Giorgi Tsutskiridze, Chief Commercial Officer at SPRIBE, says consumers are seeking deep social engagement when playing at online casinos and operators must offer this if they are to entertain the next generation of players
One of the hottest topics right now is social engagement, and how operators and suppliers can take the player experience beyond simply hitting “spin” and waiting to win.
This may have been enough to excite players in the past, but today, consumers expect to be deeply immersed in the entertainment options they engage with. A big part of this is interacting with other participants, creating a shared experienced that is fun and rewarding.
Other industries have been quick to adapt to this trend. Streaming platforms have rolled out things like watch parties, while mobile and video games have long provided connected gameplay where participants can communicate with each other.
But the online casino industry has been a little behind the curve in this regard. Sure, players can enjoy wagering with others at live casino tables, but this is a long way off the fast-paced action and cheeky banter found in mobile gaming.
The world of crypto casinos was an early pioneer in this, combining crypto with mobile game formats such as mines and crash. The sites also offered high levels of social interaction through chat functions, leaderboards and off-site communities.
This is where we got the inspiration for Aviator, the original crash game made for traditional online casinos. We could see how popular the increasing curve format was at the early crypto casinos and how it offered social interaction that was simply not on the cards at traditional casinos.
It was these factors – fast paced gameplay, a mobile first UX, leaderboards and chat – that made these games so appealing to a wide range of player types, but especially the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts that operators are so keen to attract.
Let me explain in more detail:
Players want action-packed gameplay:
For players to become truly engaged with the gameplay, it needs to offer big action at a rapid cadence and in this regard, it doesn’t get much better than the increasing curve format.
In terms of Aviator, players strap in, place their bet and then hold tight as the plane flies into the sky. As the plane climbs higher, the win multiplier climbs with it. All players need to do is decide when to cash out – go too early and the win is small but wait too long and the plane flies away, taking their winnings and stake with it.
This gives players an element of control over the outcome of the game, making it instantly more engaging than hitting “spin” and waiting to see what happens.
A sleek UX optimised for mobile:
It’s important understand how players want to engage with games, and mobile is now very much the dominant channel. So, if you want to deliver compelling experiences to consumers, the gameplay and wider UX must run seamlessly on smartphone.
Aviator was designed and developed for mobile from the get-go and this can be evidenced in the layout of the game and how its easy to navigate – from bet placement and accessing the chat to claiming bonuses and checking the leaderboard – with everything accessible within a tap or a swipe.
The game has been designed to be super intuitive. Remember, most players are new to the increasing curve format so need to be able to quickly understand how it works and how they win. If they can’t, they won’t waste their money learning what to do.
Experiences powered by social engagement:
To meet the demand for social engagement, Aviator comes with a chat function where players can talk with each other throughout their playing session. But that’s not all.
They can watch as their multiplier scores are posted to the leaderboard in real-time, with players competing for the top spots. Even the way bonuses drop is social – operators can add free spins to the chat for players to collect or they can “make it rain” sharing the free spins with other players.
This all comes together to create a player experience that is levels above that offered by playing slots and traditional casino games. But with Aviator, this can be taken beyond the game with operators given access to a suite of engagement tools.
These tools can be used to help them promote Aviator to players for the first time, but to also help foster a community around the game – something that we see in markets around the world. And for us, this is a testament to just how social Aviator is.
This is a major factor in why it has become the number one crash game in the world with more than 10 million active players each month. And this should make casino operators sit up and take note – there is a vast audience of players seeking social engagement and if they can deliver it, they too are on the flight path to success.
