As Altenar’s successful journey continues into 2025 and with major plans for the year ahead, we thought it was only right that we showed you some of the key team members who are going to help us reach our goals.
We caught up with Product Manager Andrey Kalashnikov to learn more about his role in the company and what qualities are needed in his team.
How long have you been a member of the Altenar team and what made you want to join the company?
I joined the Altenar team more than four years ago. I really liked the role I was going to play in the company and loved the overall product.
What are your main roles and responsibilities here at Altenar?
My position hasn’t changed in any way during my time at the company but my responsibilities certainly have.
With the development of our product, the number of employees has grown and the number of tasks has increased. In the past, I spent my time describing the product I was creating. Now, I'm mostly focused on building a team, training employees, and developing effective communication processes.
What do you think makes you good at your job/what you do?
Altenar is a company engaged in the development and sale of a turnkey betting product. Without false modesty, I can say that I know almost everything about bookmaking, and I also know how to explain bookmaking at different levels of understanding—from breaking it down simply to diving into the complex mathematical aspects of calculating and generating betting odds. It’s safe to say I’m fully immersed in the product itself.
How does your department help the company reach its overall targets and goals?
The main task of the team I manage is to produce betting odds completely automatically without human intervention. This approach allows the company to have high-quality odds for all available markets in all sports, minimize human errors and, most importantly, increase overall profit.
What are the key skills you need to be a success in your team/department?
A modern manager should be able to do at least two things well—communicate with the team and identify team members who perform certain tasks better than the manager. I try my best to be a forward-thinking manager, and I aim to create an environment of open communication with each team member. I’m then able to recognize each employee’s strengths and encourage them to take initiative in every way possible.
How do you expect your role in this industry to change and develop in the future?
Human nature makes it difficult for people to find common ground even when working toward the same goal. The manager's role of building a team and creating processes hasn’t changed in centuries, and I don’t think it will change much in the future.
Tell us about your career prior to joining Altenar?
I was a bookmaker for a long time, then I started teaching others the art of bookmaking. After that, at various times, I was the head of the risk management department, as well as the head of the mathematics, algorithms, and logic department.
What’s the one thing you’d love to change about your role/industry?
I do my best to promote the culture of bookmaking. I really want betting to be viewed not as a way to make money by players, but rather as one of many entertainment options. Responsible gaming and the culture of bookmaking should be supported by both betting companies and players!
What did you want to do as a job/career when you were a child?
I wanted to be helpful to people, and I loved math. At one point, I wanted to be a math teacher. If teachers' salaries were comparable to today’s tech industry salaries, I would have loved to teach.
Away from work do you have any hidden talents?
I love cooking, and I'm the head chef in our family. Considering the high standards of my beloved wife—the toughest culinary critic—I’d say I’m a pretty good cook!
What's your biggest achievement away from your work career?
I try to set ambitious goals and learn how to overcome them. So in 2024, I went for a morning jog every day, and the total distance I covered throughout the year was more than 2,175 miles!
