Edvardas Sadovskis, Chief Product Officer at ICONIC21, is at the forefront of the company’s evolution from a live casino-focused supplier into a broader, multi-vertical iGaming content provider. Today, ICONIC21’s portfolio spans live casino, slots, RNG and virtual games, alongside dedicated studios, promotional tools and custom content designed around the needs of individual operators. At the heart of this expansion is a focus on personalization, speed and creating experiences that give both operators and players something different.
In this CasinoRank interview, Sadovskis discusses how ICONIC21 develops new gaming concepts, including iDealer Blackjack, its AI-powered RNG blackjack game created with RAVATAR, and what early player behaviour has revealed about interacting with an AI dealer. He also discusses the strategy behind Soccer World Championship, the role of customization and operator collaboration, and ICONIC21’s approach to innovation.
As CPO, what’s your philosophy when it comes to deciding what ICONIC21 builds next and what has to be true about an idea before it earns a place in the roadmap?
Edvardas Sadovskis: My instinct with a new idea is to find all the ways it won’t work, rather than all the ways it will. I try to see if our players would lose interest, if there’s a market need for it etc. Then the team either convinces me I’m wrong or we find the change that fixes it. That back-and-forth is where the real product gets made.
After that, three things have to be true. The team has to believe in it, if the people building it aren’t excited, then that will reflect in the product. It has to fill a genuine gap, in our portfolio or a partner’s, rather than repeat what the market already has. And it has to have factors that perform well, good feedback from operators, or elements that have worked in the past. If an idea clears all three, it earns its place in the roadmap.
Let’s talk about your newest release, iDealer Blackjack. You’ve built an AI-powered dealer into an RNG table with RAVATAR. Where did the idea come from, and what problem were you trying to solve?
Edvardas Sadovskis: It started with a gap we kept seeing. RNG blackjack has real strengths and players enjoy it greatly. But it’s a silent game. Live blackjack gives you presence and interaction, but some players prefer RNG. There’s a whole group of players sitting between the two: they don’t want to play in silence, but they don’t necessarily want a classic live table either.
The idea was to give the RNG table a personality. iDealer keeps everything players already like about RNG blackjack and adds a dealer they can actually talk to. We’re seeing great feedback from players so far so we think it could become its own vertical.
Now that iDealer Blackjack is live and players are actually using it, what have you learned about how people behave at the table that you didn’t expect going in?
Edvardas Sadovskis: The behavior surprised us. We expected players to treat the AI-powered dealer like a slightly livelier RNG table. Instead, they open up. For example, they ask it trivia, questions about history and world events, they crack jokes. Conversations they might have never started with a human dealer in a live studio.
I think it’s because the format is honest. Everyone knows exactly what they’re talking to, so the social pressure disappears. Being AI-powered loosens the players’ behaviour in a positive way. Players aren’t disappointed the dealer isn’t human; they behave more freely because it isn’t. We didn’t plan, expect or script that. It just emerged, and it tells us more about where engagement is heading than any roadmap could.
Given ICONIC21’s focus on branded and custom studio work built around each operator’s specific needs, what does that collaboration look like in practice, and how much of a finished game is shaped by the partner?
Edvardas Sadovskis: It depends entirely on the partner, and I don’t think there’s one right balance. At one end, if it’s a dedicated live table or a fully branded slot, then the operator has decided how it should look and we execute it precisely, quickly and efficiently. At the other, a partner might say, “I want a game with this theme,” or “my players have this problem,” and leaves the rest to us. Then we build the concept, math, edge cases, user journey, layer by layer as needed and in conversation with them.
The way I think about it: we take the best of what each partner brings. Some operators know their players deeply, and we lean into that. Others come with a more personal, more anecdotal view, and then we provide our own viewpoint depending on data. It’s a conversation, and the mix shifts every time.
With Soccer World Championship built around the tension of a penalty shootout, what made that moment in football feel like the right foundation for the slot?
Edvardas Sadovskis: Football is the one sport where a single moment can decide everything, and the penalty is the purest version of it. Ninety minutes can come down to one kick. That’s the feeling we wanted, so rather than lay a football skin over generic mechanics, we built the mechanic out of the penalty itself.
That’s the Penalty symbol. It turns into an Expanding Wild and sets off a live duel between a striker and a goalkeeper, each carrying a multiplier from 2x to 100x, and the duel decides who stays on the reel. The two bonus modes come from the same idea, giving the match different ways to play out. It’s an instantly recognisable hook with a standout mechanic, and that’s what made the moment worth building around.
With the iGaming market moving quite fast, how does ICONIC21 decide where to focus its energy, what makes you back one opportunity over another when there are so many directions you could go?
Edvardas Sadovskis: I’m a believer in trying a direction and feeling how it performs, rather than deciding everything on a whiteboard first. When we started with slots, we deliberately tested different themes and mechanics, and only then settled on what was worth repeating.
We study the games performing in the market and really look into why they are working. Then we combine that with our target players, the real gap in our portfolio, and whatever’s shifting around us. Where those overlap is where the next product goes. We back an opportunity by testing it, then carving our own path.
Looking ahead, what should players and operators expect from ICONIC21 over the next year, is iDealer Blackjack the beginning of a broader push into AI-powered products?
Edvardas Sadovskis: This year, we started releasing four slots a month and we’re now growing steadily toward six. The Gravity series is expanding too, and there’s a mix of RNG and live coming, some built on new technology which we’re really excited about.
On AI, I’d be careful about the hype. Inside slot development, it helps with art and a little with code, but everything still needs heavy review. A good slot player spots AI art immediately. iDealer Blackjack is the more interesting case. Player behaviour is telling us there’s a real niche here, and we want to look into it properly. So it’s less a broad “AI push” than a specific, deliberate analysis that will continue to be measured, tested, and honest about how early it is.
With a background in digital media and a keen eye for emerging technologies, Ronaldo bridges the gap between players and platforms through clear, insightful reporting to the iGaming industry.
