Connect with us

Industry News

How Gaming Industry Is Dealing with COVID-19 Pandemic

Published

on

Reading Time: 5 minutes

 

“There is nothing in the world that is not in this.”

Mahabharata, the Indian mythological epic

Well, the Hindu epic was certainly not referring to Corona. (In fact, it was referring to itself.)

If there is anything that merits such a claim at the moment, it has to be the COVID-19 virus. There is nothing indeed in the world right now that is not in the Corona-induced-fear-triggered crisis.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Its human toll is immeasurable and still growing. Businesses have been crippled. The betting and gambling industry is not immune to its effects either.

All the sports leagues in the world have been ground to a halt, suspending the entire spectrum of betting activities. Even the Olympics has been postponed. Many land-based casinos have been closed. Even those functioning are offering only limited access.

Multi-pronged Crisis

The economic impact on the gaming industry is going to be severe. Bill Miller, American Gaming Association President and CEO, has already called for government support. He listed the many sections of the gambling vertical that will be affected by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak in a statement:

“An estimated 616,000 casino gaming employees are prevented from working because of the important health and safety decisions made by state governments… The impact on our employees, their families, and communities is staggering, and the implications extend far beyond the casino floor. Leading technology companies that supply the industry, and the nearly 350,000 small business employees that rely on gaming for their livelihood, are also feeling the devastating blow of this unprecedented public health crisis.”

He predicted a grim economic situation if the government remains inactive in the near future:

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

“The federal government must act swiftly and comprehensively to get America’s hospitality employees, and the small businesses that support them, back to work…. In total, these mass closures will rob the U.S. economy of $43.5 billion in economic activity if American casinos remain closed for the next eight weeks.”

While he was talking about the US scenario, the situation is not much different in European and Asian countries. None of the industry experts would disagree with him on his following assessment of the industry:

“Gaming is an economic engine, employing millions of local residents, generating community investment through vital tax revenue, and supporting small businesses in communities…”

Bloom Amidst Gloom

It is not all one-way traffic of bad news either.

The e-sports sector has seemingly received a boost, with locked-down people flocking to e-sports and betting based on these games in the absence of traditional betting avenues.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Some of the gaming companies have found a sudden surge in traffic. Peter Ivanov, the head of trading at Bulgaria-based UltraPlay, says the customer interest towards its e-sports offerings is growing per day.

He says optimistically:

“We experienced a 30% increased turnover only in the first 5 days after the traditional sports shutdown. This is growing on a day-to-day basis as more people get involved. We expect this to get in 100’s% once all eSports leagues restart playing online.”

Ian Hills, general manager of Blexr, a Malta-based digital marketing and media company catering to the gaming sector, also reports similar trends:

“With the cancellation of much of the world’s sporting calendar we’ve naturally felt the effects in our sports revenues but results in our core competency of casino are holding fast, with our flagship brand recording several all-time highs over the last few weeks.”

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

How Industry People Are Coping

As there is a renewed buzz around e-gaming, online casinos and other internet-based activities, there cannot be a total shut down of the gaming industry.

Almost all companies have migrated to a work-from-home mode. Blexr’s Hills sums up how his company responded to the pandemic:

“We acted quickly and decisively in the face of growing anxiety about COVID-19, which is why we are entering our second week of being an entirely remote organisation. We wanted to adhere to government advice over social distancing and also we felt our collective responsibility to lessen the impact of the disease.”

Diana Rotaru, co-founder of Vegas Slots, says the best approach is to look for alternate products and support everyone around, especially the employees. She suggests:

“Regarding COVID-19, I understand that we are facing new and uncertain times. However I think people need to remain rational and try to think of the next steps and the best solution for their businesses , employees and the ones around us. It is also very important for companies to remain supportive and understanding with their employees and the people around them.”

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

It helped that online processes and operations can lend themselves to such quick and flexible transformation from office to home. In fact, the work-from-home option has been in vogue in several companies. Hills adds:

“Blexr has offered unlimited remote working as a flexible option for employees for over a year so we’ve got lots of battle-hardened experience at virtual meetings, VPN connections and maintaining the human interaction necessary for teams to work together.”

