Despite acknowledging a much larger time frame for Spanish players to adapt to the nuances of the iGaming space, and the various segments that lie therein, Slotjava.es Chief Operation Officer, Christian Lowe, remains confident that a continued uptick will be felt moving forward.
In the final of a three-part SBC Media special, following previous editions on both SlotBeats and SBC News, a shift in focus is evidenced on iGaming Expert to place the spotlight on players within the country.
From detailing a rich history of retail gaming, Lowe moves on to address the intricacies of online slots that most appeal to users.
This comes in addition to examining how preferences have changed during what has been a half decade of operation for Slotjava, and how the brand is planning to continue its strong appeal to players.
iGaming Expert: Looking specifically at players within the Spanish online casino ecosystem, what would you say currently appeals most when it comes to themes, features and mechanics etc… and why?
Christian Lowe: Spanish users have a strong history of playing slot machines in restaurants and bars. These slot machines are usually three wheels with nudge features.
Naturally when a person tries a casino online for the first time, they will search for slot machines with similar kinds of features or the online version of a physical bar slot.
Compared to the Nordics it has been a longer adaptation for Spanish users to adapt to live casino, for example, and the kinds of slot machines that have experienced high growth like the Megaways series.
iGX: With a half decade of operation under your belt, how would you say these preferences and tastes have changed and adapted during this time?
CL: I would say that the biggest difference from five years ago is that there are much more slot machine providers out there and much more slot machines being constantly released. Also, there is such a variety of mechanics and features on slot machines released today.
We stand as a gatekeeper as we have an experienced team that will review and constantly test new slot machines and watch the trends. Making sure that we constantly put most exposure on the slot machines we believe will be most appealing to the end user.
iGX: How would you assess the engagement witnessed on Slotjava within Spain, and what nuances of your offering do you believe appeals the most and why?
CL: Even to this day the classic slot machines from providers such as IGT, Novomatic, WMS and providers with physical slot machine presence like R Franco and MGA are the most popular ones.
Spanish users started playing slot machines in physical venues and they continue to do so while also playing online. Classic titles like Book of Ra Deluxe, Cleopatra and La Granja still beat all the new features offered by more seasoned online slot machine providers, like NetEnt and Big Time Gaming, even though we see a slow transition and a will to try these games by the Spanish audience.
iGX: What strategies do you plan to deploy in order to continue making the progress desired within Spain and to continue appealing to players?
CL: No one has missed the big AI-boom which has only started. We are currently looking into various ways we can apply this in our current offering.
As slot machines have so many data points there are many ways of utilising this into a very informative way of slot machine selection for users based on previous preferences and in terms of tracking your existing play.
These are some of the use cases we are working on but there are many more in the pipeline.
iGX: What can we expect from yourselves when it comes to both Slotjava within Spain, but also Casinoonlinechile within Latin America?
CL: You can expect us to keep up with all the trends for slot machines and in general for these markets.
Both are markets we will continue to focus on going forward and it will be interesting to see how the Chilean regulation will unravel going forward as this will have a big impact on Casinoonlinechile.com, which focuses more on specific casino reviews than on free to play slot machines.
