iGP Chief Product Officer Dirk Camilleri tells SBC why its new Tropicana platform is about to shakeup the market in Latin America, and how the technology firm is adopting a strategy centred around localisation and personalisation in the region.
CasinoBeats: Can you outline the Tropicana product and why it is such a big development for iGP’s Latin American ambitions?
Dirk Camilleri: Tropicana will act as a customised, tailored front-end specifically for partners in LatAm markets. The platform has been built on the back of extensive market research, where the data informed us about what the region is looking for. This is a big development, because the platform will help us enhance our product offering, following the recent launch of our sportsbook product, by increasing cross-sell opportunities with casino and payment methods.
Within Tropicana, the experience across both sportsbook and casino is quite similar, in terms of switching and navigating and the benefits are twofold. When you’re navigating in the casino, we will deploy a sportsbook widget which will present you with a list of ongoing matches, which can generate a payslip in one tap without necessarily moving away from the online casino. Similarly, the widget can show online casino offers and games while the player is using the sportsbook.
We’re very excited about how Tropicana will enhance our LatAm offering and we can’t wait to take it to market.
CB: What are the biggest customer demands in Latin American markets and how do you build this into your product development?
DC: I think we have to be very mindful of not taking a centralised view of Latin America, and making sure we take a localised approach with our content in each market. We need to focus on providing mobile-friendly platforms and diverse payment options that cater to local preferences.
The different payment methods, such as cash-based solutions and local e-wallets, should be region-specific, and we’re currently looking into the best methods to implement payment solutions in this way. This will allow us to enhance accessibility and the overall user experience.
CB: What are the key technical considerations for building a localised product in igaming?
DC: Traffic levels differ in each individual market, so it is important to ensure our infrastructure is robust and scalable enough to handle higher volumes.
Another differentiation between markets can be languages, so you have to be able to provide multilingual support. I’d also come back to my point about integrating local payment gateways, because the technicalities of this can be complex and must be deeply considered.
CB: Building the Tropicana product offers your clients a template to customise their offerings. Is customisation essential to building a truly localised product?
DC: With the Tropicana template, we have heavily invested in building a frontend which will resonate with the LatAm market. This will allow our clients to focus on tailoring their offering, incorporating local languages, themes, promotions and payment methods, thereby increasing the client’s relevance and appeal to local players.
We are also working on building targeted promotional and loyalty programs which will encourage players to engage with multiple product lines between the verticals. I think this is absolutely the direction we need to keep moving towards, because customisation is hugely significant when it comes to localising your offering.
CB: What are some of the differences between Latin American markets that you are active in and does this inform some of your technical and development decisions?
DC: The LatAm markets individually exhibit significant differences, in terms of player preferences and technological infrastructure.
For example, while Brazil is expected to be incredibly lucrative when it comes to sports betting, Mexico shows a higher level of engagement in online casinos.
These differences inform our technical and development decisions, and it is important for us to incorporate flexibility within that development so that the playing experience matches up with the expectations of the players.
CB: How do you ensure that your products will resonate with players in those local markets? Is it a case of rigorous testing throughout the development process, or do you gain expertise as you launch products over time?
DC: It has to be a mixture of the two. Games must be tested rigorously before going to market, but you also have to work out which particular games to launch via market research and seeing how player habits are changing over time.
iGP conducts extensive market research and user testing to gather feedback and refine products before launch. Then, following the launch of those games, we continuously monitor and update the games based on player feedback and market trends.
A proactive and strategic approach to improving games makes sure your products remain competitive in the long-term, so it’s something we always have to keep an eye on.
CB: What is your top tip on how to build an effective, localised product in igaming?
DC: The first step is you have to understand the market you’re going into. Having an experienced team who understands the nuances of your target market is always a good start and then, from that point, you have to prioritise market research and player feedback from the outset.
There are plenty of other issues you also have to take into consideration. Understanding the cultural differences, preferences and regulatory landscape of the target market is essential.
The third key point when building a localised product is that it has to be adaptable as you go along. You need to incorporate flexibility in the product design to allow for ongoing customisation and updates based on player feedback. This will undoubtedly enhance the product’s relevance and success.
CB: What further plans does iGP have for localised content over the next few months and years?
DC: For iGP, the future is in a number of areas. At SBC Summit in Lisbon this September, we’ll have a number of crypto solutions from platform to front to showcase, where we hope to be joined by an exciting crypto operator to launch in the coming months.
On top of that, we are adding more and more providers to our aggregator solution,with some big names announcements coming in the coming months, we have been experimenting with AI and have a powerful recommendation engine in the works providing our partner operators true player personalisation.
Beyond that, 2024 is about scalability and refinement, we are fast but could be faster, we are flexible but our ambitions are constantly growing. It has been a busy start to 2024, and I’m proud to say the team I lead are hungry to bring even more to the table in H2.
