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NSoft story: Passion and motivation behind Virtual Penalty Shootout
Virtual Penalty Shootout celebrated its first birthday. Officially, the game was released on September 30, 2020, and instantly captured the attention of both – operators and players.
The expert community has also recognized the uniqueness and the beauty of the game by shortlisting it for the Global Gaming Award 2021 in the category Product Launch of the Year. Recently NSoft received seven nominations for the SBC Awards Latinoamerica 2021. Among others, we are shortlisted in the category Virtual Sports Supplier. The application for this award has leaned heavily on the Virtual Penalty Shootout game.
To celebrate all those milestones, we decided to tell a different story about Virtual Penalty Shootout game. We will not talk about the RNG, betting markets, how-to-play but let people who created the game say a word or two about passion, excitement and dedication.
By Amela Dedić and Biljana Haljevac, Senior 3D Artists/Animators
The team
Great teams and great ideas are all about people and the working atmosphere. We at NSoft’s former 3D Games Team, now 3D Creative Team were lucky to found each and we just can’t start this story without saying thank-you to former and current team members: Jasmin Ličina – Senior 3D artist/Team lead, Dragan Grbavac – Senior 3D artist, Dejan Boras – Senior Unity dev, Zlatko Vukšić – Senior Unity dev, Adnan Mujkić – Unity Dev, Dragan Rezo – Senior 3D Artist, Stojan Cvitković – Senior 3D Artist, Toni Matej Radoš – Senior 3D Artist. In this story, “we” are Biljana Haljevac – Senior 3D Animator and Amela Dedić – Senior 3D Animator. We are the one who will take you behind the scene of Virtual Penalty Shootout.
Our Team’s job is to develop Virtual betting games such as Virtual greyhound and horse races, Motorcycle Speedway, etc.
New Project – Virtual Penalty Shootout
The virtual penalty shootout was the most challenging project we’ve worked on. It allowed us to learn and try new things such as Motion capture. Our first job was to figure out the best way for our small team to make such a big virtual game. The biggest challenge was the animation process. We needed a large number of highly realistic animations, and the best solution for that problem was a Motion Capture system. Our choice was a company from Sweden named Rokoko and their WiFi motion capture suit – The Smartsuit Pro.
After we placed our order for the suit, the waiting time was used to go “back to school” and research making of other elements of the game such as character and venue design and creation, MoCap animation recording and cleanup, new software, and game rules. Our best friends were Pluralsight and LinkedIn Learning.
The Arrival- Smartsuit Pro is in the town
The arrival of the Smartsuit Pro was the most joyful occasion. Also, the day when our colleague Toni officially became the resident MoCap test talent.
Since our open office was not suited for a proper MoCap test, our first pick was local park. Awesome place, beautiful weather, but just one problem: electricity was really hard to find. A better-suited place was found for proper test and future motion capture sessions. The Local Futsal field had everything we needed.
MoCap Time!
Following initial tests, we felt confident enough to start official motion capture sessions. The first step was planning and creating MoCap sheets for each motion capture session.
Our motion capture crew was small but efficient: Toni Matej Radoš – Test talent & Talent Manager, Biljana Haljevac – Reference Cameras and Amela Dedić – Rokoko Studio, MoCap Sheet. And our Talents, real-life football players, who without this would not be possible: Fedja Kulenić (goalkeeper) and Ivan Arapović (player).
Since we have only one suit, Goalkeeper and Player animations were recorded separately. Because of that, we had to be very careful during the planning process so the respective animations could match. We were a bit worried about the Goalkeeper’s recording sessions, taking into consideration the nature of football goalkeeping movements. To make everything easier we relocated Goalkeeper’s MoCap sessions to the local Judo club with a soft tatami mat surface. We had 3 recording sessions and each was 3 hours long. That gave us 137 raw animations. We were aware that not every MoCap take will be successful or 100% accurate, we made sure that every take was also recorded with our reference cameras.
Animation Cleanup
The entire process of cleanup was done in Maya and Motionbuilder using the HumanIK system. Most of the work was root motion corrections, foot slides, and arms fixes. The final part of the cleanup was merging the animations of Player and Goalkeeper into one take and making sure that the timing fits perfectly for each take.
The ball movement was a mix of keyframed animation and Unity physics.
Visuals & Final Render
Cleanup done. Next: Dressing up. The entire time of animation cleanup our player and goalkeeper rigs were dressed in nothing but their birthday suit. That caused a lot of funny looks from our other coworkers. But fear not! Our 3D artist Dragan Rezo was on the task of dressing them up for their final render.
