Interviews
European Gaming Streamers Roundtable
Participants
Michael Pedersen, CCO at Livespins
Will Barnes, Owner at Hideous Slots
Bryan Upton, Founder at Lucksome
David Mann, Chief Commercial Officer at Swintt
There is no question that online slot streaming is enjoying a meteoric rise in popularity? What are you doing to leverage the potential it provides?
Michael Pedersen, CCO at Livespins
We have launched an entire company with the sole purpose of leveraging the meteoric rise of online slot streaming, Livespins. For a long time, people have been asking if online casino can be social, but you only have to look to Twitch to see that it absolutely can be. To date, there have been more than 280 million hours of streaming footage consumed in the slots category and the chat is on fire. With the hypothesis well and truly proved, we launched Livespins to take this a step further by allowing players to get in on the action by betting behind the streamer and to also offer operators and developers a reputable, compliant platform via which they too can capitalise on the popularity of streaming. We really are going all-in on this as, ultimately, we believe that it is the future of online casino.
Will Barnes, Owner at Hideous Slots
Hideous Slots was always meant to be about community, and the live streams themselves are really at the core of audience engagement. I consider that streaming and video promotion has already overtaken traditional methods of content discovery amongst key demographics. For me, this means using online streaming to achieve the things that would previously have been achieved elsewhere – for example, remembering to lead viewers to your website through streams, comments and Live Chat has now become just as important as traditional SEO. Working with game providers is becoming more common for streamers – as you’ve said, online slot streaming is massively on the rise, and streamers are now proving to be one of the most direct tools in marketing. But we still need to maintain our integrity and the trust of the audience – so commentary on specific products must always fair and balanced.
Bryan Upton, Founder at Lucksome
Not enough would be the honest answer. We are a small and new studio going through a normal start-up process of improvement, scaling and hitting our rhythm. I would say that we are building Slots that the streaming community would have an affinity for. Voodoo Temple, our latest slot has a lot of punch and enough big wins behind it in the first week of launch to have proven that. This is a starting point at least. Now, for us it’s about getting our games and brand in front of the streamers around the world and letting them do what they do best – play and entertain. We are just starting to push in this direction and learning how this part of the industry is working. With this meteoric rise, has come a premium for streamers’ time, and that is something smaller studios like Lucksome would need to understand in terms of return before taking that cost on. Is there some solid data on this to prove the business case? It would be great to be able to have those discussions, and how to help the younger, innovative studios into the limelight.
David Mann, Chief Commercial Officer at Swintt
I agree that the popularity of slot streaming is increasing every month. And for us, as a slot supplier, it is very important that the streaming community knows about our game releases so they can share our latest titles with their followers. A good relationship with the streamers that share the same culture and beliefs as the studio is key as this ensures they are aware of new games coming to the market. However, it is also important to release games that are liked by the community that follows the streamers, because ultimately big wins are what are people interested in. So high volatility games with high max wins should definitely be a part of the portfolio of anyone who wants to succeed in gaining visibility for their games among streamers and their audiences.
We are seeing some studios build out their own teams of streamers. What are the pros and cons of doing this?
Michael Pedersen, CCO at Livespins
I am a great believer in knowing what you are good at and making that your focus. Game studios are great at developing engaging and entertaining slots and that is where they should deploy their resources. They can then partner with streamers or platforms such as Livespins and get in on the action that way. Of course, this means that streamers and streaming platforms need to be driving progress.
The way I see it, live streaming consists of two parts – the technical and the human. Over time, everyone will nail the technology but because there is such a reliance on the human element this is where the real difference will be made. That is why at Livespins we provide our streamers with access to coaches, props, themes, etc and this is something that studios will struggle to do while also ensuring their games continue to top the charts.
Will Barnes, Owner at Hideous Slots
I think the biggest advantage of building your own team is that you’re going to have complete control over the content. Ultimately the engagement will always be with the individuals on screen and I think this might be difficult to manage if things become successful. The danger will always be that people are tuning in for the influencer and not the brand itself. An associated issue is that social media success often involves interaction across platforms and this can be a 24/7 job. Motivating a team to make personalised social media posts, and to be passionate about your product would be a challenge – especially when competing against streamers who are offering this with ease. To really enjoy success, you need to find someone who is not just passionate about entertaining, but also passionate about engaging with the audience, and passionate about the gambling!
