In the finale of SlotBeats Spotlight’s in-depth look into slot streamers, we asked our experts to look over the next decade to predict what type of influence the streaming community will have on the sector.
Looking into your crystal ball and delving 5-10 years into the future, what kind of influence will the streamer community have on the industry?
Pawel Piotrowski, Yggdrasil: I think that the future is in the streamers’ hands. They are in power now and as we know, with power comes responsibility. It’s critical that they promote responsible gambling and don’t overuse that power for short-term benefit.
Being the gateway to iGaming for many new players, one of their roles is to educate them about the risks that come with gambling. Also, being the face of the player community, they can improve the way our industry is perceived and have an actual impact on future regulation.
Rory Kimber, 1×2 Network: Streaming will continue to grow and I think it’ll inevitably be to a size where some regulation will come into play. Legitimate streamers will be in a position where they wield large influence and control a noticeable proportion of the traffic (which inevitably has a knock on effect on where games are positioned etc).
We’ve seen big operators take studios in house and I could see that happening more with streamers seeing as they already have the affiliate relationships with operators. I could see streaming being embedded into homepages, literally directing players on the site to try certain games.
As an industry this seems to be an underutilised resource and we’ve all been around long enough to know that won’t last!
Andy Sekula, Kalamba Games: It’s really hard to foresee what media and technology will be used in 5-10 years from now and thus, how streamers will interact with their favourite brands and audiences.
In some shape or form, streamers as brand advocates, or promoters in general will surely still be there in the near future, providing indirect feedback (via their broadcasts) and in some cases directly (through collaborating with studios) on the games they’re playing.
Ultimately, I would look at streamer’s influence as a kind of a leveraged feedback from playtests; inspiring suppliers to engage more through them with their players – it provides a new means of interaction and making the stream viewing even more exciting.
Vladimir Malakchi, Evoplay: Influencer marketing is developing at an unprecedentedly high speed and will not be limited to working with streamers but with influencers. We already have examples with the appearance of Jennifer Lopez in the Coin Master’s promotional video that reached more than five million views and Elijah Wood’s footage with AFK Arena with almost 1.5 million views. In coming years, more and more game developers will use this method to attract audiences.
As for the future of streamers, I think that much can be predicted by watching video game streams, which can reach 500-600,000 users on Twitch, giving us great motivation and inspiration to achieve similar numbers.
To do that, the slots, the experience on the casino site, the streamer’s channel and the streaming process itself needs to become gamified. Such an interactive experience is all key to successful engagement, and I expect to see a lot of movement in this space, with tournaments between streamers and their audiences, as well as contests, giveaways and player voting – all of which can add an extra edge.
Fraser Linkleter, Slots Temple: I think a large part of the influence will be yet more regulation, unfortunately we have seen some shady streamers and also some less reputable casinos/studios use streaming in a less than honest way by giving away fake money.
Any regulated market won’t tolerate this type of behaviour and will quickly regulate against it. We should also see more controls in place on streaming platforms such as the ability to geo-target and restrict audience by age.
This is hugely frustrating for the genuine streamers out there, so I hope the guys who are doing it properly and honestly are rewarded in the long run.
Will Barnes, Hideous Slots: I think the next 5-10 years will be exciting for Slots, Online Casinos and Streaming alike. Slot Streaming will almost certainly move further towards mainstream gaming in terms of quality and choice; and with that I think we will see more focus on community and inclusivity. It’s all going to be great fun, and I’m looking forward to being part of it!
