Fredrik Elmqvist

Fredrik Elmqvist, among many other titles, is the CEO of EXCO Game Studio. His resume boasts more than 20 years of experience across leadership positions, most of the at the C level. His wealth of expertise across all facets of the iGaming world is both imposing and revelatory.

Before delving into his highly impressive resume that spans decades, we also need to mention that his entrepreneurship is intrinsically tied to his management. Apart from EXCO, he also sits as Chairman of the Board at ParlayBay, but is also the Chairman of Epicur Invest.

This means that many projects across the market have his involvement and blessing, providing him with a portfolio that showcases his versatile know-how. He’s very keen on understanding when to pivot, leverage, and make bold choices.

After graduating from the IHM Business School in Gothenburg (Sweden) in 1993, Fredrik entered the management class very early in his career. His major start was with Duracell’s Swedish subsidiary, followed by another lengthy stop with Goyada. His roles, divided across two stints, totalled 9 years and included marketing and sales management.

As the new millennium came, Fredrik Elmqvist was performing very well as the Head of Sales for Seamless Distribution, which was invaluable experience in the IT sector. While working for them, he entered the realm of entrepreneurship, marking his transition to being in charge of the projects he was passionate about.

He founded and served as CEO, COO and other roles for Jacky Betting. This attracted the attention of another immense name in iGaming, and Fredrik was recruited by NetEnt, where he rose from Sales Management to Head of Account Management. The most interesting part of his experience there was a 9-month stint as acting CEO.

After a brief 2 months back in his account management role, Fredrik Elmqvist pivoted back to entrepreneurship, providing consultancy services.

However, his game-changing move was to found and lead Yggdrasil, which has been a name that has garnered a lot of admiration and commanded a great deal of respect. He did so in 2012, serving as the company’s CEO and Director for 10 years. Fredrik stepped down into a role as a board member in 2022 before leaving Yggdrasil in 2025.

In the meantime, 2023 marked the year when he hedged his interests and assets and founded the aforementioned ParlayBay and Epicur. These were precursor moves to one of his most recent high-profile ventures: EXCO Game Studio, which he currently leads as the CEO.

Fredrik Elmqvist has risen and reinvented himself multiple times, always finding new leads, fresh motivation, and never stagnating. He has been integral to the development of high-paced and very direct iGaming projects, and his legendary status makes us proud to have him as a SlotsCalendar contributor.