Bryan Upton, Founder at Lucksome
The pros are pretty obvious, if you set up something well, you gain influence and the exposure of your games, which all studios, big and small need and want. It would also create a stream of solid and direct feedback on a segment of the market to allow you to hone your product even more. The cons, personally I think the truly GREAT streamers are not just the ones that are fun to watch but are also authentic and independent. Meaning they play everyone’s games, they play the games they love, the games their audience love. Asking them to play a game they don’t like falls flat on the stream and the watchers feel it. If you have your own streamer set up, you need to make sure what you’re producing in terms of content is spot on for the community you are serving and your streamers really need play other competitor games as well – otherwise you’ll lose the audience. I guess another con is scale. You’ll need a lot of people to tackle those important local markets, Italy, German speaking, Spanish etc etc. In the same way as a provide you try to push your games all over the world, you would want your reach and influence to match. I would say that is out of reach for smaller studios and a different business to that of running a game studio. I think it would be great to see some stronger relationships between streamers and suppliers to produce some great original content and experiences – so there is something to be had there.
David Mann, Chief Commercial Officer at Swintt
I believe studios that build a team of their own streamers lose the legitimacy and trust of the viewers because it is very probable that in-house streamers will not criticise the studios’ games even if they are not up to standard. However, by having your own team of streamers, you a studio can ensure that all of their games are played and see the light of the streaming community. So, there are pros and cons to both, but if studios want to engage and entertain players in an authentic way it is important for streamers to remain independent.
Just how difficult is it to launch streaming channels and build sizable audiences? What are the key challenges faced and how can they be overcome?
Michael Pedersen, CCO at Livespins
Livespins is a very different beast. We are not an affiliate streamer and we do not depend on building large audiences and a loyal community of fans. This is because we integrate directly with an online casino operator and engage with their existing player base. For affiliate streamers, it is insanely difficult to launch a channel and build a sizeable following, and then also convert that following into paying players at partner online casino brands. That is why Livespins is so innovative – it allows operators to capitalise on the popularity of streaming by offering it to their players and by also letting them bet behind the action taking place across the reels.
Will Barnes, Owner at Hideous Slots
Launching a channel comes with a number of challenges, and the most significant challenge is building an audience. Often, finding those first 20-30 viewers comes quite easily – friends, friends of friends, or those who enjoy the high level of engagement that a smaller stream can provide. Again, once you surpass 150-200 viewers, growth is more consistent, as your content is pushed out by YouTube and Twitch organically. But between 30-150 viewers is a real struggle, and I think the quickest way to overcome this hurdle is to try and offer something a bit different, and to keep trying. Keep showing up, keep offering somewhere for people to join together, and hope that eventually these numbers continue to grow. There’s no shortcut to building huge numbers – it’s about being authentic, and if you have something interesting or unique enough, eventually it will pay off.
Bryan Upton, Founder at Lucksome
We are seeing this continued trend in European markets of high volatility game play – but we have hit the ceiling in terms of how much we can push this, factors from high exposure to the Operators and squeezing of margins with very harsh, high risk math profiles are, in my opinion, creating the beginnings of player fatigue and burnout and reticence from the industry. I feel player tastes are settling into a happy medium between the extremes that our industry tends to have an affinity with, with is a good thing. From our side, we continuously have to avoided falling into the noise of all the other game releases, and having something to talk about directly to players and through influencers I think is key. We pride ourselves on being more transparent on the games we’re producing and how they work, as we think it is key to attracting the right players to your games. We keep an eye on new trends in and outside our industry and how we can utilise or jump on them to make better gaming experiences, which is our life blood, as is as adjusting our design processes looking at the new generation of players out there.
David Mann, Chief Commercial Officer at Swintt
This is definitely not the easiest task. You need to be trustworthy, entertaining and stream on a regular basis to gain a sizable audience. But trust is really key here. Viewers follow streamers to see their reactions so during a stream they need to interact with the audience and react to the important moments when they play. Streamers are also trying to help to change the perception of gaming, so it is important to set the key goals when launching a streaming channel. I see it being of huge importance to be a legit streamer and to stay away from adopting the practices of so-called fake streamers.
What tactics are you using to drive growth? Are audience demands changing? If so, how? And what impact is this having on streams?
