As part of our CTO in Focus series, Gaming Eminence spoke with Erez Cywier, CTO and co-founder of LuckyStreak, on scaling innovation in the iGaming space. Drawing from his mission-critical defence background, he emphasised building for reliability, scalability, and speed. He highlighted LuckyStreak’s microservices architecture, AI-driven personalisation, and predictive infrastructure analytics. A strong culture of ownership and continuous deployment enables rapid innovation without sacrificing quality.
Gaming Eminence: You began in mission-critical defence systems for the Israeli Air Force before moving into commercial tech roles and co-founding LuckyStreak. How did those early experiences shape your leadership style and your approach to technology in the fast-paced iGaming world?
EC) "Working on mission-critical defence systems drilled one core lesson into me: failure is not an option. In those environments, reliability and stability are everything - if a system goes down, the consequences are serious. That mindset has shaped how I build technology and lead teams to this day.
At LuckyStreak, I took that same approach when designing our architecture. From day one, I planned it as a microservices-based system to ensure scalability. We knew that as we grew, we’d need to onboard more providers, handle more transactions, and support an increasing number of players - without breaking. Microservices gave us the flexibility to scale each component independently, ensuring the platform could expand seamlessly.
That proactive planning paid off. As we expanded LuckyConnect, we doubled our load multiple times. Each time, our infrastructure scaled without a hitch because we had the right foundations in place - load balancing, redundancies, and real-time monitoring. This not only keeps the platform stable but also optimises costs and improves player retention.
At the end of the day, my job is to make sure every game, every provider, and every transaction runs smoothly - no matter how much we scale or how unpredictable traffic gets."
Gaming Eminence: Your academic background in Computer Science and Bioinformatics reflects a strong, research-oriented mindset. How do those skills influence your work at LuckyStreak, particularly as you explore AI-driven personalisation and real-time analytics for player engagement?
EC) "One of the biggest takeaways from my background in bioinformatics is the power of interdisciplinary thinking - bringing solutions from one field into another. A great example is how cybersecurity has borrowed concepts from immunology. Just like the human immune system detects and neutralizes threats, security systems analyze patterns, identify anomalies, and respond to potential risks in real time.
I take the same approach at LuckyStreak. We’re constantly looking at challenges from different angles - whether it’s using AI-driven analytics to enhance player engagement or applying predictive models to optimise infrastructure performance.
Take AI-driven load balancing, for example. Instead of reacting to traffic spikes, we’re developing predictive models that let our infrastructure adjust dynamically. This means better performance, lower costs, and a smoother experience for players.
The same applies to personalization. By analyzing player behavior, we can recommend the right games, adjust UI elements, or offer promotions that actually make sense for each user. It’s about making every session feel tailored, without players even realising it’s happening behind the scenes.
A lot of this is still evolving, but that’s part of the process - constantly testing, iterating, and refining. Research isn’t just something we do on the side; it’s baked into how we build the future of LuckyStreak."
Gaming Eminence: LuckyStreak is known for rapid integration timelines and a robust microservices architecture. As a CTO, how do you promote a culture of innovation and speed within your R&D teams while meeting strict quality and regulatory standards across global markets?
EC) "Speed and innovation don’t happen by accident - they come from a culture where engineers understand the bigger picture. When developers see how their work directly impacts customers, they take ownership, solve problems proactively, and move fast.
One of the things I’m most proud of is the incredible team we’ve built. I fully trust them, and I encourage them to speak up, bring fresh ideas, and challenge the status quo. Some of our best innovations have come from team members who saw a better way of doing things and took the initiative to push it forward. When people know their ideas matter, it fuels even more innovation.
To maintain both speed and quality, we moved from traditional Agile sprints to a continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) model. Instead of bundling releases every two weeks, we push updates multiple times a week. This means we can react quickly to feedback, ship improvements faster, and keep our platform evolving without unnecessary delays.
Of course, speed is useless if quality suffers. That’s why we invest heavily in automated testing, rigorous QA, and proactive monitoring. These safeguards allow us to move fast without breaking things - keeping our customers happy while staying ahead of competitors."
Gaming Eminence: Building a mobile-first live casino platform and implementing advanced security measures can be challenging. Can you share a key technical or strategic obstacle you faced, and how you adapted—both as a technologist and a leader—to keep LuckyStreak on track?
EC) "One of the biggest challenges in building a mobile-first platform is ensuring a flawless experience across thousands of device types, browsers, and network conditions. Physical testing at scale isn’t realistic, so we integrated advanced simulation tools that mimic real-world conditions. That allowed us to optimize performance across a huge range of devices while keeping development efficient.
Security is another area where we had to go beyond standard practices. Since we’re a B2B platform, we don’t just protect our own systems - we also safeguard our partners’ integrations. That means rigorous security testing, providing partners with best-practice guidelines, and ensuring compliance with multiple regulatory bodies.
Early on, we also had to make a critical decision about streaming technology. When we started, ultra low-latency streaming wasn’t as mature as it is today. Choosing the right CDN providers and optimising our infrastructure for real-time gameplay made all the difference. Because we tackled this early, we avoided the latency and reliability issues that still plague some competitors today."
Gaming Eminence: You’ve discussed the future potential of AI, blockchain, and immersive live gaming. How do you balance these forward-looking goals with the day-to-day pressures of security, compliance, and revenue growth for a global iGaming platform?
EC) "Balancing innovation with daily operations comes down to strong prioritisation. There’s always a long list of things we could be working on, but the real challenge is knowing what to focus on and when.
When a deadline is near, we focus on delivering immediate objectives. But we never take our foot off the gas in terms of long-term innovation. For example, when we decided to enter the sweepstakes industry, we proactively researched compliance requirements while simultaneously delivering high-priority projects like our new Roulette release. This dual focus ensures we’re always ahead of market shifts rather than simply reacting to them.
We also see our customers as partners, not just clients. That’s a huge part of how we balance innovation with real-world needs. It’s not just about what customers ask for today - it’s about anticipating what they’ll need tomorrow. By maintaining an open dialogue, we’re able to build solutions that solve both their current and future challenges.
At the end of the day, our job isn’t just to keep up with the industry—it’s to shape where it’s going. That’s what keeps LuckyStreak ahead of the game."