In the modern online gambling industry, many brands struggle to keep up with the competition, latest trends, and market peculiarities.
That is why we at GBC Time have interviewed Dmytro Kryvorchuk – Sales Team Lead at the prominent iGaming company Slotegrator. In the interview, Dmytro explains how to operate successfully in the multiple iGaming markers and grow your brand.
iGaming is an extremely competitive industry. However, Slotegrator tops the ratings of gaming solutions providers. What is the key to real progress and success in iGaming?
I think the wording “the key to success and progress” (if we talk about our company) is not entirely correct as there is more than one factor, thanks to which our company was able to get into the rankings of the leaders of solution providers for this market.
First of all, of course, it is our product, which we put a lot of effort into and constantly improve for more than 10 years. Also, we have a lot of discussions with our customers and track market trends, so that we can perfectly understand what the market needs right now and what may be needed in the future. Thanks to this we always keep up with all trends in the industry, and sometimes we are even ahead of them. And, what is also very important is the service. Many companies, when they reach a certain level and have a large number of customers in their pool, begin to drop the level of current customer service significantly. This, in my opinion, is one of the key mistakes, since your current customers are what keeps your business on the level where you are now and helps your future growth. That is why even more attention should be given to the quality of customer support than to the number of new clients. Unfortunately, some big companies in this market forget about it.
A ton of companies worldwide are trying their best to spread their services to different markets but sometimes it is impossible. From your professional experience, how can a company keep the work effective while conquering new markets?
Before a company enters a new market, it needs to assess its capabilities, as well as the potential of the new market and how much of the company’s resources it can take over. If a company understands that it does not have enough internal resources to enter a certain market, then they need to be increased before entering. Also, if the market is large, it is better to immediately prepare a separate service department for it with native speakers of the local language. New markets always mean new challenges and not all companies will be able to foresee them, therefore, one of the key factors will be the company’s flexibility and speed of decision-making.
When launching a business in multiple markets, one of the main complexities is the difference in regulations and legislation. What is the secret of being flexible in a legislative sense? How to make an iGaming company suitable for regulation restrictions in different countries?
First of all, you need to study the legislation in detail in the country where you plan to work, as well as what is needed and what the requirements are in order for you to start your business there.
And if these are several countries, then collect this information separately for each of the countries. It’s not a secret of flexibility, it’s a matter of professionalizing your lawyers or the company you take legal services from, who will be able to find a one-stop solution for you. For example, if you plan to run a casino in 2 countries where you can work legally with 1 license, then this option will be much easier and cheaper for you than trying to get a separate license for each country. Therefore, you should be surrounded by strong lawyers within your company or as external consultants.
iGaming audience is large and each market has its own tendencies and trends. How do you stay tuned in all these trends in various markets and offer the players universal products?
Almost every employee of the company takes part in this. Someone can look from the technical side and analyze the product as a developer, someone communicates with current customers and receives information from them, someone goes to exhibitions and communicates with all participants in this market, and someone makes specialized research in this direction. Therefore, I would say that this is the work of all employees of the company. Of course, someone can bring more information, someone has fewer insights, but all this information is important so that it is then discussed, analyzed, and sets new goals for our company. As for the universality of products for different markets, I would say that this definition is rather vague, since yes, some solutions can be universal for different markets, but let’s also not forget that each market, like its players, is unique and this must also be taken into account, therefore unique solutions for certain markets should also exist.
What are the main differences between the preferences of the audience in iGaming in Europe, LATAM, and Asia that you noticed?
If we talk about Latin America, then the preference of players in this market is slots and sports betting (especially football). Also, most of the players in this market make a lot of non-small bets, which also distinguishes them from the same players in Europe, who make bets less often and for large amounts.
If we talk about the Asian market, then the most popular types of games are live dealers. Then goes sports betting, where one of the most popular areas is cricket and cockfighting.
Technology development is one of the key drivers for iGaming companies’ growth. What are the top 3 rules to stay along with technology innovation and development?
We partially talked about this in previous questions, in short, it is:
- Market analysis and trend tracking;
- Constant communication with current clients. Remember, if not your clients, who will be able to tell you what they need in the future and what problems there are now?
- Flexibility and speed of decision-making. You always need to remember that while you can just think about a new solution, someone else may already be doing it.
Is there a trend in gambling that is incredibly popular regardless of the country or market?
If we are talking about types of games that are currently popular in most markets, I am not sure if there is one specific direction that attracts players all over the world. For example, sports are popular everywhere, but players in different markets are interested in different kinds (some prefer football, some love basketball, and others choose cricket), so I can hardly attribute it to the most popular type of gambling in the whole world. The same applies to slot games, lotto games, or live dealers. Therefore, you should always pay attention to the specifics of each market, and not look for a universal formula that will fit everywhere.
But if we are talking about the main trends, I would like to highlight 3 areas. The first trend is gaining popularity among casino operators. As more and more players use mobile phones to play on casino sites, many operators and companies have begun to offer new solutions to make it more convenient for users to play on mobile devices. One of these solutions is Telegram casino, where the operator has his own telegram bot inside the popular messenger, and players can register, replenish their balance, and play games right in the application.
The second trend is growing among game providers. Ordinary slot games start to become boring for players, and more and more game providers appear on the market every year so the competition increases. Therefore, in recent years, we have begun to observe the emergence of various non-standard games that are rapidly gaining popularity among players.
The third trend refers to the use of new technology, however, I would rather not call it a trend, but a look into the future. There are already companies that start offering VR solutions for the market. They will not appear in trends in the coming years, but I am more than sure that in the near future they will become very popular as with VR technology, you can significantly increase the involvement of players and use a huge number of new tools to interact with them.
