Relax Gaming. How would you assess your time at the helm?

It’s been an exciting and extremely rewarding period over these two years. Admittedly, it has been challenging at times, but we’ve always managed to take carefully considered, progressive steps toward where we want to be.

We continue to make great games, and have seen particular success within jackpots, where our Dream Drop product is performing really well. On top of that, we have recently delivered a new and exciting project, with our game-agnostic, side-bet JPX product that we are planning to take worldwide with a host of major operators.

Strategic steps have also been taken in terms of expanding our distribution footprint, especially establishing a presence in America and Brazil, and we are focusing heavily on these key regulated markets for the future.

There is also the hugely important aggregation side of our business. I want to emphasise that we are a truly multi-product company. We have a very strong industry presence through delivering our own slots, but our full, aggregated portfolio spans many different verticals from a wide range of suppliers. We have been focused on creating partnerships with exciting new studios, while carefully nurturing our existing studio partners.

I feel that we are heading in the right strategic direction. Preserving our culture and values that have always defined the ‘Relax way’ is really important to me and everything we do is underwritten by this.

A new ownership structure and c-level restructure had to be successfully navigated. How did you achieve those changes while still managing to perform?

To be completely transparent, we have experienced a significant amount of change and many highly valued colleagues moved on to take up other opportunities. Naturally, that is a challenging process for any business to go through as it creates some uncertainty.

However, we have also been very fortunate. Right now, we have a full team and have been able to attract and assemble a lot of excellent talent. What I see today is a great balance of what I call ‘Relax veterans’ mixed with new talent and perspectives from other industries that can help us grow. I am very confident about the future because we have retained the old-school ways, culture, and values that have built this company, while bringing in fresh energy and capabilities that will drive our next phase of growth.

As CEO of the company, the key challenge has been navigating change while actively working to keep our unique selling propositions intact.

Looking at the positives, what would you highlight as the more pleasing highlights that have been achieved during this period?

Despite the changes that have occurred within the business, we have successfully navigated our transformation. Hiring takes a lot of time in terms of searching, interviewing and onboarding, but we have shown our strength by continuing to deliver during those gaps.

I feel I have been able to maintain an open-door policy to stand behind our promise of ‘staying Relaxed’ through these periods of change. In return, people across the company have stepped up and taken ownership. That amazing collective effort has put us in a position where we have a fantastic team in place, ready to deliver bigger and better than ever before for our partners.

The momentum is a huge highlight. I have grown into my role, the new team has found its rhythm, and the collective response has created a lot of confidence and energy. It feels like we are entering a new chapter in Relax Gaming’s journey, without losing our identity. The real achievement isn’t just a single product launch or a new market entry, but the strong company we have built maintaining tech at our core, thanks to the input of everyone at Relax.

When it comes to the remainder of 2026 and into 2027, what are your major hopes for Relax Gaming to achieve?

My immediate focus is firmly on what we can deliver to players, and we are really looking forward to some of our major upcoming game releases. Money Train 5 is coming in late September, which is certainly leading the way. Our roadmap also features very interesting releases and partnerships on the aggregation side of the business towards the end of this year.

Looking at jackpots, I would absolutely love to see a couple of deep Dream Drop jackpot runs. When these jackpots reach significant levels, it becomes an incredibly compelling proposition for players and provides operators with a fantastic opportunity for reactivation. We have paid out seven Dream Drop jackpots already this year (Jan to July), which means we are running at a record pace. With traditional high seasons of Q3 and Q4 still to come, the picture looks set to become even more exciting.

We are also focusing on our US ambitions, specifically eyeing an entry into the regulated market of Michigan. This would complete our presence in the country’s three largest regulated iGaming states.

Zooming out to 2027 and beyond, our strategy is to strengthen our position as a true multi-product supplier. We want operators and aggregation partners to continue seeing Relax as an easy, technically stable company to work with. Whether they want our games, our aggregation platform, or our jackpot products, every step along the journey together should be pain-free. While ensuring that this is the case, we want to stay true to who we are: maintaining technical excellence, empowering our people to do their best work, and always trying to challenge the status quo through innovation.