Alex Jones, Digitain: Behind the UK push that is turning heads in regulated markets

After years of building deep expertise across sportsbook, casino, and platform solutions, Alex Jones has taken on one of his most exciting challenges yet by joining Digitain with a mandate to establish the company as a serious force in the world’s most competitive regulated markets, the United Kingdom.

Digitain arrives in the UK with serious momentum behind it. With over 25 years of sportsbook expertise, an award-winning platform, Centrivo Dynamics, and a growing global footprint spanning Europe, Asia, and LATAM, the company has just secured its UKGC licence and is setting its sights firmly on their UK and Western European opportunities.

This Q&A gets into the details of what that expansion really looks like.

• What drew Alex to Digitain, and what is he looking forward to building?
• How does Digitain plan to compete with established platform providers?
• What is the company building for horse racing, and why does it matter?
• Where does Western Europe fit into the growth strategy?
• And what would Alex say to operators still on the fence?

Let’s dive in!

iGaming Republic: Can you tell us a bit about your background and what attracted you to Digitain?

Alex Jones: My entry into the iGaming industry came through early exposure to sports data within the sportsbook ecosystem. That experience gave me a strong understanding of how robust low-latency, accurate data is pivotal within sportsbook performance, risk management, and player engagement.

From there, I expanded my knowledge by working closely with a wide range of iGaming products and solutions, selling sportsbook, casino, platform and all ancillary services that come with a successful turnkey solution. It was during this phase that I fully immersed myself in the iGaming sector, steadily building both strategic and commercial expertise across multiple markets, and a network of firm friends, customers, colleagues and partners globally.

As my industry knowledge and leadership experience grew, I became increasingly interested in solution providers demonstrating real traction in regulated European markets. In the last 18 months, I had heard lots of positive news stories coming directly from regulated European operators migrating to Digitain’s platform.

Digitain’s ambition to expand further across Europe and the UK, combined with its strong product offering, strongly appealed to me, and the rest, as they say, is history…

iGR: Digitain just secured its UKGC licence right before ICE. How significant is this milestone for the company’s growth strategy in regulated markets?

AJ: Entering the UK market represents a major strategic milestone for Digitain. The UK is not only one of the most lucrative iGaming markets globally, but also one of the most highly regulated and demanding. Successfully delivering a full turnkey platform in this environment is a clear indicator of both our product maturity and organisational readiness.

Digitain has strong ambition and a disciplined approach to expanding across regulated European markets. Securing a UKGC licence for the full turnkey platform and sportsbook builds on the Group’s existing UK regulatory footprint, where products and solutions such as Galaxsys and Imagine Live are already licensed and operating successfully. Extending that compliance to the core platform and sportsbook is a significant step forward, and one that I’m very excited for.

From a market perspective, there is a very real need among UK operators. Many are actively seeking alternatives to traditional platform providers, solutions that can deliver greater innovation, scalability, flexibility, without compromising on regulatory standards. Digitain’s award-winning Centrivo Dynamics platform, combined with over 25 years of Sportsbook expertise, positions the company as a next-generation platform provider capable of levelling up operators both within the UK, Ireland and elsewhere across Europe.

iGR: As Regional Sales Director for UK and Western Europe, what will be your primary focus in the coming months? Beyond the UK, which markets are you most excited about?

AJ: When joining Digitain, I aligned closely with the Founder and executive team on the level of commitment required to succeed in those highly competitive and regulated markets. I laid out the key strategic pillars we need to deliver on to be successful within the UK Market. 

What is currently a small commercial office is intended to develop into a substantial UK headquarters, representing not only the commercial function, but also trading, product, partner development, and account and operational management teams. The objective is to establish a strong local hub that operates in close proximity to UK and Irish operators, enabling continuous dialogue and deeper collaboration.

This local-market approach is essential in the UK, where operator expectations are particularly high and where success depends on sustained, hands-on engagement rather than remote delivery.

