Speaking ahead of his appearance at SBC Summit in Lisbon, Myke Foster, Group Head of Gaming and Commercial Strategy at Fortuna Entertainment Group, delved into many slot subjects set to be under the spotlight in Portugal’s capital city, including streaming, bonus buys and the Hollywood approach to slot production.
How would you describe what the average player wants from their slot experience at this current moment? What do they prioritise?
The things which our players really seem to value are ease, speed and consistency. They want to understand customer communications and journeys, they want to get from point A to B as simply as possible, and they want to know what to expect when they land on our product. Do they know how to deposit, how to find their favourite content and how to navigate around your app? There is absolutely a place for innovation in our industry, but we have always been careful to try and offer that to players at the right stage of their session.
Let them do what they came to do first, then we can introduce new features and products to them in a natural way, rather than creating a jarring experience. Much of the content which many providers offer is obviously very similar in many areas, and so customers absolutely prioritise that experience when it comes to choosing who to play with.
Is there a growing number of players looking for complex/advanced slot gameplay? Or are we seeing simple slots continue to reign supreme?
I honestly think that the answer to this question depends on what type of customer you are, and what market you’re looking at. For example, I’ve worked in markets where traditional slot titles and mechanics – high RTP with minimal features – are absolutely king. In stark comparison, developing markets, such as we’ve seen in the USA, are fundamentally different.
“the need for FAMILIARITY will always exist”
Myke Foster, Group Head of Gaming and Commercial Strategy at Fortuna Entertainment Group
The dawn of ‘slot streaming’ content, as well as a younger, wider audience, absolutely means that more complex, feature-heavy or jackpot-driven content is taking centre stage, purely because it makes for a more engaging experience, to a group of customers who are looking for a different kind of session from their play. This mentality has helped drive the wider adoption of products such as crash games, plinko, live casino – and this variation in customer desire is absolutely helping drive innovation globally.
How can studios find a balance between innovation and familiarity when it comes to slot development?
Evolution not revolution seems to have been a very effective methodology for some of the more popular studios in the last decade. Hollywood set the blueprint for this a long time ago by introducing characters and themes to audiences, and iterating on them in new ways, slowly developing new themes and mechanics.
In the same way we now have countless superhero movies, all with a slight variation on the same plot, we have at least an equal number of character or theme-driven slots, but with the added twists of ‘jackpots’, ‘Megaways’, ‘respins’ etc. to add to the customer experience, allowing studios to develop familiarity with the brand and create value from their IP.
The need for familiarity will always exist in some aspects. Customers looking for a jackpot or a multiplier experience need a game to do what it says on the tin. As an operator, we use those key words or mechanics to group and offer our content to players, to try and ease their way around our products.
As an operator, do you like to see more slots that push the boundaries and bring a uniqueness to the industry, or slots that are more classically designed?
As an operator, I like to see quality content at reasonable commercial terms that I think our customers will enjoy. That’s the Utopia anyhow… Although I will admit that I love to see studios who have attempted to, or are succeeding in, pushing the boundaries.
We’re seeing lots of this now when it comes to multiplayer, free-to-play and multimedia content from all over the world. Now, we work exclusively in heavily regulated markets, so it’s not always easy for us to be at the very forefront of innovation when it comes to delivering supplier content, but we work very hard to ensure that when something new or exciting is available our customers are amongst the first to get their hands on it.
A lot of great work is done internally to speed these processes up, but the real key to success here is a proactive relationship between operators and suppliers when it comes to account management. There is a huge value attributed to exclusivity and availability in our markets, and so regardless of the unique or traditional nature of the content itself, the way in which we deliver it from supplier to customer is often the most impactful piece of the puzzle.
What is your attitude towards Bonus Buy games? Does FEG offer any of these bonus buy options on any platforms?
You only have to look at the number of titles which are being released currently with a ‘Bonus Buy’ feature to see that it’s absolutely something which is here to stay. I remember not too long ago when the ‘Fortune/Mega Spins’ style product landed whilst I was working in UK retail, and it was a revelation for a subset of our customers. I think Bonus Buy is the natural evolution of that, again, coupled with people’s desire for a more exciting session, more lights, sounds, multimedia content from their slots game.
Certainly for the streamers, content creators and marketers, a guaranteed feature round is a huge hook. Due to regulation, we cannot currently offer Bonus Buy in all of FEG’s markets, but it has become and remains a very popular section of our lobby on both Fortuna & Casa Pariurilor in Romania and PSK in Croatia. I think we’ll see this continue to evolve into more ‘guaranteed’ feature content in the future, and not necessarily just in our slots product.
What do you think are the most popular bonus features in the slot scene right now?
I’ve been really enjoying the way providers are innovating around ‘collection’ mechanics in the last few years. The concept of collecting symbols, fruits, artefacts isn’t new, but game designers have done some really great work with visualising these, incorporating unique bonuses and adding value to sessions, both for the player, and the operator.
A good collection mechanic adds a layer of transparency for the player – they know what they are working toward, they know exactly how close to a big win they are, and it demystifies something within the game. It’s no secret that they’ve also been shown to increase customer loyalty, session length and player satisfaction scores – so it feels like a broad benefit.
We’re always very keen to get more of this content through the pipeline, and onto our platform, because we know players enjoy it so much and it gives us a great opportunity to market something which feels both familiar and fresh across our various channels.
What plans does FEG have in store for SBC Summit in Lisbon, and why is appearing at this event so important?
SBC Summit is always a key event for us, one of very few opportunities we have in the year to really benefit from having all of our key providers in the same place at the same time. Being a multi-brand, multi-national operator, with hubs in five countries, it creates a significant challenge to maintain and nurture key relationships with suppliers, and so the economy of scale created from these events makes it incredibly valuable.
But more so than just meeting existing partners, it offers us an opportunity to get hands-on with new content and products in a way which is difficult to do remotely. Therefore, we’ll be bringing representatives from across the business, who will each consume around 500 ‘quick coffees’ over the course of three days to make sure we get the most value out of it as possible.
