Watch: Find your Ikigai. When you do what you love, success follows naturally, says Eman Pulis

February 7, 2025

Watch: Find your Ikigai. When you do what you love, success follows naturally, says Eman Pulis

From humble beginnings to Olympic dreams, the road to SiGMA was certainly not a conventional one for founder and CEO, Eman Pulis. In an interview with Dan Assor he relives his journey.

One of three siblings, Eman Pulis grew up in humble circumstances in Malta, an industrious yet tiny archipelago of islands at the crossroads between Europe and Africa. From a young age, he dreamed of becoming an elite athlete and representing his nation at the Olympic Games. However, his ambitions were marred by financial constraints – in hindsight, a silver lining setback that planted the seeds for what would later become SiGMA.

“Despite having the potential to become an Olympian, the financial means weren’t there for me to achieve that,” Pulis recalls. “That realisation made me think, moving forward, I want financial freedom. I don’t want this to ever happen again.”

With his Olympic dreams out of reach, Pulis turned his frustration into motivation, diverting that same drive and resilience to fuel new dreams in business – a territory he admits was entirely unfamiliar to him. “My family doesn’t come from a business background, so you can only imagine the countless times I made mistakes trying to build something from scratch.”

“I made plenty of mistakes. But there’s no textbook that prepares you for the real-life challenges of entrepreneurship like experience does.”

Risk, Resilience & Reinvention: Watch the interview in full

The Eureka moment

The best business ventures can sometimes come from unexpected places. Pulis is candid in admitting that he had no clue on how to enter the business world. He simply loved people and wanted to be useful to them. That mindset, inherited from his mother, unknowingly set him on a path toward the events industry.

His first venture came during his university days when he was approached to co-organise a party for 4,000. With little experience but a natural talent for bringing people together, he took on the challenge. “I remember standing next to the DJ booth on New Year’s Eve in 2004, looking at the crowd, feeling goosebumps everywhere. It hit me – this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. It was there I had this Eureka moment.”

For the next decade, Pulis built a name for himself in Malta’s nightlife scene, organising large-scale parties. But over time, he felt unfulfilled. “I didn’t want to spend my life just getting 4,000 or 10,000 people hammered. That wasn’t driving me anymore.”

His second Eureka moment came in 2013 when he realised he could pivot from the nightlife scene to conferences. He turned his gaze towards the biggest spenders at his parties – an affluent iGaming community. “I had never attended a conference, let alone organised one, but I saw an opportunity.”

From that idea, SiGMA was born – the Summit of iGaming Malta – which nowadays is a brand that encompasses a plethora of ventures. The first event in 2014 attracted 1,000 attendees, many of whom knew and trusted him from his days as a party organiser. From there, he says, “it took off like wildfire.”

Looking back, Pulis credits his success to a mix of confidence, brute force, and a healthy dose of naivety. “You cannot let anyone doubt you. I just put the blinkers on and went for it. He also feels that too much knowledge can sometimes fuel self doubt. “Sometimes lack of experience and lack of knowledge actually helps drive us forward.”

From Malta to Manila and beyond – the inevitable rise of iGaming

Malta, a small island nation with a population of just half a million may be small, but has long been known for having a larger than life entrepreneurial spirit. The government has “been vociferous in embracing new industries”, shares Pulis, making significant strides in financial services, and creating a strong regulatory framework that had attracted international business.

In 2001, Malta established the Malta Gaming Authority, introducing a legal framework for an industry that was still in its infancy elsewhere. This regulatory foresight proved invaluable. Gaming companies from across the world sought a Malta licence, leading to a rush of businesses setting up operations on the island. As a result, the gaming industry in Malta flourished.

Beyond regulation, the industry’s global scalability also contributed to its rapid expansion. Unlike traditional industries that require significant infrastructure investments, iGaming companies can enter new markets with relative ease. A company operating in Sweden today can launch in Brazil tomorrow – often with just language localization and a few regulatory adjustments. With minimal barriers to entry and a rapidly growing audience, the conditions were ideal for exponential industry growth.

“Malta has done a good job regulating those spaces, in finding those niches and going for it. It has done it on artificial intelligence more recently. on blockchain technology, on medical cannabis, on pharma, on vessel registration.”

