The Mindset That Built tilldawn®.

After 16 years at the top of iGaming design — GIG, Skilling, Flows — I walked away from the salary to build something of my own. Here’s the honest story.

Chris Farrugia

Oct 30, 2022 · 5 min read · As featured in WhosWho.mt

I spent 16 years building design careers inside some of the most demanding companies in iGaming — Gaming Innovation Group, Skilling, Flows. I was Head of Design. I had a seat at the table, a team under me, a salary that made sense. And somewhere around year 15, I realised I was building someone else’s vision every single day.

That’s not a complaint. Those years shaped everything. I learned how to ship under pressure. How to design for conversion, not just for aesthetics. How to navigate the politics of a product roadmap while keeping quality high. I understood the iGaming industry in a way that most designers never get to — I lived inside it.

The decision nobody could make for me

“After 16 years of working for companies, I felt the time was right to at last try something new,” I told WhosWho.mt when they interviewed me about the launch. “I’ve always dreamt of working for myself and being my own boss and I felt if I didn’t make this move now, I never would.”

That ‘now or never’ feeling is real. The longer you wait, the more comfortable you become — and comfort is the enemy of the thing you actually want. I had the skills, the network, and the track record. The only thing holding me back was the decision itself.

What 16 years of iGaming actually gives you

Working for companies like GIG and Betsson doesn’t just give you design skills. It gives you operator empathy. You understand why a lobby layout decision isn’t just an aesthetic choice — it’s a revenue decision. You know why sportsbook operators obsess over bet slip friction. You’ve sat in the meetings where retention numbers go over the design team’s heads.

That’s the unfair advantage tilldawn® brings to every client: we don’t need you to explain your industry to us. We already understand it. We come in asking the questions that matter — what’s converting, what’s leaking, what your players are telling you in the numbers — and we get to work on the things that move those metrics.

The practical side of going out on your own

The transition to freelance looks intimidating from the outside. Startup expenses, no guaranteed income, building a pipeline from scratch. But the reality — especially post-pandemic — is that most of us already work from home. The infrastructure is there. What you actually need is runway, a pipeline, and the discipline to treat your own business as seriously as you treated your employer’s.

The hardest part isn’t the work. It’s getting yourself out there. Investing in yourself. “Purchasing advertisements, engaging on social media, mobilising your professional network,” as I put it to the interviewer. The work has never been the problem — I know how to do the work. Selling the work, when you’ve spent 16 years having someone else sell it for you, is the actual skill to build.

What I’d tell every designer sitting on the fence

Move around. Work on different products, different verticals, different team structures. “I encourage all designers to experience all different types of work environments and most of all work on multi-products, not just one.” The breadth is what builds the depth.

Learn to communicate your work. Not just present it — sell the thinking behind it. “Communication is one of the most important aspects of being a designer. I can’t stress how important the ability to sell yourself and your work is for your future within design.”

And if you’re thinking about going out on your own: the biggest thing is self-belief. The skills, the clients, the revenue — those come. But none of it starts without the conviction that you can actually do this for yourself.

This article is adapted from an interview originally published by WhosWho.mt on 30 October 2022, written by Fabrizio Tabone.

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