Why the Italian market is such a vital territory for 3 Oaks Gaming
3 Oaks Gaming recently announced its first foray into Italy, one of the most mature markets in Europe, after integrating with platform specialist Tuko Productions. The expansion that 3 Oaks has shown over the past couple of years has been stunning, steadily becoming one of the go-to distributors in the iGaming industry. We spoke with Krasimir Pankovski, Head of Sales at 3 Oaks to discuss why now is the right time to delve into the Italian market.
Congratulations on entering the Italian market for the first time! Why do you feel now is the best time to stamp your footprint within the jurisdiction?
We are now an established iGaming distributor and when we first entered the industry, we felt that promoting our product within regions with bags of potential aligned with what we wanted. Two years down the line, we are now in a prime position to enter the second biggest online market in Europe. We have a variety of slots that we feel are really suited to a more mature climate and the integration with Tuko Productions and its THS system is a fantastic starting point for us.
What can Tuko bring to boost 3 Oaks Gaming’s standing within Italy?
Tuko’s state-of-the-art content aggregation platform immediately drew us in and thanks to this integration, they will be able to showcase the likes of Dragon Wealth, Goddess of Egypt and our newest title, Boom! Boom! Gold! to its impressive operator network.
Primarily, Tuko’s focus in operating within Italy so they know the market inside out, which is a massive benefit to us as we begin our journey. Our titles will be made available to some of the region’s leading brands so we are hoping that this will be a really positive start for us.
Is there anything different that 3 Oaks Gaming can offer operators in such a mature environment?
The Italian market presents many opportunities for us, including a wealth of well-known mechanics that are still extremely popular. To succeed, we have to think outside the box so offering games with bespoke mechanics that haven’t taken off in Italy yet is an avenue we want to explore. Some of the region’s best ranked games, such as Starburst, have been around for a long time so it is clear that players like familiarity. Understanding player behaviour is key for us so before we bring a new round of mechanics into the market, we need to research what has made other distributors so successful in Italy.
With Tuko already signed-up, are there any other agreements in the pipeline within the Italian region as we look further into 2023?
To get that first partnership over the line was a big deal for us as it opens the door for new opportunities. Currently, we are working with the majority of the big names in the market to extend our presence within Italy and ensure we work on launching with the top operators in the country. This is our biggest venture yet so we want to leave no stone unturned as we bolster our standing here. We are also targeting a minimum of a 5% market share within the first year of going live. Obviously that is a challenging target but we want to test ourselves and showcase our glittering array of titles as best we can.
What else can we expect from 3 Oaks Gaming as 2023 progresses?
We are already in the process of acquiring UK, Romanian, Maltese and Greek licenses as well as a number of certificates, including South Africa, Bulgaria, Netherlands and Ontario, so we are targeting a variety of regions all around the world. Along with acquiring various licenses for other jurisdictions across Europe, our slots offering is going to continue to grow a fast rate. From a games perspective, we will be introducing a wide range of new features and graphics and we are confident this will improve the level of quality that we currently offer. We want to increase our offering of Scatter Pays games and step up our development of mobile first slots. With regard to promotional tools, we have a new game interface which we plan to release this year and we will deliver new promo tools with retention mechanics, and we are confident that markets across Europe will love the results of these. In short, there is plenty to be excited about!
