Shuffle executive and co-founder Ishan Haque is set to leave the crypto online casino to head up a new games studio, Origami, EGR can exclusively reveal.
The move brings an end to Haque’s three-year stint with Shuffle, a business he launched alongside CEO Noah Dummett in February 2023.
Shuffle has enjoyed strong growth and, according to recent figures provided by Haque, is on course to surpass $20bn in total stakes before the end of 2025.
Additionally, he revealed the Australia-based firm is pulling in more than 50,000 active users per month.
According to data from website traffic tracking firm Semrush, Shuffle.com had 11.4 million visits in May. In comparison, fellow crypto operator Rollbit had 2.3 million, Roobet had 20.1 million, while Stake was the runaway leader with 140 million visits.
Speaking to EGR, Haque said: “Shuffle’s rise to a top five global crypto betting brand in under three years reflects the exceptional team and quality of the product.”
Haque will now move over to Origami, a games studio headed up by some fellow Shuffle execs.
The hope from Haque is that the slots and casino content produced by Origami will help accelerate Shuffle’s growth.
He continued: “Over 50% of [Shuffle] revenue comes from instant, original games developed in-house.
“I’m excited to re-package the magic we found at Shuffle, bottle it and share it with as many operators as possible through Origami.”
The new studio is slated to launch next month. Crypto operators have become deeply intertwined with sister studios, with Stake having developed a similar blueprint.
In April, the operator unveiled its remote gaming server, Stake Engine, to support startup game developers create online casino games deployed on Stake’s site.
At the time, Stake said games built on Stake Engine had generated more than £2.5bn in turnover for the operator.
Late last year, while appearing on a Waterhouse VC webinar, Haque detailed how he believed attitudes towards the crypto sector were changing and regulation is closer than many anticipate.
“There may be some countries that might take a harsher approach, but you know, the US, Hong Kong and Singapore are very pro-crypto,” he remarked.
“As a whole, I think the major powers of the world are shifting towards adopting crypto. It’s the way things are going.”
In other crypto news, prediction market Polymarket, which is powered by the Polygon blockchain, announced it closed a funding round that would value the company at just over $1bn.
Last month, Yolo Group founder Tim Heath suggested that third-party data published by the Financial Times had vastly overblown the size of the crypto gambling sector.
Arnold Ash is EGR’s Executive Recruitment Partner. They support ambitious organisations to identify and attract industry leading executive talent. Find out more here.
The post Exclusive: Shuffle co-founder steps down to spearhead new games studio first appeared on EGR Intel.
Ishan Haque exits Australia-based crypto casino to take charge of Origami, a studio launched by the same team behind Shuffle
The post Exclusive: Shuffle co-founder steps down to spearhead new games studio first appeared on EGR Intel.