When it comes to enhancing the content offering of an online casino operator, “it is a necessity to have an aggregator.” Those were the words of Alexandre Tomic, Founder and CEO of Alea.
Speaking in front of the casino game aggregator’s sponsored hyperbaric oxygen tank showcased at SBC Summit Barcelona, Tomic joined CasinoBeats’ Craig Davies to explain why operators are relying on aggregators to find suppliers that are the “golden nugget” hidden amidst an oversaturated igaming market.
Detailing the extent of the igaming industry’s oversaturation, Tomic explained that supply is starting to outweigh demand, stating that “there is a bottleneck” as sometimes an operator can only “integrate one provider per month, or maybe even one provider per week, and some of them just have five games.”
“You need a partner to be able to do that for you,” he continued. “You can’t integrate all of them, it’s just not possible. You need to try all of them, because at some point there is this golden nugget in the middle.”
With Alea offering well over 10,000 games from more than 100 providers, Tomic was questioned on the company’s process for vetting suppliers to gain the best quality content for its aggregation platform.
“I’ve been in this industry for 20 years,” he began. “I don’t know if a game is going to be good before the players have adopted it. I can look at the graphics, I can look at the maths, I can play the game, I can feel the game, I can think players are going to like it, but to be honest, there’s no way I can predict [a game’s success].
“However, I can predict it by the team. You see this solid team of Product Owners and Head of Product. You look at Relax Gaming and what they did. Head of Product at NetEnt Simon Hammond moved to Relax.
“Before Money Train came out, I think it took them a year to launch a game but you knew these guys were going to rock.”
As aggregation continues to dominate headlines in the slot space, with aggregation-focused M&A going through the roof, Tomic was asked, simply: Is aggregation the next logical phase of consolidation?
“I think so, we’ve been approached a lot,” he replied. “Basically, an aggregator is a distribution channel, you’re integrated into many operators. We are seeing more and more demands. Aggregators are definitely becoming the new kids on the block.”
