Gurhan Kiziloz leads Nexus International with a growth strategy that differs from the high-speed expansion models common in the iGaming industry. The company, which reported $546 million in revenue in the first half of 2025 and entered the global Top 100 gaming companies by revenue, has built its scale through a method Gurhan calls “controlled scaling.”
Rather than launching into multiple regions at once, Nexus prioritises a step-by-step rollout strategy. Each new market or operational project follows only after the current priority is optimised and delivers consistent returns. This structure is evident in the recent decision to establish a global headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil. The move wasn’t part of a rapid-fire expansion, but followed extended performance analysis showing concentrated revenue strength in Latin America.
The controlled scaling approach stems from the belief that dividing focus divides outcomes. In practice, this means operational teams work within defined feedback loops, allowing faster responses to market-specific data. By keeping leadership attention on fewer concurrent projects, resource allocation is more precise and execution risk is reduced. In a sector where aggressive, simultaneous expansions have led to underperformance for several operators, this model offers a degree of resilience.
Funding structure plays a role in this discipline. Nexus is entirely self-funded, with no outside investors influencing decision timelines. Each expansion is financed from existing earnings, which places a natural constraint on overextending into unproven markets. This financial independence also allows the company to take action based solely on internal performance metrics, rather than the expectations of external stakeholders.
The trade-off is a slower initial footprint in emerging regions compared to competitors who rely on venture capital or debt to accelerate market entry. However, Gurhan views this pace as a calculated choice. Concentrating on fewer markets enables deeper infrastructure investment and more tailored operational models, which can improve retention and revenue stability.
The São Paulo headquarters illustrates this principle. Positioned in one of Nexus’s highest-performing markets, it serves as a central hub for Latin American operations, bringing together teams that were previously spread across multiple time zones. The location supports faster product adaptation, streamlined compliance, and more direct hiring pipelines, aligning operational infrastructure with market performance data.
While controlled scaling is not unique to Nexus, the consistency of its application is notable. Many companies adopt similar methods during early stages but abandon them in pursuit of faster expansion once revenue grows. Nexus has maintained the same deliberate pace even after surpassing half a billion dollars in H1 revenue, signalling a structural rather than situational strategy.
Industry comparisons highlight the contrast. Several of the largest gaming operators in the Top 100 ranking have entered multiple regions within a single year, often balancing launch costs with aggressive marketing spend. Nexus’s measured approach avoids such burn rates, relying instead on reinvestment from profitable operations to fund new moves. This has implications for long-term sustainability, particularly in volatile regulatory environments where market exits can erase the gains of rapid entry.
Controlled scaling does not remove risk, but it reframes it. The risk of missing early opportunities in fast-growing markets is balanced against the risk of overextending and losing operational cohesion. For Nexus, the decision framework prioritises maintaining control over every active market before adding new ones to the portfolio.
In the competitive iGaming sector, where speed and scale are often seen as primary measures of success, Gurhan’s approach represents a different reading of the growth equation. Nexus International’s trajectory suggests that expansion pace can be a strategic lever, one that, if applied with discipline, can sustain performance without compromising operational integrity.
