Industry News
EGT Interactive’s Virtual Roulette prepares to set London event into a spin
Following on from one of the company’s most successful years yet Ognyan Lekov, Marketing Manager at EGT Interactive has confirmed it will debut a number of new titles at this year’s ICE London, including a ground-breaking Virtual Roulette game, as the company continues its global expansion and recruitment focus into 2019. Exploring the developing online trends ahead for the industry, Lekov discusses the growing importance on the Latin American mobile market, the potential of social games and why ICE London is THE exhibition to make key deals for the year ahead.
What genius products/services will you be showing at ICE London and how will they improve your customers’ business?
Throughout the last 12 months, we have been implementing а strict and consistent expansion strategy of our portfolio, particularly across our classical online casino games. This focus on a diverse range of themes, but in the classical casino category, has allowed us to strengthen our performance whilst also providing variety to our customers. In 2019 we will continue in the same direction by adding some key new additions, from the graphics and strategy to how we interact with our players. At ICE London visitors to our stands (S4-330, S4-350) will have the pleasure of getting acquainted with some of our most innovative latest titles, including the brand new Virtual Roulette game set for release in 2019. We’re very excited about this interesting product and I’d love to tell you more but I’ll keep the details for the exhibition!
How important is ICE London for the iGaming sector and the industry as a whole?
ICE London is definitely one of the most important, or maybe the most important, gatherings in the gambling industry. Since we take every exhibition we exhibit at or attend very seriously, especially ICE London, we begin preparing our stand and the communication of what we’re going to bring to the exhibition three or four months prior to the event. As with every year, we are extremely pleased with the result – a brand new contemporary and interactive booth based on the concept of some of our top performing HOT games created in a very attractive design. The competition in this industry is huge, everyone puts a great deal of investment and effort into their performance, so we did our homework and hope to once again surprise the audience with variety of unique activities at our stand and on the showfloor.
ICE London is a tradition and plays a huge part for every big player in the industry. Whether land based or in the online business, everybody is there. It really is the first big show-off of the year for the industry and most of the key deals are made here so everybody knows the importance of this exhibition.
Where do you see the big growth opportunities taking place in 2019 and how are you addressing those opportunities?
I’m sure it will surprise nobody but we believe the online business will continue to grow rapidly as it has continued to do in recent years. This is inevitable as mobile devices and mobile internet become ever more accessible and easy to handle. In addition, more and more territories are beginning to allow online gaming and for us, one of the freshest markets is Brazil. Now is the time for Brazil’s potential to be tapped as a hotbed for online gaming. At present, Latin America represents a tiny share of the global online gaming marketplace at just 4%, but it is the second fastest growing region in the industry, experiencing a rapid 20% growth rate and we will be looking to continue our investment and expansion in the region for years to come.
As a company we entered a number of key new territories in 2018, and of course we’ll try to capitalize on that expansion in 2019. At this stage, we are enhancing our focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden and a few more which we are keen to develop as the year progresses.
In your opinion what will be the key trends of 2019?
Online is the key so basically everything which is connected with internet technology. Whether that’s VR or the expansion of social games, we believe the iGaming trend is going to continue. Alongside our new titles we see development in the entertainment category and if I’m being bold, then maybe holograms will start to trend in the year ahead. Watch this space and stay tuned for the upcoming headlines in our portfolio as we continue to make people play in 2019!
EGT Interactive will be debuting its new Virtual Roulette game alongside a full portfolio of new titles and online casino software solutions from Stands S4-330 and S4-350 at this year’s ICE London. For more information about the company’s complete showcase, visit: egt-interactive.com
Source: GB Media
Industry News
Maximising Your Cross-Market Appeal
With Bitblox introducing an entirely new breed of crypto-based price prediction games to the iGaming industry, we talked to CEO, Brandt Page, to discover how combining elements of both chance and skill with lightning-fast betting rounds has helped improve their cross-market appeal.
When Bitblox was first established, our core concept was relatively simple; we didn’t just want to provide players with a new twist on an existing format like slots or casino games, but instead sought to create an entirely new vertical that combined elements of chance and elements of skill.
One of the main drivers behind this decision was the fact that we wanted our releases to appeal to as broad an audience as possible – and I think from the figures we’ve seen so far, we’ve already had some notable success on that front in terms of the players that are engaging with our games.
Funnily enough, I was recently talking to the Head of Marketing from one of the operators that we work with and they told me they were struggling to place our games optimally. Initially, they’d put them in with crash and instant win content, but they soon discovered a lot of their in-game traffic was coming from sports bettors. A move to the sports betting tab followed, but the exact same-thing happened with casino players, leading to the games eventually winding up on the front page.
As this was going on, our games were continuing to post solid numbers with the customers who bet on both sports and casino – and all of this engagement was coming without there being any additional promotion from us or the operator. So why was it that our games were performing so well across these different player segments? I believe there are a number of contributing factors.
First and foremost, having this hybrid model of games of chance and games of skill that I’ve already mentioned has placed us in a fairly unique position within the iGaming industry. On the one hand, the simple premise of our Bitcoin-based titles – coupled with their attractive designs and intuitive UI – makes them highly accessible to casino players who are just looking to have fun.