How Technology Companies Reacted

The technology service providers, though largely invisible to the public eye, are the rock around which the gaming industry is built. How are they doing?

Igor Markovic, a director board member at NSoft, a technology provider to betting industry based in Bosnia and Herzegovina, says his company has announced an unprecedented rescue package to the partners:

“In order to mitigate this demanding period, we have come up with a rescue package that will help our partners at this very moment and consequently, after all this is over, increase their business operation results. NSoft is ready to provide full support to its partners offering its virtual and draw-based games portfolio completely free of charge from 1 April to 1 June. Having no setup fees, no minimum monthly fees and no monthly revenue share invoices for two months will certainly help our partners to overcome these difficult months.”

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Rarely do you find such remarkably generous gestures in the betting and gambling industry, where words like cut-throat and competition are more frequently used than the words like chivalry.

Be sure of that: Corona – another C-word – is bringing in some previously unheard-of positive changes too.

What’s in Store in Future?

The situation at present is such that the future can only be bright. There is no other way. But how bright it is going to be? And for whom it will shine the brightest?

There is a widely held view that e-sports and online casinos will thrive. Rotaru clearly subscribes to that view. She says:

“While live betting and live dealers are affected, there are alternative products that are unaffected by the existing situation, mainly e-sports like Call of Duty, DOTA and online Casinos games like table games and slots.”

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Tim Grice, the Chief Executive Officer of Connective3, a UK-based digital marketing agency in the gaming sector, acknowledges the increased traffic towards the igaming platforms:

“We have seen an increased amount of traffic and conversions across igaming (casino/poker/bingo) as well as certain financial products and services … but there is no doubt some serious pain across multiple sectors.”

However, he expects the business to bounce back across all sectors and predicts a growth wave once the crisis is over.

“The best piece of advice I can give is to … have enough in the bank to see your business through 6 months of no revenue … and the funds to invest when the world wakes up. We’re anticipating a huge wave of growth when normality returns and as a business, we want to be in position to take full advantage.”

While COVID-19 is still wrecking its havoc, industry leaders are already planning ahead. They are clearly betting on the crisis to end – sooner rather than later.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Perhaps the real battle of epic, Mahabharata proportions will start in the gaming industry when the Corona outbreak is subsumed. Now is the time to prepare for the battle –mostly from home though.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Industry News

The 8th AskGamblers Awards Officially Enters the Voting Stage

Published

on

the-8th-askgamblers-awards-officially-enters-the-voting-stage
Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

AskGamblers has announced that the final voting stage of the 8th annual AskGamblers Awards has started.

The voting phase kicked off on 28 April, and will last until the award ceremony scheduled for 12 June.

As in previous editions of the Awards, players can cast their votes for one of the top 10 finalists in the following categories: Best Casino, Best New Casino, Best Sportsbook, Best New Slot and Best Software Provider.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

The Best Crypto Casino, Best Partner and Best Manager categories will traditionally be chosen by the AskGamblers team. This year’s edition introduces a new category, the Superstar Award, a crown achievement handed out to one operator that best represents the values of brands, whose laureate will also be chosen solely by AskGamblers.

Another novelty in this year’s Awards cycle is the Forum vote: the votes from the members of AskGamblers Forum will be counted towards the final tally of votes as a separate voting tier.

Commenting on the launch of the 8th AskGamblers Awards voting stage, Dijana Radunović, General Manager at AskGamblers, said: “Now that we have the finalists, we are entering the final stages of preparation for our biggest night of the year. To say that we are excited about the 8th edition of the AskGamblers Award would be an understatement.”

“As everybody in the team is working tirelessly to make the gala ceremony a night to remember, we invite our players to do their bidding: to give a vote to their favourite contestants and help us choose the rightful winners in the five categories that are open to public vote,” Radunović added.

