Head of Operations

Performa is an international HR agency specializing in connecting top talent with leading companies across the iGaming, IT, and Marketing industries. 

Our client is an iGaming company launching a new online crypto casino project as a spin-off from a large international casino brand. The project is currently at an early stage, with a core team already in place and active preparation for launch.

We are looking for a Head of Operations to join the team and take ownership of the day-to-day operational environment across Customer Support, Casino and Sportsbook Operations, Risk Operations, and player-service processes.

The Project

We are building a new online crypto casino project, launched as a spin-off from a large international online casino brand. This is an early-stage opportunity to join an ambitious, fast-moving and execution-driven team with real ownership and direct impact on the business. The position is based on-site in Dubai. Compensation and the overall package are discussed individually; relocation support can be provided where required.

The Role

The Head of Operations owns the day-to-day player-service, gaming-operations and Risk Operations environment across the casino and sportsbook. The role ensures that players can register, access the product, receive timely support, use games and promotions correctly, and have cases routed and resolved through clear 24/7 processes. The position builds and leads Customer Support, Casino/Sportsbook Operations, Risk Operations and, where assigned, VIP Operations. It also serves as the operational incident coordinator across IT Department, FinOps, Legal & Compliance and external gaming suppliers.

This role oversees operational risk execution and case decisions through the Risk team, while AML policy, regulatory interpretation, SAR/STR decisions and MLRO responsibilities remain independently owned by Legal & Compliance.

Responsibilities

Player Service and Customer Support

1. Own the end-to-end operational player journey outside financial execution, including account and gameplay support, bonus queries, complaints, safer-gambling referrals and account-closure service.
2. Build and lead Customer Support, defining 24/7 coverage, workforce plans, channel SLAs, quality assurance, training, knowledge bases and escalation paths.
3. Own the quality, consistency and auditability of player communications and ensure cases are routed to the correct decision owner and tracked through closure.

4. Monitor service KPIs and recurring player pain points, coordinating corrective action and regulated complaints with the relevant functional owner and Legal & Compliance.

    

Casino, Sportsbook, VIP and Promotional Operations

1. Monitor casino and sportsbook availability and service quality, coordinating disputed bets, game interruptions, settlement issues, missing records and provider outages.
2. Manage operational relationships and escalations with game aggregator, sportsbook and platform suppliers, and support catalogue changes and pre-launch acceptance testing.
3. Own VIP service workflows and ensure manual bonuses, compensation and player-level exceptions follow documented approval limits and remain fully auditable.

4. Coordinate promotion readiness and operational issues with CRM, Product, Risk and Customer Support; commercial strategy and campaign economics remain with Commercial leadership.

    

Risk and Blockchain Screening Operations

1. Build and oversee Risk Operations for day-to-day player, payment, fraud and crypto-risk cases under policies approved by Legal & Compliance.
2. Own the operational configuration and governance of Chainalysis, Elliptic or equivalent screening workflows, including rules, thresholds, alerts, queues, escalation logic and quality assurance.
3. Ensure alerts are reviewed within SLA and hold, release, reject or escalation decisions are documented, evidence-based and made within Risk's delegated authority.

4. Send authorised financial actions to FinOps for controlled execution; Risk may not bypass FinOps controls, while AML interpretation, regulatory reporting and SAR/STR decisions remain with Legal & Compliance and the MLRO.

    

Operational Readiness and Incident Management

1. Coordinate material player-impacting incidents, maintaining severity, ownership, communication cadence and closure records across operational, technical and financial owners.
2. Lead operational readiness for new brands, markets, games and promotions, obtaining domain sign-off from FinOps, Risk, Legal & Compliance and IT Departments.

3. Run post-incident reviews focused on player impact, hand-offs and process failures, while technical and financial root causes remain with IT and FinOps respectively.

    

Process, Controls and Team Leadership

1. Maintain operational workflows, SOPs, service ownership, escalation matrices, approval limits and a single source of truth for player-service procedures.
2. Recruit, structure and develop Operations teams, ensuring appropriate coverage, role-based access and protection of sensitive information.
3. Drive automation in case routing, support tooling, knowledge management and reporting.

4. Report service performance, incidents, unresolved cases, capacity risks and remediation plans to management.

    

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in online casino, sportsbook or comparable high-volume digital operations, including 3+ years in a leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience leading 24/7 Customer Support and casino/sportsbook operational processes.
• Strong knowledge of the player lifecycle, gaming-platform back offices, complaints, bonuses, VIP servicing and supplier incident management.
• Working knowledge of payments, KYC/AML, fraud and responsible-gambling processes sufficient to manage hand-offs and escalations without assuming independent control ownership.
• Practical knowledge of blockchain analytics and wallet-screening tools such as Chainalysis or Elliptic, including screening-rule governance, risk thresholds, alert classification and case-management workflows.
• Proven experience building SOPs, SLAs, operating models, dashboards and scalable teams.
• Strong data literacy and sound judgement in high-pressure player-impacting incidents.
• Fluent English, written and spoken.

We Offer

• A senior leadership role building the Operations function from the ground up, with direct impact on player experience and operating discipline.
• Relocation support where needed.
• Competitive compensation package discussed individually with each candidate.