Interviews
Branding & shaping the perfect corporate image
What’s in a name?
Branding is key for operators, but shaping the perfect corporate image is also important in the ultra-competitive world of iGaming studios. In this feature, we look at the reasons why already successful suppliers would seek to craft fresh identities.
What key factors are taken into consideration when creating a fresh identity for a games studio?
Joey Hurtado, Managing Director of Games at Wizard Games: In this saturated market, it is important that we focus on our distinct competitive advantages. This boils down to what we can provide for our partners, based on a level of experience and knowledge within our ranks that we believe is up there with the best in the industry. At Wizard Games, we have assembled a wonderful management team with decades of experience in the industry and a studio team that boasts tons of creativity. Add to the mix an extensive network of operators who are already offering our games, extremely fast integration capabilities, the tournament tools offered by Pariplay, and the support of our solid public parent company, Aspire Global, and it is clear that our brand stands out from the crowd. We know the market and our finger is on the pulse of what players want across major industry operators. This gives us the advantage of creating exactly the sort of content people are looking for in different markets.
Yanina Kaplya, Head of Marketing at BetGames: There are many reasons for creating or updating a brand image for a games studio, (or indeed any other type of business). This can range from reputational and international expansion or repositioning to reflect a company’s new vision. Depending on the exact reasons driving it, there will be external factors such as target market trends and culture, the wider industry and product portfolio – and of course, the brand’s archetype. Internal factors can also include how we see and position ourselves, as well as the mission, vision, and value of the company not only as a product provider but also as an employer. Invariably, a company may need help from an external consultancy to see the bigger picture, while some companies decide to create their own brand image and identity in-house, as they have internal brand ambassadors who can show them the way to go. Defining your brand personality, your target audiences’ preferences, and value proposition can help greatly in setting a clear identity for a company. Looking at the gaming market today, we can see competition is fierce and every brand wants to cultivate uniqueness through product or brand identity and messaging to be able to differentiate itself.
Vladimir Malakchi, CCO at Evoplay: The concept of a brand is much more fundamental to a game studio or developer, at Evoplay we are in the fortunate position of being a brand that has a proactive philosophy on creating games, this is something not everyone in the industry has. Having a clear brand identity makes it very easy for partners and consumers alike to understand the company’s position and how it conducts itself across its markets. It’s the perfect reflection of a company’s vision, goals, and ambitions. When it comes to making an impact on the global stage – the most important is a well-formed brand compass that will be the landmark and goal behind every step of the company – vision, mission, values, strategic goals, and purpose as a business. Since the main barometer of a gaming studio’s value is the games it provides, it is crucial to understand the uniqueness of the games being created by the company, as well as what it means to the player and partner, and how it will be perceived by competitors. These insights foster a path for the company’s development and lay the foundations for further activity.
Stay close to an existing well-known brand, or move in a completely new direction: what persuaded you to move down one route or the other?
Malakchi: I wouldn’t say that Evoplay started moving in a completely new direction after the rebranding. The rebrand was about creating a new starting point in the Evoplay story and a transition to a new level, which is quite logical and harmonious in light of the great achievements made in the last 2 years. It serves as recognition of the experience we have gained over 3 years in the market, as well as setting more global goals and methods of achieving them. Some paradigms have remained with us and are still the basis of the company, some have been modified and adapted to new visions and beliefs, and some have been expanded due to stronger capacity and resources.
Kaplya: We are very proud of having built our BetGames brand and product portfolio completely from scratch. Our success has stemmed from our passion for unique products and solutions, which is such that it prevents us from stepping away from our core values and vision. In rebranding, we wanted to keep the vibrant, cool, visual themes of BetGames, as well as our recognizable name, for both our business partners and legions of fans. These factors give us the confidence and knowledge that our brand has a great reputation in the industry and that’s something we want to maintain throughout our lifetime. BetGames recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and we’ve reflected this important milestone with an evolved business statement, upgrades to our operations, as well as corporate strategy and team alignments. The main driver behind our rebranding was our strategic plan to develop our corporate identity over the next decade. We identified a clear vision on a logo, fonts, color palette, and photography that would reflect how we grew from a start-up to a global entertainment provider.
Hurtado: This was a question that we considered extensively during the brand creation process before we reached the conclusion that our identity should lie within the middle ground between innovation and tradition. We have since focused on transmitting this identity to potential partners by embedding the concept within our brand design, guidelines, product, and every aspect of our communications. We see ourselves as a progressive brand. That means our games are deeply rooted in what players want, which is in the main set of traditional themes and features. From that starting point, we innovate – gradually and not in a disruptive way, incorporating technological advances, creative features, and attractive bonuses, all the way testing the results game by game. So far, this approach is working perfectly. We have achieved notable progression with each game release in terms of reception, which is a testament to our studio team’s hard work in evolving our offering.
