20 leadership hires made up 20% of one client’s hiring in 2026.

How Bullfinch helped growing an iGaming firm, building their leadership and strategy ownership layer to fuel continued growth. And saved the client 76% of the fees traditional agency would cost.

“Scaling does not only require more people. It requires leaders who can turn growth into structure, accountability and execution.”

The hiring challenge

Rapid growth creates a leadership challenge long before it creates an org-chart problem. New products, larger customer bases and expanding operational teams all need clear ownership. Without the right managers, product leaders and functional specialists in place, growth can quickly become fragmented.

Across Bullfinch’s 2026 embedded hiring programmes, clients needed more than individual senior

The delivery

So far in 2026, Bullfinch has delivered 20 leadership and strategic appointments across multiple business-critical functions, including:

• Heads of function and senior operational leadership
• Product Owners and Product Managers responsible for platforms, payments and innovation
• Team Leaders across Artificial Intelligence, Design, Risk, Fraud and Chargebacks
• Functional Managers across Payments, Human Resources, Payroll and Commercial Operations
• Senior strategic ownership roles spanning product design, automation and workforce technology

These searches required different markets, technical backgrounds and leadership profiles. What connected them was the need for candidates who could take ownership immediately while helping the wider organisation mature.

Let’s talk numbers

With close to 100 hires this year for our iGaming client, around 20% have been leadership or strategic appointments.

At a conventional 20% contingency fee, the same 20 appointments would have generated approximately €237,000 in individual placement fees. Because the searches sat within wider embedded recruitment partnerships, clients avoided paying those separate percentage-based charges each time a senior hire was made. This equates to an estimated 76% reduction in cost across the 20 hires.

Why it worked

Embedded context. Bullfinch was already working alongside the clients’ HR, Talent and hiring teams. Each search began with an understanding of the organisation, its current structure and the capability it needed next.

Specialist reach without fragmented ownership. Leadership hiring crossed Product, Technology, Operations, Finance, Risk, HR and Design. One embedded team coordinated the programme rather than requiring a different agency for every discipline.

Continuous candidate management. Senior searches often involve longer notice periods, multiple stakeholders and complex decisions. Consistent follow-up and expectation management kept candidates engaged through to offer.

The Bullfinch impact

The result was not simply 20 senior hires. It was a stronger leadership spine across the businesses Bullfinch supports: people able to build functions, improve control, develop teams and maintain momentum as growth continued.

For businesses scaling internationally, recruitment value is not measured only by how many people join. It is measured by whether the right people are in place to lead what comes next.

Looking ahead

With leadership and ownership capability established across core functions, Bullfinch’s embedded partnerships remain positioned to support the next stage of growth – from specialist team building to future senior appointments.