Yggdrasil adds SpinOn to YGG Masters roster

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You’ve just launched your own spin on the casino classic roulette – what prompted this move and why now?

AK: Our mission is to help our partners convert their recreational punters into casino players, organically, resulting in lower CPAs and higher retention rates. In practice, this means instead of throwing massive bonuses at your players, you use a curated set of games, features and targeted bonuses at a way lower cost. We already deliver the initial part of this journey and have now added arguably the most classic game of all time to ensure we don’t lose those players to the competition.

Some may consider such a launch as brave given how saturated the market is with versions of the game – how have you built the trademark BetGames DNA into your version?

AK: The products we launch are all key parts of the puzzle to convert bettors to casino, rather than being efforts to attack the big established brands in the market. Roulette is a commodity and what’s the point of entering a price war we can’t win due to lower scale? The crucial focus is the player conversion journey and a seamless experience – not having to switch lobbies and staying with the supplier you trust. We didn’t reinvent the wheel, so to speak! I don’t think the fancy studios with robot arms and seven different cameras add any value in our core markets. We focused on a slick player experience with a professional presenter quality. We have kept it simple and targeted.

Do you have certain markets in mind for this latest launch? Are we seeing RNG table games surge in popularity in LatAm, for example?

AK: We’re focusing on our existing markets and LatAm initially. This is one reason why we launched the game without a continuous stream during the placing of bets, reducing data consumption. What we have learned from some of our existing games, and certainly from our most popular examples, is that our players (who are generally more sports savvy) enjoy silence and focus during betting. Thus, we have top-notch quality presentation during the spin but a quiet, slick betting experience during the dwell time. This helps to save players’ data, particularly in markets where developing infrastructures are a challenge. LatAm isn’t very developed yet with live content, and one of the main reasons for that is partly poor infrastructure. Quick, data-light products like RNG games remain popular because of that.

You’ve seen a lot of success in LatAm and Africa – are the requirements of developing markets hugely different to those of the more established when you are developing products?

AK: Africa is special because it is an extremely superstitious market – trust and ease of use are everything. LatAm is more demanding on the localisation front. People want Brazilian Portuguese or Latin Spanish, even though they often play games muted – this makes it tricky. From a live perspective, both markets are still in their infancy. RNG develops quicker, but still has huge potential. We will see what the new regulations in areas such as Brazil, Peru and Chile will bring in terms of market development.

Is the widening of your product portfolio indicative of a long-term shift of focus for BetGames? Will we see more of your more traditional lottery and card-based games?

AK: We follow a niche strategy and want to add incremental value for our partners. We have seen a lot of new competitors entering the live dealer space aiming to take on the likes of Evolution, Playtech and Pragmatic Play. Most of them failed or at least experienced a hard landing in terms of commercial success. The big players, especially Pragmatic and Evolution have massive scale, giving them significant competitive advantages, which lots of smaller or new studios often underestimate. A 24/7 live operation comes with enormous challenges and OPEX and the rev shares on commodities like roulette are getting smaller and smaller. So, we will stick to our mission and USP. If a partner wants a roulette environment, we are capable of delivering, but it needs to make sense. Hence, we aren’t neglecting our core to become a supplier of roulette and blackjack specifically.

We’ve grown our portfolio over the years to accommodate constantly shifting player trends and technology and will continue to do so, remaining agile, relevant and making informed decisions on a product offering that suits global markets.

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The provider launches a series of daily tournaments in Blackjack League

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Welcome to our weekly roundup of American gambling news again! Here, we are going through the weekly highlights of the American gambling industry which include the latest news and new partnerships. Read on and get updated.

Latest News

Bragg Gaming Group is now registered as an approved service provider by the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, allowing for the distribution of online casino games, including Bragg’s proprietary and exclusive games portfolio, via the Bragg HUB aggregation platform to operators in the soon-to-be-launched LatAm iGaming market.

PENN Entertainment announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Anuj Dhanda to the Board, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Mr. Dhanda’s appointment expands the size of the Board to ten members, nine of whom satisfy the standards for director independence under the current Listing Rules of the NASDAQ Stock Market.

SlotsCalendar has launched its tailor-made platform for American users: https://www.slotscalendar.us. The brand’s clear aim is to provide a digital environment where impartial and informative content is optimised specifically for the American market.

MGM Resorts International announced that it proposes to offer $750,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2032. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the notes to repay existing indebtedness, including its outstanding 6.750% senior notes due 2025. Pending such use, the Company may invest the net proceeds in short-term interest-bearing accounts, securities, or similar investments.

Genius Sports Limited, the official data, technology and commercial partner that powers the ecosystem connecting sports, betting and media, announced that it has been certified by the State of Wisconsin Division of Gaming as a gaming-related contractor with immediate effect.

Win Systems is going to participate in the next edition of GAT with its exclusive distributor in Colombia, Comercializadora Selan S.A.S. The event will be held in Cartagena de India on April 10–11, and the company’s booth will be A11.

Pragmatic Play is set to make another appearance at a Latin American exhibition, at GAT Expo in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The gaming provider will be on stand A31 and A32 to showcase its diverse portfolio, including Slots, Live Casino, Virtual Sports and Bingo content, alongside its new Sportsbook offering.

Partnerships

DraftKings announced an expanded relationship with Kindbridge Behavioural Health to provide access to therapy and treatment for problem gaming in every jurisdiction where DraftKings operates its online sportsbook and iGaming products. DraftKings and Kindbridge originally joined forces in September 2023 to launch a pilot programme to deliver personalised support for sports bettors in Colorado.

The Connecticut Lottery, in partnership with Fanatics Betting and Gaming, the online and retail sports betting subsidiary of Fanatics Holdings, has opened a new retail sportsbook location at Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport. The exciting new location is more than 2300 square feet and features betting windows, self-service betting kiosks from Suzohapp and high-definition TVs situated all around the sportsbook.

The Texas Lottery and Texas Motor Speedway have joined together again to rev up luck for lottery players and racing fans through the new LUCKY 7s scratch ticket game. The new $5 game features chances to win a $100,000 top prize and integrates a series of promotional second-chance drawings. The drawings give players with non-winning tickets a chance to win exclusive Texas Motor Speedway prizes.