For its first few years, SiGMA remained firmly rooted in Malta, building its reputation as a premier iGaming event. However, in 2018, it was time to take the next step. The first expansion target? Asia.

Manila was chosen as the gateway to the region – a market of 4.5 billion people and a rapidly growing gaming industry. Everything was in place for a successful launch, but COVID-19 had other plans. The pandemic forced a delay, pushing SiGMA into what Pulis describes as “trying to keep a sinking ship afloat”. He grimaces – 2020 was a brutal year.

Then, an unexpected opportunity arose. While much of the world remained shut down, Dubai was one of the first regions to reopen. The UAE’s aggressive vaccination rollout and proactive policies made it a prime location for an event. In 2021, SiGMA hosted its first show in Dubai – “a do or die situation.”

The result? An electrifying atmosphere, fueled by an eager audience hungry to reconnect, do business, and travel again. What could have been a crisis became a turning point, and in hindsight, forced SiGMA to step out of their comfort zone, expand globally, and ultimately, scale in ways they hadn’t imagined.

Fast forward five years, and SiGMA now hosts seven shows worldwide, covering key geographical markets for the industry, and growing into the largest event platform for gaming, with over 100,000 unique delegates attending events. “That is something we cherish, ” he says with pride.

Beyond events, SiGMA has also expanded their platform into media and player advocacy. “In iGaming, we like to use this term – prosumers, ” explains Eman Pulis. “It’s consumers who are extremely knowledgeable about the industry. They know all about the regulation, about who’s producing the games, the slots. They know everything about odds. So they’re very meticulous about which sides to play on.” Because of this, he goes on to say, “We decided to turn SiGMA into the most trusted authority where the regulators, the B2B industry, but also the players converge.” To that end they’ve invested in a robust platform offering game and casino reviews, and have built an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service, providing an unbiased mediation space between players and operators.

“As of today, B2C represents about 5% of our revenue, but we see huge growth potential. Good SEO, like good food, takes time to cook, and we’ve been refining our strategy for two years. The results so far are encouraging.”

From 1,000 to 100,000 delegates

In 2014, our first event had just 1,000 delegates. Today, we have 100,000. It’s easy to get caught up in the momentum and forget to take a step back and reflect, he muses. “We don’t have the luxury to, you know, pull the handbrake and, you know, just soak it all in. But yes, I see myself extremely lucky to be in a space at a time where we grew together with the industry.”

And the industry isn’t slowing down – if anything, it’s gaining traction. Governments are regulating gaming rather than restricting it, and the mood in the investment world has shifted. Once hesitant about the sector, private equity and large firms now see it as a legitimate, highly profitable space. Regulation, often seen as a burden, has actually given confidence to investors and helped establish credibility. “We see the mood changing drastically.”

“We’re all for regulation in gaming. That has always been our mantra and it has enabled us to work closely also with governments. We get approached by a lot of governments who want to see the conference taking place in their countries. And that has enabled us to expand aggressively.”

The power of ‘Glocalization’

Expanding globally isn’t just about replicating a successful formula – it’s about adapting, says Pulis. Thomas Friedman encapsulates this mantra nicely: “It´s glocalisation. You go global but you act local.” Instead of centralising everything in one HQ, we’ve set up seven offices worldwide – in São Paulo, Manila, Noida (India), Malta, Cyprus, Belgrade, and soon, Las Vegas. Having local teams ensures we understand cultural nuances, curate the right networking experiences, and communicate in multiple languages.”

We also believe in decentralized decision-making. I try to instill a culture where it’s ok to make mistakes, to encourage our workforce not to shy away from calculated risks. Whenever someone comes to me with a problem, I tell them, “Don’t bring me a problem – bring me an apology and a solution.”

If he could give one piece of advice to his younger self, it would be to “keep the passion alive, stay adaptable, and embrace challenges as opportunities – to nurture the fire”. Entrepreneurship isn’t about playing it safe, he concludes – it’s about taking risks, learning from failures, and continuously evolving.

And most importantly, “Find your Ikigai. When you do what you love, what you’re good at, and what contributes to the world, success follows naturally.”