Congratulations on your appointment as Senior Sales Manager at PandaScore. How have you settled in?

Thank you. I’ve settled in really well, helped of course by the entire PandaScore team being incredibly welcoming and supportive. This has allowed me to hit the ground running and to enjoy getting to know the team and the business. I’ve spent my initial days understanding the intricacies of our products and the specific needs of our customers. This has been crucial in helping me align my goals with the company’s vision. I’ve also taken time to get a feel for the dynamics of the business and my immediate team to ensure that I integrate myself smoothly into day-to-day operations. It’s been a busy few weeks, but great fun at the same time.

Where will you be focusing your attention and efforts initially?

Now that I’ve got my feet under the table, my focus will be on strengthening the relationship we have with our current sportsbook operator partners and also identifying new business opportunities. I plan to expand our market share by showcasing the unique value that we bring to the esports betting space through our Odds feed as well as cutting-edge products such as our BetBuilder and PlayerProps. I’ll also be working closely with teams across the business to ensure our solutions and services align with the needs of our customers and they not only meet expectations but exceed them.

Can you talk through your previous experience and how you will use it to help drive growth at PandaScore?

My background is in sales and business development, especially driving growth through strategic partnerships. This will be instrumental in my role at PandaScore where I’ll leverage my experience in identifying new market trends and customer needs to develop and deploy targeted sales strategies that will help us expand our presence across international markets and ultimately drive growth. That I have experience in both the video games and gambling industries is an added bonus, too.

You mention you have experience in both video gaming and gambling – what are the main similarities between these industries?

Both industries are about engagement and entertainment. In video games, the focus is on creating immersive experiences that captivate players while with betting, it’s all about providing thrilling and potentially rewarding experiences. Of course, esports betting sees these two worlds collide. They are a good fit, too. Both rely heavily on innovation and a compelling UX. They also have a shared community aspect and the need to build a loyal user base to ensure long-term success. The overlap between the two provides plenty of opportunities, especially when it comes to esports which bridges the gap between competitive gaming and betting.

Some operators have been slow to embrace the esports betting opportunity. Why is this and what are you doing to ensure more sportsbooks tap into the rising demand for esports betting?

There are a few reasons for this. Some operators are hesitant due to a lack of understanding of the esports audience and how to engage them – esports fans are quite different to traditional sports bettors in their preferences and expectations. There’s also the challenge of navigating the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of esports. This is why we have focused on educating our partners about what makes esports different and then providing them with the tools they need to engage players and deliver the esports betting experiences they are seeking. To do this, we take a data-driven approach alongside offering a suite of innovative solutions that simplify the process for operators to get in on the esports betting action.

What makes for a compelling esports betting experience? Does it differ from standard sports betting and if so, how?

It comes down to offering fast-paced, engaging and tailored betting opportunities across many esports disciplines. The user experience and bet types offered need to reflect the dynamic nature of esports, including things like player props, bet builders and micro-betting. Esports fans also expect enhanced on-site content to add more value to their overall experience with the esportsbook, which is why our pre-match and live stats widgets is proving really popular with operators and their players.

What opportunities are operators missing if they don’t get in on the esports action?

Those who fail to tap into the esports market are missing out on the chance to engage a rapidly growing and highly motivated audience. Esports allows operators to reach a younger demographic not currently interested in traditional sports betting. In addition, the global reach of esports allows operators to expand into new markets through a growing vertical that shows no signs of slowing down. By not embracing esports, operators are failing to diversify their offering and missing the chance to engage the players of tomorrow, today.

Any final thoughts?

Esports is not just a trend. It represents a significant shift in the entertainment and betting landscape and those who recognise this and embrace it will be the ones who see substantial growth in the years ahead. At PandaScore, we are committed to being at the forefront of this revolution and we are excited to partner with forward-thinking operators who are ready to seize the opportunity at hand.

The European Gaming Congress (EGC) returns to Warsaw for 2024 on 15-16 October, and organizer HIPTHER is proud to introduce the conference’s esteemed Sponsors – trailblazing companies and accomplished professionals that help make the magic happen! In this Sponsors Spotlight Interview, we welcome Maciej Makuszewski, iGaming Director at Promatic Group, parent company of the Platinum Sponsor for EGC 2024, Promatic Games.

For many people outside the gaming industry, putting social responsibility and online slot games in the same sentence might seem counterintuitive. What’s your perspective on this? How can a slot development company demonstrate responsibility?

