Interview – Maya Kvaratshelia, CEO at MultiHub Global

Today, we have something special for you. We had the pleasure to explore and discuss today’s world of online payment methods through our interview with Maya Kvaratshelia. She is talented and outgoing CEO at MultiHub Global with 10+ years of experience in the online banking and casino industry. Maya has had a phenomenal career and went through numerous stages before becoming the CEO of her company.

Let us dive into our discussion with her and talk about the modern online banking industry.

• Hello Maya, we would like to wish you a warm welcome to CPO and we are very excited to talk to you about the payment industry for online casinos. Before we start, we would like to let our readers know a little bit more about you so can you please tell us a few things about yourself and your career?

Hey there! Thanks for the invite! I’m Maya Kvaratskhelia, and I’ve been in the gambling industry for over 10 years. Started from support and worked my way up to becoming a CEO of MultiHub.Global. It’s been a rollercoaster ride with ups and downs, but it gave me loads of experience in product launches and operating in the CIS and Latin American markets.

I believe my experience can be valuable to fellow market colleagues because there’s nothing better than real-life practical cases and the bumps you encounter along the way. I’m actively sharing my journey online. You’ll find more content, cases, and stories from my path on my LinkedIn page. Would be great to connect with you there!

• You are the CEO at MultiHub Global and you have had quite an exciting career so far. What stages did you have to go through to reach the grand position of CEO?

Thank you! I started my journey as a support line operator.

My path was interesting: PM —> PO —> CPO, and in 2023 I took the position of CEO at MultiHub.Global. Looking back you always understand that things could have been done differently or better, draw conclusions and move on. If we talk about the most memorable moments, they are always either significant achievements or big mistakes, both of which are inevitable.

• Now for the star of the show – MultiHub. Can you briefly introduce the company to those unfamiliar? How does it work and what does it contribute to the online casino industry?

MultiHub.Global is a payment solutions aggregator. Our primary target audience is high-risk gambling. We operate across a broad list of GEOs from Australia to Latin America. The main advantages of our solution are simple integration, a large number of payment solutions within a single integration, and a constant influx of new payment solutions. When talking about technique, we primarily refer to basic things, such as routing and cascading. Of course, there are companies, our colleagues, who offer similar functionality, but we believe our product will confidently carve out its market share.

Speaking in numbers – our solutions allow to reduce the costs of connecting providers by more than 30%, increase conversion and payment pass-through rates up to 97%, and also launch new markets and develop our clients’ businesses.

Despite the fact that we haven’t been on the market for long as an independent product, we grew out of a holding and developed solutions for ourselves, for the platform we operate with. We’ve faced all the bumps, and felt the sting of all the payment pains in the gambling world, from unstable operations to sky-high costs. We’ve weathered that storm, gathered a wealth of expertise and now we’re not just about giving our clients payment solutions – we’re here to share our know-how and experience too.

• MultiHub Global is a phenomenal platform so we wanted to ask you about your experience of maintaining it. What are some challenges associated with being the CEO of MultiHub?

We actually use all of our solutions on our own products, so we can vouch for the performance (conversion rates, hidden fees, conversion rates or settlement) not just based on the straight from the word of providers/partners, but from our own hands-on experience. We’ve run into situations where the promise of good conversion or simplicity of channel operation didn’t exactly match up with the real deal. That’s why we’ve got our own system for recommending methods to partners. We connect the channel to our products, test it, then make a personal conclusion about how willing we are to recommend it.

As for difficulties – there’s a ton of competition in the payment solution playground. Sure, there are loads of gambling platforms out there, but it’s still a tight market, and you’ve got to balance technical solutions, price and, of course, being customer-focused.

I put a lot of emphasis on interacting with our partners, staying on top of market trends, and only offering the cream of the crop solutions to our partners. The challenges of working with payment solutions include unstable channel operation, frequent changes in conditions. Despite all this, we try to quickly adapt to any changes and remain flexible and dynamic.”

The challenges of working with payment solutions include unstable channel operation, frequent changes in conditions. Despite all this, we’re all about bobbing and weaving with the punches and staying nimble and dynamic.

• How was the previous year for you and MultiHub? Are there any milestones you have reached in 2022 or important lessons you have learned?

Even though we weren’t an independent company last year, MultiHub.Global weathered all the market difficulties right alongside it and came out with some crucial takeaways.

1. You’ve got to be ready for any market shake-ups – even the wildest and most impossible assumptions.
2. You need to be able to quickly adapt to new realities – always have a Plan B up your sleeve.
3. Diversification – things are changing so dynamically these days that putting all your eggs in one basket can be risky.
4. When you’re drawing up your game plan, make sure you consider the wildest curveballs that could come your way.

Keeping all this in mind, we’ve been grinding away to ensure product stability, expanding our solutions suite and boosting conversion. Sure, there have been a few faceplants along the way, but the key thing with any flop is to hit the pause button, break it down, and figure out how to avoid the same pitfall in the future. it’s a good idea to take a wider look and forecast what else this situation could have affected and preemptively cover those bases – but that’s more of a perfect world scenario.

• We want to ask your expert opinion about the current state of the online casino payments market. How does MultiHub interact with rapidly emerging payment options like cryptocurrency wallets and Pay’n’Play mobile banking?

I would describe it more broadly, not just gambling, but the entire high-risk sector – it’s a complex and interesting field. Everything highly depends on regulation, and you always have to take that into account. Any change in regulation can impose new restrictions, and it’s important to remember the four points I mentioned above. It’s always necessary to diversify channels and try to keep up with all the new trends (launches, updates).

New trends are always a good thing, the market doesn’t stand still, everything is evolving. The volume of payments in cryptocurrency is growing, and I think that’s quite expected. As for alternative methods, they are rapidly breaking into the market, and I’m confident they’ll carve out their own niche. We strive to give our clients the maximum choice of methods, so of course, we follow all trends and try to have all the listed solutions in our arsenal.”

• Judging from payment methods that have interacted with MultiHub in the past, do you feel that overall security and safety are improving for online banking? Do you have any insights or personal opinions about the safest methods to pay online?

Absolutely. Technology doesn’t stand still, and this is very evident in the fintech sector. Without going into details, it can be noted that the level of modern technical systems is growing. It’s important to always look for reliable partners and not to trust unverified providers. The safest method at the moment is cryptocurrency. It has not yet been fully adopted by customers, but I personally really like the modern trends.

• We have reviewed various online casinos with both larger and smaller operators. In the same vein, MultiHub works with both large companies and small businesses alike. Is it more difficult working with the former or the latter?

Everything is relative and depends on the specific partner and team we work with. Large companies move more complexly and take longer in decision-making, while small companies are more dynamic and ready for changes. At the same time, large companies approach the choice of solutions more thoughtfully, understanding the conditions, forecasting volume, and formulating requirements quite clearly. We value and respect everyone, and we enjoy working and finding solutions for different companies.

• What do you think about the future of online casino payments and Multihub? What trends do you think will emerge and how will the current ones like cryptocurrency or mobile banking develop?

I think the trend towards fast payments will continue, with more local methods appearing, like Pix in Brazil, SPEI in Mexico, or Interac in Canada. The share of cryptocurrency will continue to grow. I bet on fast payments and cryptocurrency.

• Thank you so much for your time and for chatting with us Maya. It has been a pleasure to host you at CPO and to talk about MultiHub. Is there anything else you want to add, say, or announce before we wrap up?

Thank you for the interesting questions, it’s always a pleasure to communicate with colleagues from the market. See you in Brazil and Amsterdam!