Jani Tekoniemi poker tournament results, including recent cashes, lifetime winnings, WSOP and WPT stats. Total life earnings: $16,359. Latest cash: $1,425 on 26-Mar-2011. Click here to see the details of Jani Tekoniemi's 4 cashes. About Relax Gaming Founded in March 2010 by Patrik Osteraker and Jani Tekoniemi, the developer has a solid decade’s worth of experience in the iGaming industry. The founder’s ambition on starting the company was to become a leading technical provider in the iGaming sector and to provide online casinos with top quality gaming solutions.
Patrik Österåker co-founded Relax Gaming in 2010 and was instrumental to the start of its success story. Together with his business partner Jani Tekoniemi, Patrik formed the foundations of the company, initiating a legacy of technical excellence. Prior to this, Patrik’s extensive experience spans a background in software development in telecoms and a highly successful industry position at iGame Malta as a chief technology officer
Content creators must be equally focused on both differentiation and quality if they are to succeed and survive in this most cut-throat of times, according to Patrik Österåker, chairman and co-founder of Relax Gaming.
Österåker’s company is among the leading content and aggregation suppliers in the European online gaming sector and this year celebrates 10 years since its foundation. Over the course of the last decade it has established itself as an important partner for major operators such as Leo Vegas, Kindred and Playfortuna, as well as pioneering game studios like Fantasma Games and Big Time Gaming.
Relax offers its own content and games from around 35 content partners – with the capacity to absorb many more – and Österåker is adamant that in a more mature market it takes even more for a game to impress decision-makers at aggregation services or B2C operators. The increasingly discerning player also has greater demands of game designers.
“We have a market flooded with games,” said Österåker, who launched the company with Jani Tekoniemi in March 2010. “For a studio to make a breakthrough they need to establish quality, but also differentiation.
“However, it’s a mistake to focus on one but not the other. You have to take in both. Is the differentiation because the game’s too off-beat or no good? Is the quality of the game high but exactly the same as hundreds of others?
“I have seen lots of games over the years, but I am still occasionally wowed. The nature of the business is that there are quite a few misses before you have a hit. When we start working with a partner, we realise that it can take some time before they get the big hits.”
Complexity of compliance
Much has changed in the 10 years since Relax Gaming was founded with an initial goal of becoming a leading technical provider of high-quality gaming solutions. Originally envisaged as a technology partner within a sector considered lagging behind many others in terms of innovation, Relax moved towards content creation and aggregation as it became more obvious that this was a growing area of potential which suited its capabilities.
“Aggregation is essentially enabling access to games,” said Österåker, whose company has offices in Estonia, Malta, Sweden, Finland and Serbia.
“There has been a huge influx of suppliers in the last five years, and even more so in the last two years.
“Many of these newcomers hope for direct reach to operators and many now try that with their own platform. However, operators wish to limit the number of partners they have due to the headache of matters such as compliance and invoicing. That drives them towards the aggregator model, with larger companies such as ours being able to offer not only a large number of games but also a comprehensive compliance service across many markets.
“Underestimating the challenge of compliance is a clear mistake that can bite operators and studios. Regulation in Europe is becoming more complex, which favours established content providers with the resources to ensure compliance, such as ourselves.”
Relax has accomplished much in the years since 2010, but one of its greatest milestones came in 2015 when it built a new poker product from scratch for global gaming giant Kindred. With the stakes so high, it was the kind of project that can make or break a company.
“That changed everything for us,” Österåker said. “For eight months it was pretty much the only thing our entire business was working on. We knew that it would be such an important deal for us, that it would completely change how we were viewed by the rest of the industry.
“There were times when it was hard. Looking back, you think about the achievement, but for a long time there was so much pressure to succeed and satisfy the client.
This built upon what Relax now identifies as one of its core promises – delivering on its promises through technical prowess: “When you complete a high-profile project like that you show that you are able to play with the big boys as a trusted supplier. That achievement made us both more confident and more ambitious.”
Casino focus
Looking ahead, Österåker sees the continued development of Relax’s casino offering as the most important area of focus, with a view to continue delivering aggregation with scale and sustainability.