Does the name, logo, and presentation of a brand tell a story in itself, or is it all about the games?
Hurtado: The expression of our brand identity is achieved through a combination of the logo, name presentation, and design. The Wizard element represents a wise character who constantly comes up with outstanding creations that nobody expected. As a universally recognizable character from a range of fantasy stories, the appeal is nostalgic while also hinting at the creation of new, surprising solutions. The combination of tradition with modernity is also present within the design of our logo, website, and visual elements.
Kaplya: We do have a story behind our logo. When you look at it – it’s a simple, recognizable, and unique mark that represents BetGames as well as its operating principles. The ‘B’ and ‘G’ in BetGames are combined in our new logo to represent our core value as a people company. It also resembles Superman taking flight, his arms pointing to the sky, which perfectly captures BetGames’ commitment to growth and people. While the diagonal lines mirror our dynamic personality, it is also no coincidence that they are tilted at a 24° angle, the same as the earth on its axis, symbolizing BetGames as a global company. The all-new logo is a modern representation of a company with operating principles and ideals at its heart.
Malakchi: The main goal of Evoplay’s rebranding was to take ownership over our brand identity, positioning the company as one with a unique vision for gambling products and a pragmatic approach to doing business in the industry. Everything that comes out of Evoplay, including communications, promotions, and marketing materials, reveals the personality of the brand and aligns with its vision, values, and goals. Our name – a combination of both the words “evolution” and “play” – expresses our desire as a brand, while our logo features the wing of our mascot, an owl, Evo, which symbolizes wisdom and transformation – the exact two powers we’re driven by. Our slogan is representative of our interaction with players and partners – ‘The future of iGaming of Today ‘, where players can enjoy an unparalleled gaming experience, and our partners can improve their business in multiple ways.
What are your brand’s values and how do they relate to your future plans?
Kaplya: We have incredibly ambitious plans for 2022 and our values are integral to them. We are using the best that tech can offer and are busy developing some fantastic ideas that we’ll bring to the market. When it comes to our core values – we start with compassion as we are a people company. Innovation is key, and we always aim to stay unique as pioneers rather than copycats. This is reflected in a soon-to-be-launched new vertical from us in 2022, which we’re all very excited about. Results, of course, always count – and we take pride in never failing on delivery, which I’m sure will continue to place us as a key industry partner through the next decade. Last but not least, we always think big and stretch what is possible!
Malakchi: I have always believed that the brand’s values begin with the corporate culture. It means that in-house values can be incorporated among employees, and directly impact our brand image. Speaking about Evoplay’s values in more detail, they are based on six P’s – People, Partners, Profit, Productivity, Portfolio, Place. Resting on these core pillars, we have been able to achieve our main goals for 2021 and expect to carry this momentum into the New Year by being a responsible employer and trendsetter in the iGaming industry, creating exciting titles, and building valuable partnerships.
Hurtado: The brand personality we have created is reflective of our core values: expertise, modernity, trustworthiness, progressiveness, and entertainment. It connects with our plans for the future, as we continue to add to a team that is rich in expertise, having been within the industry for decades. They know what they are doing and are committed to the continual improvement of our products and services so that we can deliver to players what they want and provide them with the most engaging, entertaining gaming experience. Our commercial team has also grown a lot in quality and quantity and we are striving to deliver the best possible customer service to our partner operators. As anyone can see from looking at our product roadmap, we innovate gradually from game to game, incorporating new, attractive bonus features. Our marketing team has also advanced the quality of our assets and they are working on numerous different projects to substantially improve the asset delivery. This year, we are also set to launch several features that have never been seen in the market before and which we are very enthusiastic about. Watch this space!
In an insightful interview with Alexander Kamenetskyi, Head of SOFTSWISS Sportsbook, we delve into the complex balance between promoting mainstream sports events and exploring niche markets in the betting world. This strategy enhances profitability and ensures a steady engagement across diverse betting markets, crucial for maintaining a dynamic and resilient business model in the competitive world of sports betting.
How should operators balance promoting popular sports events versus niche ones?
The effective strategy in betting is to diversify wagers across a broad range of sports events and markets. This approach helps minimise fluctuations in outcomes, enhancing both the profitability and predictability of your betting business.
