By
William
2. January 2023
Anna Guseva is the Product Owner at Playson and explains the ‘Netflix-style of thinking’ that has shaped the company’s strategy for development.
Anna: What is your role as Product Owner of Playson’s promotional tools and products?
Playson’s Promo Tools Portfolio is my responsibility as the Product Owner. This involves creating new ideas and analysing existing products in order to improve them. To implement new promotional tools, I work closely with the platform and product teams.
My duties also include helping our partners make the most of our promotional tools and help them to grow their business.
Which direction is the iGaming industry taking when it comes promotional tools? Which are the most popular and which ones are becoming less common?
Our observation is that both game and casino providers struggle to retain players. The market is saturated with new games almost daily, making it difficult for players to distinguish themselves.
The promotional portfolio includes features that give instant rewards to players as well as longer-term opportunities for larger winnings.
We are currently focusing our attention on tournaments, promotional tools like Free Spins or CashBlast. This tool distributes random cash prizes in order to provide a better gaming experience.
What is a comprehensive and next-generation engagement toolkit?
I believe there is a general trend towards shorter attention spans. Players quickly lose interest in products, and want to explore other entertainment options.
We call this a Netflix-style way of thinking. Players find it difficult to concentrate on one task over a prolonged period of time. They also want quick wins and lots of different things.
A growing number of players aren’t familiar with the basics of slots. This has made it more difficult to engage these new players.
We want to provide promotional tools that are both long- and short-term for our partners. Our goal is to keep players interested for long periods of time and give them instant wins.
Playson will soon announce the launch of Short Races, a promotional tool. Would you be able to share additional details on the new innovation?
Our goal was to diversify our portfolio using a quick-paced, short-lived tool. This appeals to modern players’ short attention spans.
Short Races’ promo tool has the exact same winning mechanics as short-lived tournaments. The new product features highly motivating prize pools that allow players to receive awards at any moment. This will increase player engagement.
Why was this tool created? What does the tool do to improve on Playson’s current offer?
We noticed a trend in shorter attention spans, so we did research. However, our operators also received feedback from their customers.
We found that promotional tools that provide a brief burst in excitement were a great addition to our toolbox when communicating with partners. We tried short tournaments, and the analytics were positive.
How does Playson quantify player engagement? Which metrics did you use to measure the effectiveness of your tool?
We always consider the primary goal when measuring performance of promotional tools. This could be the increase in unique players or in wagers, as well as macro rounds related to specific promotions.
We did some experiments with Short Races and received positive feedback. This informs our partners about the effectiveness of our new tool and ensures that it will succeed.
As a way to engage, tournaments are increasingly popular. Is tournament’s competitive, communal aspect a unique engagement tool?
My opinion is that tournaments are the best tool to engage players in the slot space. Our tournaments have been extremely successful. However, our team has diversified our portfolio in order to bridge the gap between game releases and tournaments. CashBlast is an excellent example.
Our Short Races tool is composed of the same mechanics as tournaments. However, it could be argued that we have modified an already existing concept and made it available to you as an additional feature. This is a way to acknowledge the power of tournaments, and their ability to increase engagement.
Do all titles need to use tournaments?
It is important that you pick only the best games to play in each event. Our tournaments often have different themes, so we choose the best games to promote each one.
You can also segment your titles among different promotions to give players an even more personalized experience each month.
Is it important for tournament operators to provide a variety of tournament types in order to cater to various player demographics?
As different types of players prefer different tournaments, it is important that you offer several options. The more we offer a variety of tournament types, the greater our chances to attract many players.
Short Races is a complement to this because it attracts different kinds of players and allows operators to provide the brief bursts of excitement many people seek.
Different demographics can also be served by specific mechanisms. These include winning multipliers and one-spin point, as well as win races for VIPs. As you level the playing field, this allows you to draw more customers.
What sets Playson’s tournaments apart from others?
The best thing about this system is that it doesn’t require integration, and configuration is extremely simple. You can also choose from a variety of prizes, and we offer the option of issuing various levels of restrictions.
Our goal is not to just present an exciting tournament. We want to offer a product that partners will love, one that matches their brand values, and adapts to market demands.
