Interviews
Interview with BetGames CPO: Building Europe’s tier-one games studio
As Europe’s premiere live gaming betting studio, BetGames has continually proven itself as the industry’s favourite provider of live dealer and betting games.
From Twain Sport to unique branded content for big-name clients including Entain, we sat down with BetGames’ CPO, Ian Catchick, a true industry legend and real visionary for the industry’s future. Read on to find out more …
To get things started – BetGames has had plenty of successes recently with the launch of Twain Sport as well as debuting in plenty of new markets. Can you talk us through these landmarks and how they’ve been achieved?
We launched Twain Sport back in the second half of 2022, and the results have been fantastic. Given we offer both basketball and football – we’ve seen some excellent traction across so many markets given both sports’ popularity.
It all started with a basic idea to introduce high-quality, unique and competitive live sports content, which was aimed towards customers who wanted short, fast action. We addressed that with a product that delivered intensive 60-second live rounds of both sports.
From there, we could see that the challenge to take Twain Sport globally would be a demand to increase the frequency and operating hours. This is quite complex to do when you’ve got a live product, because you’ve got athletes’ well-being to consider and their need for adequate rest between games to maintain performance levels.
So, to be able to deliver that we transitioned from live sports to prerecorded content – while retaining exactly the same foundations that made it successful and popular in the first place. Now we’ve evolved Twain Sport so that it operates 24 hours a day, more than doubling the frequency of output.
The same unique DNA remains – as does the vitally important fast and furious 60-second rounds but we’re able to have a game ready to go for pretty much any global time zone. The bonus, however, is that we’re now offering more opportunity for operators and bettors to suit all peak sporting periods, which is perfect for filling the gaps between all fixtures!
When it comes to Europe, you’re certainly a force to be reckoned with; where’s key for you on the continent and where do you see the biggest growth opportunities?
That’s certainly correct – we’ve had fantastic feedback from European players when it comes to Twain Sport. It’s easy to see why: it’s in the exact short-form format we knew would be popular, and now that they’ve got the ability to play any time, day or night – making it truly 24/7 action.
Completing Twain Sport is our classic BetGames portfolio. This means that we have the perfect combination of familiar, simple-to-understand games, with a mix of live and RNG content too. We’ve also got a whole new batch of games in the pipeline – including several high-frequency products that cater that short-form demand we know players are looking for. This all revolves around providing games that are engaging and easy to play, and most importantly – accessible to make the most of their valuable play sessions.
Looking ahead – we’ve got an ambitious road map which is very European-focused and will see four games launched over the second half of this year. In short, we’ll be delivering a mix of brand-new products while evolving what we already have and optimising those core, successful titles that perform the best.
Strengthening that proposition, we’ll also enhance the tools that we have to develop our service provision too. This means that we’ll be looking at how we can use our customer data to drive decision-making that will enable us to address the right games to the right players at the right time.
We’re confident we know what European customers enjoy, which essentially is short bursts of entertainment, so we’ll continue to accommodate that and make BetGames even more relevant to our European customers with both sports and casino content.
Looking at BetGames’ unique approach in bringing sports betting-style casino games to operators, how key do you think such a philosophy has been in making you special?
We’ve always wanted to offer high-quality content to all our players and what we try and do is target both sports bettors and casino players and bridge that gap between the two disciplines.
We see a lot of commonalities on each side, and being able to help those players to crossover easily is something that we see as highly important, providing us with a good opportunity to drive that customer experience.
Our products are primarily focused on recreational bettors, and we’ve worked on a number of initiatives to recreate what they know and love – including sports betting-style bet slips in our casino games to help to make them feel right at home. We’re also enhancing certain UIs to ensure the format we have on hand breeds familiarity, while also encouraging players to give new formats to try.
Our philosophy revolves around a few key principles. Our mission is to provide rich, familiar and unique content that delivers high-quality live entertainment experiences. This draws on our core competencies of broadcast, game design, and our skills in intuitively knowing and understanding how to create content that our players enjoy and can play responsibly with, in as simple and accessible a manner as possible.
When it comes to your existing portfolio, do you have any exciting plans to further expand your content with more sports themes?
We’ve got some plans for additional sports content, and we’ll be expanding on this quite shortly! This will definitely be a space to watch, and we’ll be unveiling a lot more detail on some of our new game launches soon enough.
We’ve learned a lot in a short space of time on the back of our Twain Sport experiences, particularly that there is a real interest from casino players and sports bettors in games that bridge both verticals together.