In parallel, another core focus is Western Europe, where my previous experience and market knowledge support Digitain’s broader expansion strategy. The company’s existing footprint in Belgium provides a strong foundation, while markets such as Spain are a key current priority as part of Digitain’s continued growth.

iGR: We understand Digitain is developing a horse racing solution. Can you share what operators and players can expect from this?

AJ: Horse racing remains the backbone of the UK sports betting market, being the 2nd most popular sport after Football. It’s no secret, there are challenges around audience aging and long-term sustainability within the sport without supplier innovation and rights holder collaboration.

In our discussions with racing data providers and rights holders, a consistent theme has been the need to modernise the product experience in order to engage a younger generation of bettors, while protecting the value of the existing customer base.

Digitain’s horse racing solution is being developed with this dual objective in mind. Operators can expect a fully comprehensive racing offering, including rich form content, silks, real-time data, live streaming, competitive pricing, and high-quality trading designed to deliver strong and sustainable margins.

Looking ahead, our product roadmap includes gamification and personalisation features aimed at lowering the overall demographic profile of racing bettors. These enhancements are designed to make horse racing more accessible and engaging for Gen Z audiences, without diluting the credibility required by traditional racing punters.

At the end of the day, our goal is to help partners grow their horse racing revenues, maintaining racing’s central role within the sportsbook while expanding its appeal to the next generation of players for years to come.

iGR: What’s your vision for Digitain’s presence in the UK and Western Europe over the next 12-18 months?

AJ: Over the next 12–18 months, our vision is to significantly strengthen Digitain’s footprint in the UK and Western Europe by positioning the company as a trusted, long-term technology partner for regulated operators, both retail and online.

We aim to leverage Digitain’s strengths in risk management, pricing, and scalable technology, while continuing to invest in verticals that are strategically important to our customers, and most importantly, to their customers. Our approach is very much to be seen as the market’s trusted problem solver, bringing innovation, creativity, and a ‘get-it-done’ attitude to any challenges we are presented with.

In parallel, we will be working closely with partners to drive sustainable growth, focusing on player engagement, which will include enhancements around personalisation, UX, and responsible gaming tools that meet the expectations of both regulators and increasingly sophisticated players.

Ultimately, our objective is for Digitain to be recognised in the UK and Western Europe as a premium, compliant, and innovative platform provider that is front of mind.

iGR: Why should operators choose Digitain?

AJ: In today’s competitive marketplace, Digitain is well positioned to help regulated operators across UK and Western Europe achieve their long-term growth objectives through our decades of experience, award-winning platform and sportsbook, and our team of professional staff based in UK, and across Europe, Asia and LATAM. 

Don’t just take my word for it, ask our partners! We’ve been working with Winmasters for just over 8 months and have increased their revenue by over 100% in the first 6 months of operations after migrating their platform to us. 

We know we have a lot to prove as the newcomer to this market. We relish in that challenge and want operators to bring us their wishlists and let us prove through our creativity, and innovation why we are the right partner to help push the boundaries.

iGR: As someone with a sports betting background, which upcoming sporting event excites you the most?

AJ: Well, the World Cup will always stand out from a sports betting perspective due to its scale, and commercial impact.

On a more personal level, as a Brit, I’m particularly looking forward to the T20 Cricket World Cup in March. The shorter format is fast-paced, highly engaging, and an excellent entry point for newer fans, which makes it especially compelling from both a sporting and betting standpoint. 

Formula 1 returns in March, and I’m incredibly excited to see whether Lando Norris can build on recent success and go back-to-back.

That said, my real passion lies in contact sports. The Six Nations has already provided some cracking matches, and is always a standout event in the sporting calendar. Looking further ahead, the Rugby League World Cup this winter is another tournament I’m very much anticipating, it’s a showcase of physicality, skill, speed and has some huge hits!

All these events represent exactly what makes sport, and sports betting so compelling: variety, emotion, and moments that are close to unbelievable…it’s storytelling at its purest form.