Unlock the Future of Online Casino

MARKET OVERVIEW
According to Statista, revenue in the worldwide online casino
market is expected to reach US$35.13 billion (£26.24bn) this
year.
With more users than ever in regulated
markets, the appetite for casino is greater
than ever. It’s no exaggeration to say that
worldwide Online casino–or iCasino–is
booming. Consequently, suppliers are on a
drive to innovate, and new verticals, such as
crash games and live game shows, are making
a significant impact in the markets where
they’ve been launched.
By the end of the decade, this revenue
is predicted to have grown by an annual
compound rate of 5.56 percent – resulting in
a market volume of US$46.04 billion (£34.63bn)
A report by Slotgrater earlier this
year found that new formats, game
mechanics, and styles of play are
emerging at pace. Younger players,
in particular, want faster games, with
faster payouts.
SoftSwiss’ report reveals that slots
still dominate the online casino
space, delivering 85.2 percent of
Gross Gaming Revenue, compared
to 5.4 percent for roulette, 4.3 percent
for card games and just 1.7 percent for
crash.
from an estimated 139.7 million users. In the
UK £482 million, the equivalent of US$646.8mn,
is likely to be generated in revenue this year
alone. This country remains the largest market
for online casino in the world, despite
the seemingly disproportionate level of
attention being placed on new and emerging
markets across the Atlantic. That said, with
user-penetration in Canada thought to be
around 35.6 percent, and rising, this year
there are definitely markets outside of the UK
where a strategic focus is more than justified.
One type of game that is delivering for 25-to-
34-year-olds is crash games. Already this year,
at least three-quarters of games developers
either have crash games on their slate, or are
planning to launch them in the near-future.
Elsewhere, live casino remains popular.
The market is expected to reach US$3.7 billion
(£2.76bn) by 2025 and is seeing increasing
innovation with the addition of live games
shows proving particularly popular. Live
dealer games tend to attract bigger bets, with
SoftSwiss reporting that average bet sum
in card games last year was €49.95 (£41.54),
compared to just €0.75 (£0.63) for slots.
Despite the prevailing
popularity of slots, new
demographics are emerging and,
often with the help of lively and
entertaining demonstrations on
streaming services, are driving
the popularity of innovative
new products.
Curtis Roach
Head of Content
iGF

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Laura Petrauska
Head of Casino
Bet99
As the market landscape evolves and adapts to new trends,
our industry has now been compelled to react accordingly.
OUR EXPERT SPEAKERS
Lauren Holder
Head of Casino
PowerPlay
Myke Foster
Group Head of Gaming
& Commercial Strategy
Fortuna Entertainment Group
Bohdan Ilchenko
Product Manager
(Casino)
GR8 Tech
In this Edition iGamingFuture
brought together leaders of the global
Online Casino sector to explore the
evolving digital landscape. Helping the
iGF community to better understand the
capabilities and how to extract the most
value from their gaming lobbies, whilst still
maximising the customer experience.
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16
Q+A
with all our Expert Speakers
CONTENTS
Editor’s Conclusion
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5

What are the most popular online casino trends you’re
seeing?
Q+A
Bohdan
One of the biggest changes
has been the move from
flash to HTML5 technology,
dramatically improving the
quality of online casino games,
providing better graphics,
faster loading times, and
seamless play across different
devices.
Mobile gambling has also
seen explosive growth.
Players love the convenience,
which has led mobile gaming
to capture 90-95 percent of
market share compared to
desktop. Live dealer games
have also become a massive
trend.
We’re starting to see early
adoption of virtual reality
and augmented reality.
While these technologies
are still emerging, they
offer enormous potential
for creating interactive
and immersive gaming
environments.
Artificial Intelligence
(AI) is also transforming
the iGaming industry.
Finally, the use of
cryptocurrencies in online
gambling is growing.
Laura
The one we’re missing
here is bonus buys.
It’s been a huge trend over
the last five-years and has
helped boost coverage by
the streaming community,
which is good because online
streamers are one of the best
ways to push your product.