On the other, the fact that Bitblox games aren’t based on RNG and are instead pinned to the real-time movements of the Bitcoin market certainly resonates with a sports betting audience. As they have the ability to follow the charts and use this information to inform their decisions, they definitely feel they have more control over the outcome than if they were playing a traditional slot.
Another key aspect of our cross-market appeal is the fast-paced nature of all Bitblox releases. With casino players being accustomed to the quick wins and instant gratification of slots and crash games and sports bettors also showing a growing preference for in-play wagering, we’ve ensured each game round is resolved quickly and that there are multiple opportunities for betting.
When we first launched Up or Down?, which features one-minute betting rounds, we soon learned that even this timeframe is too long for some players. This resulted in us developing Up or Down? Turbo – a game which kept the same mechanics as its predecessor but reduced the betting window to 20 seconds – and this has gone on to become one of our most successful titles.
Keeping all this in mind, one of the things I’m most excited about is the upcoming release of our latest game, 3 in a Row, as I think this is a title that really ties everything I’ve talked about so far together. Designed to look like a slot machine, 3 in a Row challenges players to correctly predict how the Bitcoin price will move over three separate 20-second windows for even bigger payouts.
Intended to appeal to casual users and serious sports bettors alike, players can elect to either spin the reels for fun and select a random price sequence or use the bet builder feature to put together their own custom prediction. With the latter essentially functioning like an accumulator bet, players can select up to three possible combinations – i.e. Up/Up/Up, Up/Up/Down etc – and only one result needs to land for them to win, ensuring they stay engaged until the final seconds.
I believe that 3 in a Row can help build on the strong foundations we’ve laid down with casino and sports bettors and provide operators with another popular option that offers significant cross-market appeal. Based on what we’ve seen from previous Bitblox releases, the audience for titles that combine elements of chance and elements of skill is definitely out there – and I’m looking forward to our unique brand of crypto-based games being enjoyed by even more players in future.
Industry News
Gaming Corps to launch with lotteries in the USA via EQL games deal
In-demand content provider extends reach into largest iGaming market in the world with its full suite of games made available via iLottery aggregation platform
Gaming Corps, a publicly-listed game studio based in Sweden renowned for creating industry-leading games, has made its debut in the US market through a breakthrough agreement with leading lottery provider, EQL Games.
The distribution agreement will see Gaming Corps’ full suite of games made available to EQL Games’ powerful iLottery Aggregation Platform, developed to provide lottery operators across America with direct access to a portfolio of proprietary and third-party games.
Following the integration, EQL Games’ lottery operator partners will be offered proven Slots, Table Games, Multiplier Games, Mine Games and Plinko Games, as well as titles under Gaming Corps’ innovative and trademarked Smash4Cash™ series.
The deal and integration come at a time of growing demand among online lottery operators in the US for non-traditional content, a format that Gaming Corps has excelled in, especially with its Smash4Cash™ games, which have been a hit with players in global markets.
EQL’s aggregation platform has been developed to allow online lottery operators to quickly and easily access content from multiple game studios simultaneously through one integration and one commercial agreement.
Its iLottery Aggregation platform simplifies the process of adding new games to an online lottery brand across regulated states. In addition to the third-party content provided via its aggregator platform, EQL Games has a portfolio of in-house titles.
This includes games produced under licence with Team USA which were rolled out by several state lotteries for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this year, with new titles being planned ahead of the Winter Games in Milan (2026) and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles (2028).
Juha Kauppinen, CEO of Gaming Corps, said: “The USA has always been somewhat of the holy grail for game developers like us, which has been further emphasised as markets in several states have become regulated. The potential in the American market is enormous, and the impact for us is a bit difficult to assess, but we have great hopes for the collaboration with EQL Games, which has an impressive platform towards U.S. lotteries.
“We believe it will have a significantly positive impact on our revenues. I would like to personally take the opportunity to thank EQL Games and Brad Cummings for the collaboration, and we are now working hard to complete the integration so that all our games will be offered to EQL’s customers via their platform.”
Brad Cummings, CEO of EQL Games, added: “Including Gaming Corps as a supplier to the EQL Games iLottery Aggregator is an exciting step forward in our mission to offer unique, high-quality content to state lotteries. Gaming Corps’ expertise in iGaming, along with their unique game portfolio, fits perfectly with our vision of enhancing the lottery experience through dynamic and engaging content.”
Industry News
Public Voting Starts for Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0
The highly anticipated Ortak x B.F.T.H. Arena Awards 3.0 has officially entered the public voting phase as submissions are closed.
More than 70 game providers have turned in over 160 submissions, including Tom Horn Gaming, Pragmatic Play and RubyPlay. Public voting involves enthusiasts casting their votes to pick the winner of the Game of Public Choice category.
The Public voting phase ends on December 1st 23:59 GMT+4.
Concurrent to public voting, the first phase of private voting also starts during which all participants who have submitted entries get the chance to vote for one favourite in each category. An international auditing company oversees this phase to eliminate duplicate votes and self-votes. This phase ends on November 19, 23:59 GMT+4.
The second phase of private voting will also take place with a jury of industry experts making their decisions based on the shortlist picked by participants during the first phase.
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