Betsson Group

Senior Software Engineer 2021-10 2025-12

Context

From 2021 to 2025, I worked as a Senior Software Engineer within Betsson Group’s Player Rewards & Gamification value stream. The team was responsible for building and maintaining event‑sourced, gamification‑oriented systems that support large‑scale, real‑time customer engagement across multiple brands and markets. The environment combined high throughput requirements, strict regulatory constraints, and a complex distributed architecture — a combination that demanded clarity of design and disciplined engineering.

Examples of projects include Tournaments, Loyalty Points, Levels & Achievements.

Problem

The core systems needed to process large volumes of real‑time events, maintain consistent state across distributed services, and expose reliable APIs for both internal and external consumers. Performance bottlenecks and architectural drift were recurring challenges. The organization also needed a way to evaluate new ideas quickly without disrupting ongoing development.

Approach

My work centered on improving architectural clarity, strengthening automation, and increasing system throughput. Key areas included:

Architecture

• Applied CQRS, Domain‑Driven Design, Event Modeling, and Event Sourcing to clarify domain boundaries and improve system resilience
• Introduced .NET Aspire to simplify development and testing of distributed applications
• Built Proofs of Concept for implementing the actor pattern using Microsoft Orleans
• Collaborated closely with the Enterprise Architect and Engineering Manager to ensure alignment with regulatory and organizational requirements

Backend Development

• Built and maintained services using C#, .NET 5–9 and ASP.NET Core
• Developed Blazor‑based back‑office tools for internal operations
• Designed and optimized SQL Server and PostgreSQL data models

Automation

• Maintained and improved existing CI/CD pipelines built on GitHub Actions and Octopus Deploy
• Containerized services with Docker to improve consistency and deployment speed

System Integration

• Improved Kafka‑based event processing pipelines
• Designed and maintained REST APIs and legacy WCF integrations

Team & Collaboration

• Participated in technical interviews and candidate assessments to support team growth
• Provided architectural and implementation guidance to team members

Outcome

• Increased Kafka message throughput by nearly 1000% for one of the core applications, significantly improving system responsiveness and operational stability
• Delivered multiple Proofs of Concept to explore new architectural approaches and validate ideas before full investment
• Improved developer experience and operational reliability through automation and clearer architectural patterns
• Supported team growth by conducting technical interviews and contributing to recruitment decisions

Reflection

This project reinforced the value of making systems easier to understand and faster to work with — not through big rewrites, but by clarifying responsibilities, improving observability, and removing the small points of friction that slow teams down. Working in a high‑scale, regulated environment sharpened my ability to balance innovation with compliance and to design systems that remain understandable even as they grow.

My four years at Betsson — first as a consultant for roughly two years, then as a full‑time employee for another two — were a deliberate exception to my usual freelancing path. I stayed because I genuinely enjoyed the company and the colleagues, and left only because I eventually missed the freedom and variety of consulting.