SIGMA WORLD PREVIEW
Availability and demand are different things, and confusing the two is how operators end up paying to host a catalogue nobody opens, says Viktor Cherkas, CEO of Kanggiten.
Availability is not demand A
platform can offer 20,000 games from 200 providers. Players will spend most of their time on a small group of them. Anyone who looks at the data from the aggregation side sees the same pattern. Availability and demand are different things, and confusing the two is how operators end up paying to host a catalogue nobody opens. Viktor Cherkas, CEO of Kanggiten, puts the point plainly.
“An operator may offer 20,000 titles, but player attention is highly concentrated,” he says. “A relatively small group of games generates the majority of rounds and GGR.”
The long tail still earns its place. It supports retention and gives a brand its own character. What it does not do is turn size into engagement. Adding another thousand titles to a lobby that already holds thousands changes very little, and it can bury the games players want.
A similar gap shows up between what operators promote and what players choose. A game on the top row will collect the first click. Whether it holds anyone is a separate question.
“Lobby placement can create the first click,” Cherkas says. “It cannot manufacture long-term demand.”
When a promoted title peaks in its launch week and fades the moment it loses the premium position, the placement was doing the work. Players try a new game only briefly. If the pacing, volatility or bonus frequency does not match what they came for, they return to something familiar. Most follow a game they already understand rather than a studio, coming back for a volatility profile or a bonus structure they trust. More experienced players recognise the studios and treat a familiar name as a mark of quality, but for the majority the mechanic and the theme matter more than the logo.
This is where measurement usually goes wrong. Initial revenue is a flattering number, and it says little about whether a game has found an audience. Repeat-player rate, session frequency and how a title performs once the promotion ends tell you far more than a strong opening week. “A game is not really a hit because it launches strongly,” Cherkas says. “It becomes a hit when demand survives after the promotion stops.” For operators planning content for a new market or a new quarter, the conclusion is to stop treating the size of the library as a growth strategy. A larger catalogue is easy to buy and easy to advertise. A lobby that reflects what a specific audience plays takes more work, and it is the one that performs. In practice that means ordering the
lobby around real play data and giving the proven titles room. The task is curation and honest measurement rather than accumulation. Classic slots make the case. Creative formats can win the early attention, yet it is familiar slot
mechanics that hold players across the lifecycle, because the experience is understood and the appeal is real. That is the test for any title an operator chooses to feature. Does it still hold players once the spotlight moves on?
Viktor Cherkas
GIO NOVEMBER 2026 13
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