Yana Khaidukova, managing director at Slotegrator, shares her view on 2022 for the iGaming market and the company in particular.
In the new GBC Time interview, Khaidukova talks about Slotegrator’s achievements, main partnerships, and goals the company managed to achieve. Keep reading to know what are the main gambling trends for 2024 and what Slotegrator planned for the year.
2022 was marked by a series of crises, which affected every business niche. How did Slotegrator overcome all the difficulties? What was the company’s strategy for navigating all the turbulence?
Of course, 2022 was a challenging year for everyone – for our customers, our partners, and our team. When the world went into chaos in February, we realized that the work we love would help us get out of it. So, we continued to do what we do best – creating innovative solutions for gambling. During the pandemic, we created a lot of products that we improved even more in 2022. We strengthened our market position and entered new regions. And the overall strategy was to continue to grow the gambling industry by doing what we know how to do.
What goals did Slotegrator achieve in the past year?
Our biggest goal in 2022 was the release of our improved platform. We collected feedback from our clients, analyzed our experience, and studied industry demand. This enabled us to develop a product that will help gambling companies optimize their internal processes.
We achieved another great goal when we announced our new ebook, which covers iGaming markets in Asia (from Turkey to Korea).
The next is developing Slotegrator Academy: we have noticed a growing interest in our useful content and decided to launch — or better say relaunch — the resource on an even more accessible communication channel: YouTube.
After the pandemic slowdown, 2022 was so intense that all the events could not be counted, but there were more than a few major conferences, including SiGMA Asia, Casino Beats Summit, Betting on Sports Europe, SiGMA CIS, SBC Barcelona, and iGamingNext Malta, and those where we had our stands, including iGB and SiGMA Malta. We are grateful for these opportunities and hope for more interesting meetings next year.
Another achievement was the growth of the Slotegrator team. We added around 100 new team members, released several new products, and added a dizzying number of games to our APIgrator solution — today, we aggregate more than 15 000 titles from over 100 developers, and the list will only keep growing.
Expansion is always a priority for us. In 2022, APIgrator was certified by authorities in Lithuania, opening the doors to the Baltic region.
And we have some recognition: this year the company was nominated for various awards, including “Platform of the Year” at the SiGMA World Gaming Festival, “Industry Innovation of the Year” at the SBC Awards for Telegram Casino, “Best Aggregator” by SiGMA / AIBC / AGS Awards Balkans 2022 for our APIgrator game integration solution, and “Best auxiliary iGaming service provider in CEE 2022” by CEEG Awards 2022.
And finally, we completed the licensing process in Romania – our new platform now has a B2B license from Romanian regulator ONJN. In total, we did everything we had planned and more.
What were the highlights of the year and what were the hardest moments for the company?
Of course, the events of February had a big impact on us, because we have talented guys from Ukraine on our team. We canceled some activities and did not attend some big events, but we were able to support our team. And look at the results – at the end of the year, we got by. Those are fantastic results in such a difficult time. Proud of our team!
One of the year’s big insights is not to be afraid of difficulties. Sometimes a crisis can be a new growth point. That’s what happened in the pandemic, and that is what happened this year as well.
Which project you would name as the biggest success of 2022? Why?
Our main success is our new updated casino platform. Today’s platform includes many features: access to a user-friendly interface and affiliate networks, a variety of payment methods, accessibility from any device, and a wide range of additional features:
- the Casino Builder, which allows quick and easy frontend design and alteration;
- the Business Intelligence module, which provides statistics and analytics from the platform;
- the Risk Management module, which helps prevent suspicious behavior and fraud;
- the Bonus module, which allows the user to create and change bonuses and loyalty programs;
- the KYC module, responsible for a fast and smooth verification process.
I believe that such solutions are becoming a standard of quality for the industry.
Which of Slotegrator’s products were the most in-demand this year? What do you think is the reason for that?
Of course, there is our multifunctional platform for online casinos I just mentioned, and there is also Telegram Casino. Both solutions were developed from scratch, are mobile-adapted, and come highly recommended for operators who want to open online casinos to make the most of opportunities around the world.
Telegram Casino in particular made a positive impression with its intuitive navigation interface (the chatbot in the app makes the player journey fun and convenient) and high adaptability (Тelegram Casino may serve as an independent casino platform or an alternate frontend for an online casino).
The popularity of these products is based on flexible solutions and software usability. Also, we are open to our client’s inquiries, and strive to suit clients’ needs.
What trends in iGaming aggregation did you notice in 2022? What tendencies do you see rising to prominence in 2024?
We are a bridge connecting different sectors of the iGaming industry, contributing to the development of the gambling ecosystem. This year we created products that helped our clients to reach a new level of development, and this is a great point of pride.
According to a report from Slotegrator’s business intelligence department, the industry’s main trends in 2024 will be:
- A changing payments ecosystem;
- Attracting digital natives with a mobile format;
- The emergence of new types of games;
- An update on the concept of live dealer games;
- The decline in the popularity of land-based casinos;
- Expanding interest in stream betting.
The digitalization of the gambling industry opens up new opportunities to improve the industry. The way things are developing dynamically today shows that the future of the gambling industry will definitely be high-tech and impressive.
What was the role of collaborations for your company? What would you call the partnership of the year?
I can say that our partners are great! Currently, we aggregate more than 15 000 titles from over 100 developers, and the list will only keep growing.
Among our new gaming content providers are Onlyplay, Slotmill, Spribe, JetGames, Fazi, Felix Gaming, Poker Games Soft, Superlotto, Lucky Elephant Gaming, HoGaming, Kajot Games, Turbo Games, eBET, 3 Oaks Gaming, Hölle Games, Macaw Gaming, Swintt, Fugaso, and Boldplay.
We are proud to be able to offer our clients new games and updates before they are even released, and it is a pleasure to have such innovative and exciting companies in our partner network.
What are your plans for 2024? What are your short-term and strategic goals for this year?
One of the most important strategic goals is announcing our new casino platform, or P2, to the world. Our first stop is going to be in Kenya at SiGMA Africa, and after that, we will present it in Asia and Latam. Read all about our future events here: https://slotegrator.pro/
Also, we are planning to launch our own sportsbook platform. It is a new but really interesting challenge for us.
We will continue to create ebooks for different markets, and we can look forward to adding new games and providers to our portfolio, attending many productive offline meetings and events, offering excellent services and high-quality products, providing interesting information and analyses in the Academy, and signing exciting new contacts. We are expecting further growth and wish our clients and partners success in 2024.
