Blocks

About Blocks

While there were differing views on much of the content, one area in which Dutch MPs were united was the illegal market.

The majority of parties, including those representing the ChristenUnie, PRO and SGP, all voiced their opinions that increased enforcement against black market operators should be carried out.

Members pushed the government for further action to block illegal websites, in the same way it provides power to quickly address terrorist and child pornography sites.

What is Blocks?

“How do we avoid ending up with lots of old Java developers and nobody who understands Java because the juniors were never hired? That’s a super-interesting question. How do we fill up with younger people over time? That’s something we’ve been discussing.”

Cubeia is also moving away from the traditional process in which a developer builds something and then hands it to QA.

In the old model, Grenstad says, the product owner decided what to build, the developer decided how to build it, QA tested it and operations eventually handled the release.

What is Blocks?

The operator has no international locations. Well, it’s a state monopoly, after all. Holland Casino was also one of the first operators to launch online when the market legalised in 2021, with Petra de Ruiter joining the company as CEO the following year.

Petra’s journey to the role started in a hotel management school where she learned the ropes of hospitality, followed by a job at Transavia Airlines, a subsidiary of renowned Dutch operator KLM. This led to 24 years in the aviation industry, in a host of different roles: sales, marketing, operations – all aspects of the business that would later become useful in the casino industry.

By the time Covid came around in 2020, Petra felt she had done enough in aviation and went looking for her next role. As she told me, “Holland Casino popped up and I am somebody who by their nature looks at similarities instead of differences.