Introduced via the studio’s new King Kong Cash title, James Raraty, Product Executive at Blueprint Gaming, tells SlotBeats all about the launch of the company’s brand new Rapid Fire Jackpots system and the various features within its recent release.
SlotBeats: Tell us about the new Jackpot King system and the launch of Rapid Fire Jackpots.
James Raraty: Rapid Fire Jackpots is one of the biggest shifts we’ve seen in the jackpot game space in years. There has been little evolution in the classic mechanic but we feel we’ve plugged a gap in the market with our new product.
As many will know, we have a long-established heritage in this area with the industry-renowned Jackpot King progressive system and that will see no change with this development, nor is RFJ a competitor for it.
There was initially a name link in the early stages of development but we wanted to be clear that the two are separate entities.
We know how successful Jackpot King is and how it continues to be strong for us, especially within the UK market, but we felt that there was room for a system that offered smaller, more frequent pots.
RFJ features five progressive pots ranging from £200 to £7,500, along with four fixed pots, all of which will be dropping very frequently. If all goes well at launch, which we expect it to, the pots should be dropping as often as multiple times every hour, for the smaller variants. The frequency of the largest pot will become higher the more it is played.
SB: Why did Blueprint Gaming feel as though you needed to move towards offering more frequent, lower jackpots?
JR: We feel that there is a player base there. You have your jackpot players and your non-jackpot players and among the latter, there are some who believe that a major win on Jackpot King may be unachievable. RFJ counters that by delivering regular drops that will address that engagement.
That said, we believe that RFJ shouldn’t be viewed as a jackpot or a non-jackpot product. This will appeal to a mass market, especially in the UK. Our development for RFJ has been ongoing for over two years and we’ve seen from our research on player trends that market forces promote shifts in their behaviour.
So you might see at one end of the scale higher-value players (who we wouldn’t normally consider to be jackpot players) that have a wide scope of sites they visit to play, versus mass-market regulated UK sportsbook players and we believe that RFJ will be able to cater to both demographics.
This is the feedback we’ve had from operators too and we feel that this is a perfect product to bridge that gap. We know how strong Jackpot King is and it’s been out for a decade now and we feel that there is demand for the next step. RFJ is that step.
SB: Do you find that players are more engaged by having smaller jackpots more often compared to the anticipation of a more lucrative jackpot?
JR: As a player, if you’re seeing three of those five progressives dropping multiple times every hour, it’s going to feel very achievable and you’ll probably stay with the hope of hitting it yourself.
Comparing RFJ to Jackpot King, players are approximately ten times more likely to drop the jackpot, albeit much smaller than those enjoyed on Jackpot King.
So, while this is all currently conjecture as we haven’t launched yet our research, development and preparation all point to this being the case and we’re confident the performance will match our expectations.
SB: What is Blueprint Gaming’s strategy for the rollout of these new games and in which jurisdictions will they be rolled out?
JR: The first game to feature RFK will be King Kong Cash DJ Prime8, launching on June 27. It made sense to us to combine the launch with the latest version of one biggest IPs and one of the strongest mechanics that we’ve launched in the past 18 months.
From there we’ve got about roughly two games a month including Luck O’ The Irish Cash Strike, The Goonies Deluxe and the much-anticipated Rick & Morty Strikes Back. We should have approximately ten games featuring RFJ live before the end of the year.
Initially, we will only offer standard and also RFJ versions until integrations with all operators have been completed. Obviously, with the huge number of partners we have, the rollout takes a little time!
After we’ve launched the first batch of games we’ll offer a RFJ, Jackpot King and non-jackpot standard variant so we’ll have a product for every possible operator requirement.
Day one certified markets will be the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and .com-regulated regions via direct integrations with additional markets including Ontario to come online shortly afterwards.
SB: Are these new games going to be supplementary to the regular Jackpot King system games or is this a concerted effort to move towards Rapid Fire Jackpots?
JR: After the launch of RFJ and we’ve hit the number of titles we want to get to market, both systems will occupy equal billing eventually. We’re not trying to move Jackpot King players onto RFJ, as mentioned, we believe that the two systems will offer enough to satisfy their demographics. There will be some crossover, of course, but we’re confident they will find their niches among the player base.
Our ultimate goal is to have two distinct systems that have their own identity and offer different things. We’re just trying to accommodate everyone.
