Edvardas Sadovskis, ICONIC21: How an AI is giving RNG a new personality
ICONIC21 has launched iDealer Blackjack, a seven-seat RNG blackjack table fronted by a live, AI-powered dealer that talks, listens and remembers, as the studio expands its distribution network and pursues new regulated markets across Europe and Canada.
In this Q&A, Edvardas Sadovskis explains how operator feedback shapes ICONIC21’s roadmap, how players are responding to the AI dealer, and what’s next for the studio.
The live casino and RNG supplier space has never been more competitive, with providers racing to differentiate format innovation, speed to market, and geographical reach. For providers who want to be taken seriously by Tier-1 operators, the pressure to deliver something that sets them apart is growing.
Edvardas Sadovskis, Chief Product Officer at ICONIC21, sits at the intersection of those pressures. ICONIC21 has built a reputation for formats that resist easy categorization, from the Gravity Series to its latest release, iDealer Blackjack, a standard seven-seat RNG table fronted by a live, AI-powered dealer that talks, listens, and remembers.
ICONIC21 has been moving quickly on the commercial side too, recently signing distribution deals with Hub88, Lynon, Novibet, and Maxbet. It is actively working on pursuing licenses across Italy and Portugal in Europe, and Ontario and Alberta in Canada, alongside its existing footprint in Romania.
This Q&A breaks down:
- What actually drives ICONIC21’s product roadmap, and why operator feedback is the starting point
- How iDealer Blackjack was built, how it changes the RNG Blackjack table, and how operators should position it to players
- How players are responding to an AI-powered dealer
- Where ICONIC21 is focusing its regulated market expansion, and why Europe is the priority
- What the provider has in the pipeline, from AI to dedicated studios to new Gravity products
Let’s dive in!
Feedback drives the roadmap
iGaming Republic: From the Gravity Series to iDealer Blackjack, ICONIC21 keeps producing content that breaks the boundaries of traditional gaming formats. What drives your product roadmap, and where does inspiration actually come from?
ES: Everything starts as a conversation between us and our partners. Operators know their players best, so they see changes in demand and spot gaps in their lobbies before anyone else. We also work on our own roadmap, but we pay close attention to their feedback. This keeps our product pipeline flexible and truly in tune with where the market is heading.
That’s why our formats often become staples instead of just novelties, as they’re created in response to real demand. iDealer Blackjack is a good example. We listened to what operators wanted and learned that players wanted something different. Then we built it.
“Our formats often become staples instead of just novelties, as they’re created in response to real demand.”
Edvardas Sadovskis, Chief Product Officer of ICONIC21
A new personality for RNG
iGR: iDealer Blackjack is a genuinely different kind of format from the traditional RNG Blackjack we know. What can operators expect from this launch, and how should they be positioning it to players?
ES: iDealer Blackjack is a standard seven-seat RNG table, so the math, the speed and the RTP all behave exactly as your players expect. What’s different is who’s sitting across from them. The AI-powered dealer talks, listens, and remembers – it interacts live, rather than reading from a script or a pre-recorded loop.
So operators should resist the urge to market this as part of the live category. The live vertical comes with studio economics, latency expectations, and a player who’s there for the human. iDealer sits in the RNG library and reaches a new category of players. We recognized that some players don’t want to play in silence but don’t necessarily want to play live casino either.
We’re offering them an alternative: speak to the AI-powered dealer when you wish. It enhances what players already love about RNG blackjack without trying to replace what live casino does best. The studio’s backdrop is a live stream of one of our own studios, which grounds the whole thing, but the selling point is the AI personality, not the production.
iGR: How have players responded to the AI-powered dealer?
ES: We expected players to treat the AI like a slightly more interactive RNG table, but it’s interesting that instead, they open up. They ask it trivia. They crack jokes. They start open-ended conversations that they’d never start with a human dealer in a live studio. Strip that out and a whole category of player relaxes into gaming that simply wasn’t available to them before.
Which is why the “doesn’t pretend to be human” decision is important for us. Players aren’t disappointed the dealer is AI-powered. Instead, they behave more freely because it is.
iGR: How do you address concerns that this might replace live casino?
ES: It doesn’t replace live casino. In fact, we’d be wary of any operator who hopes it will. Live casino does something AI can’t. This is not meant to replace a real-life live casino game presenter, but to simply add a layer of interactivity in RNG Blackjack tables.
