Jogo Global is one of the industry’s newest suppliers and is already making a name for itself. In the past month, the emerging platform provider and casino content developer announced two high-profile appointments, which highlighted the strong ambitions the company has for its future operations. Cashcade and Gaming Realms co-founder Simon Collins has become its new chairman, while the highly experienced Robb Vecchio joined as Managing Director of Jogo Global US.

Gaming Americas caught up with Robb Vecchio to understand more about what exactly Jogo Global has to offer and the company’s strategic plans for the US market.

Congratulations on your new role at Jogo Global US, Robb. What will be your initial focus over the coming months?

I’m really excited to have joined such an ambitious company. My key focus is to build the brand awareness of Jogo Global within the US casino industry and educate businesses about how our content, platforms and services will drive business growth. I’m very confident we have all the right assets and resources, and know we have a very talented team of highly experienced individuals that are developing quality products. I will be sure to tap into my digital rolodex over the coming months, as there’s a massive opportunity right now in the US as the landscape shifts from the land-based to online. We are in a unique position as a global omnichannel gaming company providing a wide range of services.

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What are the types of services that Jogo Global offers in the US right now?

We can offer bespoke solutions, something that a lot of the main organizations within the industry cannot offer right now. Given that we’re a nimble and agile company, we can provide a personalised service and deliver a product that truly meets a customer’s requirements, which is very rare these days.

The localized approach is something I learned during my time at Video Gaming Technology (VGT). We successfully introduced a new foreign subsidiary, VGT Mexico, and turned it into a multi-million nationwide enterprise. That was very much driven by a localized product for the market’s needs. At Jogo, we have that ability at scale to develop bespoke content and platforms for our partners that match their individual requirements.

What can Jogo Global offer that’s different to what’s already available in the market, particularly compared to the main suppliers?

Having a scalable business is very important, even for start-ups. Companies want to know that a third-party provider can match their expectations and deliver a reliable service. We can prove that our offering is scalable to prospective new clients, which has been a driving force behind Jogo Global securing new commercial agreements both in the UK and US, which hopefully will be announced very soon. References and new customer wins are going to be key to truly establish ourselves as a business that is going places. Word of mouth is hugely valuable in helping a young company to position itself in the marketplace.

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Secondly, our creative solutions have impressed a number of organizations that we’ve engaged with already. The unique overlay that our solutions can offer to their existing ecosystem is something that is highly advantageous to them.

Close relationships are key and that’s an area we’ll be working hard on to ensure partners get the best possible service. Those deep-seeded partnerships, almost like a family, go along way in this industry and help take a start-up to the next level.

In the US we’re seeing the digital iGaming industry accelerating at warp speed. Given your background in the land-based environment, how are you looking to support those companies in translating their content for online?

There’s a lot of potential in the legalized jurisdictions of both land-based and online gaming, particularly in the Class II category, which requires games to be associated as a form of bingo. Class II machines are heavily prominent in the Native American properties, and there’s an opportunity to adapt that type of content for online use.

Digital gaming has certainly grown, especially as Covid-19 forced venues to shut down and players naturally migrated to online sites. Online activity is likely to double over the next 12 months, and I think in the near future we’ll see smaller land-based casinos as a result, which only showcase the brand and top games, but eventually lead players to their online and mobile offering.

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Can you give us an insight into your new business targets for the next few months?

Here in the US, we think more can be done to provide a better service to the tier 2 operators. Most of these operators aren’t being looked after properly, certainly when you compare the support that UK and European companies of a similar size receive from their suppliers, along with the big players in the industry. We have a great opportunity to showcase how nimble we are as a business and be more attentive to operators in their everyday needs. We look forward to maintaining our momentum and interest generated by attending the recent NIGA Conference and carrying it forward to the upcoming OIGA Conference later this month.