[WATCH] Can you reinvent the reels? Paul Dolman at SiGMA Europe
In a keynote speech, G Games’ own CEO Paul Dolman sheds light on the importance of innovation when it comes to online casino games
Can you reinvent the reels? Can you replace and improve slots? Can you do better on house slots? G Games has spent the last six to seven years solidly discovering that the answer to that question is probably a no.
The company started out with the first 30 to 40 employees who have never worked in gambling and have grown to employ 100 individuals now making over 2 billion worth of bets. Dolman describes this as astonishing given the fact that the company was only funded with a hundred thousand pounds.
G Games have been looking at answering the question of how to innovate the sector as truthfully there isn’t a lot of innovation taking place in it.
Reel me in, a fishing 5 by 3 game invented in 1996 was the first game ever to have a bonus round.
25 years later the biggest game of 2021 hit the market. This was Big Bass Bonanza from Pragmatic Play and Dolman sees this as a problem explaining that 25 years later, a game that was the biggest ever had been regurgitated with slight changes such as different graphics but the same math. He goes on to say “if you’re not innovating, you’re just dying.”
Many operators, like online casino platforms, do not design and develop their own game libraries. Instead, they rely on the biggest online casino software vendors.
Paul Dolman has spent a lot of time building all different sorts and types of games to later realise that the speed of slots is extremely important but reinventing this aspect it is difficult. One of the biggest problems is that the market is cluttered. “When I go and visit operators, I show them my new portfolio of stuff only to realise that they don’t even care anymore. They just don’t care because they see so many slots that are the same.”
Going up to operators and showing them new exciting features doesn’t do much nowadays as their reply would simply be that they see around 20 of those a week which is why the vast majority of slots don’t make much money. The technique of coping slots like exciting fruit games is used by a lot of big brands where they execute a similar model to an already existing one and hand it out to all their client.
BTG has successfully tried to move away from the usual and reinvent a new business model where they would sell the product to everyone else as a trademark. You don’t always have to innovate by innovating the slot, you can innovate the business model in itself. BTG didn’t make their money from selling slots and when they sold themselves to 40 million in revenue and 36 million in profit this was all attributed to their new business model. “Slots do not do that, but business licenses do.”
Another important factor apart from innovating the business model itself is having a great marketing technique.
What full video here:
Casinos employ a variety of techniques to attract the proper clients. It all starts with getting a sense of the audience’s pulse and developing marketing tactics that will meet their potential customers’ needs. As a result, any casino that is still looking for new ways to reach out to its target audience may consider combining these strategies.
Dolman stated that a company with a great marketing technique is that of No Limit City. The company has worked really well by innovating its marketing strategy.
The fact that most sites carry the same suppliers and operators reflects on the time spent on websites from customers. Players average 4 min on a game before they decide to go to the next one.
The question to answer the title of reinventing the reels is quite simple. It’s all about tweaks. There are different ways of reinventing business models.
The profit model is one way how you can try to innovate. Play tika is also interesting. This is a reinvention on how to make money from slots. Another big question is can we change the performance of our products?
What G Games has in store, is that they’re trying to maximise the playtime of their customers.
Many businesses are focusing on the concept of customer experience in order to meet and surpass their consumers’ expectations. Land-based casinos can sometimes have a better chance of providing a pleasant and memorable experience for players, which is why the customer experience provided online is of crucial importance.
Netflix gets 3.2 hours a day out of every customer while Facebook gets 2.4 hours, while YouTube and Instagram average 0.6. These are the kind of competitors G Games are looking into, this is the reason why casinos need to innovate. “Innovation massively pays. Anytime that you’re copying, you’re not innovating. And the vast majority of the time we’re copying. Most of the innovation is built upon innovation before it.”
G Games are trying to do this. They take this very seriously spending a lot of money and time on it. G releases 40 titles per year, ranging from casual to classic, from games targeted at a certain demographic (such as their high-value, low-stake slots for Germany) to games that everyone desires. Casual games can appeal to players in unexpected ways, especially when utilized for acquisition or conversion.
G Games also works with customers to understand their players’ needs and desired outcomes, and then provides games that help them reach those goals. G Games helps you grow your success with bespoke assets and content, as well as the nicest account team in the industry.
“I just ask you, when you go back to the office on Monday ask yourself, what are you doing differently on Monday? Try to find some space for innovation.”
SiGMA 2022 :
After the exciting set of conferences that was Malta Week 2021, the SiGMA Group plans to take the world by storm with the golden steeples of Kiev and the snowy city of Toronto being hubs to draw the best and brightest of the iGaming world together. Our next expo takes us to cutting-edge metropolis of the United Arab Emirates for three days of networking, panel discussions and festivities. Stay up to date with the latest and greatest through SiGMA News.
