Why Tbilisi is becoming a hub for iGaming technology

Ask a founder where to build an iGaming platform and the usual answers are Malta, Gibraltar or a nearshore studio in Eastern Europe. Tbilisi now belongs on that list. Georgia combines a tax system built for distributed profits, a company registry that works in a day, an engineering workforce that has grown quickly since 2022, and a home gambling market that has been running at scale for years. This article walks through each of those strengths and what they mean for operators and for local businesses that want serious software built close to home.

A tax system designed for reinvestment

Since 1 January 2017 Georgia has used the Estonian model of corporate income tax. The flat 15% rate is not charged on retained profit. It applies when profit is distributed, and to a short list of items treated like distributions, such as expenses unrelated to the business. A technology company that keeps its earnings in the business to hire engineers and fund product development does not pay profit tax on those earnings in the meantime. For a software hub that is growing its payroll, this is a structural advantage rather than a one-off incentive (see the PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries entry for Georgia).

International Company status

For larger technology groups, Georgia added a second layer in October 2020. International Company status, set out in Government Ordinance No. 619, is available to Georgian entities that carry out approved activities, including software production, IT consulting, remote maintenance, hosting and digital services, delivered from Georgia to non-resident clients. It sits alongside the older Virtual Zone Person regime, which dates back to 2011, and is described by advisers as a broader and more modern alternative to it.

The headline terms for an International Company are these:

• 5% profit tax on profit from the permitted activities, against the standard 15%.
• 5% personal income tax on employment income, against the standard 20%, which matters because payroll is the largest cost in any software business.
• No Georgian withholding tax on dividends paid out of qualifying profit.
• Property tax exemption on assets used in the permitted activity, other than land.

The status is granted through an application to the Revenue Service. It rewards companies that put real substance in the country, with qualified staff, operating costs and the activity itself physically located in Georgia, and it generally calls for two years of relevant experience in the applicant or in a qualifying parent or partner. Teams that already operate abroad can bring that track record with them (see the Andersen Georgia overview of IT tax incentives and the comparison of Virtual Zone and International Company status).

Registration measured in days, not months

The National Agency of Public Registry describes Georgia's incorporation process as a single procedure completed on the same day, handled electronically, with an electronically signed extract as the end product (NAPR). Foreign founders can hold 100% of an LLC, and a notarised power of attorney lets them incorporate without travelling. The practical result is that a team can decide to open a Tbilisi entity and have a legal vehicle ready to contract, hire and invoice within the same working week.

Engineers, and a lot more of them than five years ago

Georgia's technology sector has grown faster than almost any other part of the economy. According to Galt & Taggart's December 2025 IT sector report, information and communication technology has become the fourth-largest sector of the Georgian economy, accounting for 8.2% of nominal GDP in the third quarter of 2025. ICT exports reached $842 million in 2024, and in the third quarter of 2025 they rose 52.3% year on year to $898 million, or 14% of total service exports. The report credits international companies and the tax incentives introduced in 2020 for much of that growth (Georgian Business Consulting coverage of the report).

A large part of the story is relocation. After 2022, thousands of experienced developers, product managers and QA engineers moved to Tbilisi, and an EBRD analysis estimates that more than 20,000 tech professionals arrived from Russia alone. Many of them came with their employers, which means the city now has established teams that have shipped products for international customers, not only freelancers. For an iGaming platform, where backend engineering, payments integration, game aggregation and compliance tooling all need seasoned people, that depth is what makes a local hub viable.

Time zone and connectivity

Georgia runs on UTC+4 all year with no clock changes. That puts Tbilisi two to three hours ahead of Central European time depending on the season, which leaves a comfortable window of shared working hours with Europe and the UK in the morning and with Asia in the late afternoon.

A gambling market with real history

Georgia is not a blank slate for gaming. It has licensed casinos in Tbilisi and Batumi, slot clubs and online operators, all operating under permits and taxed in Georgia. SBC News reported turnover in the domestic gambling sector rising from GEL 48 billion to GEL 52 billion in 2022, and the government's own budget planning in late 2023 targeted around GEL 700 million of revenue from the gaming business as a whole. A market of that size means local operators need production-grade systems: player account management, payments, bonus engines, reporting and responsible-gaming controls that fit Georgian requirements.

What a local development hub means for operators and SMEs

Having an engineering team in the same city, jurisdiction and time zone as the market it serves changes how projects run. Requirements are discussed with people who understand the licensing regime, the local banks and payment providers, and the way Georgian players behave. Releases are tested in the same working hours in which support teams operate. Changes in regulation or tax treatment are picked up by people who read the Georgian originals.

That is the model we run at Scalara Labs Georgia. For licensed operators, we build and maintain platform components, integrations and back-office tooling with engineers who sit a short drive away. For local SMEs, from hospitality groups to retailers and fintech start-ups, we bring the same engineering standards to websites, mobile apps, internal systems and automation, delivered by a team based in Tbilisi.

If you are planning a platform, a migration or a new product line in Georgia, get in touch and we will walk you through how a Tbilisi team can deliver it.