“We see ourselves as a multi-product house, but casino is where we are scaling up and ramping up game production,” he said. “Operators maybe just have a single supplier for poker and bingo, but there are many more opportunities in casino.
“Five years ago, poker was our No.1 focus because that was where our expertise lay. You have to move with the market and make the right decisions.”
Speaking of “the right decisions” Österåker is relieved that Relax’s choices over the last 10 years seem to have led it away from those verticals most impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. “We are so far untouched,” he said, although cautioning that no-one yet knows the wider, long-term impact on Relax, its partners and its competitors.
Jani Tekoniemi
He added: “We have an open mind to the future. It might be that we are interested in an IPO or some of the M&A developments that have been so prevalent in the industry in the last decade. However, it’s not something we are actively pursuing, and this is not a time for risk. This is a time to be grateful for the solid base we have established.”
- Advertisement -
Relax Gaming – an innovative British-based casino games supplier – has reached a lucrative agreement with Australian game developer Big Time Gaming, to distribute their casino content, becoming one of only three platform partners to do so.
Casinos using Relax Gaming’s software systems will be able to offer their players a range of Big Time Gaming’s most popular slots, including the hugely-popular Extra Chilli, and Danger High Voltage. Alongside being able to offer Big Time Gaming’s casino games, an agreement has also been signed, allowing Relaxing Gaming (and it’s partner studio; Silver Bullet Studio) to access a version of Big Time Gaming’s Megaways™ math model – something we’ve seen successfully used by Blueprint Gaming over the last few months.
Daniel Eskola, the CEO of Relax Gaming , said: “Relax Gaming was launched with the aim of bringing in a new era of online casino delivery, and partnering with dynamic providers like Big Time Gaming represents a big step in the right direction.”
“We are proud to have been selected as one of only three platforms to distribute its games, and this agreement is a testament to the ease and transparency with which our commercial model is designed. We’re thrilled that the additional Megaways™ deal not only gives Relax Gaming a license to showcase Megaways™ but also our Silver Bullet partners.”
Nik Robinson, CEO at Big Time Gaming, also said: “Relax Gaming is setting itself apart in the market with a strong offering and considerable distribution. This is complemented by a refreshing commercial model. We’re excited to offer our games via this talented team and exceptional platform. We’re also looking forward to seeing how Relax put their own unique spin on Megaways™.”
About Relax Gaming
“In our case, the pub was in Malta and the year was 2010. As well as a fondness for strong drink, its founders Patrik Österåker and Jani Tekoniemi shared strong technical skills, a feature which still today is a key feature of the organization’s DNA. Our goal was to provide a better quality, more flexible, platform than was available to operators at the time. After three generations of poker products, two generations of bingo ones, and a well-established and well-received casino one it still remains our goal.
Unibet shared that vision, has been an important customer from the start, and still, employs our services today. Naturally, Relax has evolved and matured and now includes a number of leading European gaming operators and fellow suppliers among their clients. From employing a handful of people, we now have over 80 dedicated staff, whose impressive work ethic is matched by their desire to retain the original spirit of adventure and sense of fun.
We Relaxers, as we like to call ourselves, get a kick out of doing new things and leveraging the full potential of our multi-talented team. These days the company is a full-service house where we do pretty much everything in-house. That includes initial concepts, design, user experience, platform integrations, client development, infrastructure operations, licensing, and compliance. We hold gaming licenses jurisdictions like the UK, Malta, Denmark, Romania, and Alderney. And we still find time to go to the pub.”
About Big Time Gaming
“Big Time Gaming’s team are a collective of industry thought leaders with an extensive track record of innovation in online gaming.
Nik Robinson CEO has been at the forefront of the industry since 1996 when he founded New Tech Media which sold to News Corp and merged with Orbis to become Openbet.
Jani Kristian Tekoniemi
Huw McIntosh CTO has an equally impressive career history and has worked in the gaming industry for more than 10 years at both New Tech Media and Openbet.
Ian Schmidt Creative Director joined Big Time Gaming after working on a range of elaborate titles for Rockstar Games.”
Coments are closed