As 40 per cent of the global population – close to four billion people – consume video gaming content, the igaming sector continues to look at ways to break into its counterparts market.
On the opening day of SBC Summit Barcelona, a panel entitled ‘De-coding video gaming – the future of slots?’ – sponsored by Yggdrasil – took an in-depth look into the demographics, player habits and the games themselves, to see what insights can be utilised in building the future of slots.
Moderated by William Bolton, features editor at G3 Magazine, the panel consisted of Jan Urbanec, CEO of Endorphina, Américo Loureiro, director of Solverde, Ivo Doroteia, CEO of SportingTech and Vladimir Malakchi, chief commercial officer at Evoplay.
It was Malakchi who kicked off by stating: “I don’t think it can replace it fully and whenever we talk about it, there’s always the conversation ‘can video games replace slots’ but it’s just another experience. I think video games, RPG video game elements, can assist operators to get newer audiences, that’s what we always try to reach.
“Casinos have no opportunities right now to reach new audiences. They have 100-200 million gamblers online now and the main aim for casinos right now is to retain players. Gaming can’t replace this, but they can provide another form of profit.”
Echoing the thoughts of Malakchi, Urbanec emphasised the importance of improving a product through gaming instead of replacing it.
He explained: “The question isn’t how can you replace a product that’s been around for 100 years and has a specific set of rules which is embedded into the nature of the players, and it shouldn’t replace it. We should improve it.
“At the end of the day, if you want to change it you need to take a bigger risk. Step into it deeper and create a new product.
“My real issue with this is that it’s all a journey of age. At some point maybe you don’t want to interact too much with the same… maybe you just want to enjoy the game. In that sense, the slots will stay. I would be shocked that in my life it will be changed by something different.”
Following on from Urbanec, Loureiro noted what operators look for in video gaming inspired slots.
“Video games are a very interesting market. It’s forecasted to be €200bn and the average player is 32 years old… I see parts of video games in parts of slots. We see RPG elements, spinning reels and wheel of fortune and operators are interested in them.”
To watch this session On Demand or to participate at SBC Summit Barcelona live via SBC’s digital platform visit digital.sbcevents.com for a free registration.
