Thomas Graf, CEO of Greentube, outlines the reasons why the company is drawing inspiration from other sectors in the gaming industry to “deliver the most tailored games and product offering possible to local players”.
In any creative industry, it is of paramount importance to draw inspiration from other sectors and areas in life to evolve and improve your product. The igaming industry is no exception and looking back over the years, it is evident that slot suppliers have been influenced by elements from video games, pop culture and social or ‘freemium’ gaming, just to name a few.
Over the years, the social gaming industry has really pushed the boundaries in terms of gamification, a term so often used in igaming today, and many lessons can be learned as our sector looks to enhance its offering and better engage players.
With the igaming market being more saturated than ever it is important for suppliers to really understand their player base and ensure their content is catering to different demographics and preferences. This is perhaps more crucial than ever, as the US is finally taking steps to regulate online gaming, offering huge potential for operators and suppliers alike.
At Greentube, we have an advantage in many international igaming markets as a lot of our content has been proven in land-based venues via NOVOMATIC. Over the years, we have, however, also gathered great intel on local US players via our B2B marketing platform Greentube Pro, which enables land-based casinos to stay connected with their players through online social casino gaming. Casinos offering Greentube Pro have access to extensive games libraries from both NOVOMATIC and Greentube studios, as well as several unique features, such as direct-to-player marketing created to keep the player engaged.
Before the onset of US online gambling regulation, this served as the only option for casinos to have a virtual arm to keep their customers entertained when not being at the physical venue. With more states now allowing online gaming, operators moving into the RMG space that have already utilised Greentube Pro will have an advantage, as their customers will not only already be familiar with multi-channel game offerings but will also be used to playing them through a desktop or mobile device.
Despite regulation now inching ahead state-by-state, social gaming will remain popular. We haven’t yet seen a decline in activity in the ever-expanding plethora of products entering the market. I also believe that the regulation of online casinos will be a slower process than many hope, making social gaming the only legal option for operators as they prepare for upcoming legislation of RMG. We have already had indications that operators in states where online gambling is regulated still want to offer social gaming for use as a marketing tool in addition to their RMG portfolio. Our experience in Europe has shown that the two product verticals can coexist and be profitable, and this will be no different in case of the US.
Since 2018, we have collaborated with the Hard Rock International Group, offering them a social casino platform for all Seminole and Hard Rock franchise casinos in the US. We also recently announced a deal with Game Account Network (GAN) which saw us take our social gaming content live with casino brands they power across the country. As we scale the reach of our social games with GAN and other partners in the US, we will gather a host of invaluable information about customer preferences and other relevant game related information.
As we further establish our own presence as a B2B online games developer in the US and as we enter more states, we can utilise this data and take elements from the social gaming space to better our own portfolio of RMG games. We can also use the space to test new games, mechanics, features and other innovations as we are accessing the same player base that might later convert to RMG.
We can also spot regional differences in the player bases and that’s very valuable for us as we continue to optimise and evolve our offering. The intel will be used as a funnel to get players from social gaming to RMG, and eventually also to machines in land-based venues for a complete omni-channel solution.
Further to the topic of gamification, there are many more aspects currently used in social gaming that are not yet available in the RMG space because of regulatory restrictions holding us back. We will continue to explore options to take the best and most suitable features and tools and apply them to RMG but only where it’s allowed by local regulation.
With the US market set to offer unparalleled potential, Greentube is in a perfect position to take advantage of the expertise and knowledge we have gained in other industry verticals such as social gaming. From there, we can draw inspiration to deliver the most tailored games and product offering possible to local players, staying true to our mission to go above and beyond and shape the future of this ever-changing sector.
