In the Spotlight: Laura Sandström: The Producer Who Connects the Industry

Some people see iGaming as a product category, a compliance framework, or a battle for share of voice. Laura Sandström sees it as an ecosystem. She reads the room, understands the incentives, and notices what gets said publicly and what never makes it onto the stage.

With more than two decades inside Finnish gaming and gambling, Laura has moved seamlessly between the operational realities of day to day execution and the strategic conversations that define an industry. She has worked at the heart of regulated gaming, built events for players and stakeholders, and now operates as an entrepreneur, producing experiences where the industry meets itself and decides what it wants to become next.

If you want to understand what Finnish iGaming is really like, you listen to the people who build the rooms where the conversations happen. Laura is one of them.

From gaming companies to the production side

Laura’s foundation was built inside gaming and gambling operators, where she learned the most valuable skill she carries into her work today: understanding the industry through the people who actually play.

“The biggest lesson is understanding the gaming industry and the players, and what the industry is really made of,” she says. Working closely with casino customers and long time regulars gave her a deeper, more human view of the audience than spreadsheets ever could.

It also gave her a clear perspective on the contrast between internal discussions and external messaging. Inside large companies, the conversations are often frank, detailed, and critical. On the outside, the tone is cautious, neutral, and carefully controlled.

“Public communication is much more careful than what’s actually discussed internally,” Laura notes. In a sector that carries social sensitivity and regulatory scrutiny, caution is not a style choice. It is a survival instinct.

Her love for event production started early, long before Finnish iGaming Events existed. While working in marketing at RAY, she discovered what live experiences can do when you design them well: create emotion, build loyalty, and leave a trace people remember.

“It was the emotional imprint,” she says. “What an event can create and how it can influence people.”That insight became a throughline across her career, from major activations and tours to casino events and launches, and eventually to entrepreneurship in 2020.

What the industry gets right

From a producer’s point of view, iGaming’s greatest strength is not technology. It is talent.

“There are incredibly good people in this industry,” Laura says. “And the atmosphere and sense of community are genuinely strong.”

That matters, because the next phase of iGaming in Finland will not be won by hype. It will be won by those who can execute with professionalism, adapt fast, and earn trust.

What the industry should talk about more openly

Laura hopes the conversation within the industry would shift more clearly toward the future, especially in event settings where people gather to exchange ideas and shape direction.

“I’d like to see more discussion about where the industry is actually heading,” she says. “Regulation is increasing, expectations around responsibility are rising, and offline gambling is undergoing a major transformation. All of this will shape the future of the sector.”

In her view, the key question is not only how companies respond individually, but what the industry could do together.

“Are there concrete actions we could take collectively? That’s a conversation worth having,” she notes. “It would also be valuable to hear more future scenarios and different perspectives on how the industry might evolve and what role each of us could play in that change.”

For Laura, the need is less about reacting to pressure and more about creating a shared understanding of what comes next, and having the courage to talk about it early, openly, and constructively.

What events reveal about power

Event production is not only logistics and programming. It is also a mirror.

One of Laura’s recurring observations is how often the same voices dominate the stage.

“It’s always the same faces speaking everywhere,” she says.

For her, that is not merely a booking habit. It reflects how power circulates in the industry: who gets amplified, who is perceived as “safe,” and who remains outside the spotlight. Laura would like to see more variety in speakers and perspectives, not as a diversity checkbox, but as a practical way to move the conversation forward.

“Sometimes the mistake is deciding on behalf of the audience that they won’t want to hear something,” she adds. “It’s worth trusting intuition and doing things differently.”

Why Finnish iGaming Events exists

The original idea behind Finnish iGaming Events was straightforward: Finland lacked its own international iGaming seminar.

“We didn’t have a single event that really talked about iGaming,” Laura says. “That’s what we set out to fix, and we’ve succeeded.”

The differentiation is equally clear. Finnish iGaming Events is built program first. Topics lead, speakers follow, and the agenda is not for sale.

“We look at what’s timely and interesting,” Laura explains. “We don’t sell speaking slots. You can’t buy your way onto our stage.”

That editorial independence is central to the brand. Sponsors can contribute ideas and help develop the ecosystem, but the content itself stays separate.

The result is an event designed for the industry rather than for pitch decks. It combines high value content with intentional space for networking, because Laura believes the industry develops faster when people actually meet, compare notes, and build trust across silos.

What iGaming professionals really want from events

Ask Laura what attendees truly want, and she answers without hesitation: networking and learning.

