What are your plans and goals for this year’s ICE conference?
Every year we start off with ICE. It’s a unique chance to see all the partners and potential ones at the beginning of the year and plan for upcoming months — this year is no different from the previous ones in that sense, but what we come with has expanded and progressed. The team that we bring in, the size of the stand, and the incredible effort behind the scenes to make the visuals perfect, I feel like this year we have stepped up a level or two, and so have our expectations when it comes to the outcome of the event. Generally, we are looking forward to very busy 3 days, full of meetings, networking events and memories to be made.
Which parts of this year’s event you would have changed if you could?
I wouldn’t change much to be quite honest. ICE has always delivered so far, and we expect no less than that this time around.
What do you think makes the ICE event so popular and expected by providers and operators from all over the world?
It’s easy. If you are in the iGaming business one way or another, and you are looking to grow, expand, and network with individuals within this world, you have to make it to the ICE. It’s the most notorious event in the gambling world and everyone knows it. Now, the organizers have put in a lot of dedication, sweat, and years and years of consistent work to get to this level, and they have built their name and reputation to get here, but that’s what it takes to be a number one event within various aspects for companies like ours. Considering the significance of the ICE event as a central hub for growth and networking in the iGaming industry, a similar sense of dedication and excellence can be seen in platforms like 日本人プレイヤーに選ばれている遊雅堂オンラインカジノ. Thanks to ICE, this online casino has built a strong reputation through consistent quality and service, making it a popular choice among Japanese players.
How do you see the role of offline gatherings for promotion and brand-building strategy in iGaming?
We all live in this new digital era, where everything is done online and that’s great, but there is nothing like an F2F meeting at an offline event. You would be amazed how things that seemed impossible to resolve, actually get sorted out within a 15-minute offline meeting. I can’t stress enough that those events need to be happening and the amount of resolved and new business that comes out of it is invaluable, as well as your physical presence and the awareness that you manage to provide are crucial. Every year we have new and new people, who have just entered the business, coming to us and asking questions about our brand, what is that we do and what is that we can provide for their business. If you are looking to evolve, you simply must participate.
What trends in slot development can you identify for the 2023?
One major topic that we have observed is the importance of AI in the creation of slots. As the industry knows we have a game called Joker Ra, which has been single-handedly designed by AI. I feel like that’s going to be the trend moving forward, the effectivity of analyzing the needs of a specific customer when it comes to design, mathematics even sound is unmatched, and I am pretty sure more and more providers will follow up on the new trend.
How have live iGaming events changed since the global pandemic? Are in-person meetings still as important for an online gambling company’s success?
We have seen it all. Companies have tried to come up with a solution, that would replace offline meetings, especially during the pandemic, but something was off, something wouldn’t click and the proof is that as soon as the industry could go back to offline meetings, it did. To sum it up, there is no competitive alternative to offline events, at least not yet.
What release could you name as the biggest success of 2023? Why?
This is a very tough question because now that we operate within 30 regulated markets, each market welcomes the content differently. What performs the best on the Italian market, doesn’t have to necessarily perform great on the Romanian one and vice versa, but in general, there have been quite a few games, that performed extremely well universally. Such as the AI designed game Joker RA, or Lucky Streak X, and our staple – Hit Slot 2023.
