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Why studios need to promote their games

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Elliott Resnick, Head of First Look Games, says that due to the highly competitive nature of the industry studios need to get their games in front of players if they are to succeed in the long term

Slot studios are fighting for operator attention in a highly competitive marketplace. There are literally hundreds of developers pushing thousands of games with endless new titles launching every month. So being heard above the noise made by rivals is a vital key to success.

Developers also face fierce competition when it comes to directing players to their games. Operator lobbies are stocked with thousands of titles, with game positioning often the difference between whether a title sinks or swims.

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But what if affiliates could not only fulfil their traditional objective of new traffic to operators but also drive awareness of a studio’s content and have players specifically look for the game regardless of where they are positioned in casino lobbies?

To do this, studios must promote their games to players as well as operators, but that isn’t easy given developers take a small proportion of the revenues made on their slots. Above-the-line marketing is simply not an option for the majority of studios, so they have to look to other ways of gaining the attention of operators and players.

But due to the expensive nature of traditional game development, and the time it can take to bring a slot from concept to market (this can take anywhere from four to twelve months) studios must not leave game discovery to chance and instead proactively promote each of their most anticipated titles.

It is also important for studios to provide operators with easy access to information and assets about their games, not just for the purpose of selling their titles but also for other areas such as inclusion in the operator’s marketing and CRM. Without this, developers are missing the final but crucial step in launching their game – which is proactively letting players know about it.

This has led several studios to partner with slot streamers but while that now hangs in the balance pending Twitch’s upcoming announcement on 18 October, others are leveraging the incredible reach that traditional affiliates can provide. But striking partnerships with publishers can be labour intensive – something that already stretched teams have little time to dedicate to unless they hire someone dedicated to affiliate outreach pretty much full-time.

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That is where First Look Games comes in, providing the world’s first platform that directly connects studios with all registered affiliates in the iGaming space who regularly craft detailed new game reviews designed to generate referrals to one or more online casino partner.

A publisher’s access to First Look Games is free, allowing all game studios to deploy finished/approved creative packs direct to an entire affiliate community within minutes. It puts the power in the developer’s hands, giving them control over the information and assets they share, and when they share them.

Affiliate marketing allows studios of all sizes to put their games in front of players and potentially build anticipation around future releases. For established studios that have highly sought-after content coming, affiliate marketing can drive large numbers of reviews along with significant awareness that a new game is set to land. For small studios starting out, it can make a difference between being prioritised for an operator integration or being left out. For those in the growth phase, game promotion can assist with realising greater ROI.

Studios can additionally use the feedback they receive from affiliate game reviews to guide future slot development by understanding what has and has not hit the mark with the player community. This feedback is incredibly valuable.

What’s more, affiliates are very cost-effective when compared to other forms of B2C marketing and can help studios to reverse engineer interest in their games where reviews are strong and the audience has a clear appetite for their content.

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But right now, studios are not maximising the potential that affiliates provide. The studio-affiliate relationship is still relatively new which is why this marketing channel can be overlooked in terms of the value it can deliver.

First Look Games has been designed to do much of the heavy lifting on behalf of the studio, providing them with access to more than 800 approved publishers with their combined reach being more than 20 million players around the world.

Studios simply upload game information and assets to their dedicated library, and then our network of approved affiliates can access these files and use them to produce content such as game reviews or video content. The entire platform has been designed to be easy to use by any member of a studio’s team.

Despite this, we often find the studios do not know where to position us within their business – sometimes we are seen as a marketing resource, other times as a tool to support the commercial team. We can be both, but it shows just how new this area of game promotion is.

Over time this will change, especially when studios start to see the incredible success their rivals are having in the affiliate space by unlocking more of the potential in their games.

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Getting any title in front of more of the right people is simply good business and in such a competitive market, that can be the difference between a studio succeeding or failing.

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Compliance Updates

EGARA & CityMaaS Launch First Gambling-Focused Accessibility Toolkit Ahead of June Compliance Deadline

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Digital accessibility has become a legal, reputational, and operational risk that gambling operators can no longer afford to ignore. With less than three months until EU Member States must begin enforcing national laws implementing the European Accessibility Act (EAA), gambling industry stakeholders face a fast-approaching compliance challenge.

Failure to meet accessibility requirements could expose operators to financial penalties, enforcement action, public scrutiny, and consumer litigation—especially if key features like responsible gaming tools are not accessible to all users. We’ve already seen how this can unfold in the United States, where thousands of lawsuits have been filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act against digital platforms, including online gambling operators.

In response, gambling advisory firm EGARA and accessibility technology and certification provider CityMaaS have announced a strategic partnership to deliver the first-ever accessibility solution tailored to gambling operators by combining their respective fields of expertise.

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This includes accessibility audits, product integration support, certification, and staff training—all delivered with a deep understanding of the unique demands and risks faced by licensed operators in highly regulated gaming markets. It addresses a long-overlooked risk area that also ties directly into responsible gaming, fairness, and user protection.