You’ve hit on a very interesting point right from the beginning. From an outsider’s view, social responsibility and online gambling might seem like polar opposites—like water and fire. But within the industry, we understand that to succeed, all parties, and especially operators and game studios, need to cater to a broad audience. This includes not only players seeking excitement and adrenaline but also casual players who just want a bit of entertainment. We simply need to think about the mass market when designing the gaming experience.

From there, it becomes essential to safeguard ALL players by promoting responsible behaviors and minimizing risks. After all, even with a naturally risky activity like gambling, people still want a sense of security in their experience. This is where social responsibility becomes key. While the public often associates our industry with problem gambling or even addiction, this is a simplistic view. A problem gambler is not a good player—not for them, and certainly not for us. We aim to create a safe and enjoyable environment for all players, which ultimately benefits everyone involved.

So speaking of iGaming in general, what are the key areas when it comes to promoting responsible behavior and minimizing risks for players, as you rightly put it?

I would consider Responsible Gaming as an umbrella term that encompasses a range of measures. I usually break these down into several key categories:

1. Identifying and protecting vulnerable players
2. Game mechanics
3. Transparency and communication
4. Youth exposure
5. Game design and incentives
6. Financial limits and self-exclusion mechanisms
7. Utilization of player data

Of course, this list can evolve depending on specific market needs, but these are the core elements. I haven’t included aspects like fairness or certification, as these are typically viewed as basic prerequisites in most regulated markets—they aren’t specific to Responsible Gaming but rather fundamental requirements for offering games to customers. Additionally, technical standards can also play a supporting role in fostering a responsible gaming environment.

Given that your role as a game studio is to provide the games themselves, how can you contribute to making the experience as responsible as possible? You’re not in full control over all of the seven areas you mentioned earlier.

You’re right—our role is narrower compared to operators, but we still have a significant impact in key areas. We can influence game mechanics, transparency and communication, youth exposure (to some extent), and game design and incentives. While we don’t manage player data, we can still support the identification of problem gambling behaviors.

Take game mechanics, for example. As a studio, we invest a lot of time in balancing the speed of gameplay with clear, accurate visualizations of the spin results. One of our key principles is ensuring that all our designs and developments are configurable to meet Responsible Gaming requirements. For instance, our games were recently certified in the Czech Republic, where the regulator mandates that each spin lasts at least two seconds. This is a Responsible Gaming measure, and our configurable software allowed us to implement this requirement quickly.

Another area that’s been a focus of many regulators is the Bonus Buy feature. We were hesitant to introduce it because some of the behaviors associated with this feature may heighten the risk of problem gambling. After months of careful consideration, we decided to launch it only with the ability to monitor every player action related to this functionality. We are committed to tracking this feature closely to ensure it aligns with responsible gaming standards.

You’re also going to touch on game design and incentives at the European Gaming Congress (EGC), correct?

Yes, that’s right! We’re excited to share the story behind one of our most innovative games, Ale Fajny BOBER. The game’s theme is inspired by a popular viral video, and it was a fascinating challenge for our team to translate the essence of a two-minute YouTube clip into an engaging slot experience. We had many discussions on how to best capture and visualize that story within a slot game format. But I’ll save the finer details for the conference—we’ll be talking about it on Day 1 during our presentation! Feel free to join and ask questions!

You mentioned the game Ale Fajny BOBER. Could our readers be familiar with other titles that have come out of your studio?

Ale Fajny Bober is indeed a new game, which had its premiere in Poland on September 26. Promatic Games has a portfolio of hundreds of exciting slot games that have been both successful and widely appreciated by players. Some of these include: Mummy’s Treasure Deluxe, Janosik 30 and Miss Joker Show  – the latter has even been shortlisted for the Best iGaming Product category at the EiGE2024 awards, with the final taking place at the upcoming conference. I warmly invite to join us at the event and cast your vote for our title. See you there!

Promatic Group’s iGaming Director, Maciej Makuszewski, and Product Design Manager, Luka Oblak, will be presenting a workshop at the European Gaming Congress on ‘Mastering the Art of Balanced Slot Development.

Join us in Warsaw and meet the Promatic Games Team in person:

Get your tickets for the European Gaming Congress 2024 Now!

