The role of streamers has picked up at a massive pace in recent years as partnerships between a multitude of individuals and igaming continues to be increasingly fostered via several activations.
Most recently Kalamba and Wildz Casino debuted a collaboration, lauded as an “industry first journey,” to challenge eight Twitch streamers to win the chance to give input in the design of a new slot title.
Designed to resonate with a large audience, as well as ramping up action and entertainment, is this the first of many such link-ups to come to the fore? How important are closer connections with the streaming community? And with a growing audience, and influence, are we witnessing an insight into the future of the design and development of online casino content?
CasinoBeats spoke to a number of the key personnel involved with the multi-faceted agreement, which runs from today (April 27) until May 10 and will initially see the eight streamers compete to land the single biggest win on any of Kalamba’s back catalogue of games.
“The idea originated from me watching Twitchers and observing how some of the traditional affiliates’ base has shifted to streaming,” begins Tamas Kusztos, Kalamba’s head of sales and account management.
“Streamers spend endless hours playing on our site and give us valuable input”
“I enjoyed seeing how Twitchers interact with both slots games and players, and thought it would be really cool if we could engage them and do something together. ”
With the winner to be invited to work with the supplier’s studio team to give their developmental input into a new title, for Rootz’s flagship igaming brand Wildz this presented an opportunity to further cement its position within the space.
“Wildz has a long track record of successful collaborations with multiple streaming partners,” explained Melanie Hainzer, CMO of Wildz.
“Our ability to resonate with a large portion of our players through ‘real time’ action and entertainment is something we take pride in, and we intend to remain at the forefront in this aspect. Streamers spend endless hours playing on our site and give us valuable input for our product to constantly upgrade and make it better.”
Algear, one of the eight Twitchers participating in the tournament, picked up the discussion with initial thought when first faced with the proposition: “We were contacted with this idea by one of our premium casino partners (Wildz) and since we are a fast growing community with high influence in the scene, we were happy to take part in this competition. It’s a nice opportunity to challenge each other, do some cross-channel promo and to support a hobby we all love.”
As Jugipelaa, a rival during the two-week stint, added: “I think it was a great idea to involve us streamers. The games are the most important things in the casino so obviously I was in.”
“We’re really excited about opening a dialogue with the winner, building something that will resonate”
With bragging rights and a chance to flex those creative muscles the ultimate target, Kusztos explains just how much input will the winning streamer will have on the design and development of the slot title: “The winner will have a great amount of input into the slot we design with them – particularly with respect to the reel layout, the reel bed, theme and volatility. Pretty much most things are up for grabs as this is very much about gaining real feedback from players.
“Obviously we work within certain mathematical and decency limits – so nothing violent or obscene – but other than that we’re really excited about opening a dialogue with the winner, building something that will resonate, and bring us closer to players.”
As Hainzer picked up the discussion to address the possibility of closer collaborations with the streaming community regarding design/development something that Wildz could nurture further moving forward:”We are always happy to get feedback from our partners and certainly work their valued opinions into our product. As an example, we offer our streamers a slightly different layout than our other players have in order to use nicknames and we hide certain functions to protect their privacy.”
To conclude, we asked those competing if themselves or their counterparts having input into the design and development process will become more commonplace in the future, with two different perspectives put forward.
“Across nearly all aspects of life, the impact of social media has grown enormously over the years”
Jugipelaa suggested that it could be case of providing insight in key areas as opposed to having input into an entire process: “I don’t think so to be honest, but we might have some good pointers to give on how the slot should work and what is a good practice and what is not. Where we might have more influence on the usability, but the creative process, the design and the idea is something that might be best to leave to professionals.”
As Algear countered: “I am absolutely sure. Across nearly all aspects of life, the impact of social media has grown enormously over the years. This naturally also applies to the gambling scene. You can see strong communities rising up on different live streaming platforms all over the world.
“Viewers are engrossed in streamers’ play casino games, communities are discussing the entertainment value of slots, as well as payout opportunities or even the soundtrack of a game. Sports betting viewers start to get more involved in esports and bet on their favourite players (which mostly also stream). Consequently, gambling is in constant flux.
“People connect with each other and the traditional punter and gamer that we know will slowly disappear. As a result, it’s a very good idea to integrate streamers and their communities to innovate and create games that they love to play by using the power of social media/live streaming sites.”