Redefining iGaming: A history of crash games

The first online crash game is widely credited as MoneyPot, which launched in 2014, the same year as Guardians of the Galaxy released in cinemas, Grand Theft Auto V graced the Xbox One and Happy by Pharrell Williams topped the music charts. This all goes to say, crash games have been around for a very long time. Despite Spribe now dominating 90% of the crash game market, CEO David Natroshvili is always very open with the fact that he did not invent the genre. All his team did was take the basic concepts of the genre and focus on making the user experience better.

MoneyPot consisted of a simple x and y-axis graph and a single line that went up and down. It was incredibly simple, but it wasn’t particularly welcoming to look at. There was a lot of maths involved and it seemed more like a STEM assignment than a ‘game’, especially as it supported wagers made in Bitcoin rather than standard tender. As this game grew in popularity, the developer Eric Springer introduced a provably fair system with public seeding, which some operators still utilise today. MoneyPot was sold in 2015 and rebranded to BustaBit, which still operates today as the Grandfather of crash games.

By the end of 2020, almost every cryptocasino was offering proprietary crash titles, along with Plinko, Mines and other easy-to-create arcade-style games. Whether it was Crash by BC Originals or Crash by Stake Originals (their names were indeed this similar), the basic premise of the game was everywhere. When you look at how casino games have evolved over the last few years, or more accurately not evolved at all, it’s easy to see why this renaissance in iGaming was so strong.When gambling moved online, very few things changed. Customers could play primarily slots or table games, and it has only been in the last few years that operators have introduced new verticals such as crash and live game show titles. A new era of iCasino was about to emerge.

‘The big crash’

In August 2018, Spribe was co-founded by Natroshvili and a small group of friends. The company decided to focus on crash games. This wasn’t a new idea, but it certainly wasn’t a popular one at the time, either. They hired a team to help them establish a company, which is when Natroshvili decided upon the name Spribe. Despite Spribe being in its infancy, Georgia’s leading online gaming operator, Adjarabet, still saw potential in Natroshvili and his team and partnered with the company one month into its existence.

By 2019, ICE London was in full swing when Natroshvili landed. He had no stand, no contacts and no way to show his product to prospective customers – but he knew how to fix one of those issues. With a mindset of solving problems, Natroshvili went out to buy an iPad and loaded up an early iteration of Aviator before entering the halls of ExCel London. Unfortunately, the experience wasn’t all he hoped for. When Natroshvili arrived, nobody would meet with him. He went to everyone to try and introduce his ideas, but nobody wanted to know. Many of the leaders in the industry initially dismissed Aviator, reducing it to “just a Georgian thing” that wouldn’t be successful outside the country. The resistance was huge and, despite getting a cold reception at ICE, Natroshvili was not deterred. Two people stopped to listen to him; a cleaning lady and EveryMatrix. One of these would encourage Natroshvili to keep going, while the other would soon become Spribe’s first customer outside of Georgia.

With Spribe finally gaining momentum, the company needed funds to support its upward trajectory. Natroshvili went through his entire contact list and offered 15% of Spribe for $150,000, but no-one took the offer. Instead, he turned to the one company that had believed in him since the start, Adjarabet, and borrowed funds to keep the dream alive. For ICE 2020, Natroshvili took out a loan for $55,000 to create Spribe’s first expo stand – a far cry from the millions they cost now! Of course, it wasn’t just Natroshvili that led Spribe to success, but a whole team of people within the company. Natroshvili prides himself on taking care of his team, affirming that “people are the magic ingredient, people are everything”. Building on the success of its portfolio of crash games, Spribe is home to over 300 employees and is live with over 5,000 casinos around the world.

Finding the players

The history of crash games would still be a short recollection if it weren’t for the players. MoneyPot and BustaBit were founded in the cryptocurrency communities, so it’s no surprise that many of the biggest crash games still find themselves popular with crypto-centred players. These customers are often spoiled for choice when it comes to proprietary titles, due to the crypto platforms being held to different standards with regulations and game-testing procedures than traditional operators.

Not everyone wants to play at an online casino that isn’t a household name, though, so what options did they have?