When it comes to Twain Sport, we will also be introducing new sports as well as a new team game which will be announced very soon. For us, it’s all about aligning with what our customers are demanding, which is this getting access to high-excitement, high-quality, simple-to-understand content which is quick and easy to play.
So yes, in short, we will be adding to and enhancing our existing sports proposition with some more sports-themed content – as well as plenty more BetGames titles to go with it!
Last but not least, drawing on your extensive experience with both tier-one operators and working on the supplier side, how would you define player demand in the coming years when it comes to next-gen gaming? What’s your vision for player trends?
I believe that we’ll continue to see the expectation levels of our players increase. They’re telling us quite clearly that what they really want is high-quality, engaging, rapid-play, simple-to-understand content.
The next-gen consumer is far more open-minded. They’re very keen to enjoy a combination of what they know right now and newer concepts that enhance their playing experience. With that will come exacting standards, however, and they will be very demanding.
So, we need to manage those expectations but we’re following this closely. Our plans are to invest in new products but also to look at some of our customer development tools to help drive that play experience – compiling data with elements such as gamification, loyalty and fun.
A constant among this is that our players’ time is very precious, and they want to ensure that each experience is very fulfilling. Time pressure is going to change the way in which we engage with players in the future.
Addressing that, we’ll have to deliver more high-frequency content – engaging with a greater focus on personalisation, localisation and ensuring the product is appropriate to the individual as opposed to the mass market.
There’s a lot going on, but I think it’s about watching the market, trying to find the opportunities to push boundaries, to innovate and also to leverage our experience, knowledge and insights.
We’re going to have higher expectations and demands in the not-too-distant future – but I’m very confident that BetGames has the necessary assets to accommodate that.
Interviews
The difficult second album
Nik Robinson, CEO at Big Time Gaming, talks about the challenges studios face when it comes to sequel slots such as its just-launched Danger! High Voltage 2.
Congratulations on the launch of Danger! High Voltage 2. Tell us more about the game and what players can expect.
Thanks! We’re absolutely thrilled to launch Danger! High Voltage 2—it’s an electrifying sequel we think fans of the original will love. When we released the first Danger! High Voltage, the response was phenomenal, and players kept asking for even more high-octane action. So, we set out to turn things up to 11 with this release.
The game cranks up the excitement with our Megaways™ engine, giving players up to 117,649 ways to win on each spin. The base game is supercharged with volatility and powered by the MegaDozer, perched right above the reels, ready to drop Scatters, Wilds, Multipliers, and other electrifying surprises into play. Then there are the two fiery free spin bonuses—Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!!—designed to keep players on the edge of their seats.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be Danger! High Voltage without the unforgettable soundtrack by Electric Six! Get ready for some serious foot-tapping and headbanging because this game truly brings the heat.
How does the second instalment differ from the original Danger! High Voltage slot you launched back in 2017?
This time around, players are transported to an electrifying thrilling industrial scene, and introduced the groundbreaking mechanic MegaDozerTM mechanic sitting up top, ready to unleash Scatters, Wilds, Multipliers, and surprises.
It’s amazing to see how much slot game design has evolved since we launched the first game in 2017, and Danger! High Voltage 2 is a testament to that evolution. This time, we’ve built it around our Megaways™ engine, which amps up the gameplay with up to 117,649 ways to win on every spin.
We’ve also kept the player choice element for the Free Spins round, but we didn’t just stop there. Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!! are brand-new bonus features that make every spin a symphony of excitement. It’s a whole new level of Danger! and a thrilling way for players to experience just how far we’ve come in delivering cutting-edge slots.
What made the iconic song from Electric Six the perfect soundtrack for creating a slot game around?
When we set out to create Danger! High Voltage 2, we knew we had to keep the core essence that players loved—the name and that iconic Electric Six soundtrack—but from there, this game is a totally new beast.
It’s insanely catchy and the perfect soundtrack for spinning the reels. For me, it stirs a strong feeling of nostalgia, taking me back to the early 2000s when the song was riding high in the charts. The more I listened to it, the more I became convinced it would be huge fun to create a slot game around the song. The lyrics lend themselves to bonus features (Fire in the Disco! Danger Danger! Or the original High Voltage & Gates of Hell), and the disco theme works really well as an online slot because it is so visual and colourful. With the original, we were able to capture the essence of the song and bring it to life, which is why Danger! High Voltage became a runaway success. Danger! High Voltage 2 turns the volume up to the max and we fully expect it to rise to the top of the charts, just like the original did.
Just how hard is it to launch a follow-up to a hugely successful slot game? What are the main challenges in doing so?
