The shift online has been well documented in recent weeks, as many industry incumbents raced to heighten and diversify offerings in the face of wave after wave of sporting cancellations and postponements.

With momentum continuing throughout the year, Playson has inked a string of deals in recent weeks as the firm deepens its igaming footprint throughout the year.

CasinoBeats has been speaking to Aleksandr Rudenko, head of integration at Playson, to discuss adaptation during the surge in demand, a primary focus in recent weeks, and key challenges faced when integrating new content.

“What sets us apart from the competition is that we’re a very flexible game provider to deal with, ensuring a smooth integration process for all of our partners. That’s because we can either use our integration API protocol, or the partner’s one, if required,” he says on the Playson content integration process for new partners.

“Regarding our own API, we use best practices and it’s very easy for new customers to integrate with. We can actually go live with a new partner within a week of the contract being signed. With every project we assign an integration manager based on the language support and knowledge of the local market.

“Overall, the integration process remains universal”

“Our team of integration specialists cover various languages including English, Italian, Russian and Chinese. Our support service is available 24/7 for customers and can be accessed in any convenient format, whether it’s instant messaging, e-mail or JIRA.”

Before moving on to address how different the process is according to whether the firm is working with a platform provider, aggregator or online casino operator: “Overall, the integration process remains universal for any type of partner that we work alongside, so there are no huge differences. The key is to make the whole experience clear and simple for us and our customers.

“Also, if we’re already integrated with a platform and operators are looking to access our new games, most of the hard work automated and they can go live with Playson slots within an hour from receipt of a work order.”

Operating amid an ever changing landscape is a challenge endured across numerous industries, but what preference would igaming supplier’s have and with an industry shift favouring the aggregation model, would a preference be going directly to the operator? And how often is this possible?

As a games provider which is fully-oriented towards meeting the needs of our partners, we take a flexible approach to how we work with operators based on their requirements. It’s well known that the direct versus platform choice entails numerous advantages and disadvantages to each approach,” Rudenko stated.

“It’s fair to say that most slot suppliers will have experienced a sudden uptake in enquiries”

“The key benefit of a direct collaboration is greater control and synchronisation between us and a casino, enabling our team to integrate the range of promotional features we offer to clients, such as jackpots, tournaments, free spins and feature trigger, whenever the customer requests them.

“On the flip side, working via the many platform partners we have often provides an operator greater speed and efficiency to bring our games to market via an existing integration, which is a convenient solution. Ultimately, during the initial analysis phase when forming new partnerships, we work very closely with our clients to establish the best solution for them and strive to deliver accordingly for our mutual success.”

As previously alluded to developer’s have had to undergo some level of adaption during recent weeks and months amid a surge in demand for online gaming content during the current health crisis.

Rudenko explained how the firm catered for the heightened cross-sell opportunity around traditional sports bettors: “It’s fair to say that most slot suppliers will have experienced a sudden uptake in enquiries for their games as sportsbooks looked to offset the shutdown of sporting events. The same must be said too for virtuals and esports providers, given the familiarity of its content with existing sports bettors.

“Again, our agile approach and smooth integration process has allowed many operators to diversify their product offering in an efficient way, even during this challenging period.”

“There have been concerns among some operators”

Concluding, the Playson head of integration assessed what exactly the primary focus has been in recent times as well as what the key challenges operators face when integration new content: “It’s a really busy period for us and we’re actually focusing our efforts on many different parts of the business.

“At the moment, we’re engaged in diversifying our product portfolio with new promotional tools, adding new mechanics to existing features and improving the company’s processes within this current climate of remote working. Despite operating within these unprecedented times, we’re absolutely focused on constantly enhancing our offering.”

Adding: “There have been concerns among some operators that the integration of additional tools to the games of certain studios after their release have been prohibitively time-consuming. Here at Playson, we have put procedures in place when deploying new features that are available after the main integration is completed.

“We don’t, therefore, involve partner technical specialists for the additional integration of promotional tools. Our company mission statement is ‘Delivering entertainment and satisfaction to the lives of the busy world!’ and that’s exactly what we do. We understand that our partners are very busy with developing their own relationships with players, so we try to make our cooperation as simple as possible.

“We think through the logistics of the new features so that they are deployed, administered, and supported from our side. That means the integration of new games and features is completely seamless and does not require any technical efforts to launch them once they are released.”