Pulse
GAME DEVELOPMENT GREEN JADE, PARIPLAY, CEGO A/S, INTERNET VIKINGS AB
What was the rationale for adopting a strategy to focus primarily on in-house developed content?
Jacob Christensen, the founder of CEGO, studied the types of games being played on video lottery terminals in Denmark and decide to build games similar to these rather than taking generic casino content when he launched
spillnu.dk. He has since continued on this path by building the games that players like rather than pushing players to games developed by other studios – it’s a truly innovative strategy.
How important was launch timing to the ongoing success of Spillnu?
If you ask me, timing is a large part of all successes – and failures for that matter. Tis is true whether talking about Coca Cola, Sony PlayStation, Facebook, Spotify or any other mega success. But then it takes some talent as well to leverage any luck that might come about with good timing.
Denmark is heralded as a great gambling role model for other countries to follow. Despite this, 2020 saw the lowest percentage growth increase since the gambling market’s liberalisation in 2012. Is this the beginning of a plateau in the growth of the country’s online casino market? Are you looking to expand elsewhere?
Te underlying growth in the iGaming industry is still strong but markets like Sweden and Denmark with high online penetration (in general, not only iGaming) will always plateau at some point. Tis makes CEGO’s full year growth in 2020 even more impressive. Te next step is to expand this concept into more regulated markets where we expect to see rapid growth.
Contrary to Spillnu’s in-house operator philosophy, Green Jade Games sells its content to operators. How do you see the future of game provision? Is there scope for both models to be successful going forwards?
I think we will see more focus on exclusive content developed specifically for individual operators. Tat being said, few will go as far as the approach taken by CEGO with its brands. Tis means there will always be room for game developers, especially those at the forefront of innovation like Big Time Gaming’s Megaways and Green Jades’ skill-based arcade games.
With a new wave of online casino players looking for a less traditional and more entertaining social experience, how should developers be looking to capture this new player demographic?
CEGO has been offering ‘softer’ games for years P116 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
and it shows in the customer profiles and retention numbers, both of which are way ahead of industry standards. Green Jade is taking this to the next level by adding a gambling dimension to popular hyper casual game genres like puzzle, match-three, etc. Tis combines the best of both slot and video games.
Now mobile players are increasingly demanding one handed play, should games be optimised for portrait mode or is there still a case for offering landscape mode to desktop players?
The underlying growth in the iGaming industry is still strong but markets like Sweden and Denmark with high online
penetration (in general, not only iGaming) will always plateau at some point. This makes CEGO’s full year growth in 2020 even more impressive. The next step is to expand this concept into more regulated markets where we expect to see rapid growth.
Yes and no. Today, most games make use of just 25-35 per cent of the retail space in portrait mode and this is because most games are still developed for desktop play. But given that mobile play accounts for 70-80 per cent of total play time this could be seen as a failing strategy. Having said this, we still need to offer games in landscape mode as well since there are player groups where, and times when, landscape is preferred. Tis is a challenge more and more studios are looking into.
How has the last 12 months impacted iGaming, both from a financial perspective and in terms of what players are demanding?
I believe most companies have managed the pandemic period well and some have actually thrived and driven growth over the past 12 months. Tose that were heavily dependent on Germany had a tough end to the year and pandemic-related regulatory changes in Sweden, such as the fixed deposit limit, hit regulated operators hard and ultimately to the benefit of offshore operators targeting players in the country.
Looking at the ‘iGaming product’ in general, we have seen steady development in what the industry is offering customers in terms of games, user experience and responsible gaming.
How do you see a post-vaccine iGaming world? Is it much different from what we see today?
Not really. Being an online industry, I think the impact of ‘back to normal’ will be insignificant. Most operators are going into this post-vaccine world with a lot of learnings and new experiences, and a much larger customer base.
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