Before the award ceremony on 12 June, AskGamblers will host the traditional Charity Night on 11 June, where the partners will bid for positions on the website, with the money raised allocated to a humanitarian cause.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

The post The 8th AskGamblers Awards Officially Enters the Voting Stage appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Continue Reading

Industry News

Flexion Reports Revenue Increase of 9% for 2024

Published

on

flexion-reports-revenue-increase-of-9%-for-2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

Flexion, the games marketing company, has announced that its revenue grew 9% to year-end December 2024. The growth is attributed to the Company’s success in the alternative app store market.

Since its IPO in 2018, the company has built a well-positioned games marketing business around the alternative stores and grown annual revenue 50-fold to almost US$100 million. Its game portfolio represents several billion US$ in gaming IP for alternative market partners like Samsung, Amazon, Huawei, OneStore and Xiaomi.

“With the Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in Europe and recent legal actions in the US, mobile game developers have felt a new-found freedom to explore their market options. We’ve already moved beyond the era when Google and Apple controlled everything. Developers are looking for alternatives that offer better margins, and additional audiences and revenue. Partnering with Flexion opens up a range of market channels with very little up-front investment,” said Jens Lauritzson, CEO of Flexion.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Flexion currently distributes more than 30 high-profile titles on the alternative stores. Top-tier games in the Flexion portfolio make on average US$ 10 million a year based on Q4 2024 run rate. That’s income in addition to their Google and Apple revenue with a business model that adds little to their costs.

In Q4 2024, Flexion-serviced games were, on average, generating 9.3% through the alternative stores of the revenue they made on Google Play. This is a significant boost for Flexion’s partners without major costs or effort.

“If you scale for the size of the stores, the alternatives massively out-performed Google in Q4 for our games. This is exciting both for Flexion’s business and for the future of the games industry as a whole. We’re seeing the beginning of a sea change in games marketing,” Jens said.

“We’re seeing just the beginnings of a major shift in how top-tier developers address their markets. Using Flexion to access alternative stores is an easy first step into the post- Google and Apple world. Many developers are already looking at their options beyond that and Flexion will be right there with them providing the technology and expertise they need to maximise the potential of their games,” Jens added.

The post Flexion Reports Revenue Increase of 9% for 2024 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)
Continue Reading

Industry News

Players Reclaim Close to $7M Through AskGamblers Complaint Service in 2024

Published

on

players-reclaim-close-to-$7m-through-askgamblers-complaint-service-in-2024
Reading Time: < 1 minute

 

The latest AskGamblers Complaint Service report for 2024 has officially been released. The comprehensive report highlights the most important accomplishments and records of the AskGamblers Complaint Service team for the previous year.

In 2024, The AGCS team (formerly known as AGCCS) managed to return $6,890,547.11 to players. Over 7259 players turn to AskGamblers, submitting complaints against 1114 casino brands. Out of all the accepted and processed complaints, the team had a 68% resolution success rate. One of the notable milestones that reached was returning a total of $70 million to the members.

Dijana Radunović, General Manager at AskGamblers, said: “It’s amazing to see the trust players put in us year after year, and we’re able to repay them by helping them recover their funds from operators or solve other related issues. We’ve had another successful year, with a few records broken and amazing milestones achieved and we can’t wait to see what lies in store in the years ahead.”

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

The post Players Reclaim Close to $7M Through AskGamblers Complaint Service in 2024 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Continue Reading

Trending

Get it on Google Play

Fresh slot games releases by the top brands of the industry. We provide you with the latest news straight from the entertainment industries.

The platform also hosts industry-relevant webinars, and provides detailed reports, making it a one-stop resource for anyone seeking information about operators, suppliers, regulators, and professional services in the European gaming market. The portal's primary goal is to keep its extensive reader base updated on the latest happenings, trends, and developments within the gaming and gambling sector, with an emphasis on the European market while also covering pertinent global news. It's an indispensable resource for gaming professionals, operators, and enthusiasts alike.

Contact us: [email protected]

Editorial / PR Submissions: [email protected]

Copyright © 2015 - 2024 - Recent Slot Releases is part of HIPTHER Agency. Registered in Romania under Proshirt SRL, Company number: 2134306, EU VAT ID: RO21343605. Office address: Blvd. 1 Decembrie 1918 nr.5, Targu Mures, Romania