Michael Pedersen, CCO at Livespins
Because we are coming at live streaming from a B2B perspective, we are driving growth by integrating with more operators and partnering with more slot providers. Audience demands are changing – no longer are players happy sitting at home just spinning the reels. They want to engage and interact with streamers and other players, and they also want to be involved in a more direct way and that is why we offer the option to bet behind.
The quality of streams is going to have to improve, and that is why we offer our streamers coaching and the tools they need to create entertaining environments. I think we will also see players demand more transparency from streamers and ultimately concerns about responsible marketing and safe gambling will probably lead to regulatory oversight. Of course, this is something that has already been built into the Livespins platform.
Will Barnes, Owner at Hideous Slots
As I’ve said previously, I always try to put a unique spin on any content I produce, which in itself can be difficult when working within a niche category. I recognise that a commonality amongst successful influencers is to share as much as possibly – and so I endeavour to put myself out there, engaging with social media at every opportunity. Over time, the audience changes. You bring in new viewers, and you begin to notice some of the older ones drop off – this is natural, but as a result of a changing audience, sometimes we have to move along with content too. Some months our viewers primarily want to see bonus buys, and at another time there may be a demand in the chat for an exciting new release. What endures is the desire to have a say in the content – taking requests from the chat, so we keep this at all times. There’s no denying this has a huge impact on streams – our bonus hunt streams receive the most engagement, especially in terms of live viewers when we open the bonuses we have saved. Often it’s about weighing up what gets the most viewers against the cost of producing the content, and keeping the majority of viewers happy with the decisions made.
David Mann, Chief Commercial Officer at Swintt
To have your game streamed by popular streamers introduces the game to a much wider audience and can bring potential players, therefore we like to team up with the streamers and run promotions together to reward the players for trying out our games. We believe that by doing this it’s fun for the players, streamers, and ourselves as well. The audience loves to see huge wins but at the same time, it is important to keep bets within a realistic range so the streamer can show their followers that they can hit nice multipliers with affordable bets.
Where is slot streaming ultimately headed? And what role will you/your organisation play in pushing the sector towards its ultimate destination?
Michael Pedersen, CCO at Livespins
I touched on it in the last question, but I believe that affiliate slot streamers are heading into troubled waters. It is only a matter of time before regulators, operators and providers in regulated markets and even Twitch distance themselves from some of the more unsustainable practices that we are unfortunately seeing many affiliates adopt today.
For example, many have their gameplay sponsored in some way, but do not always disclose this to their viewers, essentially misleading their community into thinking their often-lavish lifestyle can be afforded due to gambling winnings, which is not the case.
As affiliate streamers have their income strongly correlated with the size of their community, unfortunately, we often see practices like view botting, very large bet amounts and extreme studio behaviour, often engineered to create virality and subsequently, increase their following.
Again, this is where Livespins comes in. We really do not like what we are seeing right now with affiliate streamers on Twitch, and we do not think that it is a sustainable platform or practice in the long term. Of course, the appetite for streaming content is only going to intensify. Livespins is an alternative to this; it is regulated, and all of the streaming and betting is taking place inside a licensed entity. We are also leaving unsustainably large bet amounts behind.
Ultimately, the experience that we offer means that we don’t need to wager irresponsibly to create viral videos that engage audiences and allow us to monetise.
Will Barnes, Owner at Hideous Slots
As time goes on and streaming continues to build in popularity, I think we will only see growth and diversification within video promotion. Even outside of slot streaming, influencers are leading the charge in marketing. Long gone are the days of radio or television advertising driving the majority of sales – nowadays, the endorsement by a trustworthy influencer, can make a real difference. What’s most interesting about this is that for a person to earn that position of trust, they just have to be well known, even if no one is quite sure why they’re well known. I believe slot streaming will go in the same direction.
I think we all play a part in this by continuing to build the streaming community, but on a personal level I’d like to play a role in showing viewers that yes, I advertise a product, and yes I am an ‘influencer’, but I take that position of trust seriously. I want my viewers to know that whether they’ve watched me for a week or for three years, I stand by the things that I say, the content I produce, and the products that I advertise, and I think it’s important that anyone involved in the streaming community shares this goal. Streaming will continue to drive marketing, and it’s up to those of us currently involved to decide how we are viewed in this time.
