The iGaming industry is known for its fast-paced environment, high stakes, and relentless pressure. Leaders in this sector often face unique challenges, dealing with the complexities of rapid growth, intense competition, and ever-changing regulations. In a recent interview with SiGMA News, Leo Judkins, founder of iGamingleader.com, shed light on these challenges and offered valuable insights into building sustainable high-performance habits within the industry.

The high-functioning brain in a high-pressure environment

Judkins begins by defining a high-functioning brain as one that is “well-rested, not very stressed, and feels in control of the outcomes.” He contrasts this with a low-functioning brain, characterised by stress, exhaustion, and a lack of control. This sets the stage for understanding how crucial it is to prioritise well-being in a demanding industry. His emphasis on the opposite perspective—understanding what doesn’t constitute a high-functioning brain—is a fresh approach that underscores the importance of self-awareness.

SiGMA News: So what does a high-functioning brain look like?

Leo Judkins: Great question to start with. A high-functioning brain is a brain that is well rested, is not very stressed, and feels in control of the outcomes that they have influence over. Let’s think about it from the opposite direction.

What does a low-functioning brain look like, right? It is somebody who is completely stressed out, right? Someone who is completely tired, has no energy, is unable to make decisions, is not in control of their calendar, is not in control over the outcomes in their roles, and is struggling to really move the dial when it comes to what they’re responsible for.

Therefore, the opposite is also true, right? A high-functioning brain is a well-rested brain. Somebody who’s feeling energetic, mentally strong. Somebody who is also in control of their decisions and their time. And has the responsibility to not just execute tasks, but also make decisions around what needs to happen.

The perils of rapid promotion and micromanagement

A recurring theme in Judkins’ discussion is the iGaming industry’s tendency towards rapid promotion, often outpacing the development of essential leadership skills. He states, “We have a very shallow talent pool…we promote them really quickly…the skills that they have don’t catch up quickly enough with their added responsibility.” This leads to a vicious cycle: high-performing individuals are promoted quickly, creating gaps in their previous teams and necessitating micromanagement in their new roles. This micromanagement, in turn, leads to team disengagement and ultimately, decreased productivity.

Leo Judkins: I think autonomy is also a big topic that most people don’t really talk about. Especially in gaming, there’s a fear of failure in leadership. There’s a real fear of delegating decisions rather than tasks, and as a result of that, there’s a lot of micromanagement. Micromanagement often happens because people get promoted quickly in these leadership positions because of a very shallow talent pool. As a result, we hire people and whenever somebody’s good, we promote them really quickly. But then, because they get promoted quickly, their skills don’t catch up quickly enough with their added responsibility. As a result of that, two things happen.

One is that they leave a gap in the team that they’ve just left, which is usually a big gap because the best person has just been promoted and left the team, right? And now, because they’ve been promoted, they have imposter syndrome going on because they want to please, and they want to show that they belong in that position.

But because there’s a gap in the team, now they have to do both jobs, they have to do double the work, and they start micromanaging the team. As a result of that, the team starts disengaging.

SiGMA News: So the team gets the loss of autonomy?

Leo Judkins: Yes, and therefore disengages, is no longer motivated to do their roles, does the bare minimum, shows up on time, leaves on time, never does any extra, right?

I often say that our highest performers often become our biggest bottlenecks because they are promoted, but then they are not given enough support to have that high-functioning brain, if you will.

Time management: Beyond productivity

Judkins challenges the conventional view of time management as simply increasing productivity. Instead, he emphasises the importance of strategic decision-making.

SiGMA News: Why do so many successful leaders struggle with time management? Is it inevitable that they struggle?

Leo Judkins: No, it’s not inevitable. Often, people think that time management is about productivity and being able to do things more quickly, but that is not true.

High performance is about not doing certain things. High performance is about deciding what you’re no longer going to do. It’s about deciding that you’ll no longer look at all the notifications that come up and look at your emails every two minutes. It’s about deciding how to focus your attention and not be distracted.

You’ve got to realise that every single application that we use on our phones, on our laptops, are all monetised. They all make revenue based on how much attention they get, right? So they’re all designed to distract you from what you’re doing now and pull you into that platform.

In the war of attention, your ability to focus is your superpower. And so time management really starts with your focus and attention. If you think about the last time you watched a movie without looking at your phone, right? We all struggle with this. We struggle with the thought of being bored. But when do our best ideas happen? They happen under the shower, right? But we no longer allow our brain to go into what’s called default mode. A rested brain is a high-functioning brain. High performance habits in the industry. What do they look like?

The impact of short-term thinking

The iGaming industry, Judkins notes, is heavily influenced by short-term thinking, driven by rapidly changing regulations and the pressure for immediate revenue generation. He observes, “Everything is short term…most of us are really short-term thinkers,” leading to unsustainable practices. This short-term focus often manifests in an attempt to implement too many changes at once, resulting in burnout and a lack of lasting impact.

