Interviews
Exploring the Metaverse and AI’s role in it
with modl.ai’s CEO & Co-founder Christoffer Holmgård
- How do you define a metaverse?
The metaverse is a challenging thing to define, partly because it’s such an abstract concept, but also as no one has created one yet – so the exact scope of what we’re talking about is a bit blurry. To define the Metaverse, it makes sense to look to fiction, where the term was originally coined. In Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, the Metaverse is a digital, online universe, perceived from a first-person perspective, that exists independently of whether you are logged into it or not. It’s a persistent place that you can access, change, leave, and return to.
There’s a myriad of possible definitions, but there are common threads between them. The metaverse could be defined as a multi-user real-time virtual space where individuals around the world can connect via a network, co-exist and socialise. Many games and platforms exist already that could fit this description, but what sets apart the metaverse from a traditional multiplayer experience is the ability for players to create and share content to shape the world around them in a more or less persistent setting.
- When do you think the first Metaverse will be created?
Some think we’ve already arrived, others think the metaverse will be far grander in scale. If you look at your gaming library today, examples that resemble metaverses will instantly jump out at you in the shape of Minecraft, Dreams, Fall Guys, Roblox and Fortnite. For many people, these titles are no longer considered games but persistent spaces to connect and socialise through virtual experiences – that may or may not include gaming.
Historically, the gaming industry has seen many forms of the metaverse since its inception. World of Warcraft has had its own functioning virtual and digital metaverse in the form of a digital and virtual economy for decades. Second Life is another early example that partly fits the bill, and EVE Online in particular stands out as a persistent universe shared between all the players where large organizations and even an economy have sprung up. Looking even further back, the early Multi-User Dungeons of the 1970s – or MUDs – might be considered proto-metaverses without graphics. Each of these examples contain different characteristics that define the Metaverse, even if they didn’t manage to achieve them all.
- How are you seeing the metaverse trend being reflected in the industry right now?
We’re seeing a drive across the games industry toward creating platforms for Metaverse-like experiences. Using either existing technologies or games, and even building new ones. The trend has been going on for quite some years, but it seems we’re reaching a point where the idea of Metaverses is coming together for both players and large industry actors. What’s more, the global pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated some of these trends that were already underway.
Fortnite, Roblox, and other big titles have slowly evolved from games to online spaces where people can interact and spend virtual currency on in-game items to build relationships and experience something fun and unique. Elsewhere, the trend continues thanks to games like Fortnite, which continues to develop more virtual experiences like its famous concerts. What’s more, Fortnite’s publisher, EPIC Games, recently raised $1 billion to support its future vision to build the metaverse.
With nearly 40 million daily users, the online gaming platform Roblox has become an incredibly popular online community. The game allows its users near-limitless possibilities to create, buy and sell, customise and socialise. What’s more, Roblox no longer calls itself a game on its website anymore; instead, it’s now an experience.
In essence, it’s a collection of semi-persistent spaces created by players using the same foundational tools and protocols. They make their spaces uniquely their own by changing and expanding templates and customising them in creative ways that no single game development company could come up with on their own.
Developers who have created popular interactive virtual social spaces have realised the earning potential behind their ‘games within a game’. So the race to perfect the metaverse model is on!
Many believe the metaverse is the next logical evolution of the internet, so it’s easy to see why so many big industry players are racing to stake their claim and take as big a piece of the pie as possible. So much so that even the country of South Korea has begun laying the foundation for its metaverse, as it recently created an alliance between 17 of the country’s industry-leading tech companies. Most recently, Facebook came out and declared itself a contributor to bringing about the Metaverse.
There is currently no single metaverse, but given the recent boom in brand collaborations and cross-platform play, in the future, we may see several of them become interoperable or meld together in a shared vast universe. But the biggest hurdle will still remain getting companies to look past their own interests to drive inter-organisational collaboration.
- What do you think will be some of the main hurdles in establishing the first metaverse?
