Where We Work: Tombola House, Sunderland

Where is it?

Tombola House, Wylam Wharf, Low Street, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom, SR1 2JR

How big is it?

In our previous building, we already had a small café and limited meeting space.  So when speaking to Ryder, we knew we had to get these spaces right. Therefore we really went to town on the café, with amazing facilities for the staff and the chefs. It’s a great social space and you are never stuck for a place to have a meeting. We get served the most amazing food too – everyone has lunch together which is really important for wellbeing and camaraderie. The gym also has top of the range equipment.

What happens there?

We are the UK and Europe’s biggest online gaming company with over 500 employees across the UK, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Gibraltar. All of our games are designed in-house, which is quite unusual for the sector, and they can only be found on Tombola.

Responsible gambling is also at the heart of what we do and we are always looking at ways of improving the tools, games and services we offer to the customer. 

How does the workplace improve productivity or culture for the workforce?  

Tombola house is an inspiring place to work, and people look forward to coming in and spending time here – working in such a stunning environment, combined with our working processes, will no doubt contribute to being a creative and collaborative workforce. We only release games that we are 100% happy with and I really believe this has contributed to our success within the industry.

When it comes to culture, I think we do a great job with our approach to flexible working, staff development and bonus scheme. Staff turnover is really low – so we must be doing something right!

Who works there? 

The business is divided into a couple of divisions. There are the Bingo, Arcade and International teams. All have game developers, animators, testers, designers and product managers.

You then have approximately 250 people who work from home delivering customer services or moderating chat rooms. Marketing, HR, Facilities and R&D are also all based in Tombola house.

In total, including the Gibraltar office where the Finance team are located, we have around 550 staff. We want to grow further in the years ahead.

Think your workspace is wonderful?

Workplaces across the North are changing. For many, the physical changes are to encourage a cultural change, with more pressure being put on businesses to consider the wellbeing of employees. Whether your office has recently been refurbished, it’s beautifully designed, or it’s just vastly different from a typical office, we want to hear from you. Our Where We Work feature is a visual piece so any submissions will need to include HD photos. To find out more, please email Josh.