What we're concerned with right now is deciding upon what we're not
going to do in the first game because it's a blank canvas to a large extent. We are focused on strategy and delivery, letting the creative guys do
STEVE ROGERS CEO and Founder, Playbook Fusion
their thing. Now we're entering the development phase, we're choosing a game design that's going to give us everything we want, but obviously isn't going to take years to develop.
What's the biggest challenge that Playbook Fusion is facing right now?
Our greatest challenge as a business is bringing together the games industry with the gambling industry and getting the right bits of both. We're giving our game developers and designers creative freedom to express themselves and come up with something new and innovative because that's the purpose of Playbook Fusion. What we're concerned with right now is deciding upon what we're not going to do in the first game because it's a blank canvas to a large extent. We are focused on strategy and delivery, letting the creative guys do their thing. Now we're entering the development phase, we're choosing a game design that's going to give us everything we want, but obviously isn't going to take years to develop.
Who comprises the team and what was the pitch to those outside the betting industry to join the business?
Te two key individuals I've brought in so far are Santiago Jaramillo, who previously worked as Creative Director for EA Sport’s FIFA Franchise, and Jason Bradbury who I used to work with at Inspired 10 years ago. Santiago was heavily involved with FIFA Ultimate Team, so he knows what it takes to engage players and keep them playing whilst Jason is on top of things from a regulatory point of view, understanding how to get RNG games live, working with operators, aggregators and all that kind of stuff. Beyond Santiago and Jason, we've also got UX and UI specialists building the framework of the gameplay as well as mathematicians from the videogames industry who understand how in-game currency works and applying that into gambling games. We've got a new production director, Steve Wakeman, whose remit is to ensure that we have a plan that's delivered against on time and on budget. We're still in the process of building the team out as we go along.
Te people we’ve brought in from the videogame industry already had some form of interest in gambling. Tey're not people have no interest or knowledge of the industry, but the main thing for me is that they come from a sports video game background, particularly from EA who've got lots of big sports titles. Tey're fascinated with the concept of owning
virtual teams that players can curate over time whilst also having skin in the game and the idea of taking this to the next level. Not only do I believe my team is a good team, my players are good players, my strategy is a good strategy, but also, I can bet on myself. Tat's really what garnered the interest of those joining us from the games industry.
Who's the Playbook Fusion player?
Our strategy is to target three main demographics of player. Te first is the virtual sports bettor, an area where I have 20+ years of experience from my time at Inspired. What I've found is that virtual sports players aren't playing a game that is persistent. Tere's no persistence from session one to session two. Tere's no level of ownership and management. Tere's no skin in the game. Virtual sports are a relatively passive experience that generates good money for operators and suppliers which I think I can improve on. Te second category is the sports fan that is knowledgeable about real world sport, with a football title set to be our debut game. Tis fan knows which players and teams are in form, which leagues these teams play in, etc. What we're doing is allowing them to put that knowledge into practice on a more frequent basis. Te third demographic we're targeting is the fantasy better who spends time curating their best team. UK players mainly play fantasy for fun with Fantasy Premier League and those kinds of apps. However, internationally, particularly in the US market with the likes of DraftKings and FanDuel, fans are creating teams of players from different squads, real world players, and putting them into battle in competitions to win prizes.
We're looking to offer that experience, albeit with more frequency, because Playbook Fusion titles will play every two or three minutes, not for three or four months a year like with the NFL or five-six months a year like the NBA where there's lots of downtime in the season. We're looking to give them an ability to use their knowledge of sports on a highly frequent basis, just like with virtual sports. We're looking to pull on those three categories into this new portfolio of games. Tat's the vision of Playbook Fusion, to tap into these existing three big brackets of player, with the potential for operators to tap into a new market and cohort of player.
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