During day three of the CasinoBeats Malta Digital Summit attention was turned to RTP (Return to Player) within slots and question marks over the education of players with regards to RTP when it is in their favour and how the industry could do more to teach its customers.
Robert Procter, studio director at SG Digital, believes that players are ‘more educated’ in relation to RTP due to a bigger online presence from Streamers, bloggers and forums but noted that the majority ‘don’t understand it fully’.
He stated: “It’s my belief that players today are much more educated around RTP than they were before. I still don’t think a majority of them understand it very well but they know that there’s a number there that is published and they can access and see, even if they can’t understand the inner workings of what that actually means.
“They know, whether it may be from Twitch streamers, bloggers or forums that this is a measurable percentage that is applicable to that particular game they are playing. They may not understand the inner workings of it but they have an idea, in their mind, what is a good RTP and what is not a good RTP for them.
“They are still very uneducated in the other aspects of a game that make up whether it’s going to be a good experience for them to play or not or a game they will enjoy. Just RTP isn’t at a 96 per cent or 95.5 per cent doesn’t mean that it’s not a game that has a volatility level which they will enjoy playing.
“They look for it more than they did but I still don’t think they understand it fully.”
Echoing Procter, Veiko Krunberg, managing director of Olympic Entertainment noted that though it’s a ‘very complicated topic’, if competitors in the market continued to offer different variants on RTP in the same slots then it won’t be long before players recognise the differences. He stated that 95 per cent of players ‘don’t understand RTP’ and that further down the line affiliates could start to rank operators on the RTP on offer.
Joining both Procter and Krunberg on the ‘Inside Slots: RTP’ panel, which was sponsored by Scientific Games was Alexis Wicen, CEO of Unibo and was moderated by Alex Cohen, COO of Kalamba Games. Cohen went on to ask if there is more that suppliers and operators can do to educate players on slot titles to help enhance their experience.
On this point, Wicen said: “Sharing more of the features and letting the players choose their features and volatility settings from an operator perspective but when it comes to affiliation and marketing I have noticed in jurisdictions that they are much more focused in letting the player know what type of RTP at the casino they are going to.
Procter added: “For the education and the communication around RTP there still leaves a lot to be desired, whether it’s a prerequisite or not or if it’s asked for by the certain jurisdictions you’re operating in I think is a moot point. As operators or suppliers I think we should be as transparent as possible on RTP and what that actually means.
“In my opinion, it’s never more needed than it is today and moving forward. We are producing more innovation than we’ve ever done. There’s aspects to gaming which weren’t there six to 12 months ago. An example to that is persistence games, when we build these types of games do we consider what that does to the short term RTP of a player.
“If there’s a game which is particularly high in its persistence do we, do we communicate adequately to the player that if you only play this game for 100 or 200 spins your RTP is likely to be a lot less than the advertised RTP but if you’re playing a game that does not have a persistence feature then, statistically you’re playing at the RTP rate that’s advertised, do we do enough in that space? No I don’t think we do and it’s something that internally we are working on and I know that speaking to some of my peers around the industry that it’s a hot topic for them as well.”
The panel went on to discuss gamification within slots, the impact RTP has on player retention and regulations affecting players, particularly in Sweden.
Delivered in association with Gaming Malta, CasinoBeats Malta Digital looks to provide networking opportunities to a wide range of casino and iGaming delegates from 30 June to 2 July 2020. The event features 40 virtual exhibitors, numerous networking opportunities, 130 leading speakers, and countless business opportunities for 3,000 senior decision-makers from operators, suppliers, affiliates and other industry stakeholders in the casino and iGaming sector.
To find full details of the event and information about how to register plus the discounts available on company group passes, then visit the event’s official website: https://sbcevents.com/casinobeats-malta-digital/