Creating a metaverse is one thing, but keeping players engaged and returning to this new frontier is another. Gaming professionals need to understand what motivates players to contribute and come back to these virtual spaces. The key lies in understanding player behaviour. It may sound obvious, but measuring the way a given player moves through and interacts with a virtual space is a great way to gauge their interests. Their interactions, however seemingly insignificant, reveal the player’s preferences from moment to moment.
Understanding a player within the metaverse could be reached by manually picking and studying the individual user, but this approach quickly becomes unfeasible at scale. Alternatively, one can sample representative users, but this form of user research is time-consuming, expensive, and doesn’t pinpoint accuracy at the individual player level. This is where artificial intelligence can help.
- What role will AI play in the metaverse?
Put simply, publishers need their players to return, continue investing, and growing with the environment itself. Tools such as AI that learns from and understands the audience could be the key to growing the metaverse as the game industry’s next frontier.
Today we’re already seeing how AI can assist in daily work, assisting with checking, testing, coding, or even generating whole segments of stories automatically. As more people become digital content creators, we expect AI to take a role as a creative assistant working next to human creators, automating boring, repetitive or difficult tasks that are part of the creation process. AI systems will learn from prior examples and patterns in the Metaverse and use the learnt information to assist with new creative processes.
An additional way in which AI will be significant in the Metaverse is that AI systems will get to know you over time and shape your experience of the Metaverse accordingly. A quality of digital universes is that they, by their nature, allow for the observation of just about everything that goes on in them. One method that can help developers understand their players is by recording their behaviour at the action level and using it to create AI Personas – which are essentially models of the players in parts of the metaverse. By first logging and replicating player behaviour, AI Personas can predict how certain players or groups would act, and by extension, what that means in terms of interests, motivations, and preferences.
These predictions can then be used to tailor and adapt the player’s experience with the most engaging content and interactions at the individual level. You could imagine having an AI system that puts together or even generates content and experiences that are tailored just for you.
It even opens the opportunity for you to leave behind imprints of yourself when you’re not signed into the Metaverse. Some video games already offer a version of this today – for instance Forza Motorsport has Drivatars: AI drivers that drive in your style, that your friends can race against if you’re not online to compete. Perhaps, in the future, we’ll have our own AI doubles or assistants filling in for us in the Metaverse, when we’re not around to play.
This idea is really an extension of character customisation, which has become a cornerstone of modern gaming. Epic Games understood early on how character customisation and avatar expression attracted players away from competing titles such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Licensing pop-culture avatars was key to keeping people within the Fortnite metaverse. Interest amongst players is always high because there’s a chance for them to wield a lightsaber one week then wear the infinity gauntlet as Thanos the next.
This level of avatar detail and customisation, and the ability for users to express themselves in new and exciting ways, will potentially be the cornerstone of any successful future metaverse project as players use this as a form of expression.
But as games continue to increase in scope and attract more players to log on, manually managing these virtual worlds becomes much less feasible – especially in the context of a metaverse. So you can quickly see where AI fits into the equation.
From generating digital environments, shaping more realistic AI character behaviours to automated bug finding, the potential applications for artificial intelligence will be near-limitless. With regards to the Metaverse, whatever final form it takes, I believe artificial intelligence will be vital in realising projects of this scale.
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Katya Machuganova, Gaming Product and Partnership Manager at Silverback Gaming, lifts the lid on the studio’s first crash title and explains why it will hit the market as a social game before being rolled out in the real money format
Silverback’s first crash game is set to hit the market shortly. What more can you tell us about the game ahead of its launch?
We are super excited to launch our first crash game, but the details are a closely guarded secret for now. What I can say is that the design concept is in place, the gameplay has been set, and we are now working on the creative assets. Then it’s just a case of bringing all the elements together. But this being Silverback, it’s not going to be a standard crash game – we are adding plenty of unique twists to take the anticipation and thrills to the next level. We are on track to send the game to Gaming Laboratories International for testing toward the end of March with go-live scheduled for April. The initial roll-out will be in the simulated gaming format with real money to follow.
