Exclusive: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Kaan Bulakeri on Rethinking Successful Strategies for Africa’s Gaming Market
As global operators make their way into Africa; it’s becoming clear that finding success isn’t just about taking established models and dropping them into new markets. Kaan Bulakeri, who has led the Gaming division at KingMakers, views the business from a customer-first angle, drawing on his experience in both well-established European markets and the fast-growing landscapes in Africa. In this interview, he dives into why tailoring experiences for local audiences, focusing on mobile-friendly personalized designs, and having agile operations are key to creating gaming experiences that go beyond what initial performance numbers might say.
iGaming AFRIKA: Could you take us through your journey into the gaming industry, and what ultimately drew you to focus on African markets?
Kaan Bulakeri: It’s been quite an exciting ride so far in the world of iGaming with a steep learning curve and its fast-paced challenges. I initially joined Evolution and thereafter Amusnet to gain substantial experiences and learnings in the B2B space, which has helped me hone my commercial and management skillsets further with a deeper understanding of most regulated markets across the European continent. Seeking a more dynamic and growth-oriented environment with untapped opportunities, I’ve transitioned not only into the B2C sphere but also created a clear focus on the main African markets, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia by joining KingMakers. It’s certainly been a very demanding but also rewarding journey with lots of new knowledge and experiences with such fundamentally different market dynamics, technology landscape and player behaviour. Truly never a dull moment!
iGaming AFRIKA: How do you evaluate long-term value in markets where regulatory, economic, and infrastructural volatility are part of the operating reality?
Kaan Bulakeri: In volatile markets such as in Africa, where the infrastructural and economic volatility is a given, you cannot look at LTV through a purely European lens of “stable monthly spend”. Instead, we evaluate resilience. The keyword is Trust. Long-term value comes from building a brand that the customer trusts even when the economy is tough. And when I say everyone, I mean the full spectrum of players, regulators, global game-providers, local service-providers, and all 3rd party business partnerships. Our focus has been on low-friction user engagement and localised content. Stability doesn’t come from the environment; it comes from our ability to pivot our business and products quickly when regulations or currency values shift, and the infrastructure gets strained. In Africa, an agile operational model as well as the mindset is imperative and vital.
iGaming AFRIKA: Your contribution to the 2026 iGaming Trendbook by ACE Alliance focused on responsible gaming. What is the biggest disconnect today between technological innovation and responsible play safeguards?
Kaan Bulakeri: I was humbled by ACE Alliance’s invitation to contribute to their much-anticipated annual Trendbook in a section that is very central to my standpoint in the iGaming industry and as core values of the organisations I chose to work for and represent. From my view on this very question, the disconnect is that innovation is funded to drive revenue (ROI), while safeguards are treated as a “compliance check-box.” In my section in the ACE Alliance Trendbook 2026, I argued that the future is “Brand as Trust”. As Fisayo Oke (Gamble Alert) also said in the 2nd issue of iGaming Afrika Magazine, we must move “from advocacy to concrete action”. If we don’t protect the player first and foremost, we don’t have a sustainable business, and even a whole industry’s future will be in jeopardy. For this, the innovation must take place not only by private businesses with shareholder value as primary objective but in conjunction between operators, regulators, game-providers and NGO’s.
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iGaming AFRIKA: As Head of Gaming at KingMakers, responsible for shaping the gaming experience across your portfolio, what key factors determine whether a game truly resonates with African audiences beyond initial performance metrics?
Kaan Bulakeri: I firmly challenged the one-size-fits-all approach from a global view. “What worked here well, must work well in Africa too”. Instead, we firmly believed in a healthy mix of highly customised content and a rather simple but seamless player experience within our Gaming domain. From my role perspective, it’s been a very fruitful journey with a large spectrum of multi-disciplinary internal teams and external business partners to deliver the best value with our player-first principle. The initial performance metrics are a good indicator; however, we are adamant about high retention numbers and long-term player life-cycle. The stickiness of a ‘game’ depends heavily on adequate collaboration within the internal product, tech and marketing teams, while definitely keeping a finger on the pulse of our own, distinct player base that is very versatile and agile in their adoption and varying preferences.
iGaming AFRIKA: African players are predominantly mobile-first. How does this reality influence how you curate and design gaming experiences?
Kaan Bulakeri: Mobile-first in Africa really means “mobile-only” and “data-sensitive.” We don’t just design all our UX for a small screen; we design for low bandwidth and interrupted connections. Every kilobyte matters. We curate our games portfolio to prioritise “light” games that load instantly. If a game takes 10 seconds to load, you have already lost the player. The UI must be thumb-friendly, and the flow to the “bet” button must be as short as possible. As I mentioned in a previous iBet Afrika’s Webinar on Grey to Gold, this laser-focused, local approach significantly helps define the main strategy for not only B2C Operators but also B2B content providers.
