Slots Standout

Published on ICE 2020, Jan/Feb issue.

EGR Intel (EGR): How do you see slot games performance in recent years and do they still have a place in the online casino landscape?
Marc Burroughes (MB): Clearly there’s a lot of content out there in the market and a lot of slot developers. The key to surviving in such a crowded market is to provide unique and high-quality content. However, market saturation is really having an impact on how even good quality games perform. Such games experience a shorter peak and then tend to plateau at a lower level than in the past. This is an inevitable issue when there is such an extreme amount of choices in the market.

I think we will continue to see more big winning titles as a means of differentiation and to appeal to the high value players. But what we must not forget is that there’s also a large segment of players who are driven to gamble for entertainment rather than the realistic prospect of winning massive prizes. Going forward, we’ve got to make sure we also cater to and grow this segment of customers.

EGR: What are the key drivers of a game’s popularity?
MB: A large portion of players are looking to ‘win big’. And then there are other players who are quite happy to churn their money through and accumulate smaller wins over a longer period of time. We feel that there are players who are open to more than just traditional slots products which offer a slightly different gambling experience.

EGR: Do players want more from slots?
MB: As the industry advances, new younger players are coming into the market. Those younger players are more likely to have been influenced by video games, social media, mobile games, and demand some form of gratification from every interaction with games they play on their phones. Adding features in slot games which cater to this need is an important focus for us.

To meet this need, we have developed our range of Radi8 games which are a combination of high quality, innovative slots with a unique bonus engine inside each game which players control through a tactile in-game interface. Players build and accumulate credits, which we call Radcoins, which they can then spend across all the games in the Radi8 range. They can buy boosters, for instance, which allow them an opportunity to increase their chances of winning and also the size of their winnings. We are continuing to innovate through this in-game bonus engine. For example, we have just launched Loot Boxes which reward players with a collection of prizes that include Radcoins, boosters and cash that are rewarded to the player on the spot. We’ll continue to create new journeys for players to find more ways to win.