18 October, 2022 | SPORTS BETTING FOCUS H2 2022

In focus: Evoplay

Vladimir Malakchi, CCO of global iGaming provider Evoplay, discusses the launch of cross-channel games that will allow casinos and sportsbooks to reach a wider audience.

What was the motivation behind developing the following football-themed instant games?

We have always strived to broaden the iGaming audience by developing cross-play games that provide our partners with an additional audience from other entertainment verticals. Moreover, iGaming and sports betting are two major revenue generators that have a 74% and 40% share of the whole gambling industry respectively. Uniting these two audiences for us is both a product andbusiness-related experiment.

Sports bettors are a very intriguing and hyper-perspective audience, as they have the same psychological gambling background as iGamers. This means they may be drawn tocasino games with familiar functionality.

With this in mind, we developed a suite of cross-channel products that provide two audiences with what they want: a football event and the opportunity to bet on it. That sounds extremely promising ahead of the next World Cup, which will draw millions of bettors and football enthusiasts watching and searching for betting opportunities.

And our multi-channel games, Football Bet, Penalty Shoot-out, Penalty Series and Football Manager, are all ready to enhance sports bettors’ experience and enjoyment of the upcoming World Cup. Online casinos and sportsbooks will benefit greatly from the global attention of the football event.

Can you tell us more about how betting features work in online casino games and what it takes to include one in a title?

Choosing a canvas for such a difficult-to-create and familiar game, we settled on instant games since they provide a good technological framework for implementingbetting features, as well as demonstrating a full-screen sports event for gameplay.

Moreover, instant games ‘fix’ the existing inconvenience of traditional bets, where youneed to wait for a specific event to bet on and for the final result of your bet. Here, no one is dependent on a particular sports events schedule. Players can get a portion of wagering excitement at any time from the comfort of their own home or anywhere else.

In usage, the game is also easy to understand and play. Of course, the process depends on the specific title but, generally speaking, a player just needs to place a bet, click on the spot to pusha ball and the RNG algorithm determines the outcome. Or, in other cases, they can play the role of sports analysts and bet on a national football team winning – like it is in original sports betting.

What about external tools for attracting sports betting audiences to come and try these games? Where and how will Evoplay ‘capture’ this audience?

We rely on data-driven marketing to show the quickest path to sports bettors. Compared to the B2B sector, the B2C audience requires an entirely different approach and channels. Like consumers from any other industry, gamblers heed influencers and tune in to trends they follow. In total, 61%
of people trust recommendations
they get from influencers, with 80% of them purchasing the promoted product.

Influencer marketing holds an excellent capacity for engaging the sports betting audience. We maximise our collaboration with streamers, sports bloggers, football YouTubers and other types of digital content creators who have a connection with the audience we are focused on. Based on research and analysis, social media has shown to be one of the most effective mediums. Paid campaigns tailored to deliver the right message and
image of our product pay off with a surge of interest in it.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to how you talk about it, how you present it and who you present it to. A perfect formula does exist. We’ve unlocked it for our cross-selling products, which are cut out for spreading the word about using a diverse range of channels.