A mission of bridging the gap between players, game developers and casino operators has been long stressed by Slots Temple, with the group last month gaining one key significant development to this end.
This saw Slots Temple become the first affiliate site to be awarded a UK Gambling Commission licence, with social responsibility a key message among the excitement that absorbed the company.
Following this, Fraser Linkleter, CMO of Slots Temple, spoke to CasinoBeats regarding the key development, progress since licence approval, which are the most popular offerings on its platform and the importance of multiplayer dynamics.
CasinoBeats: Slots Temple is the first affiliate site to receive UK licensing, what does that mean for your business?
Fraser Linkleter: Receiving our UKGC license is an absolute game changer for Slots Temple. Over the last couple of years, we’ve steadily built a platform that hosts more than 10,000 free-to-play slots from some of the industry’s most exciting game studios e.g. Relax Gaming, Push Gaming, ReelPlay and 4ThePlayer. During this time, we’ve managed to build a community of players that compete against each other to get to the top of the leaderboard and win prizes e.g. merchandise.
Now, with the UKGC license, we can level up the overall player experience by offering real-money prize tournaments where players can now play their favourite slots whilst competing to win cash prizes of up to £5,000. This makes us a unique proposition to players, operators and game studios.
CB: You say social responsibility is a watchword, why is this so important as an affiliate?
FL: We’ve always put a huge emphasis on social responsibility and believe that the affiliate industry as a whole, has a key part to play in ensuring that players are protected as much as possible. Our UKGC license means that we have been officially recognised as a responsible gambling site by a world leading regulator and as the first, we hope that it also demonstrates the value we put on the welfare of our players.
Also, by conforming to stringent safer gambling regulation, we are providing an additional level of trust between us and our operator and game studio partners. As mentioned, we all have a part to play in ensuring that players are protected as much as possible from any potential gambling related harm and by not doing so, we are jeopardising our entire industry.
CB: How will tighter regulation in certain jurisdictions impact the affiliate space?
FL: There is bound to be an impact if you are an affiliate that is looking to work within a regulated framework, however this requires significant investment. We have modelled our business, so that we are able to react quickly to any changes in regulation, which means we’re sometimes less impacted by changes compared to other affiliates.
Regulation has been a hot topic within our industry for years and we made the decision early on to work in ‘best practice’ which has put us in a good position however it will certainly make affiliates start to revaluate their businesses. Not only that, regulated operators and game studios are also doing the same, and the more reassurance you can give to your partners, the better that affiliate relationship is going to be.
CB: Following receipt of the approval, what new range of tournaments have you launch on site?
FL: Since we received our UKGC license, we have launched cash prize tournaments which have already been a huge hit with players. We also want to build a level of anticipation and excitement within our player community, therefore we’ve also launched ‘Turbo Tournaments’ which run for just one hour.
This means that players have to be quick off the mark to climb the leaderboards to win a prize however it also creates anticipation as they find out very quickly if they’ve won.
In the next couple of months, we’ll also be launching new tournament variants, but we can’t tell you too much about those right now, other than it will bring an entirely new level of competition for our players.
CB: What are some of the more popular slots at Slots Temple at the moment? How have you seen players’ tastes change over the years?
FL: In many ways tastes have remained remarkably similar over the last few years. The old classics from game providers such as IGT, Play’n Go and Blueprint remain consistently popular such as Eye of Horus, Fishin Frenzy, the Rich Wilde games and Cleopatra – all of which are all still extremely popular on Slots Temple.
Of course, there has been tremendous innovation too which has been fantastic. Game studios like Push Gaming, 4ThePlayer and Relax have all had really popular titles that have pushed the envelope in ways that our players have absolutely loved.
We really welcome the opportunity to work more closely with any game developer that is looking to bring something different to market as it’s great for us to continue bringing new and fresh content to our platform.
CB: How important is the multiplayer and social dynamics to the industry moving forward?
FL: Social interactions and building community is huge and we’re seeing much more demand for this type of engagement within the slots industry. Although many games are still enjoyed as a solitary pleasure, we know being able to offer a more social or multiplayer experience, brings a new level of enjoyment for many of our players.
We’re embracing this by building an enhanced level of social dynamics within our tournament products to enable players to interact with both friends and other players. Watch this space – there are some very cool initiatives on the horizon from Slots Temple.
CB: What’s on the Slots Temple roadmap for 2023?
FL: We’re busy working on the new tournament variations I’ve mentioned above, as well as the new social elements. We’re also investigating paid for tournaments which will allow us to offer huge prizes for top place rankings on leaderboards.
We’ll also continue to work with the casino operators and game studios to make sure we’re offering our players the most exciting gaming experience possible in the safest possible environment.