Based on this, we recommend that operators promote all sports comprehensively to maintain steady activity and turnover. This ensures that players remain engaged with alternative options, even during periods lacking major events.
It’s crucial not only to focus on popular events like top football matches or major NBA tournaments but also to spotlight less mainstream sports such as water polo, badminton, and Formula 1. For instance, Australian football is notably underappreciated despite offering unique scheduling advantages that can be leveraged during off-peak times to attract bets.
How can you choose sports that have the best chance of attracting your audience?
To effectively capture your audience’s attention, it’s crucial to identify alternative events during periods when popular events like the Champions League are not happening. Our strategy involves actively promoting these alternatives to familiarise players with new tournaments and sports.
We have two dedicated teams: one that selects potential events and advises operators on what to highlight, while the other crafts promotional campaigns to ensure these events resonate with your audience.
The primary factors we consider when selecting events are Total Bets and the number of bets placed on a specific event or tournament. Popularity is our second criterion, which we measure by comparing the turnover to the number of participating players.
For instance, if there are no football championships over a weekend due to Euro qualifying matches, we might suggest promoting NBA evening games or volleyball tournaments to fill the gap left by high-profile football events.
However, it’s also beneficial to occasionally promote sports other than football, even when popular football matches are available. This strategy helps diversify the betting habits of the audience, which is vital for maintaining a stable and engaging product.
How far in advance do you need to start working on a promotional campaign?
We typically share promotional materials with operators two weeks prior to the event. This timeframe usually provides ample opportunity for operators to finalise the text and graphics. If we opt to use bonuses as the main promotional tool, we generate the rules, bonuses, and banners automatically. It’s then up to the operator to create and either self-publish the content or do so with our assistance.
What promotional channels would you recommend focusing on?
Operators have a variety of tools at their disposal, from email and SMS campaigns to managing their own channels on Telegram and other messaging platforms where they can share updates, offer bonuses, and more. Many even offer additional bonuses for subscribers of these communities, which proves effective in building a targeted and loyal audience interested in your project’s bonuses.
Another effective strategy involves placing promotional banners on various sections of the operator’s website, such as the homepage, event pages, and user dashboards. Additionally, collaborating with influencers like streamers can significantly boost traffic.
It’s also crucial not to overlook the power of email newsletters. When crafting content for these, it’s important to consider user behaviour and device preferences. For instance, with over 90% of our current revenue coming from mobile devices, it’s safe to assume most emails will be opened on a smartphone. Thus, optimising for mobile viewing is key. Our tests show that simple, structured, and transparent offers tend to perform best – you only have a few seconds to capture the player’s attention and persuade them to click through.
Do promotions without financial incentives like bonuses still work?
Let’s be clear: bonuses and promotions are fundamental to attracting players, especially those who rely on luck to multiply their capital. Seen as lucky breaks, bonuses allow participation without direct cost. Properly integrated into the marketing strategy, these incentives not only maintain player interest but significantly enhance financial performance.
For example, if an operator earns 15% from express bets, they can afford to redistribute 5% of that as bonuses, slightly reducing their margin to 10%, but potentially increasing user engagement and solving other operational issues.
Furthermore, promotions enable operators to direct betting activity efficiently. While major events naturally draw attention, incorporating bonuses for lesser-known events like the World Curling Championship can broaden a player’s interest and betting activities, introducing them to new sports and betting markets. This strategy not only diversifies the player’s experience but also stabilises the operator’s financials by spreading funds across various sports, thereby reducing the impact of financial peaks and troughs during major events.
Some operators focus primarily on significant events, leading to considerable financial volatility. For example, many faced challenges during the European Football Championship qualification matches when favourites won, negatively impacting financial outcomes. Operators that engage their audience across a spectrum of events tend to experience more stable performance.
Ultimately, using high-profile events to attract new players while promoting a diverse range of smaller events can create a more robust and diversified betting environment. This approach mitigates risks and cultivates a more engaged and knowledgeable betting community.
How likely is it that a person who came to a particular event will continue engaging with you afterwards? What influence can an operator have during this time?
Welcome packages with various bonuses are highly effective in this scenario. The primary goal is to familiarise new players with the range of bonuses and sports offered. Ideally, the entrance bonus program should provide about 20-30% to engage the player effectively.
Besides the welcome package, we can implement trigger-based rules during major events. For instance, a new player might come for the World Cup, and we could offer a promotion like: “Win three World Cup bets and receive a free bet for Wimbledon.”