Launching a follow-up to a hit like Danger! High Voltage is no easy feat—it’s a bit like making the sequel to a blockbuster movie. You need to build on the experience offered by the original game, keeping true to the core theme and gameplay while making sure it offers something new and different. Stick too close to the original and it won’t deliver the excitement players are seeking, move too far away from it and you can end up with a significant disconnect from the original. But we reimagined the visuals and mechanics, integrating our Megaways™ engine as it adds massive win potential with up to 117,649 ways to win and to keep the gameplay engaging. We took risks with a completely new mechanic MegaDozer™ and introduced two brand-new free spin features, Fire in the Disco! and Danger Danger!! which had to be meticulously tested to ensure they deliver the right blend of fun and volatility. It becomes a bit of a balancing act whereby you need to keep core elements the same or similar and then bring in new elements that take the whole package to the next level. It’s easy to see why the second album is often the toughest for musicians.
Big Time Gaming seems to have cracked the code when it comes to sequel slots with the recent launch of Bonanza Falls so you must have been able to overcome these challenges.
We’re fortunate to have such strong original titles like Bonanza and Danger! High Voltage as a foundation for our sequels, but make no mistake—it all starts with the team’s incredible work in crafting these iconic games in the first place. When you have a solid base, it gives us the freedom to innovate boldly. For instance, with sequels like Bonanza Falls and Danger! High Voltage 2, we introduced fresh mechanics like MegaDozer™, Win Exchange™, Bonus Coins, which add entirely new dimensions to gameplay. These features aren’t just updates; they’re true evolutions that deliver exhilarating experiences and keep players coming back.
Our team embraces these challenges head-on, bringing excitement and a touch of fun to every sequel we produce. And while these games build on the legacies of the originals, they’re crafted to stand tall on their own merits. Bonanza Falls and Danger! High Voltage 2 don’t just rely on the reputations of their predecessors—they’re outstanding games in their own right, designed to thrill players new and old alike. It’s about creating something fresh while capturing the magic that made the originals so beloved.
Interviews
Exclusive Q&A w/ Radek Pšurný, CEO at Match Hype
Match Hype has just won two industry competitions. Talk us through your product.
Match Hype brings engagement from social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram into the sportsbook. Our technology automatically turns raw sports data into short videos full of sports and betting insights. We have the capacity to create up to a million videos daily in more than 30 languages. We also provide hosting and streaming of the videos, and we track everything in the video thanks to our own player. The high level of video experience and the scale make us unique in the market, and we believe that this innovation is extremely needed in the industry—and the judges in the competitions probably agree with us.
What technologies are you leveraging to deliver such a cutting-edge tool/product?
We have more than six years’ experience in developing dynamic video solutions for clients like Microsoft, HBO, and SAP, and a decade in high-end video production for similarly well-known clients. Match Hype is the essence of this. We have developed our own robust cloud infrastructure that enables us to work on a huge scale. We can also leverage the integration of third-party solutions that help us make the video content rich and engaging. The AI boom came at the right time to help us make the experience for the viewer even better.
Who is Match Hype aimed at?
We focus mostly on sportsbook operators, where we think we can bring the biggest value. But we also have clients on the affiliate and media side. Our “competition” at the moment are creative professionals who are able to create one video at a time. To cover hundreds or thousands of events daily, you need huge manpower. With Match Hype, you don’t need that—it’s all automated. Anybody who appreciates this level of efficiency will benefit.
The end users are any sports fans who enjoy engaging videos. So basically everybody.
Has this industry been slow to embrace video content and unlock the potential it offers? If so, why?
It’s hard for us to talk about the whole industry, as we haven’t been part of it for that long. But iGaming feels like a conservative industry where only truly meaningful innovations make it. Fingers crossed for Match Hype being one of them. We are confident because of our track record in other industries, and mostly thanks to the results of our dynamic videos that are already used by significant igaming industry players.
What makes video content so effective at customer acquisition? How can Match Hype be used in this regard?
People just love video content. In the last review, TikTok said that the average user spends around 90 minutes a day on their platform. Platforms like Spotify used to be music and podcasts only; now they are full of videos. You just can’t ignore that. Video killed the radio star, and a static sportsbook is next to die.
And what about retention? How can it be used to keep players engaged and coming back for more?
Imagine that a 30-second video gives you the exact insights to help you make a betting decision without spending dozens of minutes on different resources to gather all the information. People don’t want to read anymore. This is probably an even bigger strength of Match Hype than user acquisition.
What can we expect from Match Hype in the coming months?