The European Gaming Congress (EGC) returns to Warsaw for 2024 on 15-16 October, and organizer HIPTHER is proud to introduce the conference’s esteemed Sponsors – trailblazing companies and accomplished professionals that help make the magic happen! In this Sponsors Spotlight Feature, we welcome Piotr Fedak, CEO at Promatic Group, parent company of the Platinum Sponsor for EGC 2024, Promatic Games.

To start off, thank you for becoming the Platinum Sponsor of the upcoming EGC in Warsaw. We truly appreciate your trust! What inspired your decision to participate and sponsor this event?

The European Gaming Congress is a very important event for us, we have participated in the past edition. The congress creates an opportunity to meet, exchange experiences, discuss trends between industry professionals as it gathers representatives from all over Europe. Being a Partner in such events is also part of our organization’s strategy. And the fact that the conference is held in Warsaw, Poland, is of great importance – we are a local company and the Polish market is extremely important to us, hence our strong involvement in EGC.

As is tradition, could you tell us a bit about yourself? How long have you been with Promatic Group and in the gambling industry overall?

I have been associated with Promatic Group nearly 20 years now, the vast majority of my professional experience in the industry. In our organization I have held various positions related to operational areas, later I became a Managing Director and currently I am the CEO of the company being responsible for strategic, operational and organizational management.

You describe Promatic Group as a “one-stop solution provider for the gambling industry.” How should we interpret that? Tell us more about the company and its journey.

Correct, hard to believe it’s been almost 30 years now! We started as a distributor and over the course of almost 3 decades we have been developing our products – at the beginning we only offered EGM Terminals with slot games produces in Austria Later, we started producing our own game collections which naturally led us to developing a fully professional games studio that delivers own, developed in-house products to both the retail and online markets.

Our conference focuses on the European market, but you have a presence beyond Europe as well. Which markets are most important for you, and what offerings do you bring to Europe versus other regions? Which market is easier or harder to operate in, and how do they differ?

As I mentioned, Poland is a key market due to our origin. However, with nearly 30 years of experience, we now operate under two flagship brands, Promatic and Promatic Games, and we are present in various locations globally, including Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

European markets are definitely more saturated and are characterized by high competition. In Africa, for instance, there is much more space for business development, but also more organizational challenges than in European countries. It is difficult to say which market is easier as they differ significantly. Yet, our diverse offer allows us to operate in many regions, and although each market has different regulations we deal with in our daily activities. That is why we are always flexible and able to adapt to a given region and its specific requirements.

Like any company, you surely have competition. If you had to pinpoint what sets you apart, what would you say is your competitive advantage?

Our industry is characterized by very strong competition. Yet, we always try to use our competitive advantage – we are an independent manufacturer with our own resources and capital, we have an autonomous game studio and we are self-sufficient in every aspect of our activity.

Besides, Promatic Group is a local company quite different from big enterprises, not limited by corporate complications, intricate processes and complex internal regulations. We do not follow extensive bureaucracy and we adapt faster to changes in the business environment. Consequently, we can create new products and complete business agreements faster and more agile, easily competing with large corporations.

On top of that, we offer a very competitive product with excellent value for the money. We create top-engaging content as our games always respond to individual needs of the market, local players and that definitely distinguishes us from the competition.

And what do you admire in other companies? Do you have any role models or best practices that you follow? Is there someone/some company worth emulating—even if you don’t want to name names?

Like most companies we follow industry trends as well as competing businesses and wish to be one step ahead. We are confident that with such an approach the industry can develop, and direct, open competition creates opportunities for growth.

In our organization, we act as a participant in the gaming industry – we observe others, but we also want to have a significant impact and set the trends based on our capabilities and resources. What characterizes large companies is a strong distribution and operational authority in the countries they come from as it allows to scale global operation.

Let’s talk about branded games. Do you have any other themed games in your portfolio? If so, what are they like? What guides your choices when selecting these themes?

Games featuring celebrities, such as Mariusz Pudzianowski – the brand ambassador of Promatic Group, allow us to stand out on local markets and create unique, dedicated content, responding to individual needs of players in a given region. Apart from Pudzian, our games feature other famous figures who are popular in Slovakia, Romania or Ukraine. But celebrity games are not the only trend we use in our slots, we also focus on popular and well-known historical, cultural or social themes, examples include titles like Janosik, Husaria, Golden Train or Copernicus dedicated to Polish players or games with African themes, very popular in Nigeria: Naija Wheels or African Carnival. The ability to create branded games is a great added value of our brand and we are happy that we can promote themes and motives ​​that are important to players in local regions

What opportunities and challenges do you see for the gaming industry in Europe? How is Promatic Group preparing for changing trends (do you notice any, e.g., in customer behavior, industry needs, legal regulations, etc.)?