How will you ensure your crash game stands out in what is an increasingly competitive market?
Players love crash games because of the control they have over the outcome of the game round. They get to choose when to cash out, with experienced players often having their own strategies for deciding the optimal moment to hit the button. It’s this active participation that really gets pulses racing so with our crash game, we are going to be giving players even more control. Crash games generally appeal to players looking to take big risks in return for big rewards, so players will also be able to toggle the risk level to match their preferences. This degree of personalisation and control is simply not offered by the current crash games in the market.
Why did you decide to launch your crash game in the social/simulated gaming format before real-money?
Demand for our simulated gaming content is at an all-time high with many of our partners looking to tap into the huge opportunity the market presents – last year, social gaming was estimated to be worth $12.77bn and is set to hit £23.05bn by 2032. As a provider of both simulated gaming and real money content, it’s our responsibility to provide our partners with the content they need, when they need it. Crash is also perfectly suited to the simulated gaming format – because players can’t win real money, they like to place big bets (with virtual currency) so they can experience the thrill of big wins. This is exactly what crash provides. Of course, we’ll be releasing our crash game in real-money shortly after its debut as a social title.
Has the game been developed for players in a specific market or are you going global with it?
Silverback Gaming is mostly focused on the North American market, although our games are certified in jurisdictions like Malta and Italy. Given our exposure to the US and Canada, we ensure that our games meet player preferences in these markets although they still hit the mark with players in the other jurisdictions where they are offered. The crash format is super initiative and easy to understand, which means crash games can be deployed in most markets, from North America to Europe, Asia and Africa, and very quickly rise to the top of the charts.
Do studios need to have a crash game in their portfolio?
We think so. Studios need to provide the content operators – and their players – are seeking and we are increasingly seeing this demand shift towards non-traditional content. At Silverback, we want to provide our partners with a broad range of content across different formats, and that’s why our portfolio covers slots, table games and now crash, and in both social and real-money formats. Pushing into new formats is also great fun for our designers, sound engineers and developers, and we give them the freedom and flexibility to push the boundaries as that’s how we can ultimately bring new and exciting experiences to players.
What makes crash such an interesting space for studios to move into?
Because the format is relatively new there is huge scope for studios to really play around with it. From themes to mechanics and even elements like control and risk, we are only just scratching the surface of the crash format. If you were to compare crash to slots, we are in the classic phase right now with the video slots phase still to come. This is why we will see an innovation race play out in the crash vertical, with studios looking to be the first to bring something new to the table that then sets the standard for others to follow.
How can operators get the most out of crash games?
It’s still very early days for the crash format so operators do need to educate players as to how these games work and why they are such fun to play. Thought needs to be given to lobby positioning, too. To encourage players to try to crash for the first time, offering a free bets offer works well or letting them play a social version if the game is available in this format. This is part of the reason why we have developed and launched our first crash title in the simulated gaming format.
The post What happens when the worlds of crash and social collide appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
Adam Wilson, CEO at Splash Tech, looks at how operators can best utilise free-to-play (FTP) solutions to drive engagement with their customers.
It is often said that one of the main attractions of sport is the anticipation of the event, even more so than the event itself. How much do FTP games for sportsbooks tap into the buzz around sporting events for fans?
As we saw recently with all the attention paid to Super Bowl in the run-up to the game, people were heavily invested to the extent that even the half-time show became the subject of countless articles in the media and commentary on social channels. Naturally, predicting outcomes for teams and players is a major focus for sports fans worldwide and that is where free-to-play (FTP) games come in for sportsbooks by tapping into the sense of excitement. Combining the lure of free rewards and often big cash prizes with the promise of compelling sporting action definitely creates a perfect storm for marketeers. At Splash Tech, we have the technology and product to create tangible results on the back of pre-game noise, be it in the United States or anywhere else in the world, across all sports.