Bryan Upton, Founder at Lucksome
It’s headed to a more interactive experience with the audience becoming more involved with the stream. New platforms will emerge that will add tools to allow this form of gambling interaction and socialisation. We are a fast-growing industry that is mainstreaming, and now, therefore, I believe can support this level of community that perhaps before would not have been impossible. We hope to be a content partner in this, supplying a core part of the experience, but also meaning that we are aware will may need to look at how to adapt our games design in this direction in the future. Until then we will watch, learn and see where we can add value in what we do best, games.
David Mann, Chief Commercial Officer at Swintt
In my opinion, streaming is undoubtably a very important part of the gaming industry and its future and it will only grow over the coming months and years. I hope that we will see an increase in legit and trustworthy streamers who will help to improve the perception of slots and gaming. Our plan is to release more games that will be liked by the streaming community and to cooperate with the streamers who we believe run their business in the right way.
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Conferences in Europe
Strategies that Scale: Evoplay’s Alex Malchenko on Cracking the Code of Localised iGaming Success
Alex Malchenko, Head of Sales at Evoplay, joins us for an exclusive conversation ahead of HIPTHER’s European Gaming Congress 2025.
Evoplay, proud Pen & Paper Sponsor of this landmark event, continues to pave the way in iGaming with pioneering content, creative game design, and strategic market expansion.
With over a decade of B2B sales experience, Alex has played a lead role in entering regulated territories, forging new Bingo and Lottery partnerships, and launching fresh business directions – making him the ideal voice to explore insights around localising content for different markets: challenges, nuances, and successful strategies.
Alex, with your background scaling new markets and products, what challenges have you encountered with content localisation in the iGaming space?
When we enter or grow in a new market, we look at its own specifics. In some markets, the main challenge is regulation, whether it’s strict certification rules, requirements on game content and promotions, RTP levels, or even small details like how session time is displayed. That’s why we take time to understand the rules, the culture, and what local players actually want.
One good example is our instant game Penalty Shoot-Out: Street, which we created for Brazil and its strong football culture. The challenges there were both technical and regulatory, since Latin American markets often have very different rules. In some countries, just certifying the game isn’t enough — additional RGS and RNG certificates and official confirmations are also required.
On top of that, we had to make sure the gameplay matched what players expected. With Penalty Shoot-Out: Street, we achieved this by combining fast bets, quick results, a familiar theme and the thrill of every goal, and it worked.
Another case is our Hot Triple Sevens, a worldwide-popular slot, which we’ve refreshed with new mechanics like Hold & Win. Then we re-skinned the game to suit different audiences — for example, American Sevens and Fogo do Brasil 777 — to make them resonate more with local styles and tastes.
When games are built with the right themes and mechanics for a specific market, they feel more engaging and relevant to players, which can significantly boost their appeal. That’s why localisation is something we put thought into every time, learning from experience, working with partners, testing locally and improving as we go.
When it comes to Evoplay approaching localisation for a new market, what are the first strategic frameworks or priorities you put in place?
In short: regulation, communication with partners, and understanding players. When entering a new market, we carefully study all aspects, analyse the situation, and build a strategy. This includes legal, commercial, marketing and financial components, among others. Of course, for a complete picture, we also look at competitors’ experience, talk extensively with local participants, and study players — sometimes launching special campaigns independently, sometimes in collaboration with partners.
In this regard, Evoplay has made significant progress this year, reaching a new level. To support this approach, we also run campaigns that help us better understand players and their preferences. For example, the Oath of Steel campaign with SlotsCalendar, featuring a shared prize pool, invited players to take part and share their feedback, which we looked at thoughtfully. Similarly, we worked on a joint game with SlotCatalog, drawing on insights from their player preference analytics. Initiatives like this give us a better sense of what players enjoy and help us shape our games for different audiences, supporting our broader approach when entering or growing in new markets.
Could you share an example where you had to adapt a game significantly – theme, mechanics, or language – to resonate with local players? What were the specific market nuances you had to tune into?
In our business, every game must meet regulatory requirements, and it’s normal that adapting a game for a specific market requires some extra adjustments. A good example of this is the lottery vertical, which is quite different from standard iGaming. In our business, every game must meet regulatory requirements, and it’s normal that adapting a game for a specific market requires some extra adjustments. A good example of this is the lottery vertical, which is quite different from iGaming. Here, we need to follow particular rules regarding content and promotions, along with other market-specific restrictions.
