Industry News
Blueprint Gaming expands into Italy
Supplier’s portfolio granted certification as it boosts global presence
Monday 16th July 2018: Leading UK-based game studio Blueprint Gaming has continued with its international growth strategy after receiving game certification for the Italian market.
The supplier’s suite of games has been certified to the requirements of the Italian regulator AAMS, including top titles Genie Jackpot, King Kong Cash, TED and new release Wish Upon a Leprechaun, as well as the company’s operator-specific Jackpot King progressive system.
Blueprint’s expansion into Italy follows the company’s recent move into Romania and Denmark, highlighting its commitment to operating in regulated markets across Europe.
The supplier is also aiming to secure certification to operate in the Spanish market in the coming months, boosting its international footprint even further.
Matt Cole, Managing Director of Blueprint Gaming, said: “This year has seen us actively grow our presence in Europe’s regulated markets and I’m thrilled that our games are now live in Italy.
“The Italian iGaming industry continues to evolve and it was an important step for us to be involved in such an exciting territory.
“We’re confident that players in the region will enjoy our feature-rich games and look forward to working with operators active in the country.”
About Blueprint Gaming:
Blueprint Gaming is a leading UK based game studio and part of Germany’s Gauselmann Group. It creates exciting slot games for the global online and mobile markets and its games are also available to be played on over 100,000 land-based gaming terminals across the UK, Germany and Italy.As well as its original content, which has become hugely popular, it has developed successful slots based on a broad range of third party brands, offering players familiarity and operators unique marketing opportunities.Blueprint Gaming design and development team strives to push creative boundaries in the creation of slots that are as successful for its operating partners as they are entertaining and engaging for its players.
Blueprint is licensed to develop and supply online games by the UK Gambling Commission and Alderney Gambling Control Commission.
Industry News
ICE Barcelona will host biggest participation of European casino industry professionals – predict ECA
The European Casino Association (ECA) which represents the interests of 700 casinos with over 60,000 employees in 29 countries is preparing for what it anticipates will be a record attendance of casino industry professionals when ICE 2025 launches in Barcelona (20 – 22 January).
ECA Secretary General Hermann Pamminger, who has worked in the industry since joining Casinos Austria International in 1991 confirmed the growing sense of anticipation surrounding the relocation to Barcelona. He stated: “Whether it has been held at London Olympia, Earls Court London or most recently ExCeL London, ICE has served the industry superbly well with ECA members contributing to the show’s success story helping it to achieve its status as the world-leading business event for the global industry.
“2025 will be the first time that ICE and its predecessor ATE will have been staged outside the UK since launching nine decades ago and the momentous decision to relocate to a new and much bigger venue in an exciting vibrant city on mainland Europe has captured the imagination of the ECA and its members.
“The ECA’s elected Board of Directors which consists of senior and experienced representatives of the European licensed and land-based casino industry is planning the presence in Barcelona in line with our core aims to address and promote issues related to casino operations and increase awareness of the industry amongst EU policy makers and stakeholders.
“The feedback that we are receiving from ECA members who are based in 29 countries suggest that more casino industry executives than ever before will be at ICE meeting with colleagues, participating in the world-leading content programme and being inspired by the innovations presented by the largest collection of exhibitors, curated for all sectors and verticals of the industry. This includes our UK members who are excited to explore this new location to engage with the wider European industry.
“I believe that the move to Barcelona will accelerate the number of casino executives and buyers from across Europe attending. Every successful brand needs to evolve and the relocation will dawn a new era of opportunity for Europe’s land-based casino industry. ICE 2025 promises to be a landmark celebration and the excitement amongst our members is palpable. We are also looking to maintain and possibly increase the number of our formal meetings and events that take place during ‘ICE’ week such as our Board Meeting and General Assembly as well as the traditional CEO dinner – to cater to this increased need”
The first edition of ICE to be held outside the UK will feature a record 1,000 exhibitors comprising world leading innovators representing every sector and from every jurisdiction. ICE and the co-located iGB Affiliate – which will occupy 120,000 square metres of The Gran Via, Barcelona compared to the 100,000 sqm used in London – connect the entire global industry and provide access to the very latest cutting-edge innovations, technological solutions, regulatory updates, and insights which assist entrepreneurial businesses to enter new jurisdictions and build market share. The Convention Centre which is located in Hall 8 comprises a modular and versatile space with seating for between 3,000 and 12,000 people.
Industry News
Amatic and Comatel Present Innovative Gaming Solutions at FIJMA Madrid
Amatic Industries has teamed up with long-standing local partner Comatel to wow the crowds at premier gaming expo FIJMA Madrid. Together, the two are presenting a comprehensive display of solutions at the show running until May 9 at IFEMA, Madrid.
There are different Gemini configurations, each including a mix of the best slot games of Amatic’s library, 5 games of the Multi Link collection and the table game classics roulette, baccarat, SicBo and blackjack, with the possibility to connect them to a physical roulette wheel.
Viva Vegas is a gaming concept specially developed for the Spanish market. In addition to the traditional slot games, the new “King of Fichas” feature has been implemented, allowing players access to a much wider range of games only playable with the so-called “Fichas”. There are three different versions playable on various game cabinets.