Myke
One of the things that
strikes me about the
last couple of years is
the staggered way that
innovations have made it
into Regulated Markets.
But the fact that regulators
don’t have a consistent
way of allowing us to get
products to market creates
a problem for us. When you
look at streamer content, for
example, Plinko, which seems
like a very simple game, is not
allowed in some markets.
It’s going to be hard for
some Regulated Markets
to keep up with global
demand; certainly when
people’s awareness of
grey market operators
becomes more prevalent.
When they see a big
influencer like Drake, playing
Plinko on TikTok for fourhours,
but they can’t
play that on a legitimate
regulated casino in their
market, they’re going to go
out of their way to find it.
And that’s a real challenge
when it comes to
changing products. We
need Regulated Markets
to move at a consistent
speed to keep them
relevant.
Lauren
It’s not just Plinko.
We’re starting to see
Regulated Markets
looking at crash.
Crash has taken off in pretty
much every market that it’s
launched in, but because it’s
undefined, there are pooled
jackpots, pooled leaderboards,
and the customer technically
has an influence over what
they take, the regulators are
really struggling.
If regulators don’t want
to work with us, or
don’t understand how
this technology works,
it does potentially push
customers into some of
the grey or even, God
forbid, black markets,
where it’s a free-for-all.
Further development
will depend on market
regulations, but we expect
this to be a growing
opportunity.
People have mixed
opinions about bonus
buys, some may feel it’s
crossing the line in terms
of Responsible Gambling.
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How important are innovative products like this for the
future growth of the industry?
Myke
Live casino is great for
onboarding customers
because you can talk
to a dealer, have
time to sit at a table,
or read onboarding
documentation.
TikTok and platforms like
that, are challenging for us
because of the demographic
of the people that use them.
But they’re a really good way
for us to introduce content to
people. And they go hand-inhand
with things like bonus
buys.
People want to see the
cool part of your game.
That’s the stuff that makes
our industry look more
engaging.
We’re not in the corner
of pubs anymore, playing
a fruit machine. These are
high-quality, multimedia,
HD, really engaging
content.
When you open a slots game
now, you see narrative
development and get
introduced to characters. It’s
so much cooler than it used
to be, and new technologies
give us a great platform
to show people that
without them having the
financial risk or the lack of
understanding.
It lowers the barrier to
entry.
Laura
Live casino has grown as a
product.
It’s no longer the classic
baccarat, poker, or blackjack.
We have game shows where
you can get multipliers that
you would normally just see
in slot games. It’s easier to
get those classic slot players
into live casino because they
see the appeal more.
Live casino has been more
for VIP players in the past
because the payouts are
lower, so you place bigger
bets to get a return. But
with these really engaging
game shows, you can get
really good wins with a
relatively low stake.
The three reels spinning
vertically isn’t the good
stuff. The bonus round is, or
someone getting the million
X on a crash game. That’s the
cool stuff.
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How do you offer the most optimised and effective
game portfolio?
Laura
You need to think about
what’s right for your
market.
We work in Canada, so we
know what Canadians like.
You also want to make sure
that the game features make
sense but are not crossing
the line of irresponsible
gambling, as I mentioned
about the bonus buys.
We use the data in the
launch period.
If it performs well, we can
promote it. If it doesn’t,
it’s going to get stuck
somewhere in the casino
lobby.
Collaboration between us
and the game provider is
key. They need to make
sure that we understand
what the game has to
offer.
There are always commercial
deals in place if it is a good
game to promote.
Themes also play a role.
Seasonal games have
their time, but obviously a
Christmas game is not going to
perform in June – although we
did have one case where a
VIP player was playing a very
Christmassy game all year
long.
And then UX; making
sure that we have easy
navigation on the site
where you can find all the
categories.
Lauren
Absolutely. It’s localisation.
Especially when you’re
operating in multiple
markets.
Back in the day we couldn’t
optimise our different
casino lobbies depending
on the area where we were
operating. It was a one-sizefits-all
approach and ‘hoping
for the best’. Now it’s much
easier for us to skin the
different regions and make
sure that we have the optimal
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content for a specific market.
