“It is now essential for any operator to offer a wide range of jackpot titles that covers their full player base if they are to win the race for player attention and ultimately their share of wallet.”
This is according to Charl Geyser, CEO at HITSqwad, who comments on how the performance of jackpot slots is on the rise, but operators must consider several factors when selecting these games to set themselves apart from their competitors and attract players.
Most online casinos operate in highly competitive markets where standing out from rivals is becoming an increasingly tough task. In the past, most have looked to marketing, bonusing and loyalty programs to differentiate, but this too is becoming increasingly tough, especially amid rapidly tightening rules and regulations.
Operators are thus increasingly turning to game content as a way of engaging players and offering them something different to their competitors. But with hundreds of studios launching thousands of titles every year, identifying these stand-out games is easier said than done.
For this reason, product and content managers must be up to speed with the latest trends and player preferences. One of those trends is the shift from players seeking standard slot games to players seeking jackpot games – something we have also seen in the land-based casino world.
We categorise players into four different profiles that include “Time and Device Players”, who are looking for entertainment; “Fun Players”, who are looking for wow and amusement; and “Low Stake” and “High Stake” gamblers who are looking for a good product offering that can provide them with fair to decent wins.
Jackpot slots can be configured in many different ways that range from low value and rapid hitting jackpots to high value infrequent hitting jackpots and, as such, they can appeal to each and every one of these four player profiles.
The success of jackpot slots has been a four-decade-long evolution. Traditionally, a progressive jackpot would be triggered when a physical slot machine hit the top pay and the player was playing the max bet.
Now, however, most games have multiple jackpot levels, will allow hits with any bet, have exciting features and the graphics and sound are far superior to what was offered in the past.
As to what the next generation of jackpot slots will look like; we believe that progressive and mystery jackpots will remain the core formats, but the way these jackpots are triggered and the way they will pay out will be revolutionised with the introduction of new features by companies such as ourselves.
It is clear that jackpot games offer tremendous upsides to operators, but they will still need to understand the different aspects of jackpot slots if they are to differentiate their offering and grow their existing revenue streams via these games.
Firstly, they will need to have a range of jackpot products that have various average hit values and probabilities to cater for a wide set of player profiles.
Secondly, the products they choose need to be innovative and with a variety of features and themes to increase customer engagement and retention.
Finally, it is important to remember that jackpots need revenue or liquidity to make them pay out and to keep them interesting for players, so it is essential for operators to run a strong set of marketing campaigns and promotions to drive awareness not only of the games but also on the jackpot themes.
With all of the above in place – and by continuing to ensure that each jackpot theme has a supply of new games to maximise its lifespan – any operator can leverage the full potential of their jackpot slots and enjoy the significantly positive impact they will have on their bottom line.
HITSqwad has invested heavily in creating a world-class omnichannel platform that allows us to rapidly deliver highly functional jackpots and deploy our games to any operator in any market with relative ease.
To kick off, our focus has been on initially providing a strong range of progressive jackpots and games that include tiered features with pick games, free spins, win multipliers, wheels, expanding wilds, wild reels, hold and spin, uni-reels and a whole lot more.
Going forward, we will be adding multi-operator functionality, mystery jackpots, various pay-out mechanisms and then the fun stuff in the form of jackpot bonuses that we believe will take our product range to a whole new level and to being one of the more advanced in the industry.
Over the next 12 months, HITSqwad will deliver three jackpot themes with four slot games each, along with a blackjack side bet game.
Our debut jackpot theme is appropriately called “First Strike” and it will launch with a military themed game called “Bravo Mission” and a viking themed game called “Ragnar”. These initial games will be followed by another two games, one of which is a magic themed game called “Master of Magic”.
This, we believe, will be our start to helping operators leverage the frankly meteoric rise of jackpot slots.
