RubyPlay’s newest studio has only one market in its sights. Shawn Collette, GM & Chief Designer, Jason Gilmore, VP of Game Design, and Adam Baldwin, VP, Math and Systems Design at xSlots, speak with Gaming Americas about its land-based heritage, social gaming experience and the product philosophy behind the studio built exclusively for US players.

xSlots is the latest studio to join RubyPlay’s multi-studio ecosystem. What was the thinking behind creating a venture specifically for the US market?

Shawn Collette – As the newest addition to RubyPlay’s multi-studio structure, xSlots has a unique focus. We have built the studio specifically for the US market with a team boasting decades of experience designing content for American players. With just the one market in focus, our content is built specifically for American players by a team that has spent its entire career understanding this audience and their preferences.

After 12 years in social gaming, the team identified a shift in the market and decided to launch xSlots. The goal was to bring the experiences players love most into the online gaming market. With decades of experience across land-based gaming, social casino and game development, we saw an opportunity to create content specifically designed for US players and their preferences.

The team has a deep collective history in the US casino industry. Can you tell us a bit more about the journey that led to xSlots?

Adam Baldwin – The entire xSlots team has extensive experience of the US casino sector that cannot be matched. Every member has a background in the land-based arena, some of which have worked together for over two decades. The core team has collaborated for over 13 years and between us hold more than 30 gaming-industry patents, having contributed to titles built around some of the world’s most renowned IP such as Willy Wonka, Wizard of Oz and Monopoly.

We have also worked on projects that have redefined what slots can offer, with product lines including G+ Deluxe 5×4, Double Money Burst, Colossal Reels, Awesome Reels, and Alice, a Bonus Bank transparent video and mechanical slot game that received significant industry recognition and media coverage.

The team has been refining its craft across the full arc of American casino gaming for years, making it the perfect foundation for a studio with serious ambitions, underpinned with expert credentials.

The xSlots team has over a decade’s experience in social casino. In what ways will this influence the content you develop for real money gaming in the US?

Adam Baldwin – We led the design and development of slots at social casino brand House of Fun, growing its daily average revenue from around $65,000 to more than $600,000 in under five years. That metric shows the talent and understanding of what makes players come back. The team subsequently formed the central studio behind House of Fun, Caesars Casino and Slotomania, three of the most recognized social casino brands in the industry.

The key advantage of our social gaming experience is that it produces clarity around what resonates with players, such as the mechanics that maintain attention and where the gap sits between what players say they want and what they actually engage with.

How does that experience shape the way xSlots now approaches game development?

Jason Gilmore – The goal at xSlots is to bring the experiences US players already love from the casino floor into the online environment.

That means taking traditional casino insights and building around them with the design expertise and production value the online market now demands. It means not assuming that a game built for a European audience will perform in an American lobby simply because the mechanics are solid. It also shows understanding that for a US player with years of land-based experience, the bar for what feels authentic is genuinely high.

The operator case for this is direct too. A crowded online lobby is a problem of differentiation and that comes from content that players recognise as distinct, not just a variation of a familiar template. xSlots is focused on creating bold, memorable, high-performing content that stands out in crowded lobbies while delivering operator-ready reliability.

What can players and operators expect in the near term?

Jason Gilmore – The studio’s first titles give a clear indication of where xSlots is headed long-term.

Plum Wild is our debut title, launching exclusively on July 9^th. Frankenstein Triple Volt is set to follow shortly afterwards on August 13^th. Both reflect the team’s core approach – seamless execution of land-based applied to online, with the US player as the frame of reference throughout development.

The team has been building towards initial launch for years, and the release schedule and broader roadmap reflect that preparation.

Where does xSlots sit within RubyPlay’s wider ecosystem and what makes its position within that structure distinct?

Shawn Collette – RubyPlay’s multi-studio structure is built on a straightforward principle – different markets and different player profiles require different creative approaches, not variations of a single house style.

Mad Hat Games works in casual-first mechanics and is focused on emerging markets while Firerose exists specifically to deliver bespoke, branded and white-label content for operator partners. Each studio has its own creative identity and its own lane.

The US online space is now occupied by xSlots and does so from a position that no other studio in the group can replicate.

Following Meta’s algorithm updates, many media buying teams found it much more difficult to scale Facebook traffic. Customer acquisition costs increased, advertising accounts became less stable, and even successful campaign combinations lost their effectiveness faster.

In the new Success Story, N1 Partners explains how they helped a media buying team specializing in Facebook traffic for the iGaming vertical adapt to changing market conditions and successfully scale traffic acquisition across Tier-1 GEOs.

The results after nine months of collaboration were impressive: a 155% increase in FTDs, 135% ROI, and a 22% reduction in average CPA.

About partner

The featured partner is a media buying team with four years of experience in affiliate marketing, specializing in Facebook traffic acquisition for iGaming products.

At the beginning of the partnership, the team was already working with Tier-1 GEOs, including Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia. They consistently identified profitable campaign combinations but encountered the typical scaling limitations faced by many teams in the industry.

To continue growing, they needed a partner offering high-quality products with strong Reg2Dep and LTV performance, reliable payouts, and responsive support capable of handling increasing traffic volumes.

Why did they choose N1 Partners?

