It would be an understatement to say that North America has been a big focus for many European sportsbook and casino providers in recent years. Pariplay is one such developer that is continuing to expand its presence across the continent, with numerous US licenses as well as a British Columbia certification under its belt.
Shivan Patel, Vice President – North America at Pariplay, sat down with SBC Americas to discuss the company’s biggest milestones so far and why ‘first mover advantage’ isn’t necessarily a core component for success.
SBC Americas: Can you give us an update on Pariplay’s performance in North America so far? What would you say have been the biggest milestones for the company?
SP: 2023 has been an extremely successful year for Pariplay in North America. We have closed over 70 aggregation deals during the year, which is a real testament to our offering within the region. Wizard Games recently went live with Rush Street Interactive in Pennsylvania, and it is performing very well post-launch. Pariplay is currently aggregating within three regulated states in the USA, with another one in the pipeline.
Within Canada, we recently obtained our British Columbia License, and we look forward to supporting the British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s growth strategy with Wizard Games, alongside our Ignite® program and our third-party aggregation offering. There are a lot of major projects underway which will materialize in 2024, all of which we are extremely positive about and look forward to sharing!
SBC Americas: Previously, many companies seemed to prefer direct integrations with studios. But in recent years, there has been a substantial shift towards content aggregators – why do you think this is?
SP: We have seen a strong demand for content aggregation at Pariplay, and I firmly believe that this is due to our commercial transparency and technical ease of enabling content. We want to be able to offer plenty of opportunities to our partners, alongside fantastic speed-to-market.
It has taken us time to develop and implement the necessary processes in order for us to hit our strategy, and we are on track to deliver many of our projects to our partners. We believe that, going into 2024, we occupy a great position to deliver both strong distribution for our suppliers and a great content offering for our operators.
SBC Americas: How important is first mover advantage in the North American market? Has this had an impact on how Pariplay’s platform has been received by partners?
SP: Although first mover advantage conventionally brings a lot of success within markets, we have entered the market only recently, yet our full content offering has been extremely well-received. There are still areas where we can improve, and we are focused on streamlining all processes going into 2024 to ensure that we can provide quality services to all of our partners.
The main goal for Pariplay is to be able to provide our operators with a technically easy solution of releasing games in a timely manner, so we can adhere to all release schedules that are committed to by our operators.
SBC Americas: In your view, given how competitive the North American market is now, can smaller studios still survive without game aggregators?
SP: We believe that content will always be king. If your content is good and performs well, operators will allocate or create resources to onboard suppliers – no matter how big or small. The advantage of working with an aggregator such as Pariplay is the speed of onboarding and the speed-to-market. We certainly believe in smaller studios making a large impact on operators, and we have seen this tried and tested across multiple global gaming markets.
SBC Americas: Where do you see the next battlegrounds being in the US? Or do you think many companies are starting to turn their attention more towards the Canadian market?
SP: The USA will absolutely continue to grow. The next battlegrounds will be the new casino states opening up for business, but existing states will also continue to be battlegrounds as more content enters the market. More operators and suppliers will always be entering the market, as it remains a key one throughout the industry – therefore, we expect that there will always be a battle as the market becomes more competitive.
Canada is growing at a rapid pace, and we have seen the potential of that market first-hand, but the USA will continue to expand alongside it – especially as more states become regulated. We are likely to see many operators and suppliers attempt to conquer both markets at the same time, as there are huge windows of opportunity there.
SBC Americas: What can you tell us about Pariplay’s plans for 2024? Will North America be your main focus, or are there other opportunities you’re keeping a close watch on?
SP: Our main focus is to keep growing within the USA and Canada. We want to partner with more operators in existing regulated states, whilst keeping an eye on new states opening up and making strides within those, too.
We will also keep aggregating innovative and exciting content to our existing operators. We want to assist with getting more operators live in each state, and start aggregating fully across states. Pariplay will also have a focus on the Canadian and USA lottery spaces in 2024, as we have identified plenty of opportunities for Wizard Games, our Ignite Platform and third party aggregation.
