In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, Gaming Realms Plc founder Simon Collins shares what operators can learn from popular free-to-play games.
One of the biggest challenges facing many operators is staying relevant to players. Unlike past decades, operators find themselves competing with free-to-play, multiplayer games when it comes to attracting new players.
The recent crackdown of tech giants Apple, Google, and Amazon on gambling-related apps have also made it more difficult for operators to win over potential new players, particularly the younger generation.
The key to survival and staying relevant to players is for operators to quickly adapt to changing technology, according to Gaming Realms founder Simon Collins. He believes that gambling operators should look at multiplayer games—their capabilities and technologies—and start building new content inspired by such games.
“I think the common theme seems to be in the new games is massively multiplayer—Clash of Clans, Fortnite. You are playing against a hundred players in Fortnite and Battle Royale. And on things like Clash of Clans, it’s a multiplayer experience,” Collins told CalvinAyre.com “The challenge is always that Google and Amazon and the other app stores are sometimes a bit cautious around real-money gaming. So we’ve got to be careful about which territories, which markets we look at, and so that restricts innovation a little bit. I still think we can learn from some of these great companies on how to build a more successful business concept.”
Collins cited the case of Gaming Realms’ Instant win game called Slingo, which he said capitalizes on both bingo and instant win games. Gaming Realms has started to license its other offerings on a B2B basis for real-money gaming for clients like 888, Ladbrokes, Coral and Rank, among others, according to Collins.
Collins noted that the decision to buy Slingo has paid off. He estimated that they’d already captured 3 percent of the whole New Jersey market as of 2017 just by licensing the instant win game.
“We paid $18 million to buy Slingo. It’s a U.S.-based gaming format. We think we can really capitalize on the bingo trend and the instant win trend that we are seeing in the sector right now. And we are starting to use that format in lots of different categories and sectors,” Collins said.