Several factors influenced their decision:

• High Reg2Dep rates;
• Strong player LTV performance;
• Reliable and consistent payouts;
• Fast and responsive affiliate manager support;
• The ability to work with multiple brands within a single ecosystem.

For the initial testing phase, the team selected N1 Bet, RollXO, Lucky Hunter, and Retro Bet.

Preparing for launch

Before launching the campaigns, N1 Partners specialists analyzed the partner’s previous performance and proposed a structured testing plan.

Instead of focusing on a single offer, they decided to test multiple brands simultaneously. This approach allowed them to identify much faster which products performed best with Facebook traffic in each GEO.

At the start, the partner also received several recommendations:

• Start with the CPA payment model;
• Separate advertising campaigns by audience type;
• Build dedicated landing pages for each GEO instead of using one universal funnel;
• Test broad audiences without narrow interest-based targeting;
• Use multiple creative formats;
• Evaluate not only registration costs but also the quality of acquired players.

This strategy helped identify promising campaign combinations early while preventing unnecessary spending on underperforming campaigns.

Choosing GEOs, offers and creatives

N1 Partners affiliate manager shared internal performance data highlighting products that consistently delivered strong results with Facebook traffic.

For the first stage, three high-potential GEOs with stable demand were selected:

• Canada;
• Germany;
• New Zealand.

Australia was intentionally excluded from the initial testing phase to concentrate the available budget on fewer markets and collect meaningful data more quickly.

Offers were selected primarily based on two key metrics: deposit conversion rate and player quality. Among all available brands, the selected products consistently demonstrated the strongest overall performance.

For every GEO, the team created special creatives featuring localized visual elements and market-specific bonus offers.

Workflow organization

After launch, specialists from N1 Partners worked alongside the partner on a daily basis, analyzing campaign performance and deciding on the next optimization steps.

Teams closely monitored:

• Reg2Dep and LTV;
• Player quality;
• Budget allocation between products;
• Individual GEO performance;
• Results of newly launched creatives.

Most operational questions were resolved by the affiliate manager within a few hours. This allowed the partner to quickly switch offers and launch additional tests without interrupting traffic acquisition.

Initial hypotheses

During the preparation phase, N1 Partners suggested testing several working hypotheses:

• Video creatives could outperform static banners;
• Different advertising concepts might attract audiences of different quality;
• Rapid budget increases could reduce campaign stability;
• Evaluating traffic solely based on acquisition cost does not reflect its actual value.

The team tested lifestyle creatives, game-focused concepts, bonus offers, and social proof elements. Budgets were increased gradually, while campaign performance was evaluated not only by CPA but also by player behavior after making their first deposit.

Strategy and optimization

After the initial testing phase, the team focused on increasing traffic volumes without compromising player quality.

To achieve this, the partner:

• Duplicated the highest-performing campaigns;
• Regularly launched new creatives;
• Split campaigns by device type;
• Applied successful approaches to markets with similar audience characteristics.

At the same time, budgets were increased gradually, helping maintain campaign stability while keeping CPA within the target range.

What delivered the best results?

Four optimization strategies produced the strongest performance improvements:

• Creative localization;
• Continuous production of fresh advertising materials;
• Pausing underperforming campaign combinations within the first 48 hours;
• Optimizing based on player quality rather than CPA alone.

At one stage of the campaign, the affiliate manager noticed that one of the brands was achieving a significantly higher Reg2Dep rate from Facebook traffic in Canada.

After jointly reviewing the data, part of the advertising budget was shifted toward that product.

Results

After nine months of collaboration, every key performance indicator improved significantly.

• Monthly FTDs increased from 450 to 1,150 (+155%);
• ROI increased from 86% to 135%;
• Average CPA decreased by 22%;
• Revenue increased by approximately 2.5 times;
• Player LTV increased by 25%.

The most important achievement was not a single successful campaign but the creation of a sustainable Facebook traffic acquisition model. The partner was able to continuously scale traffic across Tier-1 GEOs without experiencing a proportional increase in acquisition costs.

Key takeaways

1. What was the biggest advantage of working with N1 Partners?

According to the media buying team, working with N1 Partners helped establish a clear and scalable traffic acquisition process.

The main contributing factors were high-quality products, strong Reg2Dep performance, and constant communication with the affiliate manager. The team also emphasized that N1 Partners specialists proactively suggested new testing hypotheses before market changes began noticeably affecting campaign performance. This allowed them to stay ahead of industry trends instead of reacting only after performance had already declined.

2. What made the results possible?

Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners: “The biggest factor behind our success was the partner’s willingness to continuously test new approaches. We evaluated not only Facebook campaign metrics but also player quality for every brand and GEO. This enabled us to redistribute budgets quickly and focus on the most promising campaign combinations.

After launching localized creatives and testing new audiences, the number of FTDs in Canada nearly doubled within just a few weeks, while campaign ROI remained stable. This clearly demonstrated the importance of continuous testing, fast analytics, and close collaboration between both teams”.

Scale your Facebook traffic with N1 Partners!

N1 Partners gives affiliates access to:

• 14+ casino and betting brands with high Reg2Dep 
• 10+ Tier-1 GEOs
• CPA up to €700 and RevShare up to 55% + NNCO for top partners

Be number one with N1!