An aim of combining design, technology, marketing, and promotional expertise to deliver truly entertaining games, products and services has been stressed by Enlivon Group, as it looks to “sing and shout a little more” during the coming 12 months.
With accelerated growth eyed moving forward, Kevin McGinnigle, CEO of the Enlivon Group, talks to CasinoBeats to address key challenges felt across the industry, how these can be overcome, and potential long-ranging impacts from the UK’s gambling review.
CasinoBeats: Can you tell us about the Enlivon Group and the companies that make up the business?
Kevin McGinnigle: When we started Positively Distinctive Media we knew that we would shift from a service-only business to one that offers complementary products. Almost three and a half years later, we’re nearly there. Given our broad range of products, it made sense for us to split these into their own business units.
With that, we now operate within the Enlivon Group, alongside Bingo Solutions, which does exactly what it says on the tin. If you’re after a plug and play bingo solution, look no further. The final part of the puzzle is Enlivon; also known as the reason we created the business. This is the most exciting thing we’re working on, and I can’t wait to show it off when the time is right.
CB: How do these companies complement each other?
KM: PDM remains the driving force behind the group; it’s home to more than 15 full-time staff around the world, including technologists, creatives and marketers. Over the years, we’ve formed strong relationships with some of the biggest names across the igaming and entertainment sectors.
More recently, we’ve worked with companies outside of this space with great success. Now we’re part of a group, we can offer our collective value-add propositions to our existing partners and give ourselves more opportunities to find new ones both inside and outside of the gaming industry.
CB: What are the key challenges online gambling brands face today?
KM: That’s a broad question given the global landscape we operate in today. Each vertical, market, product, company and brand has its own unique challenges depending on so many things. We see and hear these things on a daily basis across our range of partners.
Speaking very generically, all brands irrespectively will at some point face the usual compliance, regulation and taxation issues. They are never going to go away and rightly so, providing it’s done in a sensible manner of course.
Protecting players must always be the priority, but it is just as important that markets are viable for businesses to operate in. If they are not, we create an environment where the black market can thrive.
CB: How do you think these challenges can be overcome?
KM: Data, creativity and communication; these three things can overcome a hell of a lot. However, to get it right, they need to work in harmony across multiple stakeholders. This is something the sector hasn’t quite got right on many occasions.
It’s a big challenge to put right; thinking about the UK market specifically, it will be interesting to see what the future looks like ahead of the long overdue changes coming our way very soon.
CB: What impact do you think the UK government’s review of the Gambling Act will have on the sector?
KM: Who knows what way it’ll go? On one hand, it could make it even more difficult for anyone looking to break into the sector, forcing more consolidation and closures.
On the other hand, it could increase innovation in the UK market as people look for new ways to attract, engage and retain their audience under the new regime. Whichever way it goes, I think we’re all expecting to see pretty big changes to the UK market over the next 12 months and beyond.
CB: Will it push operators towards offering new types of content? If so, what type of content?
KM: I’m biased; I hope it’ll make people stand up and take note of our low-stakes, high entertainment based iGameshow experiences! Putting my bias to one side, I suspect the UK market in particular will go hard on the ‘recreational’ player, as the reliance on “little and often” becomes even more important.
This is not a bad thing as some operators have found incredible success by engaging casual players, but it will require many to rethink their branding, content and the overall experience they offer to players.
CB: What can we expect from Enlivon Group over the next 12 months?
KM: Let’s see. We’ve grown relatively organically to this point with not many people knowing who we are or what we do. I’d like to sing and shout a little more about this in the next 12 months, especially as we look to bring our new products to market. We’re also assessing opportunities to acquire existing businesses to accelerate our growth and who knows where that could take us.