Visuals & Final Render
Cleanup done. Next: Dressing up. The entire time of animation cleanup our player and goalkeeper rigs were dressed in nothing but their birthday suit. That caused a lot of funny looks from our other coworkers. But fear not! Our 3D artist Dragan Rezo was on the task of dressing them up for their final render.
Every visual element of the game can be easily changed. Character appearance, jerseys, crowd, banners. All this can be altered according to the client’s requirements. We had a test client request just to see how much time would be needed for all the changes and rendering.
- Lions on background video banners
- Goalkeeper jersey with leopard pattern and panther head as front logo
- Penalty taker with a red jersey and white sun on blue background (Taiwanese flag) as a front logo. Number 88 on the back and name “Tigers” above it
- Additional but not requested, all resolve screens translated to mandarin
Final words
Almost nobody was injured during the making of the game. Our Goalkeeper had some bruises from the suit’s sensors, and we almost had a heart attack when our suit had a minor malfunction.
All jokes aside, our small team is very proud to have managed to complete such a large project, learn a bunch of new things in the process, and use Motion capture technology. It was an awesome experience from start to finish.
In the end, we would like you to take a look at our little video presentation of the Motion capture animation process.
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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.
| “Working with several brands at the same time gave the team much greater flexibility. Whenever one product started losing performance, we could quickly redirect traffic to another brand without interrupting our buying activity,” explained Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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.
| “Regular data sharing allowed us to detect changes almost immediately. We didn’t wait until the end of the week, we adjusted offers, budgets, and creatives as soon as we saw a consistent performance signal,” noted Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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.
| “The ability to compare several brands simultaneously played a crucial role. Whenever statistics indicated a decline in traffic quality, we suggested another product or reallocated the budget. This helped maintain acquisition momentum without relying on a single offer,” commented Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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.
| “The decision was based on more than just the number of deposits. We also evaluated player LTV and repeated activity. After reallocating the budget, profitability increased, and further scaling became much more stable,” said Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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
- 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.
- 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!
The post FB Success Story +155% FTD, 135% ROI appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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.
| “Working with several brands at the same time gave the team much greater flexibility. Whenever one product started losing performance, we could quickly redirect traffic to another brand without interrupting our buying activity,” explained Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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.
| “Regular data sharing allowed us to detect changes almost immediately. We didn’t wait until the end of the week, we adjusted offers, budgets, and creatives as soon as we saw a consistent performance signal,” noted Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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.
| “The ability to compare several brands simultaneously played a crucial role. Whenever statistics indicated a decline in traffic quality, we suggested another product or reallocated the budget. This helped maintain acquisition momentum without relying on a single offer,” commented Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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.
| “The decision was based on more than just the number of deposits. We also evaluated player LTV and repeated activity. After reallocating the budget, profitability increased, and further scaling became much more stable,” said Polina Bogatko, Affiliate Manager N1 Partners. |
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
- 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.
- 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!
The post FB Success Story +155% FTD, 135% ROI appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
The updated slot launches on Lottomart for UK players on 23rd July with a new bonus wheel and higher max win.
Blueprint Gaming is releasing an upgraded version of Super Graphics Upside Down exclusively on Lottomart from 23rd July, giving Lottomart’s UK players early access to the title.
Originally launched in 2021, Super Graphics Upside Down is being re-released with a new bonus wheel feature and an increased max win potential, rising from 250X to 3000X, according to the companies.
Chris Ruddock, Commercial Director at Lottomart, said:
“Securing an early release exclusive on the new Super Graphics Upside Down is another exciting milestone for Lottomart. Blueprint Gaming has upgraded a fantastic game with engaging new features and bigger win potential, and we’re delighted to offer this game exclusively to our UK players.”
Elliott Kyne, Account Manager at Blueprint Gaming, said:
“We’re delighted to support Lottomart with the exclusive UK launch of Super Graphics Upside Down. It’s also pleasing to see our partnership continue to go from strength to strength, and Lottomart’s impressive growth and UK focus has made them a match made in heaven for Blueprint’s content. We’re SUPER excited to bring this latest release to their players.”
The companies said the launch is part of their ongoing partnership, with Blueprint Gaming providing exclusive content as Lottomart expands its UK presence.
The post Blueprint Gaming upgrades Super Graphics Upside Down for Lottomart exclusive appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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