With competition in the business increasing year after year as new games and providers emerge, igaming experts and corporate heads discuss what slot suppliers should focus on in the coming year to help them stand out from the crowd.

The Experts Chime In

Mads Jrgensen, CEO and founder of Lady Luck Games, said that With rising competition, providers must avoid following the crowd and sticking to tried and true formats that have already proven popular in the slot vertical. This will only result in oversaturation, at which point players will lose interest entirely.

It can be frightening to take a risk and try something utterly new and inventive, as there is always the possibility that players will reject it. However, if the last year has taught us anything, gamers have a genuine desire for games that defy all conventional wisdom about what an online slot should be. The concept that a slot must permanently be configured in a traditional five- or six-reel style is no longer valid. We at Lady Luck Games are convinced that 2022 will be a banner year for game-changing slots that are innovative, compliant, and elicit awe from gamers.

Vladimir Malakchi, Chief Commercial Officer at Evoplay, stated,  From my business experience, I can attest that having a unique selling proposition is critical to a business’s success and sustainability. Even with solid sales and marketing teams, the company will not demonstrate its full potential and create a leadership position.

Since 2020, we’ve witnessed an age of high-quality, exciting products; therefore, the focus should be on development and ways to improve and deliver significant benefits to both B2B and B2C audiences. However, every produced work should always have a sense of purpose and meaning. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the primary goal is to observe and be inspired by other efforts, both within and beyond the business, as there is so much to be inspired by.

Julian Jarvis, CEO of Pragmatic Play: This is frequently overlooked, but from a compliance standpoint, the ability to adapt to regulation at the game level, as well as obtain and maintain an increasing number of certifications, approvals, and licenses of various types, is critical if you want to be a leading supplier.

Again, operator customers require assurance that their primary suppliers will assist them in navigating various regulatory requirements. Our team has extensive experience spanning many years, which we apply to manage this critical aspect of our business.

It may sound simplistic, but Pragmatic Play always comes down to releasing high-quality games and putting the player first. Naturally, we combine this with many high-quality games to cater to a variety of player types across multiple markets.

Finally, I’d like to emphasize the critical nature of being innovators in a crowded space. To properly differentiate yourself as a market leader, you must offer an exceptional, well-balanced array of products and do something that the competition does not. Successful ideas will be rewarded, while those who fail to grow and take calculated risks will be left behind.

Mark Claxton, iSoftBet’s head of games, stated:  “To be honest, the critical terms are “player experience!” While it’s admirable to want to stand out from the crowd, doing so frequently comes at the expense of providing a great gaming experience or making games unique for the sake of being unique. There must be a fine balance between offering gamers a variety of experiences to fit their individual preferences and maintaining a well-balanced portfolio.”

The industry’s production standards are incredibly high, and games must look fantastic and run correctly so that once players discover games they enjoy, they develop a sense of trust in that provider’s games and are more inclined to return and seek out their other titles.

Arcangelo Lonoce, head of business development at Habanero, explains how we differentiate ourselves by continuously delivering outstanding content that checks all the boxes. Moving away from the notion that brands must be ‘radical’ to succeed, I’d suggest that – providing one has a fantastic product to begin with — investing in the slot’s entertainment value is where the majority of the weight is found.

As previously stated, this includes developing immersive models and gameplay, improving visual and audio effects, implementing leaderboards and other community-building activities, and doing research to identify the next phenomenon that will give us an edge over the competition.

More significantly, providing adaptable and scalable solutions to stakeholders and clients helps Habanero differentiate itself from the competition. Stakeholders are constantly on the lookout for profitable markets, and by operating efficiently inside a genuinely scalable framework, Habanero can carve out a marketplace for itself.

When I first considered joining Habanero, I quickly realized that everything about the company, from its business strategy and culture to the technology used in its products, was scalable, which was one of the aspects that ultimately convinced me to join. Remaining vigilant and receptive to new ideas has paid off, and I’m excited to see what we can accomplish in the coming year.”