Once engaged, they might notice a dominant player like Djokovic and place a bet on tennis, triggering another promotion. For example, we could offer a 50% bonus for making an express bet with specific odds on three tennis events. This showcases our diverse bonus system and introduces new sports gradually.
Furthermore, promoting sports tends to be easier than casinos because there are more events and thus more opportunities to engage players through channels like email newsletters, with less risk of being flagged for spam.
We advise our operators to customise bonuses for specific player demographics – like promoting Brazilian tennis players to Brazilian users or Nigerian athletes to Nigerian users. This targeted approach is significantly more effective than generic offers and resonates even with experienced casino players.
However, it’s crucial for operators to view their offerings holistically; they don’t just have a casino or sports section, but a comprehensive project where every part should function seamlessly together, including promotions and the product’s internal functionality.
Gone are the days when we would spend a Thursday evening waiting for Top of the Pops to come on our televisions so that we could see who would be performing that week. The music show may no longer be running, but First Look Games has taken inspiration from the long-running staple and added a slot spin, to create Top of the Slots.
To give us more insight, First Look Games Founder Tom Galanis walks us through the ideation process behind Top of the Slots and how this is helping to give an accurate representation of the top-performing slot titles each month.
You launched Top of the Slots by First Look Games a couple of weeks ago. For those that may have missed the launch, what does this involve?
Tom Galanis: Top of the Slots is a showcase for the top 10 games launched by game studios via the First Look Games platform over the previous 90 days. It’s a never-before-seen take on game popularity and one our game studio partners, and affiliate users are already loving!
What was the thought process behind launching Top of the Slots?
Tom Galanis: First Look Games captures unique data for our game studio partners and Top of the Slots is designed to illustrate the most successful games, benchmarked by this unique data insight, to the industry.
What do game providers have to do to make it into the top ten releases for the month? What metrics do you use to evaluate success?
Tom Galanis: In order to make it in to the top 10, game studios need to release titles via our platform that successfully resonate with the 850+ affiliates that utilise First Look Games, making full use of the suite of tools we offer on and outside of the platform to engage affiliate marketers in the promotion of their game. The rankings are based on the First Look Games Index for all games launched to the market in the preceding 90 days, which combines:
- a) Downloads – which is the aggregated total of download sessions amongst affiliates on the platform. Affiliates download assets including logos, game sheets, video files, screenshots, banners and game artwork;
- b) Hits – this is the aggregated total number of game reviews for the game, created by affiliates using the First Look Games platform;
- c) Reach – this is the aggregated unique visitor count of the websites containing the Hits;
- d) Demo Game Sessions – this is the number of free to play demo game sessions that have taken place from iFrames placed on Hits.
- e) Sentiment Score – this is the average sentiment score from Hits
The games that rank well in this index are obviously commercially successful in their own right but are also being reviewed by affiliates because of the engagement of the game studio with the First Look Games platform, and consequently, with affiliates.
Our most active game studios are not just releasing great games with frequency but are also ensuring their game and studio news is distributed across the First Look Games platform and social channels and that a full and diverse range of marketing assets and game information is being provided through the platform prior to a game’s release. This best equips affiliates to understand the features of a game so that they can successfully convey this to their player audience, which, collectively amongst FLG affiliates, is very significant, totalling more than 20 million slots players worldwide.
Tell us a bit more about the First Look Games sentiment analysis – how is this helping to remove the biases from the ranking process? What data do you use to inform this analysis?
Tom Galanis: Once our technology has identified a new game review, First Look Games uses Natural Language Processing to ‘read’ the review and assess what the affiliate makes of the game. We share a short snapshot of this with the game studio and assign a score to the review based on how positive the affiliate has been in their review of the game. The more positive the language used in the review, the higher the score.
Sentiment scores are then aggregated across all reviews of the game to give a score for the game, and across all games to give the studio a score to benchmark against peers. Using AI, we are able to objectify the subjective to provide true 360 analysis on how affiliates are promoting a game.
What can we expect to see from First Look Games for the remainder of this year?
Tom Galanis: We have a perpetual roadmap of both new studio launches and technical advancements of the platform for affiliates and game studios to look forward to!
Could you describe the range of products and services that Wise Gaming offers? What makes them unique or appealing to potential clients?
Wise Gaming is the fastest-growing, Complete platform offering both White-Label & Turnkey Solutions. The Wise Gaming solutions are built from our team’s extensive experience: 15 years B2C and 10 years B2B. We know the importance of a truly modular approach, allowing our partner the ability to obtain our entire solution or individual components to enhance what they already have.
