Raph Di Guisto, SVP of Silverback Gaming at GAN, who spoke to CasinoBeats about last month’s deal, lauded the company as a “invaluable long-term asset” in driving exclusive privileges in the United States.

This included a discussion of GAN’s unannounced acquisition of online casino games creator Silverback Gaming, with Guisto eager to discuss the prospects presented by the transaction for the parent firm.

Silverback Gaming bringing New Online Experience

Regarding expansion into new jurisdictions, he expressed Silverback’s excitement at the prospect of bringing “new online experiences for players in real money gaming” via GAN’s platform and super RGS distribution channels in the US igaming market – currently New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan – as well as the regulated Italian igaming market. In addition, Guisto notes that the company is looking forward to growing into additional possible US states in accordance with GAN’s gaming strategy when they regulate igaming in the future.

The Silverback SVP noted the following regions: Arizona, California, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington. “We also intend to distribute our games via virtual simulated gaming across the US landscape via GAN’s established virtual simulated gaming distribution channels.”

“Our agreement with a leading B2B partner like GAN, as well as our ability to use their established technological platform and distribution network, gives an amazing opportunity to extend our portfolio into the US market.In addition, combining our resources and engineering teams will accelerate our capacity to provide gamers with new and interesting games in the next few years.”

Guisto elaborated on the challenges facing igaming studios seeking to expand in order to compete more effectively with larger studios in the space, highlighting the costs of state-by-state licensing in the United States, which creates a higher barrier to entry that “can be a significant challenge for startup studios.”

Quotes from the Press Release

“The majority of igaming businesses we speak with are interested in the US market, but view it as a distant future goal to be engineered after they have a foothold in other established igaming areas that are more accessible,” he stated.

“The United States is also significantly different legally in terms of intellectual property and patent infringement law. As a result, considerable US legal expertise is required, which can be problematic for smaller studios lacking the means to address such issues.”

Delving deeper into how these obstacles affect game design and the desire to create titles that stand apart from the ‘never-ending’ wave of games already available, Guisto revealed how, from a compliance standpoint, the US is “a little bit stricter than other regulated markets” when it comes to game features.

“As a result, in order to ensure that our game portfolio is certified in all existing states, we must carefully review the list of features that can or cannot be certified in each target state.”Using the popularity of persistent features across paid spins in European regulated markets as an example, he stated: “Historically, US states have not certified games with such features, but the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board recently announced that they will begin reviewing such games on a case-by-case basis.”

“We are closely monitoring these changes because we want to provide our gamers with the best features possible while also reaching the broadest potential audience for our games.”

To summarize Silverback’s key aims and ambitions for the coming year, Guisto stated: “To put it simply: we are hiring!” We’re reuniting the band in Sofia, Bulgaria, and are looking for graphic designers, developers, and mathematicians, among others. By 2023, we intend to triple our personnel, which will enable us to speed our game development and deliver 50 titles over the next three years.”

“One thing that has received little attention is that we will continue to release innovative games in regulated European markets via Relax Gaming. As a result, we can expect to see Golden Calaveras, our first GAN release, in regulated igaming markets across Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, and, of course, the UK, in Q1 2022 via Relax Gaming Silver Bullet.”