Tereza Melicharkova, Head of Marketing at Swintt and Glitnor Group

Maximising acquisitive impacts, ensuring title releases are vastly different from the tidal wave of slots on the market, and future market entries, including the UK, Ontario and Greece, were just a selection of the touchpoints as Swintt voiced much optimism at the road that lies ahead.

Set against the backdrop of a bustling CasinoBeats Summit on a sun drenched Malta, Tereza Melicharkova, Head of Marketing at the studio and its Glitnor Group parent company, elaborated on just why the future looks so bright for the firm.

In addition to heaping praise on Elysium Studios, purchased earlier in the year and elaborated on below, new market entries also became a key topic of discussion, with the aforementioned trifecta each name dropped.

Regarding the former, Melicharkova elaborated on just why the UK has formed such a crucial target for Swintt.

“It’s the biggest regulated market, and we just felt that we might be missing out by not being there,” she said. “We can’t wait to launch with the first customers. The certificates for the games are coming in, so it’s a very exciting time for us.”

Adding: “Regarding Ontario, it gets you closer to the whole Northern American market, where everybody is targeting these days. There is a huge potential. 

“Once you’re in Ontario, when the other Canadian provinces open up, it will be an easier position to start offering your portfolio in the whole of Canada. So that’s definitely an important switch.”

“…we are maybe hoping for regulators to take a bit more of a friendly approach towards the players, studios and operators”

However, alongside such optimism is the much wider issue of keeping on top of ever changing requirements surrounding regulation, which can pose studios with the dilemma of having to adapt slots to fit demands, with the UK being one recent much discussed example. 

Touching on the studio’s own journey in this regard, she commented: “Absolutely. It’s very hard to stay on top of the game. You need to have a really skillful team of knowledgeable people, which we are very fortunate to have around at Swintt who are keeping up with the latest changes. 

“Of course, I think the whole industry can say that we are maybe hoping for regulators to take a bit more of a friendly approach towards the players, studios and operators, because we have seen in the past that they are not helping very much in making sure that we are creating a safe space for the players.

“It would just be great if we could communicate between each other more and come up with the best solutions on how to protect the players, but still let them be entertained.”

Inevitably, glances were once again cast towards Elysium Studios to build on comments made earlier in the year by Swintt CEO David Mann after the slot developer was acquired to bolster the company’s standing across a range of key jurisdictions. 

“At Swintt we have a vertical that contains more classic slots, which is catering for customers in Germany and Netherlands,” she said of the decision being taken by Swintt to enhance its portfolio.

“We felt that we would like to deliver content for Northern Europe and other similar regulated markets. We all know that that’s important and these slots are more appealing and more design focused. 

“We are making sure that the whole industry knows about upcoming titles from Elysium”

“We saw potential in collaboration with Elysium Studios. We met the guys and we thought that this is the perfect content for Swintt so we decided to acquire them.”

The discussion continued by looking at how the group will set about strategically maximising the impact of Elysium to ensure that the maximum impact of the purchase will be felt.

This, Melicharkova said, came down to what the company didn’t have, subsequently pointing to “great” commercial, marketing and technical teams and a “very strong” platform.

In addition to noting that two titles have already been released in collaboration, she stated: “We just migrated most of the customers into the upgraded platform of Swintt. 

“Those are the ingredients that Elysium Studios was missing. So we put forces together. We are making sure that the whole industry knows about upcoming titles from Elysium.

“From the team perspective, we have an amazing account management team that is speaking to customers to put the games in the right positions that they deserve. That’s how we are making sure that together we are delivering the very best content Swintt has ever seen.” 

The overwhelming wave of slot releases week on week poses one of the most difficult challenges to studios across the world, with that being truly standing out and appealing to players amid this overload of content.

As the CasinoBeats Summit heard of operators being increasingly selective due to these ever increasing numbers, Melicharkova spoke of the group’s SwinttPremium line-up, which aims to utilise the appeal of land-based slots play within the online environment.

“This year we can’t wait to introduce what we have prepared”

To illustrate her point, she cited a well-timed alliance that was inked five years ago, a short time before much of the world entered lockdown.

“In 2019, we were very lucky that we started collaboration with a land based supplier in Germany. So, when COVID hit, we had the best opportunity to deliver their very well known content via our platform online. 

“That was step number one, because everybody loves those slots with fruits and bells. We managed to release very popular titles, and if you have popular content the customers will want it. We are very lucky in the sense that customers are asking for those titles because they work.”  

To conclude, the SBC Summit, that is set to grace the shores of Lisbon in September, was also put under the spotlight. 

Despite being coy on exactly which slot Swintt will be showcasing at the event, Melicharkova stressed an ambition of attracting more boutique studios in a bid to bolster its platform with an additional wave of unique content.

Ahead of the event, which also represents Swintt’s only stand participation of the year,  Melicharkova rounded-up by touching on the company’s altered approach, as well as what major activities attendees can expect to witness.

“We have changed the strategy of exhibiting at the events a bit,” she said. “We are very excited about having a stand at Lisbon because we always loved SBC Barcelona. Last year we had our first stand.

“We had a very popular activity around the game with Vinnie Jones where people were coming to shoot a penalty.  

“This year we can’t wait to introduce what we have prepared as well. We are looking for some entertaining activity at the stand again. So hopefully we will get as much attention as we deserve.”