If anything, the two serve different players. One leans into human connection, while the other removes it deliberately, for players who would have never gone to live casino for lots of different reasons.
Operators and developers are looking for ways to increase engagement in RNG-based casino games. There’s a large, underserved group sitting inside your existing RNG traffic that doesn’t want to play in silence but doesn’t want to engage with a classic live casino table either. That’s the gap in the market that iDealer Blackjack addresses.
Where the market is heading
iGR: Looking across the industry, which game types and mechanics are growing in popularity right now, and how is ICONIC21 responding to or adopting them?
ES: Everyone is looking towards the AI industry. iDealer Blackjack is our answer to that. It shows where we think the format is heading.
RNG games and slots remain constant everywhere. By adding these verticals to our portfolio alongside live casino, we’ve had much better conversations with operators over the past year and became a more complete partner.
Still, our main strength remains that we can customize quickly, whether it’s a unique game, a new format, or a dedicated studio delivered at an unmatched speed. That’s what makes us stand out: we deliver the customization of a boutique, with the experience of a titan in the industry.
Europe leads expansion
iGR: ICONIC21 is active across multiple regulated markets. What are your thoughts on geographical reach, and which markets are top priority right now?
ES: Right now, Europe is our main focus because regulations are changing quickly, and we’re keeping up. We have the ONJN license in Romania and have grown fast there, signing deals with major operators and more on the way. We’re also working on licenses in Italy and Portugal in Europe, as well as Alberta and Ontario across Canada, which shows where we see the best opportunities.
We want to build in regulated markets as they offer long-term, sustainable business. The fast pace of regulatory changes in Europe is opening up real opportunities for providers that are ready, and we’re making sure we’re one of them.
Private Edition Blackjack
iGR: You’ve also recently launched Private Edition Blackjack – a single-player live table that gives one person sole control of all seven seats. What has the early market feedback been?
ES: The early feedback has been very strong because the concept offers something genuinely different in live casino. We have always believed that dealer engagement is one of the most important parts of live games, and Private Edition Blackjack creates a fully private environment where that interaction is not interrupted by other players.
The player has full control of the table, more decision-making time, and the freedom to play at their own pace, whether playing one hand or all seven seats. It creates a much more relaxed and premium experience, especially for VIP players.
Scaling through aggregators
iGR: You’ve signed Hub88 and Lynon in quick succession. What advantages do you see with the aggregator model as a studio, from a commercial standpoint?
ES: Aggregators create big opportunities for us. The main benefit is distribution, as our content reaches a wide network of operators much faster than if we built those relationships one by one. The more operators offer our games, the more players see the ICONIC21 brand, and that recognition grows over time, both commercially and in marketing.
We work with operators, aggregators, and platforms at the same time, and each partnership brings its own value. The aggregator model especially has helped us become more visible in markets where we’re still building our direct presence.
“The aggregator model especially has helped us become more visible in markets where we’re still building our direct presence.”
Edvardas Sadovskis, Chief Product Officer of ICONIC21
What’s comes next
iGR: What can we expect next from ICONIC21?
ES: We have a busy few months ahead. Right now, we’re focusing on dedicated studios for key partners, including some very exciting names.
“The aggregator model especially has helped us become more visible in markets where we’re still building our direct presence.”
Edvardas Sadovskis, Chief Product Officer of ICONIC21
At the same time, we’re releasing 2 to 4 new slots each month, steadily growing towards 6 per month, expanding our RNG portfolio, and growing our live casino – all at the same time. We’re also growing our flagship Gravity series, with new products and game shows in the works. The industry should stay tuned to what’s coming.
Keep reading
About the author
Bianca Máthe
Bianca Máthe is Publisher of iGaming Republic. She spent close to a decade on the supplier side of iGaming, working across the sector's core verticals: platform and player-engagement technology and crypto payments. That mix gave her a working knowledge of how operators, suppliers and payment providers actually run. In 2025 she started a media project, bringing that operational grounding to her editorial work. Her output includes interviews with high-profile iGaming executives, original reports, and in-depth features covering licensing, M&A, and the operators and suppliers shaping the sector. Based in Malta, she spends much of her time getting closer to emerging sectors like prediction markets, tracking how they're developing before the rest of the industry catches up.
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