Other bright examples of our games adapted to local markets include mythology-inspired hits like Temple of Thunder II Bonus Buy and Roman Rule, as well as the previously mentioned American Sevens and Penalty Shoot-Out: Street. These games work well because everything comes together — the theme clicks with players, the visuals fit the concept, and the mechanics are engaging. I’d also highlight the simplicity of the games and their user-friendly UX/UI, which players appreciate no matter the region.
Operating in regulated markets obviously adds complexity. How do you strike the balance between compliance (e.g., legal, cultural mandates) and maintaining the brand’s creative integrity during localisation?
In situations like this, branded games are a good approach. Creating them involves working closely with partners, discussing details such as logos and technical settings like RTP or bet ranges.
At the same time, we like to experiment with small creative touches to see what really clicks with players. A good example is The Easter Catch slot, an updated version of our worldwide popular The Greatest Catch, especially designed for the Easter holidays. Taking this approach keeps the game flexible, meets legal and cultural requirements, and still feels like our brand. Tailoring it for the partner and their audience also makes the game more engaging and usually leads to better performance.
You’ve been instrumental in forging Bingo and Lottery partnerships. How does localisation differ when tailoring for those verticals versus standard casino-style titles?
First of all, I want to emphasise that Bingo and Lottery are quite different from standard iGaming. These are established verticals with their own history, unique communities, and regulatory features. The lottery market is also largely monopolised and moves at a slower pace compared to the fast-moving world of iGaming.
Some online lotteries, while offering more dynamic and engaging experiences than paper versions or traditional online formats, are subject to many restrictions. For example, design themes common in slots are often prohibited, RTP requirements differ, and other regulatory rules apply.
When it comes to trends in this area, the World Lottery Association sets the pace, and other lotteries tend to follow their lead.
Evoplay entered this sector to bring a fresh, innovative perspective, showing how classic games can be reimagined for a new generation of players and enthusiasts seeking new experiences. The projects we’re currently developing here hold great promise and add a fresh spark to this traditional space.
Thank you, Alex, for walking us through Evoplay’s thoughtful approach to content localisation and the art of balancing strategy with respect for local flavor. We can’t wait to hear more from you and other industry leaders live at the European Gaming Congress 2025.
Join us at the European Gaming Congress 2025 | 30–31 October | Warsaw
The post Strategies that Scale: Evoplay’s Alex Malchenko on Cracking the Code of Localised iGaming Success appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
You’re the Founder and CTO of AmaraTech—what inspired you to start the company, and how has your journey shaped where you are today?
Our Story: Technology Innovation Born from Purpose:
AmaraTech IT Solutions, founded in 2020 in the Washington, DC metro area and expanding strategically into Africa, dedicated to transforming communities through technology. Our journey began with a profound experience in Liberia, a country riddled by 14 years of brutal civil war, witnessed the limitations on human potential and economic growth due to inadequate technology infrastructure. This experience sparked a deep commitment to making advanced technology accessible for all, enabling organizations to flourish amid challenges. We truly believe in technology’s amazing ability to empower and transform communities everywhere.
Intro Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wstteIwaSKk
What’s one big lesson you’ve learned as a founder that you wish you knew earlier?
Learning to say no as a founder is one of the most critical yet counterintuitive skills for startup success. The natural instinct is to say yes to every opportunity, partnership, feature request, and meetings, but this creates resource dilution, product confusion, and team fatigue that ultimately kills focus and progress. Startups with limited time, money, and energy must recognize that every “yes” is an implicit “no” to something else, and that niche dominance beats broad mediocrity. The cost of learning this lesson late includes providing so many products that confuse users, burning resources on low-impact initiatives, and missing opportunities in core focus areas. Successful founders develop “hell yes” criteria, create decision frameworks, practice graceful declines, and conduct regular priority audits to maintain laser focus. The paradox is powerful: saying no to more opportunities allows you to say a much bigger yes to what truly matters, creating clearer product vision, stronger team alignment, better resource utilization, and ultimately more fundable and successful business.
In your view, what makes great managed services today—and how do you bring that to life in the work you do?