“Networking and learning, absolutely,” she says. The CEO panel is a particularly important element, because leadership perspectives shape the market and draw the conversations many people come to have.

Just as importantly, she sees events as platforms for discussion. The value is not only in presentations, but in what happens afterwards: questions, debates, and the coffee break conversations where people speak more freely than they ever do on LinkedIn.

Finland and the Nordics

From an event and community perspective, Finland has its own rhythm. Laura describes Finns as factual and program driven.

“Finns are quite matter of fact,” she says. “You need genuinely interesting content to get people moving.”

Networking culture is developing, but not always naturally. Finland still carries an engineer mindset, where many prefer their own corner unless the value of participation is explicit.

At the same time, Laura believes Finland consistently underestimates its own competence. Not just in gaming, but in events and technical production more broadly. Finnish professionals are respected internationally for reliability, craft, and execution.

“Finns are really good,” she says. “We underestimate our expertise.”

International visitors, in her experience, see Finland as small but intriguing. The market size is limited, but the gambling culture and player behavior are distinct, and that creates strategic interest.

Events as a strategic tool

In Laura’s view, companies should not treat events as decoration. They are a strategic instrument, especially as media fragments and traditional reach becomes harder to buy.

Events connect brands to emotion, loyalty, and lived experience, which is why sponsorship often works through similar mechanics.

Her critique is not that companies ignore events. It is that many do them without planning properly, or save money in the wrong places. The classic example is buying an expensive booth and then showing up unprepared, understaffed, and disengaged.

“The booth is the moment where a customer meets your brand,” she says. “That gets forgotten far too often.”

She also highlights a broader Finnish tendency: focusing heavily on acquisition and the start of the funnel, while neglecting relationship building after the contract is signed. In B2B, the relationship is still human to human, and informal settings often unlock the most valuable feedback and loyalty.

Women in iGaming, without clichés

Laura is direct about gender dynamics in the industry. Women are present, but too often concentrated in marketing and responsibility functions rather than executive leadership.

“There are women in iGaming,” she says. “The misconception is that you need to be a heavy gambler yourself to be good in this industry. That’s not true.”

She believes equality has progressed in real ways, but there is still work to do, especially in leadership pipelines and decision making roles. One of the most positive shifts she has seen is the industry’s development in responsible gaming: it has moved from an obligation to an area where companies compete, innovate, and take pride in real progress.

The next five years of iGaming events

Looking ahead, Laura expects the number of industry events to decrease somewhat, as attention becomes scarcer and the market consolidates around stronger brands.

“There will be fewer events,” she predicts. “Certain brands will remain. Smaller, less established events may fade, because people simply can’t be everywhere.”

At the same time, the themes will sharpen. Regulation will be discussed more, not less. Responsible gambling will remain central. Affiliate marketing will keep evolving. And the friction around unlicensed or out of framework operators will continue to trigger debate in every licensing market.

When asked what the industry is still not ready to face, Laura points to a harder horizon: how player behavior is changing and what that means for long term growth.

“Younger generations may not be as oriented toward gambling,” she says. “The industry may face a kind of shrinking over time.”

In her view, the boundary between gambling and entertainment games will blur further. Monetisation mechanics in casual games already shape consumer behavior, even if the “cash out” element is missing. The competitive landscape for attention and spend will keep shifting.

The next phase of Finnish iGaming Events

Finnish iGaming Events, Laura says, is in growth mode. The goal is expansion and a broader event ecosystem around the seminar itself. One ambition is to introduce industry recognition in Finland, bringing awards and celebration into the Finnish iGaming calendar.

In five years, she wants Finnish iGaming Events to be the best known convening force for the Finnish gambling and iGaming ecosystem. She also wants it to remain brave, willing to host difficult discussions and challenge the comfort zone.

What she does not want it to become is equally clear.

“We don’t want to be a place where you can buy advertising speeches,” she says. “We want to stay relevant, audience led, and content first.”

Signature question

If she had to summarise what determines who stays visible and who fades into the background in Finnish iGaming before the market opens, Laura gives an answer that sounds both Nordic and timeless:

“Operating in an acceptable way, and earning people’s trust.”

In an industry defined by scrutiny, regulation, and public perception, that might be the most strategic sentence of all.

Laura Sandström is an experienced producer working at the intersection of iGaming, events, and media, known for connecting people, content, and commercial objectives. She has a background in both gaming companies and live productions, and is recognized for building concepts where strategy, production, and partnerships reinforce each other. Sandström works as a producer at Sandstorm Events and Finnish iGaming Events, focusing on projects that drive visibility, industry collaboration, and measurable business impact.