When you’re working within
European operators, the
strategy is: ‘We’re going to
have 52 providers plugged
into our site, and they’re all
releasing 15 games a month’.
That’s the western Europe
approach. Going into
Canada, or in the African
markets, UK markets, we
need to condense that down.
That strategy’s not going
to work there. It’s going to
overwhelm our customers.
We’re going to end up
saturating our own content
and lose out on something
that’s particularly good for
that market.
I’m incredibly critical
when it comes to what
games we launch and
what games are good,
versus what the providers
say. I’m a huge fan of
going old school.
I know which providers work
for my market, so I pick up
the phone to them and we
chat. They tell me–when
the marketing teams aren’t
in the call–which games are
the good games, and which
games are just there to
plug the gap. So, I’m a huge
believer in that.
Something else which
worked incredibly well for
us is exclusive content;
and really solidifying our
marketing efforts around that
to ensure that our customers
know PowerPlay’s the place
to go to play that game. You
have exclusivity for four weeks,
five weeks, however long we
negotiate, and it creates a
USP for your site.
It’s incredibly difficult for
any casino operator to
stand out.
All our content is the same.
We all do our lobbies in the
same way, our categorisation
tends to be the same.
We have to find small
things that help us stand
out. Exclusivity is one, and
having a good relationship
with your providers is
another.
Bohdan
At GR8 Tech we have around
20,000 games.
In my opinion, in 2024
we should be using AI to
recommend content.
We have already
implemented it in GR8 Tech,
so two users see a different
lobby based on what they
want.
It’s cost effective.
When an operator has
a small content team,
implementing AI helps
them to save money in
the beginning.
Then once the brand grows,
they can hire more people
and look in different directions
but, initially, it’s a good
solution.
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Myke
My experience is ever so
slightly different in these
markets, purely because we’re
in five different countries,
five different languages. God
knows how many providers,
how much content.
I can’t have a personal
relationship with every
account manager at
every provider, so the
content that does well for
us is the one that comes
from the best account
management relationship.
There are some slots we can
look at and instantly know
this is good quality, but the
majority of commercial teams
or operations teams aren’t
going to see a lot of the
content. So we need account
managers to be proactive
with us and say: ‘Look,
you can either have this
exclusively, or it has jackpot
functionality, or it has X, Y,
and Z that your competitors
don’t have, or we think it will
work in your market’.
If we have a proactive
account management
relationship it doubles our
capacity immediately. It’s
great when someone puts
good content in front of
us and gives us a reason
to promote it.

How do you maximise retention and generate sustained
lifetime value from players?
How easy is it to cross-sell audiences into casino from
sportsbooks, or the other way round?
Lauren
When I joined the industry,
it was a little bit like
the Wild West. It was
very cheap to acquire
customers, and there
weren’t really any rules.
I started from a very early
stage, even before regulation,
to look at the health of the
business when it comes to the
bulk of your customer base,
which is always going to be
the bottom 95 percent, the
non-VIPs.
When I started the whole
thing was ‘upsell, upsell,
upsell’ and I saw that it
doesn’t work.
You burn customers
out and they end up
leaving. Now it’s even
more important that we
aim to have sustainable
play because the cost of
acquisition is so high.
To get a return on investment
is impossible if you’re
burning the customer out
in the first week by pushing
them to high volatility slots,
or a welcome offer that’s 10
times the market value of an
average deposit.
From a CRM perspective
gamification is nothing
new, but streamers have
definitely helped that
along because we see the
streamers using features like
stacking their bonuses. We’re
seeing positive trends in
changing how we approach
leaderboards. It’s based on
a percentage return, which
means that the customer
betting US$1 versus the
customer betting a US$100 has
the same potential to win
prizes.
Stopping a customer from
leaving your game to have
to go somewhere else is a
good thing.
Keeping them within the
iframe and trying something
that’s a little bit different
from the standard bonus
rounds, because not every
customer can get into those
if they are more recreational.
