Aggregation has truly stepped up its game across recent years. The importance of these platforms has arguably never been as important for studios to make waves across a range of globally regulated ecosystems.
Slotegrator is one such example that spotted this potential early, and now firmly sits among the front runners of the space, and is certainly showing no signs of slowing down.
In conversation at the SBC Summit, Sales Supervisor, Ataur Rosul Abeer, addresses the ongoing headwinds facing the sector, strategies adopted to maximising operational output and onboarding clients and what will drive the space to heights never seen before.
iGaming Expert: A number of critical challenges are faced by iGaming platforms in the current climate, what would you highlight as the biggest headwinds faced, and how are these best overcome?
Ataur Rosul Abeer: There are several difficulties, especially when it comes to the operator side. There are newbies that have not got too much experience and they want to go to some regulated markets, but they don’t know the regulations. In this case, it can give us a really hard time.
In addition, many of our operators are unsure of what kind of feature is really important to their platform. They may have less experience, and we can explain and go ahead and aid them with the platform.
IGX: If you can look at things from the operator side. What would you say are the key considerations and key qualities that they should look for when selecting a platform?
ARA: First of all, they need to understand where they are targeting, which market they are going to operate in and how the market works.
if it’s a grey market, it’s a different story. If it’s regulated, they need to know the regulation, how it works, how the government rules work and everything.
For example, if I’m an operator and I’m targeting Brazil, what I need to do first of all is get the B2C licence. You need to have it, plus you need to go to an aggregator that has the B2B certification.
You also need to understand the player’s point of view. What kind of games do they want, what are they playing the most? For example, crash is the most popular game in Brazil. You need to truly understand the market and players for the ease of operation.
IGX: Looking at Slotegrator itself, what critical components would you say stands you out from such a competitive field?
ARA: From our side, it’s getting increasingly difficult as there are many aggregators in the market. We are on top because of what we stand for, a high level of service.
To operators, I would say that we are providing almost all of the games that they require, as well as a range of other services. We are providing almost everything they require with seamless integration.
iGX: Sticking with the operator viewpoint. If they have the desire to enter a new market, how can you help and what level of insight can you provide?
ARA: If our operator partner is coming and telling us that they want to go into a specific market that is new and are asking what we can do, we have an entire team ready to answer that call.
We have an analysis team, from the lawyer side that can inform a client of what requirements are required from a regulatory standpoint. They check what licence is required and if it is possessed, what the tax rate is etc. Every bit of necessary information will be provided.
In addition, we have a separate analysis team that will be checking market trends on a daily basis. These will be continuously checking which game providers are having success, or which particular titles are successful.
Based on this, we can make informed suggestions if a client wants to go to a country to operate. We can highlight the providers that are the top ten and which games are performing well.
We can also help them with insights into payment solutions and which are the most popular options through the payment gateway.
It’s all about building trust in front of the players through gaining the correct licence, and getting onboard as many popular providers as possible based on the desired country.
iGX: Onto providers, of which Slotegrator proudly possesses a significant number. However, nowadays there’s simply far too many to integrate everyone. What do you look for when it comes to those integrations?
ARA: It depends where we are before we integrate. If we are talking about new providers, first of all you need to conduct all necessary checks, as well as recommendations from players to see if they really need these providers, or these specific types of games.
As an aggregator, we’re always happy to add as many game providers as possible, but we also need to choose which will be able to integrate fast.
We monitor industry trends and keep an eye of which games are rising in popularity and act accordingly. It also depends on the value of the providers, as well as if our operators are looking for a particular product or studio.
If they are, we are pushing 100% to get them integrated as soon as possible to go live.
iGX: In an increasingly player driven environment, what do you believe is the future of the iGaming platform?
ARA: Innovation and AI.
Innovation, I would say, is not supplying the providers and the same types of game, you need to do something different.
One example is Spribe’s launch of Aviator. When they launched it was visually something totally different. They launched the crash game and it exploded. People were playing and liking it, and operators were getting many users.
The same goes for InOut Games: their audience began forming a while ago, but thanks to great marketing in recent months, players are really starting to appreciate their fresh and unique approach.
It’s not like your typical type of slot. I would say the ability to offer something unique or different would be really helpful in the next five, six, seven or even 10 years.
Another thing will be AI in software. Having AI assistance is really important to understand a player’s activities.
You can see what your priorities should be based on these, you can make suggestions and specific games and so on. I believe that innovation and AI are really important right now to move to the next level.
iGX: As we head towards the end of the year, what can we expect next from Slotegrator?
ARA: From the aggregator side, we are trying to add as many providers as possible based on the demands of players and specific markets themselves.
On the platform side, we are enhancing our features to give operators deeper insight into their platform, take control and understand players’ behaviour. We are going to implement additional features soon, and we have many more things planned for this year.