Leo Judkins: It’s an overlap between your personal well-being and your productivity habits. Maybe let’s start with where the issue is. The problem in the industry is that everything is short-term, right? Regulation is going to change tomorrow, and revenue needs to be happening today. Everything is short term, and as a result of that, most of us are really short term thinkers, and we take a short term thinking approach to all of our habits as well. And so we try to change everything at once, right? 180-degree changes, like giving up alcohol, don’t eat carbs or going to the gym five times a week. We do all these things at the same time. When, of course, life happens and we fail, we’re off the wagon, and we stay off the wagon. So high-performance habits in general, really come down to making small changes but making them consistently so that you create an exponential effect.

Small changes, exponential effects

Judkins advocates for focusing on small, consistent changes rather than drastic, unsustainable overhauls. He emphasises the importance of resilience and self-forgiveness, stating: “It’s not about staying on the wagon, it’s actually about not staying off it.” This emphasises the iterative nature of personal growth. He also highlights perfectionism as a major obstacle, urging leaders to embrace imperfection and practice consistent effort over striving for unattainable standards.

Leo Judkins: It’s not about staying on the wagon, it’s actually about not staying off it. What’s so important there is that when you inevitably fail with whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve, it’s about just shrugging and getting back on the wagon and keep on doing what you were doing. But most of us go, oh! Now I’ve screwed it up, might as well give up.

High-performance habits are the opposite of what most people think. They’re actually about no longer self-sabotaging. It’s about being more consistent. It’s about stopping with perfectionism, which is one of the biggest reasons why people never start and, when they do start, give up very quickly. That’s it. It’s about thinking about habits as practices that you need to do over and over again until they’re habitual. Most of us think that a habit is just something that you switch on or off, and that if you do it now and then you fail tomorrow, you’re a failure. That failing is part of the process of learning the habits. So when you start seeing it more as practice rather than something that needs to be, that is a linear journey. That’s really how high-performance habits work.

It’s identifying which habits are most important for you. For some people, that might be rest and recovery. For other people, that might be like I was saying earlier: delegating decisions rather than tasks. For other people, that might be being able to say no. Setting boundaries.

Common challenges and imposter syndrome

The interview also delves into the pervasive challenges faced by iGaming leaders: perfectionism, overthinking, and imposter syndrome. Judkins attributes the prevalence of imposter syndrome to the constant social comparison fuelled by online platforms. He emphasises the need for self-compassion and understanding, acknowledging the inherent unfairness of comparing one’s journey to the curated highlights presented online.

Leo Judkins: Some common challenges that iGaming leaders face tend to always the same. Perfectionism, overthinking, and imposter syndrome are the biggest challenges most iGaming leaders face. And most of them never admit it because people often feel they need to prove they belong in the room.

It is a societal problem, because you compare yourself to whatever somebody posts on LinkedIn or on Instagram; you’re comparing yourself to somebody else’s highlight reel. You think your life is horrible because it’s not as good as this person’s highlight reel. You have this constant voice in your head that keeps telling you that you’re not good enough, and that’s where imposter syndrome comes in. You start working harder than everybody else just to prove that you belong in that position. The consequence is that you will inevitably burn out if you don’t fix it. But most people go for that. They either leave the industry before that happens or burn out if they don’t fix it.

The lighthouse and the barge

Judkins offers a powerful analogy to illustrate sustainable leadership: the lighthouse versus the barge. Both guide boats to safety, but the lighthouse illuminates the path while the barge pushes and pulls. Effective leaders, he suggests, act as the lighthouse, providing guidance, inspiration, and a clear vision, rather than solely focusing on the immediate tasks. This requires delegating responsibilities and fostering autonomy within the team. He stresses the importance of creating an environment where failure is acceptable and viewed as a learning opportunity.

SiGMA News: How can leaders create sustainable performance strategies to create a balance for themselves and for their teams.

Leo Judkins: The comparison I always like to make is that of a lighthouse and a barge. They both have the same job, to get boats safely into the harbour. But one pulls and pushes until the boat is safely into the harbour, and the other one illuminates the dangers. I think the first question you have to ask yourself as a leader is: What leader would I wish I had? Is it the lighthouse, or is it the person that pushes and pulls? Is it the person that inspires or the person that controls? For most leaders, it’s about letting go of decision-making and delegating responsibilities.

When you’ve got imposter syndrome and you feel that you don’t belong in that room, your biggest fear is that you’re going to fail, that you’re going to make a mistake, and that you do not belong in that room. So what are you going do? You’re going to do everything to prevent any sort of mistake from happening.

Therefore, you do not delegate any decisions, you delegate tasks. So it’s a consequence of that fear of failure that’s really making people micromanagers.

So as a leader, you’ve got to realise what’s going on, and it’s not about convincing yourself that it’s the right thing to do; it’s about practicing delegating decisions. And then letting people fail and seeing that it’s going to be okay.