Our industry is defined by very strong legislation, also in Poland.

The European market as a whole is already very regulated and saturated and most of our neighboring markets have increasingly restrictive regulations that do not translate into sales opportunities in the retail segment. Online market currently offers greater space for development and this is one of the trends that Promatic focuses on – we want to deliver products to the online sector in Poland and other European markets.

But regulatory restrictions and differences are not the only challenge, players’ preferences are changing too and we want to follow them by modifying the ergonomics of the machines following waving popularity of games, and user behaviors, which is why we constantly develop new products, providing new, engaging content that is both safe and compliant with Responsible Gaming policy. It is our highest priority to deliver safe products, our production process is always well-thought-out from the early design stage to publishing aspects, ultimately leading to the certification of our products according to the highest European standards.

It is difficult to say which market is easier as they differ a lot. On the other hand, despite discrepancies, our diverse product offer and ability to adapt to specific market requirements allow us to operate in many regions with changing regulations.

You were nominated in four categories for the EiGE awards:

• Best iGaming Supplier > Promatic Group
• Best iGaming Product > Miss Joker Show (Promatic Group)
• Best Game Developer > Promatic Group
• Best Emerging iGaming Company > Promatic Group

From what we see in the results of the first stage, you have a chance in several categories. Winning in which category would make you the happiest, and why?

We proudly received nominations in four different categories and in each of them we were among the finalists, which makes us very happy. The categories are very diverse, and the nominations in all of them confirm the hard work of all our teams in our organization, show our versatility and motivate us to continue the good work. The nomination in the Best Product category is certainly very important to us, we know that Miss Joker Show is very well received by players in many markets, but of course we keep our fingers crossed for any award in any category.Each will make us equally happy.

Engagement vs. Responsibility – will you be discussing this at the congress? What is your opinion on the topic, and how does Promatic approach it?

All aspects of Responsible Gaming are always significantly important to us. We adapt the policies already at the design stage of our products. We want our games to be engaging, but at the same time not to extend any negative patterns, so we implement a number of features and mechanisms to our products to be fully compliant with principles of Responsible Gaming.

During the European Gaming Congress, Promatic representatives: Maciej Makuszewski – Head of iGaming and Luka Oblak – Product Manager will present a very interesting workshop showcasing how to capture such balance between user engagement and policies compliance. The presentation ‘Mastering the Art of Balanced Slot Development’ – we kindly invite all the attendees of EGC to participate.

As we approach the final quarter of 2024, it’s a good time to start reflecting on the year.

What are your plans and goals for Q4 and the upcoming year, 2025? What challenges do you foresee?

Although it is still too early to sum up, this year was very successful for us – we managed to complete many key business projects, we keep developing our online product, receiving new relevant certifications and we would like to maintain this trend. In the coming months, we plan to expand to new markets and grow our team of experts. We also focus on the development of new technologies, we expand the retail network while focusing on further development of the online product. We concentrate a lot on diversifying our product offer, which will certainly be much wider next year.

EGC is not the only conference where we can meet you at industry events in the near future. Can you share any plans in this regard?

Industry events are an important platform enabling valuable discussions and meetings. This week we are participating in SBC in Lisbon, we will also be at iGaming in Malta.

Next year, we are exhibiting at ICE 2025 in Barcelona and warmly invite you to visit Promatic Group’s stand. All the above events are very inspirational as we are committed to following trends, developing know-how and new technologies in gaming, and exchanging experiences with industry experts, which certainly contributes to our development.

Piotr Fedak – BIO

PIOTR FEDAK

Chief Operating Officer of Promatic Group

Actively working in the gaming industry for over 20 years.

Associated with Promatic Group for most of his professional career, solely involved in operational processes.

He held the positions of Operations Director and Managing Director, supervising operations on domestic and global markets, also managing introducing innovations.

In 2023, he took the position of the CEO of the company, leading and managing the organization in the scope of operational and strategic processes.

Promatic Group’s iGaming Director, Maciej Makuszewski, and Product Design Manager, Luka Oblak, will be presenting a workshop at the European Gaming Congress on ‘Mastering the Art of Balanced Slot Development.

Join us in Warsaw and meet the Promatic Games Team in person:

Get your tickets for the European Gaming Congress 2024 Now!