At AmaraTech, we believe great managed services today go far beyond traditional IT support—they require proactive, AI-driven cybersecurity intelligence tool that prevents threats before they impact business operations. We deliver this through our integrated ecosystem approach, where cutting-edge threat detection, cloud infrastructure, and business applications work seamlessly together under 24/7 SOC monitoring. What sets AmaraTech apart is our commitment to being true strategic partners: we develop deep industry expertise to understand each client’s unique compliance requirements and operational challenges, then translate our technical capabilities into measurable business outcomes like revenue protection and competitive advantage.
Through transparent reporting, continuous innovation with leading cybersecurity vendors, and flexible engagement models that scale with growth, we don’t just manage technology—we architect security-first solutions that drive business success. When you partner with AmaraTech, you’re not getting a vendor; you’re gaining a cybersecurity-focused technology advisor dedicated to keeping your business protected, compliant, and positioned for innovation in an increasingly complex threat landscape. My passion for helping organizations embrace progressive technology drives successful business transformation and seamless technology integration, positioning our company as a leader in next-generation cybersecurity solutions.
Do you see any gaps in the tech industry that you think more companies should be addressing?
The cybersecurity industry urgently needs to develop AI-native security frameworks that can match the speed and sophistication of AI-powered attacks, which are scaling exponentially while traditional defenses remain linear. Current cybersecurity frameworks are built on reactive, signature-based models that cannot adapt fast enough to counter AI-generated attack variations, creating dangerous gaps in real-time threat response.
The industry must prioritize developing adaptive security architectures that integrate human expertise with AI-driven defense systems, democratize advanced security tools for organizations of all sizes, and establish rapid threat intelligence sharing networks that operate at machine speed. At AmaraTech, we’re addressing these framework gaps by building AI-enhanced security operations that evolve with threat patterns, making enterprise-grade adaptive defenses accessible through managed services, and creating collaborative intelligence systems that amplify human analyst capabilities rather than replacing them. The critical challenge is shifting from traditional periodic security updates to continuous, proactive AI-native frameworks that can defend against tomorrow’s threats today—because the window for reactive cybersecurity approaches is rapidly closing in an AI-accelerated threat landscape.
How do you keep up with the fast-changing tech landscape—especially when it comes to things like cybersecurity, compliance, or AI?
As cybersecurity threats evolve at unprecedented speed with AI-powered attacks and constantly shifting compliance requirements, AmaraTech maintains its competitive edge through a comprehensive intelligence ecosystem that combines strategic vendor partnerships, real-time threat monitoring through our Security Operations, and active participation in threat intelligence sharing communities. Our team maintains cutting-edge certifications while operating hands-on testing labs for emerging AI security technologies, ensuring we can rapidly assess, deploy, and scale new defensive measures across our client portfolio within hours of threat emergence. This systematic approach to continuous learning—from regulatory compliance partnerships to client-driven insights and internal knowledge sharing—positions us as a proactive cybersecurity advisor who anticipates and prepares for threats before they impact business operations. While many MSPs react to security incidents, our commitment to staying ahead of the threat landscape through multi-layered intelligence gathering and rapid adaptation capabilities ensures our clients receive protection against both current attacks and tomorrow’s emerging cyber challenges, making cybersecurity readiness a competitive advantage rather than a reactive necessity. It enables organizations to thrive in our increasingly connected, threat-aware digital landscape by fostering inclusive partnerships that bridge technology gaps and accelerate innovation adoption across diverse business sectors.
What’s coming up next for you and AmaraTech—any big plans, goals, or ideas you’re excited to roll out?
I’m currently leading the development of a groundbreaking AI-powered cybersecurity platform designed to revolutionize security management for businesses and organizations through advanced technology integration and intelligent automation. This comprehensive solution leverages custom AI models built on cutting-edge large language models to enhance user interaction and automate complex security workflows, delivering protection through a dual-module architecture. The platform combines systematic Vulnerability Management—featuring automated assessment, structured remediation workflows, and continuous monitoring capabilities—with advanced Threat Intelligence that generates operation-specific insights tailored to each organization’s unique risk profile, industry sector, and business context. By delivering actionable threat intelligence for informed risk assessment and strategic remediation planning, this innovation empowers organizations to systematically identify, prioritize, and address security risks while maintaining regulatory compliance, ultimately improving overall security posture and delivering personalized cybersecurity experiences that create measurable business value across diverse client platforms.
