Shan Mustafa
Sales and Partner Support Manager

I've been given room to own whole areas of the business and grow into bigger ones, and there's always someone from tech, legal or commercial ready to help me find the answer.

Personal Journey at Finnplay

My career began in online gaming, supporting critical systems at a virtual casino in Tallinn. From there, I moved into two of the region's most respected tech companies, Wise and Pipedrive, where I looked after access and IT operations for thousands of colleagues.

When I came across a Technical Account Manager opening at Finnplay, it stood out immediately. It combined everything I'd learned, from the iGaming industry I already knew to the fintech and SaaS experience I'd built since.

I applied, joined in 2023, and three roles later, I'm still finding new ways to grow here.

In three years, I've had three roles, and each one has widened my view of the business.

I started as a Technical Account Manager, the main technical contact for a portfolio of more than 500 supplier accounts, where I helped bring integration go-live times down to three to four months.

As Partner Relationship Manager, I moved from delivery to relationships, running supplier performance reviews that informed renewal and expansion decisions, and building automation that took manual work out of our supplier processes.

Today, as Sales and Partner Support Manager, I'm the link between our technology, suppliers and commercial goals. I manage supplier onboarding end to end, oversee our referral agreements, lead our RFP and RFI responses, and coordinate work orders, approvals and handoffs across the teams involved.

Having moved from technical integration to the commercial side, I understand both halves of the business. I know what it takes to get a supplier live on the platform, and I know the commercial logic behind which partnerships are worth building.

What I'm proudest of is how far the trust has grown.

Over three years, I've stepped into new roles as opportunities opened up, and each time the responsibility has been bigger than the last.

Today, I lead our RFI and RFP responses, with more than 20 completed. Each one means bringing together commercial, technical and operational input from across the company into a single, confident answer on behalf of Finnplay.

I'm also the first point of contact for our suppliers and some of our most important leads. When someone is deciding whether to work with us, I'm often the person they meet first, through calls, onboarding or our Partner Webinars, where I introduce trusted suppliers to our operator network.

Being trusted to represent Finnplay at that moment, and seeing that trust turn into partnerships, is the part of my journey I'm proudest of.

One of the most unexpected skills I've picked up along the way is commercial negotiation. Coming from IT, I never expected to be working through agreements, liability clauses and commercial terms. I've learned to read a contract and a technical architecture with equal confidence, and to translate between legal, finance, product and developers, who all describe the same problem differently.

And of course, Finnplay also taught me that I'm a decent go-kart driver!

Managing so many supplier relationships comes with its challenges. There are a lot of moving parts that depend on people outside my own team. I've tackled this by building structure: clear ownership, documented processes and automation, including a HubSpot workflow that reduced manual processing and saved hours every week.

I've also learned to verify the facts before escalating, so problems get solved instead of passed around.

If I had to describe my journey at Finnplay in three words, they'd be growth, ownership and connection.

And my advice to my Day One self?

“Ask more questions and document everything. The best thing I did was write down how things actually work, because it turns personal knowledge into something the whole team can use. And don't wait for permission to improve a process.”

Life at Finnplay

A typical day starts with Slack, JIRA and my task list. Then it's a mix of supplier onboarding and work orders, coordinating developers and providers on integrations, updating our CRM, reviewing agreements with legal and talking with partners.

Some days I host a Partner Webinar or pull together an RFP response. No two days look the same.

What I enjoy most about working at Finnplay is the trust. I've been given room to own whole areas of the business and grow into bigger ones, and there's always someone from tech, legal or commercial ready to help me find the answer.

Having three different roles in three years says a lot about the opportunities to grow here.

One thing my friends and family still don't quite understand is what I actually do.

They hear "iGaming" and picture a casino. But Finnplay is a B2B platform provider. I don't run games or take bets. I work on the infrastructure and partnerships behind the scenes, such as integrations, agreements and supplier relationships.

Beyond Work

What motivates me is building things that last.

I like turning a good idea into a repeatable system, whether that's automation, documented processes or a partnership that benefits operators, suppliers and Finnplay alike.

Learning something new every year keeps me going.

Outside work, my interests include padel and technology.

For me, balancing work and personal life comes down to clear priorities and clear boundaries. I plan my week around what matters most and protect time for family, friends and hobbies.

After years in IT operations, I also believe in good systems. If things are organised, it's much easier to switch off.