After participation at the CasinoBeats Summit earlier this year, Lars Kollind, business development manager at Playson, has become the latest individual to participate in our 2019/2020 review and predictions series.
Highlighting personalisation as being paramount to customer retention following the September event, Playson has continued to ink a plethora of igaming deals with Global Gaming’s Ninja Casino, SuprNation, TOPsport and Lucky Days Casino the latest to align with the firm.
Looking back at the year, Kollind said of the casino high-point: “It’s been a fascinating last 12 months for the industry with some seismic changes. M&A activity has continued to dominate the headlines with some high-profile deals that have once again changed the online casino landscape.
“We’ve also seen increased regulation play a huge part in opening up new markets across the world, bringing with them a host of opportunities. While some in the industry may feel regulation can somewhat hinder the sector’s development, I think the past year has shown that regulation plays a real part in creating new business prospects.
“New types of engagement tools will likely come to the forefront”
“For Playson, it’s a been a really strong year. We’ve significantly expanded our operator network by signing content distribution deals with major operator groups including LeoVegas, GAN, and Kindred Group. We also extended our footprint in Europe by entering new markets, having secured new licences in both Romania and Sweden”
Before moving on to address what could be in store during the months ahead: “There are numerous indications that 2020 is going to be an exciting time for the sector. The incorporation of new technology and a new type of discerning customer is going to push casino in directions that really open up the playing field,” he says.
“New types of engagement tools will likely come to the forefront when attracting new customers and retaining players. Bonuses such as free spins and no deposit bets will still attract players, but unique engagement tools will be of huge importance to the retention and development of a large consumer base.
“Our promotional mechanics including local shared jackpots, feature trigger and high value tournaments have all been designed to add excitement to gameplay and have proved to be a big hit with players.
“We continue to investigate what new promotional tools will be of interest to our partners, to help keep operators at the forefront of the development of new engagement mechanics.
“With companies jostling for market share, it’s going to be a year of developing ideas to help them stand out in a such a competitive marketplace.
“Asia and European markets will become a fusion market”
“The increase of mobile and handheld gambling is something I believe will also continue to grow in 2020. The world is becoming more geared towards convenience and the move to online and mobile devices has been extremely successful for the casino sector.
“With mobile technology evolving at such an extraordinary rate it’s hard not to envisage more players taking advantage of the ability to play wherever and whenever they want.
“Even now, we can see that most of the operators have made a unified UI for their games, meaning that such UI layout can be used for both desktop and mobile devices, and desktop usability and visual appeal is being neglected in favour of mobile usability. So, we will see a lot of new user interfaces emerging.”
With plenty of surprises sure to be in store during the next 12 months, Kollind concludes with his boldest prediction for 2020: “Asia and European markets will become a fusion market. In terms of content. It will become its own entity.
“Game providers from both markets are trying to get as much audience attention as they can, so they need to create content that can sit easily in the middle ground of these two diverse markets.
“The general globalisation of the industry also plays its role in this unification. Diversity becomes a thing not only for Europe-based companies, but for those Asia-based as well, and it should be natural evolution for such teams to create content that will be recognised globally.”