We will establish Match Hype as an industry standard for dynamic video content. We’ll bring many more sports like tennis, basketball horse racing and. We are preparing real-time video use cases—for example, half-time updates in football—and new distribution channels like integration directly into streams. The potential is huge. Stay tuned.
Any final thoughts?
For the last year, we have talked with literally hundreds of iGaming experts, investors, and executives. Almost every one of them sees fan engagement as a huge topic in the upcoming months and years. And video will definitely play a key part in it.
Video says more than a thousand words. Give it a go—watch one of our 30-second videos and see for yourself.
Affiliate Industry
Flying high: How RavenTrack is helping operators unlock the true potential of their affiliate programs
We sit down with Adam Rowley, Managing Director at RavenTrack, to understand why data, tracking and optimisation are key to a successful affiliate program
Your tagline is “win at performance marketing”. Tell us more about how you help operators maximise their partnerships with affiliates.
It is indeed. RavenTrack is a powerful affiliate tracking solution that allows operators to track, optimise and grow through their affiliate programs. Our proprietary solution offers an advanced affiliate tracking platform built by iGaming experts – this ensures it meets the unique demands of the industry, including the need to withstand the pace and complexity of affiliate marketing in the online sports betting and casino space. RavenTrack has also been designed to be flexible and customisable so that it can be adapted to individual client requirements. This combination of qualities has seen us become the go-to affiliate software tracking provider for more than 150 brands across the world, brands that are winning at performance marketing with the support of RavenTrack.
Why is tracking so important to the ultimate success of an affiliate program?
Tracking is the glue that holds marketing and sales together in the online arena. But effective tracking requires a platform that delivers reliability, accuracy and a seamless UX so that users can easily dig into the data and generate valuable insights. Speed and reliability are crucial so that operators don’t miss a single click or conversion. To track data effectively, operators (and their affiliate partners) need tools such as pixel and postback capabilities and geo-targeting. The former allows affiliates to track customer activity in real time which helps them maximise the revenue of the brands they work with. When it comes to intelligent geo-tracking, it allows users to identify and aim to funnel traffic through specific locations.
But tracking is just one part of the process and success of an affiliate program– online sportsbook and casino operators must be able to take the data they have tracked and use it to optimise campaigns, both internally and those being run by their affiliate partners.
What does optimisation look like? How does RavenTrack help its customers do this?
Traffic source provides a lot of spoke for optimisation, especially when it comes to things like which affiliate is performing best, changes to traffic, ROI and conversion rate optimisation. With RavenTrack, operators have the insight they need to do this. They can also give their affiliates access to data via their own internal reporting systems – this is done via our two-way API – to help determine which campaigns and creatives are delivering the best results. Operators also need to optimise the commercial agreements they have in place with their affiliate partners, and this means being able to offer them a range of options including CPA, revenue share, CPL, CPM and hybrid.
As operators – and their affiliates – get more experienced at using data and tracking, they will want to customise reports to a pretty granular level so that they can optimise to a much deeper and greater extent. Customisable reports (we have more than 20 reports available), marketplace and dashboards are just a few of the tools we provide to help operators and affiliates optimise campaigns and work to the commercials that deliver for both parties.
And how does all of this come together to help both operators and affiliates scale at pace?
Our fixed-cost model means operators can create as many campaigns for their brands as they like without the worry of additional costs. This in turn makes growing their program pretty straightforward. With a long list of commission structures available (which can be customised by the client) for their affiliate partners, operators can ensure the growth of the program is reflected in the growth of the wider business, ultimately allowing them to maximise profitability from affiliate marketing activity while at the same time ensuring their partners are fairly compensated for the quality traffic they send.
Migrating to a new affiliate tracking platform can cause major upheaval. How do you help operators through the process?
We know that moving to a new platform can be a big decision and a significant undertaking, but we have plenty of options to make it a seamless process from start to finish. This includes working with the affiliate program team to run their old and new program side by side to ensure there is absolutely no drop-off in traffic or lost data. Our UK-based account and customer support team is always on hand to assist during the migration process, and once operators are up and running with RavenTrack – this includes helping them get the most out of our platform and tools.
RavenTrack has only been around for a handful of years but has already achieved great things. What can we expect in the months ahead?
We hit the market in 2018 and haven’t looked back. Today, we work with 150 brands, processing more than one billion clicks per month and £2billion in deposits to date. The operators using RavenTrack to run their affiliate programs have generated more than £500 million in revenue and counting. Our numbers speak for themselves and no matter the size of brand or affiliate program, our solution is the key to unlocking the true potential of affiliate marketing. As for the months ahead, expect more platform updates, new tools and some big-name partnership announcements.
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