With the Revo III configuration, the players get offered the table game classics roulette, baccarat, SicBo and blackjack with the advantage to play the additional “Go for Gold deluxe” feature from all games. Within this configuration, the players have now the possibility to place up to five golden Jetons on the “Go for Gold deluxe” feature.
“We are delighted to exhibit alongside our valued partner Comatel at FIJMA Madrid. Through our longstanding collaboration, we have built a strong foundation of trust and innovation. Together, we look forward to showcasing our latest gaming solutions and providing attendees with a glimpse into the future of entertainment,” said a sales representative at Amatic Industries.
Industry News
The untapped potential of SEO in iGaming
With Filip Podborschi, SEO Strategist at The Unit
From our experience in SEO in igaming, there are a number of areas where we see room for improvement and common mistakes which can be rectified. Let’s take a look at these facets of SEO one by one, with our best tips for how to make sure you can maximise your search ranking and drive more volume to your website.
Keyword strategy
The first thing operators should do in this area is identify the best performing keywords that result in higher search volumes on each post. It’s pages that rank rather than websites, so you need a different search intent on each page, and that increases the list of keywords you’re ranking for.
The way to do this is by checking the search volume, and then implementing the keywords according to SEO best practices, which means having primary and secondary keywords and adjusting repetition accordingly.
The common mistake we see here is that companies don’t go into enough depth when conducting competitive analysis; especially when they’re new to the industry. Identifying what exactly your competitors are doing regarding SEO is harder than it looks, and it’s an area where marketing agencies tend to be quite lazy. They may use some tools which will show the standout competitors by algorithm, but they won’t crawl for long enough to ascertain what services they offer and provide a comparison with their client’s service. You need to find out which sites could be ranking better than you, and why.
We also see issues with the ranking of sites based on the user’s location. For example, you may have a website that ranks well in Canada, and when I as a user based in Romania search for that category, I’m not going to get the same list of results as a user who is based in Canada. The best thing to do is use a VPN to gauge how your websites are ranking and performing with your specific audience in your domestic geographical area.
SEO tags optimisation
With SEO tags, which are essentially the page title and description you see on the search engine results page, the page title has the highest ranking power. Google will first check the page title to get an idea of what the page is about and what searches it is relevant for. It will then check the H1 and the content, and it may look through the H2 as well.
A common issue here is some websites have templated SEO tags, especially for the inner pages, so it’s more of a formula within the code to generate a random structure. It is very obvious they are templated and that the operator doesn’t really care about the length.
The key thing with tags is to make sure your pages have titles that don’t exceed the ideal length. This is a big mistake if you get this wrong, and it is very important to optimise your titles. SEO tags can be optimised around keywords. Once doing so, it is very important to prioritise your main pages. If you have 10 pages as part of the main menu, then you should optimise those, before optimising the inner pages.
Identifying duplicate pages is also important, as well as making sure meta inscriptions include CTAs; those inscriptions don’t impact rankings directly, but they do impact the CTR. You have to do that without being too spammy though, so it’s advisable to avoid words like ‘sale’ or calls to “CLICK HERE NOW”.
Headings
Keywords must be implemented in headings; especially in H1s and H2s. Make sure not to overuse H2s and keep them optimised for content value.
If we structure the ranking power of the elements that are bringing results, we would optimise with the page title first, H1 second, content third and H2s fourth. It is better to have five H2s with three of them being optimised around the same search intent that is highlighted in H1, than it is to have 3/10 optimised around keywords. Too many H2s will just confuse Google about your search intent. You can have similar search intent as with H1s, and also have H3s and H4s to highlight value to the reader.
Interlinking strategy
Interlinking between pages is often missing. I’m not talking about interlinking from the main menu, as every page has the ability for you to go back, but I’m talking about interlinking within content, which Google considers to be much more important, because it cares about the relevancy. Google will consider pages with high-quality content as a higher authority page.
Our advice would be to implement anchor links on both branded and non-branded keywords. You should make sure there is an anchor link to the parent page. For example, domain.com/blog is a parent for domain.com/blog/igaming-seo.
It’s very important to have child pages linking to the parent page, passing authority to the parent page. Having that interlinked structure will pass more authority to that parent page.
To explain that in a little more detail, let’s say you have a sportsbook page with 10 more child pages that reflect a particular set of sports. Having each of those 10 pages optimised so they have some authority and linking them to the parent page would pass authority to that parent page. Parent pages usually have a keyword with higher search volume, and passing as much authority as you can to the child page is very important. Too often websites lack content on child pages.
The future of SEO and experience needed
Going forward, we see AI as one of the most significant developments in SEO. At this point, we are not able to rank user engagement in AI, and it is important to keep yourself updated with how Google is reacting to this.
Google in time may provide additional options if you want to be eligible for a particular set of results in that environment. Keep an eye on what features it will offer and the types of websites. Google may consider implementing specific types of results for betting, such as displaying odds or a comparison of odds from three or four sites at the same time.
With all these issues, it is vital to have the relevant experience on board, particularly when it comes to the skill of conducting very in-depth competitor analysis, and this is something The Unit can provide. Conducting competitor analysis is something we have done across several industries, and not just in igaming. The main strength you can have with SEO is to know your competitors inside out, and those skills can be adjusted based on your needs.
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