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Evolution Gaming sees Netflix and YouTube as competition, says CPO

Following Evolution Gaming’s win at the Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas with its Lightning Roulette product, Chief Product Officer Todd Haushalter tells Gambling Insider what else is in the pipeline.

ToddHaushalter

You recently won the Global Gaming Award for Product Innovation of the Year for Lightning Roulette. Why do you think the product was received so well and what are the chances you could compete for the Award again next year?

It was time for a game like Lightning Roulette to emerge.  Everything in 2018 is getting more intense as attention spans shorten, entertainment options are more abundant and even music has more beats per minute.  So when we added random multipliers that pay up to 500x to the most popular table game in Europe, wrapping it all in the theme of something that looks like Frankenstein’s lab, it seemed like this was the time for such a game.

Which new products are in the pipeline? What makes these products stand out?

We have never had more games in the pipeline than we do right now. It is an incredible time for Evolution and we are going to be unveiling all of it at ICE in February.  Last year, we launched Dream Catcher, which is sort of a gameshow with the chance to make big money, and this became a runaway success, and won Digital Product of the Year at last year’s Global Gaming Awards. We followed that with Lightning Roulette earlier this year as you mentioned, which has also been a runaway success. Operators have told us these are two of the top 10 games in all of online that have been released in the last decade, as measured by gross gaming revenue. For this reason, we are seriously going to expand this space of highly entertaining gameshow style games with the potential to win very big. You can expect us to bring big brands to the live casino space that nobody would have expected, and I think it is also high time to introduce some dice games. We all love dice, yet there are no fun dice games online. This is about all I can tell you for now, and it is more than I usually share publicly. 

What do you see as being the next step for live casino? How can the product evolve?

It is going to be highly entertaining games that are almost like TV shows that you can gamble along with at home.  We think of Netflix, YouTube and video games as our competition, so we are bringing games that are equally entertaining.

What are the chances you will expand to more verticals in the future?

I will first say that you don’t need to be in slots to get slot players – you can offer them something compelling in live instead. The reason to enter a new vertical is to grow the company by getting more players. I think if we do our job right, we can get different types of players to come to live casino and we are seeing that already. But, if we have some good ideas that we think players will love in another vertical, then anything is possible. In fact, we are on the eve of launching a suite of RNG table games with a new twist that we think players will love.

Product-wise, what are Evolution Gaming's targets for the next five years?

It is simply to offer all different types of players, in every market, games they will love. This is what our partners ask of us and there are over 5,000 of us working really hard to achieve this and delight players everywhere.

 

 

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The most prestigious Awards in the industry are heading to the Philippines! The Global Gaming Awards Asia-Pacific will recognise and reward (as the name suggests) the strongest performers from the Asia-Pacific gaming industry across the previous 12 months.
This year's winners will be announced at a luncheon ceremony on Day 2 of SiGMA Asia, 4th June, in Manila.
The eleventh annual Global Gaming Awards Americas will recognize and reward the gaming industry's strongest performers across the previous 12 months. These are the most prestigious and trusted Awards in the industry and have gained respect amongst industry heavyweights, due to the strict rules and procedures put in place.

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