Relax Gaming’s CPO, Simon Hammon, noted it’s ‘fantastic’ that there is now an increased awareness of the company’s products following a highly successful 2020.
Speaking to CasinoBeats’ managing director, Stewart Darkin, at CasinoBeats Slots Festival, Hammon highlighted gain visibility is becoming ‘tougher and tougher’ with operators not providing campaigns, marketing or the product placement ‘you feel your product deserves’.
“Steamers being one but traditional affiliates media is another; they are waking up to the importance of working closer with a supplier industry,” claimed Hammon.
“Streamers are great because they give you a touch point with the end player and that’s what you’re looking for really. You want the end player to see the product, you want other players to see your product but you also want the feedback from that, you want to know what’s happening.
“Of course we pore over data and we look over the BI streams of what is happening and you get an understanding of performance and resonation but you can’t replace that with actual player feedback, positive or negative and streamers have given us the additional ability to do that.”
Addressing the company’s previous 12 months, Hammon stated that, aside from their own success, the overall online casino business has experienced a ‘good year’ due to the downturn in sports driving the casino revenues up, along with the marketing focus and attention from operators.
He added: “In other respects though, it’s been tough because a lot of key markets, places like Sweden, have brought in restrictions, caps and such things like that which has obviously halted that growth, even stifled that growth in some areas.
“Then you have the logistics of you’ve now got a workforce that’s working from home and how to manage that. There’s operator pressure to grow and to deliver on those targets they have to supplement the revenue you need to make sure you’re delivering.”
“I don’t think the pandemic is such a driver in that but it hasn’t done us any disservice, it’s also helped our growth and grow the partner ambitions that we brought on. But it has had its challenges and it has been difficult.
“We had to make sure that our studios and our creative people, who often thrive when working as a team are now working in isolated environments but we’ve adapted really well. I’d hazard a guess that as a company, we’ve been more productive than actually being in an office environment.”
On Relax’s 2020 performance, Hammon claimed he would not call it a ‘breakthrough year’, stating it was a year the company became more ‘noticed and established’.
“I think this was the year that Relax was becoming a much-needed supplier product…”
He added: “Some of our own game successes and our partner growth. I think this was the year that Relax was becoming a much-needed supplier product and service to the operator based.”
When pressed by Darkin on what Relax puts its success down to, Hammon responded by stressing it did not happen ‘overnight’.
“We kicked off casino in 2014 and that was largely as a platform service to one or two suppliers. I think that was the sum knowledge of Relax until at least mid-2018,” he said.
“This 2020 flagship year is built on the previous two, it’s been laying the foundations, growing the partnership base, growing our B2C distribution base, our reputation from our marketing and branding perspective and our solidification of our own studios.”