Key highlights of the EGARA x CityMaaS Partnership:

  • Readiness check: The partnership between EGARA and CityMaaS offers operators a readiness check and manual to implement across their business.
  • Certification: The partnership offers operators a solution to certify their accessibility offering. This will prove highly important for operators as several gambling regulators have confirmed the regulations are in scope and are already themselves being called to action by accessibility enforcement bodies.
  • Audit function: The partnership offers a tailored auditing, reviewing platforms’ accessibility offering, ensuring they reach more customers, more effectively in line with the projected regulations, while ensuring critical features like responsible gaming tools are available to everyone with fairness, transparency and actual protection of all groups.
  • ESG and Responsible Leadership: The collaboration offers bespoke advice and training to ensure operators lead— and not just comply—by embedding fairness and inclusion into the core of digital player experiences across all offerings including websites and customer service functions.
  • Technical Solution: CityMaaS’s technology incorporates the latest advancements in accessibility, providing a robust and reliable solution for EGARA’s clients in the gambling industry.

Operators and platform providers can begin accessibility readiness assessments now: www.egara.co/contact-us.

Jessica Maier, Co-founder of EGARA said: “Despite its transformative potential to harmonize accessibility standards across the EU, the European Accessibility Act has surprisingly remained underdiscussed within our sector, leaving many organisations unprepared for its imminent impact. Through our partnership with CityMaaS, we’re enabling operators to rapidly close any existing gaps to reduce legal and reputational risk, and ultimately make gambling platforms more inclusive and sustainable, bolstering responsible gaming efforts and providing opportunity for sustainable growth.

“CityMaaS is thrilled to collaborate with EGARA to bring our state-of-the-art accessibility solutions to the gambling sector. Together, we are setting a new standard for accessibility and user experience,” said Rene Perkins, CEO of CityMaaS.

The post EGARA & CityMaaS Launch First Gambling-Focused Accessibility Toolkit Ahead of June Compliance Deadline appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Slotsjudge Teams Up with Bullshark Games to Deliver Fair iGaming Experience

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Slotsjudge and Bullshark Games, a slots game provider, join forces to bring players even more exciting high-tech games.

With Bullshark Games, we will deliver even more valuable reviews and in-depth analyses of the studio’s latest slot releases. Slotjudge’s goal remains to help players discover reliable games through relevant, verified, and easy-to-follow guidance.

This partnership is great news for players seeking fresh and trendy games with unique twists. Bullshark Games offers an impressive range of slots known for creative mechanics and top-notch performance across all popular platforms. Additionally, each title benefits from Bullshark’s fairness system and Hacksaw Open RGS technology, facilitating trustworthy and well-balanced outcomes. For Slotsjudge users, this collaboration means access to even more new slots that combine excitement with reliability.

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Andre Villandberg, CEO and Founder of Bullshark Games, shared his thoughts: “We are really pleased to have partnered with Slotsjudge. Bullshark Games is growing at a great pace, and the support of leading affiliates really helps facilitate that growth. We look forward to some exciting collaborations in the not-so-distant future!”

Looking ahead, Slotsjudge intends to keep delivering detailed slot reviews, exclusive interviews, and potentially even blog content along with other exciting new features.

Jekaterina Dubnicka, Head of Marketing and Communications at Slotsjudge, also commented: “Working with Bullshark Games is an exciting step for us. Their creative approach and strategic vision align perfectly with what our audience expects — trustworthy, innovative, and high-end gaming experiences.”

The post Slotsjudge Teams Up with Bullshark Games to Deliver Fair iGaming Experience appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Cosmic Collaboration of TotoGaming and Pragmatic Play

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Motivating and Result-Oriented Challenges

On March 4, 2025, TotoGaming launched Journey to the Galaxy, a game developed in collaboration with leading content supplier Pragmatic Play. The game’s creation story is about more than just a partnership.

In 2024, Pragmatic Play announced a competition for licensed operators in the Armenian market, awarding points for completing challenges designed to boost player engagement. The prize was an exclusive bespoke game tailored to the operator’s precise requirements.

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“For TotoGaming’s team, this was an exciting opportunity to test our skills. Although our brand has been in the market for 20 years, we love participating in competitions and setting new challenges for ourselves. Pragmatic Play’s competition was exactly that. Our team spent months developing creative marketing campaigns and coming up with innovative approaches. The result is TotoGaming’s victory, which was truly inspiring,” says Victorya Harutyunyan, Head of Product Marketing Department.

Introducing “Journey to. the Galaxy”

After TotoGaming won the competition, the process of developing the exclusive game began. One of Pragmatic Play’s existing games already featured all the elements that interested TotoGaming, from Buy Bonus options to free spins. The next step was to define the new game’s theme and branding.

“This is where one of the most exciting phases began. Our team found the concept we wanted to visualize in this game—an extension of TotoGaming’s vision and mission. The idea was to transport users to another ‘gaming’ world, essentially to another TotoGaming galaxy. That’s how the game got its name—Journey to. the Galaxy. We worked extensively with Pragmatic Play on every detail—from TotoGaming’s flag to the well-known Toto icon. Even the music was carefully selected,” Victorya Harutyunyan added.

The careful attention to detail is reflected in the fact that both TotoGaming and Pragmatic Play were meticulous in their approach to the game’s development. The TotoGaming team outlined the concept, while Pragmatic Play designed and built the game to the high standards for which it is valued. The project started on July 9, 2024, and was completed in March 2025.

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The final product is a new, dynamic game with captivating visuals and engaging mechanics, designed to resonate with the Armenian market.

“This collaboration also unlocks cross-promotion and expanded marketing opportunities, allowing us to strategically plan game teasers and targeted communications that strengthen player engagement”, concluded TotosGaming’s Head of Product Marketing Department.

The post Cosmic Collaboration of TotoGaming and Pragmatic Play appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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