In what regions or markets does Wise Gaming primarily operate? Are there any plans for expansion into new territories?
Our focus has been on both the European & LatAm Continents. With enormous success in our B2C operations, we are relying on our extensive experience. We believe the balance between established & emerging markets brings both knowledge and the ability to learn and adapt, truly focusing on our partners needs without limitations.
2025 will be Wise Gaming’s year of expansion! 2024‘s goal is about building on our success in EU & LatAm whilst planning next years’ growth in both Africa & Asia.
What technologies does Wise Gaming employ to deliver its iGaming solutions? Can you highlight any proprietary technologies or platforms that differentiate your offerings?
From our 15 years of B2C success, we felt that we understood both the pleasure points and pain points that most operators face on a daily & weekly basis. Therefore, we build our Wise Gaming solutions with a customer-centric approach, How can we support our partners to support their customers. We diligently sourced the industry’s best-in-class providers for both our Sportsbook & Casino content, utilizing Enterprise software to provide the most robust offering in the iGaming industry.
Our dedicated in-house teams visualize, build and enhance our Proprietary systems for each of our Partner’s needs, making each of our partners brands Unique.
In what ways does Wise Gaming prioritise security and data protection within its technology infrastructure?
As previously mentioned, our customer-centric approach is vitally important to Wise Gaming and our Partners! Providing the correct technology and experience to our partners is key to having a successful KYC, AML, Due Diligence and Data Protection process. We opted for Amazon AWS solutioning to provide market-leading security, Encrypted databases & data storage, penetration resilience, DDoS attack elimination, dedicated Back-Office segmentation and User-based access, protecting player data while safeguarding our partners operations.
What are the current trends or challenges you’re seeing in the iGaming market? How is Wise Gaming adapting to these changes?
The speed in which technology advances is always a challenge for any provider. The key is to know your markets, the players, the accessibility of online entertainment such a sports betting & casinos and implement the technology that meets these variables. Everyone is talking about AI & Machine learning, and rightly so! With such advancements AI & Machine Learning models, it would be irresponsible not to utilize them. Whether it’s for Player customisation, Events based recommendation or supporting operational needs such as RG, KYC & AML, AI & machine Learning should be used to ENHANCE human interaction, not replace. At Wise Gaming, we have already implemented AI & Machine Learning models to provide the unique edge to our partners.
Also localized content is important. Every market is its own unique playground with their own specific cultural identities. Knowing these identities and becoming an expert in these will not only assist in the acquisition of players, it signifies a brand’s genuineness and authenticity to that market and allows greater player retention. At Wise Gaming we have already implemented A.I & Machine Learning models
How does Wise Gaming ensure compliance with regulations in various jurisdictions? How important is regulatory adherence in your sales approach?
I will answer these 2 questions together. The market is experiencing a shift in regulation, and compliance. MGA & CGA license domination has been challenged, with more and more markets opting for tighter safety measures and implementing their own self-regulated approach. This brings safety to players and trust.
Working alongside regulators will always help, and more importantly, we can learn from each other. Adhering to regulation is ultimately for a player’s safety and that is paramount for the industry’s longevity. Wise Gaming continuously enhances its platform to conform with regulations, making it safe and reliable for our partners.
What are the key factors potential clients considering when choosing an iGaming provider, and how does Wise Gaming address these factors in its offerings?
As previously mentioned, experience and knowledge are key attributes from both an operational and technical aspect. “You can’t plant apple trees and expect to get oranges!” Wise Gaming’s experience & knowledge puts us, and our partners, at the forefront of each market, allowing substantial growth and higher ROI.
Time to market should also be a priority. Whilst most Providers offer 2-4 months implementation time, Wise Gaming can deploy your platform within 2-4 weeks, giving us the competitive edge in a highly competitive space.
How does Wise Gaming incorporate feedback from clients into product development and improvement?
Experience and knowledge are simply 1’s learning over time. Our approach at Wise Gaming is that of a learning mentality, “you are never too old to learn!” iGaming is rich in experts – We trust our Partners, and they trust us, it’s the unification that builds long-term partnerships. We have 2 ears and 1 mouth, use them in that order!
What are the future goals and plans for Wise Gaming? Any upcoming innovations or developments you can share?
Our goal is to continue providing a reliable and robust platform, listening and delivering an innovative and unique solution for each of our Partners.
Innovative Developments – If we tell everyone, they won’t be innovative 😉 However, what I can say is that we are focused on “advanced”, real-time localised AI recommended content both Casino & Sportsbook.
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