Yossi Barzely, chief business development officer at Pragmatic Play, explains why live casino will help operators retain online players when brick and mortar venues reopen. 

CasinoBeats: While live casino products received a boost with land-based closures, how can a supplier help its operators to retain players in the online sphere when restrictions are lifted?

Yossi Barzely: New customers will have realised that online casino can offer an exciting and alternative gaming experience which they can enjoy from the comfort of their own surroundings and play at their own pace. 

While some of these players will naturally have returned to their preferred land-based venues, some will remain keen to explore what else online live dealer games have to offer. It’s up to suppliers to maintain a constant flow of innovative content, which differs significantly from the land-based classics and is attractive enough to keep players engaged across both channels. 

By adding features only possible for online titles, live casino suppliers can ensure their products are elevated above traditional casino games, attracting, and converting more and more players. 

CB: How important is differentiation and innovation when creating live casino products?

YB: In short, it’s vital. Players want to enjoy interesting and dynamic igaming experiences, rather than replicate what they can do elsewhere, such as in land-based casinos. Creating products that can give a truly unique gameplay session is very important, as not only are you competing for players of live casino content, but in online casinos you’re also looking to attract players from other verticals.

Competing against a lot of eyes for a small market segment means that games need to stand out, and this can be achieved by creating an entirely new suite of games, wildly different to the existing. 

We continue to bring innovation to the sector, be it reinventing classics or bringing brand-new content”

This is something which we are starting to see across the vertical with gameshows, or taking an existing product – such as roulette – and refining it and adding new features, attracting new players from the traditional alternative. 

CB: What does Mega Roulette bring to the table that makes it unique for players?

YB: Mega Roulette maintains the single-zero roulette format, with the introduction of a simple yet exciting mega multiplier. During every spin, between one and five multipliers from 50 to 500x will be applied to randomly selected straight-up bets, vastly increasing the win potential. The product delivers the familiar aspects of single-zero roulette experience but elevates it to a whole new level. 

The unique state-of-the-art studio is specially built to fit the game’s requirements, with immersive audio-visual qualities, specially trained dealers and smooth bet functionalities. 

Combining casino classics with an online-slot style random multiplier marries up perfectly for what we want to achieve, as well as offering a premium cross-sell solution for operator partners. 

CB: What more can we expect from Pragmatic Play in the live casino vertical in the near future?

YB: We continue to bring innovation to the sector, be it reinventing classics or bringing brand-new content, such as Mega Wheel, to the market. Aside from Mega Roulette, we’ve got an action-packed roadmap of some very exciting commercial deals and product releases. 

Our One Blackjack launches in March, bringing players face to face with a live dealer in a show-down environment, with a chance to win over 2,000x their stake, alongside feature-rich gameplay. Like all our titles, it’s broadcast from a state-of-the-art, purpose-built studio. 

We’re also on course to deliver more dedicated live casino environments for operators, following our statement deal with Mansion’s M88 brand.

More will be revealed in due time, but 2021 is set to be a landmark year in the growth of our live vertical and we’re extremely eager to see how the rest of the industry reacts.