The post HIPTHER Community Voices: Alieu Kamara – Founder and CTO of AmaraTech appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
It’s not just black and white label
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Wiztech, says white labels are all about striking the balance between pros and cons, but for some, it’s impossible to achieve and that’s why it’s important to consider other options.
For most operators, a white label solution seems to offer the best route to market. But is that actually the case?
I’ve been working in the industry for more than two decades now, and over that time, I’ve worked on both sides of the fence – so on the white label operator side and on the white label provider side. This gives me a deep understanding of the pros and cons of white label solutions, and this understanding ultimately led me to launch Wiztech. To answer your question more directly, white labels are always about striking the balance between the pros and cons they present – for some operators, a balance can be found, but for others, it can’t. Ultimately, it comes down to knowing what you want from your platform or technology stack, and whether a white label can meet those requirements with the budget and resources you have available to you.
So, what are the pros and cons of a white label platform?
There are plenty of upsides to white labels, and that’s why they’re used by so many operators. The main advantages are speed to market and cost effectiveness – you can literally go from first discussions to your online casino being live in a matter of weeks. The upfront fees are relatively small, and, in most cases, you pay a revenue share back to the platform provider. This can tighten margins a little, but it means you don’t have to have a large capital reserve to get going. Another benefit is that you can take on as much or as little of the operation as you like – for some, they will let the platform provider take care of the operational aspect while they focus solely on marketing and customer acquisition. Other upsides include licensing, with the white label partner securing and being responsible for the licences they hold.
Drawbacks. The biggest for me is the lack of differentiation you get with a white label. The many brands that run on the platform often look very much the same, just with different logos and branding. After a few months of operating your online casino, you’ll likely notice friction points that you’ll want to address, but the rigid nature of white-label platforms means it’s incredibly difficult to smooth out even the smallest of bumps in the road. It’s also incredibly difficult to roll out unique features and functionality as the development team is usually working through a backlog of requests – most of which are for the friction bumps that need ironing out. Factor in the frequent regulatory changes that happen, and the need for the development team to respond to them, and it’s easy to see how hard it can be to improve the experience being offered to players.
How can operators strike a balance between the pros and cons of white labels?
It comes down to understanding the capabilities of the platform provider and whether they offer customisation and localisation. If they don’t, the operator needs to determine if this is a price they’re willing to pay in exchange for the speed to market and cost effectiveness that white labels provide. Of course, some white label providers do offer support and are happy to help when it comes to developing and deploying bespoke features and functionality. But in my experience, most don’t have the capacity for this, even if they say they do. For me, the balance is found by accepting the limitations of white labels and working within the (often pretty rigid framework) they provide. There are plenty of examples of operators that have done this and have gone on to run very successful brands in highly competitive markets.
Is there an alternative to white labels?
The most obvious alternative is to develop a proprietary technology stack, but this approach comes with just as many, if not more, pitfalls. Building a platform from the ground up is incredibly expensive and tremendously risky, and this is why so few operators outside of the industry power players have been able to pull it off. And even those that do often encounter issues such as ongoing maintenance, tech debt, staffing and compliance. But there is a middle ground between white label and proprietary, and it can be found with smaller platform providers whose technologies offer the agility, flexibility and adaptability required for operators to launch highly customised, almost bespoke, online casinos and sportsbooks.
How does Wiztech fit into the platform mix, and how do you support your partners in achieving their goals in often highly competitive markets?
At Wiztech, we champion modular tech and the likes of AI and automation. By embracing these, we have been able to build powerful yet highly customisable casino and sportsbook solutions that are also fully compliant in tightly regulated markets. In our experience, being able to quickly respond to regulatory changes provides a competitive advantage to our customers. In Mexico, for example, our client Winpot has been able to deliver a unique player experience while always ensuring compliance. And this is against a backdrop where regulatory changes often come with very little notice. Our technology can adapt quickly while Winpot continues to capitalise on the growing demand for entertaining online casino products and experiences.
But just as important as our technology is our approach to our partners. This sees us undertake a comprehensive onboarding process where we spend a lot of time understanding the client’s “why” before we map out the “what” and the “how”. This has proved to be incredibly effective and ensures that our clients can get the most out of the flexibility of our platform and the high levels of customisation and personalisation it provides.
The post The White Label Dilemma: Finding the Right Balance for Your iGaming Business appeared first on Gaming and Gambling Industry in the Americas.
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