In terms of technology, across UI/UX, data and other areas, what refinements have you seen that have had a big impact in the way end users interact with FTP games?
Over the years, the FTP vertical has certainly become sophisticated in terms of how slick and engaging games and products are when presented to the end user. The effectiveness of a modern FTP strategy rests on how segmentation is carried out. It is all about rewarding the right user at the right time with the right prize and this is the secret to success.
If we look at dynamic segmentation, player experiences can be tailored to their progress within an operator’s ecosystem. New customers encounter more compelling offers, incentivising initial deposits, while established players experience gamified reward systems, promoting and recognising continued engagement. All incentives are personalised based on player lifetime value, delivering appropriate rewards to each user instantly. By offering players pertinent, timely, and enjoyable games, providers of promotional solutions can significantly boost operator revenue.
You recently struck a deal with Wildz Sports to roll out a series of Daily Predictor and Pick 6 games across a wide range of sports. How do you plan to keep these games fresh and interesting?
Localisation is very important when working with multi-regional partners. You can have the same game types running, but the content has to be tailored to user and regional preferences. With the Wildz Sports deal, we are rolling out game experiences across football, ice hockey, cricket, rugby and all US sports. Naturally, you wouldn’t expect a huge take-up for a cricket-based experience in the United States, but operators have found that it’s a sport that is extremely popular with bettors in other geographies. As such, FTP can play a major role in acquisition and retention in countries and regions that love the sport.
Finally, what is the future direction of FTP games? How can they evolve to become even more seamless and attractive as both acquisition and retention tools?
FTP can and should start at the top of the funnel and follow a user all the way through their journey with a sportsbook or casino. With the data we now have at our disposal, we can trigger real-time game experiences tailored to user preferences, optimised to enhance their loyalty with a brand. Given the diverse preferences of players, a one-size-fits-all approach simply won’t cut it in what is an extremely competitive market. Highly targeted and relevant engagement is crucial for capturing and retaining player attention and neglecting the tools that enable this can be a costly mistake.
The post Splash Tech: How operators can tap into the hype appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
How does the Atlaslive Platform leverage AI to enhance responsible gaming and player protection as a leading B2B iGaming tech provider?
At Atlaslive, we see AI as a game-changer in responsible gaming, offering smarter, data-driven solutions to protect players while empowering operators. Our platform integrates machine learning tools that continuously analyze player activity, detect early signs of risky behavior, and provide personalized interventions—all while maintaining a seamless gaming experience. The goal is to equip operators with proactive tools that support player well-being without unnecessary friction.
Looking ahead, we’re diving deeper into AI’s potential, exploring more advanced profiling techniques to refine risk assessments and deliver interventions that feel intuitive and effective. The responsible gaming landscape is evolving rapidly, and we’re committed to staying ahead, ensuring our solutions meet market demands and regulatory expectations.
AI is also revolutionizing compliance by automating key processes like KYC verification, real-time player monitoring, and reporting. This not only saves operators time but also strengthens regulatory adherence without adding operational complexity. As AI technology continues to advance, it’s clear that its role in responsible gaming will only grow, creating a safer, more responsible, and ultimately fairer gaming ecosystem where both operators and players benefit.
What AI-driven technologies does the Atlaslive Platform use to detect potentially harmful player behaviors?
The Atlaslive Platform uses real-time behavioral analytics powered by AI to detect patterns that may indicate risky player activity. Our system continuously monitors key behavioral signals, such as sudden increases in deposit frequency or unusually long gaming sessions, helping operators identify potential concerns before they escalate.
We leverage advanced machine learning models to refine these detections, ensuring accuracy and minimizing false positives. However, we also prioritize usability—our AI-driven insights are designed to be clear and actionable, allowing operators to intervene at the right time with minimal disruption. It’s about striking the right balance between cutting-edge technology and practical, real-world solutions that enhance player protection.
What are the opportunities and challenges for suppliers and operators when integrating AI into responsible gaming, player engagement, and operational efficiency?