As I said before, a constant in this industry is short-termism. It’s all about revenue today. It’s all about the legislation change tomorrow. We have two competing forces, right? On the one hand, you’ve got the revenue targets that you need to hit, the commercial targets. On the other hand, you’ve got compliance and regulation. They are two opposing forces that you constantly need to balance. So that makes it really difficult. That’s where the imposter syndrome comes from for a lot of people.

Holistic professional development

Judkins concludes by discussing the concept of holistic professional development, emphasising that sustained positive change necessitates a focus on manageable actions. He encourages leaders to identify their “first domino”—a single, achievable change that creates a ripple effect—rather than attempting to overhaul everything at once. He also highlights the transformative power of sleep and the creation of “not-to-do” lists as personal habits that contribute to overall well-being and effective performance.

SiGMA News: What inspired your transition from the industry to what you’re doing now?

Leo Judkins: In my case, it was really about two problems. One is that I got promoted really quickly. So, I was promoted as the youngest director at BetVictor. I had suffered from imposter syndrome, fear of failure, and thinking I didn’t belong. What I often say is that your mess becomes your message.

For a long time, I struggled with it. I remember the very first meeting I had, a revenue meeting, with all these other directors who were far more experienced than me. I was responsible for CRM and retention and didn’t even understand how bonus costs were calculated. But who are you going to ask? I’ve just been promoted as director, I can’t ask that stuff because then they’re going to find out that they’ve promoted the wrong person. That led to drinking alcohol every night. I drank a bottle of wine every evening to unwind. I started working more and more. I had just had my kid. I gained a lot of weight really quickly. I was always tired, and I was afraid I would not even see my son grow up. It was that bad, and I didn’t know how to escape it. I took a coach, lost 35 kilos, turned my life around, and then loads of people started asking me how I did it, and I felt inspired to do it myself, so I was certified as a nutritionist, then as a sleep coach, then stress management specialist, then I was a high-performance coach.

Since then, I’ve resigned from my directorship at the height of my career in the middle of lockdown as an expat in a foreign country, having our first mortgage. I started my own business, and it’s been fantastic. It’s now been four years. I’ve coached over 200 iGaming leaders from companies like Entain and Flutter, but also startups and founders. And it’s been phenomenal because the ripple effect it has on them, their families, and their teams has been really inspiring.

SiGMA News: Holistic professional development. What is it about? How do you go about it? And how can it help?

Leo Judkins: To start with, I think the problem is that there’s always a lack of time to find what you need to do. The second problem is that in most organisations, you go on a training course, and you feel very inspired for the two-day programme that you’re in and you get really great worksheets which go into the bottom drawer and you’re back to the work from the two days that you were gone and the work is still waiting for you. So now you’re double as busy. You’re not likely to implement any of it, right? You’re not going to change anything. Because behavioural change is really difficult. So holistic professional development is really about how you can find the right things to do and how you can do them. Because we all already know what to do, we just don’t do. We’re in an age of consumption, right? We think it’s just about consuming more, getting more information. Whereas what that creates is overwhelm. Now you know too much and don’t know what to do, making the problem even more significant. Actually, there’s no right and wrong; it’s just about trying something, sticking with it, practicing it for a while, and seeing if it works. Then, allowing yourself to fail and trying something else.

Many people struggle with identifying the one big thing they could work on the most. It’s almost like creating a domino effect. If you can find the first domino that is going to have a knock-on effect on everything else, that’s really powerful. And that’s what we specialise in with coaching. We identify what the first domino is so that everything else becomes easier. It sounds really complex, but it comes down to finding something to practice every day, maybe for only five minutes, so that you can make time for it. Allow yourself to fail, learn from the journey, and keep on going,

SiGMA News: This is my final question. Any personal habits you would like to share?

Leo Judkins: Sleep is the absolute number one game changer. Sleep’s interesting because it’s the last thing that happens, right? If you don’t have enough time with your partner, and you want to have some more quality time, what do you do? You watch a movie, or you watch Netflix for a bit longer, or an extra episode, right? So you sleep a little bit less. Or if you need more time for work, what do you do? Or you want to go to the gym? You get up earlier, so you sleep a little bit less. But really, a lack of sleep will kill you faster than a lack of food. A lack of sleep for a sustained period of time has the equivalent effect of being legally drunk.

There’s truth in the middle as well, which means that if you regularly only sleep six and a half hours, which is what most people do, it’s very likely that you’re massively underperforming, that your battery is only 50 percent full at the start of the day.

Getting back to your question, from a personal perspective, sleep is non-negotiable. Personally, it has been a game changer on the well-being side. From a professional one, having a not-to-do list, for me, has been the biggest thing ever. So, every day, you are thinking about a million things you could do. But from these million things, what are the 999, 999 things that I’m not going to do? And what’s the one thing that I will do? Instead of thinking about what do I want to prioritise, I think about making the tough decisions on the things that I want to do but shouldn’t do and writing that down on a not-to-do list. It’s been a game-changer as well. Really powerful.

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