These in-game tools,
in-game promotions,
really help the everyday
customer have a bit extra
to keep them happy.
Laura
The one thing that we
didn’t mention is the
importance of customer
support, because it is key
to players coming back.
Unfortunately, players will
have issues, whether it’s
disconnection, stuck arounds
or issues with bonusing. You
name it, it’s inevitable.
It’s important how we
handle it, and how quickly,
because bad experiences are
a potential reason for them
to leave. If we turn it around
and resolve the issue, they
become loyal customers.
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Myke
Casino now is engaging.
It’s high quality, it’s
something that we are
proud to put in front of
customers.
Historically casino, certainly
for a discerning sports
betting audience, wouldn’t
have been something that a
critical mass of the audience
wanted to go out of their way
to engage with.
So lowering the barrier to
entry is key.
The way we integrate
cross-sell, or integrate
casino products into
sportsbook, or vice versa, is
important. We’ve seen a
lot of success this year.
We launched a poker product
into the Czech market, for
example, where poker has
a big legacy following. But
where do you place it? Do
you place it on the casino
lobby? Do you place it on the
sportsbook lobby? Which
customers do you tell about
it?
That’s been a sharp learning
curve.
And we’ve enjoyed it
because we’ve managed
to create data sets that are
showing us how people
engage. We’ve taken
[guidance] from Netflix.
If you and I were to open
our Netflix, we’d have a
fundamentally different
experience from each other.
Bohdan mentioned it
earlier, this AI-driven
scale that we have with
new platforms and new
technology makes that
possible.
Before, whatever Laura or
Lauren wanted to put in the
top spot on the lobby would
have been the first thing you
saw. That doesn’t need to be
the case anymore. It makes
the journey slightly easier
and lowers the barrier to
entry.
We have separate
apps in our markets for
sportsbook and casino, so
there’s a challenge there.
We want people to have two
apps installed on their phone,
or three if they’ve got poker.
So, it’s not just journey
challenges and comms
challenges, there’s
technological challenges
in here as well. We’re
doing whatever we can to
understand the customer
and lower that barrier to
entry. But it’s not easy.

EDITOR’S CONCLUSION
Five-years-ago, having an
enthusiastic conversation
around innovation in iCasino
was difficult. Aside from live
casino, which for many years was
the pinnacle of innovative online
casino content, tweaks to slots
mechanics were as much as you
could expect.
Today this is no longer the case.
New formats have emerged and are rapidly
gaining traction across Regulated Markets
worldwide. Peripheral technological advances,
such as cryptocurrency, AI and the explosion
in on-demand entertainment and streaming,
are changing the way iGaming content is
delivered.
But with these changes come challenges.
Regulation is struggling to keep pace, and
Regulated Markets easily find themselves left
behind. Pointing to games, like Plinko, being
played by high-profile influencers on streaming
services, Fortuna Entertainment Group Head
of Gaming and Commercial Strategy, Myke
Foster says: “As people become more aware of
these games, it’s harder for Regulated Markets
to keep up. We need Regulated Markets to
move at a consistent speed to keep them
relevant.”
Indubitably Casino 2.0 is
emerging as a contender
across the wider
entertainment industry.
PowerPlay Head of Casino, Lauren Holder
agrees, explaining that increasingly popular
crash games are starting to unnerve
regulators, who she feels do not fully
understand the industry or the technology
involved. “It does potentially push customers
into some of the grey or even, God forbid, black
markets, where it’s a free for all,” she says.
Despite this, online casino, more generally,
is becoming a slicker, glossier and more
entertainment-driven offering.
GR8 Tech Product Manager (Casino), Bohdan
Ilchenko credits HTML5 with much of
the improved look and feel, while Foster
highlights the introduction of game shows
to live casino, and the inclusion of narrative
development and characters to slots.
“It’s so much cooler than it used to be,” says
Foster. “These are high-quality, multimedia,
HD, really engaging content.”
While regulators may
remain unsure how
to tackle it, a once
opaque pastime is making
progressive strides
towards the light of
iGaming leadership.
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