AI presents significant opportunities for both B2B tech providers and operators in iGaming. On the player engagement side, AI-driven personalization is a game-changer. By analyzing real-time player behavior, AI can recommend games, promotions, or responsible gaming interventions tailored to individual habits. Research shows that AI-powered alerts can be highly effective—over 50% of high-risk players who received targeted warnings adjusted their gambling behavior the same day, with 54% continuing to play more responsibly a week later. This level of personalization not only supports safer gaming but also fosters stronger player loyalty by making interactions more relevant and meaningful.
From an operational perspective, AI enhances efficiency across multiple areas. It automates KYC processes, detects fraud, and streamlines resource allocation. Machine learning models can also identify risk patterns—such as sudden spikes in deposits or extended play sessions—and trigger timely interventions, helping operators act proactively rather than reactively.
However, these benefits come with challenges. Transparency remains a key concern, as players increasingly want clarity on how AI-driven decisions impact them. Studies indicate that over 80% of people have concerns about AI transparency, according to research by Jobin et al. Additionally, navigating evolving regulations, such as the EU’s AI Act, requires operators to ensure their AI tools meet strict standards for fairness, privacy, and accuracy.
Ultimately, while AI is reshaping responsible gaming and operational efficiency, success depends on balancing innovation with compliance and building trust with players. The real challenge lies in leveraging AI’s potential while ensuring ethical, transparent, and player-friendly implementation.
What ethical considerations should iGaming operators keep in mind when implementing AI for responsible gaming?
When it comes to using AI for responsible gaming, operators need to understand that it’s about supporting players, not controlling them. Transparency is very important here, and players should know how AI is being used and feel confident that it’s there to help, not to invade their privacy or manipulate their behavior.
It’s also important to keep the human element in mind. While AI can handle a lot of the heavy lifting, like spotting risky patterns or automating interventions, as I mentioned before, operators should make sure there’s still room for empathy and personalized support when it’s needed. AI should complement human oversight, not replace it entirely.
Another consideration is fairness. AI systems need to be designed and monitored to avoid any unintended biases or outcomes that might negatively impact certain groups. I think it is more about creating tools that genuinely protect players while building trust and a sense of fairness in the gaming environment.
How do you see AI shaping the future at Atlaslive, not just in responsible gaming but across your entire iGaming platform?
AI is set to play an even bigger role at Atlaslive, enhancing multiple aspects of our platform beyond responsible gaming. One of the most exciting areas is real-time odds optimization — AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data instantly allows us to adjust odds dynamically based on live events. This makes betting faster, smarter, and more responsive, ensuring that operators can offer the most competitive and accurate odds at any moment.
Another major focus is automated customer care. AI-powered support systems can efficiently handle player queries, from setting limits to finding specific games or resolving account issues. By streamlining these interactions, AI ensures that customer service is not only faster but also more personalized, creating a smoother user experience.
We’re also exploring AI-driven content personalization. By analyzing player preferences and behavioral patterns, AI can recommend games, bonuses, and features that feel uniquely tailored to each user. This level of customization keeps engagement high and makes every interaction on the platform more relevant and immersive.
Ultimately, AI is helping us refine and elevate every part of the iGaming experience, from betting mechanics to customer engagement and operational efficiency. As technology continues to evolve, its role in optimizing both player satisfaction and operator performance will only grow.
About Atlaslive
Atlaslive, formerly known as Atlas-IAC, underwent a rebranding campaign in May 2024. It is a B2B software development company that specializes in creating a multifunctional and automated platform to optimize the workflow of sports betting and casino operators. Key components of the Atlaslive Platform include Sportsbook, Casino, Risk Management and Anti-Fraud Tools, CRM, Bonus Engine, Business Analytics, Payment Systems, and Retail Module. Follow the company on LinkedIn to stay updated with the latest news in iGaming technology.
The post The Future of Responsible Gaming: AI’s Role in Player Protection – Atlaslive’s View appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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