Rather than assuming what players wanted, crash games providers did something many would consider too simple – and just asked players directly for their input. After receiving the feedback, the next step was brand awareness. To this end, Spibe partnered with the UFC, WWE, AC Milan and signed dozens of high-profile ambassadorships in the process, including Tom Aspinall and Alex Pereira. The company also knew to localise its efforts; as the player base grew in India, Spribe brought on Indian international cricketers Suresh Raina and Yuzvendra Chahal to join the roster. Within a few years, Spribe went from a relatively unknown brand to being broadcast alongside some of the biggest sporting events of the calendar. This catapulted the crash game genre to the forefront of iGaming and introduced simple, gamified ideas to many people for the first time. Casinos have long been seen as intimidating, especially with all of the rules and winning theories surrounding the table games. For a newcomer, it can feel impenetrable, but crash games offered something different. They’re easy to learn, quick to play and welcome anyone and everyone into the live chat. Long gone are the days of stuttering to a dealer because you don’t know how to play Blackjack – crash games levelled the playing field and made betting accessible to everyone.

Keeping the customers

Attracting players is one thing, but keeping them is a whole other predicament. Welcome bonuses are there to introduce people to the platform, signpost them to particular games and boost their funds while they test the experience out – and these first impressions really do mean everything. If someone finds the games too difficult to understand or the UI isn’t user-friendly, they’re not likely to have a good time. Frustration is the biggest opposition to enjoyment.

Crash game developers knew they were onto something different. They knew they were drawing in a crowd who had never played online casino games before, so they were presented with an opportunity to do something a little unique. Suddenly, the focus wasn’t on making online casinos accessible to play on the go or at home, it was on developing a sense of community and a strong atmosphere. This had already proved successful in other verticals, especially if titles had integrated chat functionality and a strong social media presence.

Further Aviator influence

Natroshvili quickly found that one of the worst things you can do is underestimate customer knowledge. The rise in iGaming also led to a rise in affiliates, forums, blogs – and all of these brought with them guides and places where players could discuss the changes they wanted to see in the industry. After talking with players, many of them joked that they wanted a higher RTP rate, but this contradicted some in the industry who settled on lower RTP rates because they believed players didn’t even understand what it meant. If someone wanted to spend $100 playing casino games, there were two potential outcomes. They could play a low RTP game, lose their money faster and be out the door faster, which was still the business model for some platforms, or they could play the game for longer, get involved in the social elements, stick around long enough to want to try out some of the other arcade-style games with the others in the chat. Which experience would lead to higher return rates? Crash games proved it was the latter – resoundingly.

After developers implemented social features and a high RTP rate into crash games, there was one thing left to do – make sure players had the experience they wanted. After looking into the customer base, it was important to learn that not only did around 85% of users play on mobile, but many of them played in areas with unstable internet. This wasn’t an issue when playing slots or table games, but crash games revolve around the cash out feature. If there was a delay in pressing ‘cash out’ and the action being taken, it could be catastrophic for the player and the operator in the long run. With over 50 million active monthly players and 400,000 bets placed every minute, Spribe knew it had to create the infrastructure to ensure no players were left behind.

By working with Amazon, Spribe’s servers were moved over to AWS, which meant that, no matter where the customer was located, whether they were in New York or New Delhi, there would be no latency issues with the games. If the game performs better, then the players receive a nicer experience and the operators, aggregators, and everyone else in the industry will benefit from it in the long run.

Where next?

Crash games have carved out their very obvious USP within gaming, with Spribe and Aviator playing a monumental part in the journey. Where next for the genre? Some operators may still consider it a niche but, as time passes, the popularity of the vertical is ever-increasing. Players love the idea of controlling their destiny. Even live casino suppliers have now merged crash games into their thinking.

While responsible gaming will always need to be considered, crash games offer players everything they need to keep them interested – but also the control to cash out when they want, and stop playing if they need to. How much further can the vertical grow? There are still geographical markets it will conquer. Traditional slot games won’t go anywhere any time soon; but we’re now at a stage where any operator devoid of a strong crash game offering is tangibly losing out on customers. And, right now, that potential loss is still growing – we’re definitely not at the ceiling quite yet.

"When you look at how casino games have evolved over the last few years, or more accurately not evolved at all, it’s easy to see why this renaissance in iGaming was so strong"

"They knew they were drawing in a crowd who had never played casino games before, so they were presented with an opportunity to do something a little unique"