Earlier this year global gambling firm BetVictor rolled-out its new live casino offering, recruiting Evolution Gaming in the process in a bid to elevate the brand further still within the igaming industry.
The live casino specialists continue to go from strength to strength, as well as emphasising plans to heighten its live game show output during the coming 12 months.
Complete with studio fit-out, design and exclusive promotional activity, via the agreement the operator hoped to combine the best features of a real-world casino with an engaging online experience.
Turlough Lally, director of e-gaming at BetVictor, explained why it was deemed as the right time for the firm to launch its first dedicated live casino studio: “The growth in usage of digital mobile devices, such as smartphones, has had a tremendous impact in the increasing popularity of online gaming. Moreover, the evolving and fast-paced way of living has meant that customers prefer to play from the comfort of their own home.
“Live casino is one of the fastest growing sectors of our casino proposition as customer demand increased exponentially, so to capitalise on this and to provide our customers with a best in class gaming experience, we developed a dedicated studio in partnership with Evolution Gaming. Our customers can get an exclusive, on-brand experience and access to industry leading promotions.
Regarding the decision to proceed alongside Evolution, as opposed to other such entities, it was added: “We’ve had a very strong relationship with the company since its foundation and we were the first operator to originally launch a dedicated studio in partnership with the business.
“Evolution Gaming is one of the industry leaders in providing live casino products, and their latest array of game-show titles are a success with our customer base, so for us, it was an easy decision.”
“For operators to thrive it’s imperative that innovation and enhancing customers’ gaming experience becomes top priority”
Building on the importance of such a launch, Amy Riches, Evolution’s head of marketing, continued by addressing just how important it was for BetVictor to roll-out its first such studio: “Dedicated live casino environments enable operators such as BetVictor unique branding and marketing opportunities.
“Evolution offers operators unrivalled customisation options which can be tailored to their brand, incorporating everything from branded tables to complete dedicated environments with dedicated teams dressed in their corporate attire, native speaking dealers, total control over the player experience, betting limits and more.
“The key benefits of dedicated studios are the complete control and flexibility for operators to promote their brand as they wish, the possibility to cross-sell their sportsbook or other live tables and use their dedicated environment for exclusive promotions. This all helps to increase customer loyalty, repeat visits, revenue and lifetime value of customers.”
The new collaboration comes amid a continued focus on improving its overall igaming offering, with Lally stressing that live casino launch forms one part of the company’s ongoing drive.
“The igaming space is rapidly evolving. With the market expected to reach $94.4bn by 2024, for operators to thrive it’s imperative that innovation and enhancing customers’ gaming experience becomes top priority,” Lally added on how this manoeuvre elevates the brand and what opportunities it opens up.
“With that in mind, we developed a state-of-the-art studio that really highlights who we are as a brand. We’ve incorporated our identify into the look and feel of the studio and through all our dealers, who are all customer-facing BetVictor ambassadors, so the studio lives and breathes our brand.
“Offering a style of games that was not available on live previously has seen significant success in attracting first-time players”
“Over and above that, having our own studio enables us to create unique and engaging promotions around key sporting events and sponsorships to keep our customers continually excited.”
Offering a glance into the future of the segment amid continued success, Riches concludes by stressing why live casino resonates with users so much and how Evolution plans to heighten this further still: “At Evolution, we are constantly monitoring the game development space and asking ourselves what do our operators’ players want to see,” she says.
“Since the launch of games such as Dream Catcher and Lightning Roulette, we worked on creating a whole new segment within live casino. During 2019, with the launch of titles such as Monopoly Live and Deal or No Deal Live, we firmly consolidated this idea within our new live game shows category.
“This category is unique to Evolution and puts entertainment at the core of the games, offering a style of games that was not available on live previously has seen significant success in attracting first-time players, and those who did not hitherto play live casino.
“Landmark games such as Deal or No Deal Live and Monopoly Live achieve this with innovative content that is ultra-entertaining with live casino products that immerse players into each game show world. We are vying for user’s leisure time and our intention is to make games that are super fun and enjoyable at every moment.
“Looking to the future, in 2020, we will continue to focus on the newest technological innovations to ensure that players enjoy even more entertaining gaming experiences. We will be expanding our traditional and game show games even further, offering ever more choice, entertainment and fun.”