Interview: Push Gaming CEO James Marshall

Push gaming, which has reached its tenth birthday in 2020, has just begun to implement an active expansion plan, incorporating a major acquisition strategy and starting a ti e-up with top clients. But as the regulations are becoming increasingly stricter, how are the companies intended to continue for 10 years in this industry, one of the most competitive industries in the Eagaming industry?

Push gaming, which has reached its tenth birthday in 2020, has just begun to implement an active expansion plan, incorporating a major acquisition strategy and starting a ti e-up with top clients. But as the regulations are becoming increasingly stricter, how are the companies intended to continue for 10 years in this industry, one of the most competitive industries in the Eagaming industry?

Push gaming started in 2010 as a business to r e-introduce lan d-based content into online games.

"There was no dealer who relocated such games online," explains the supplier's manager James Marshall (photo). "GAMEACCOUNT (now GAN) is becoming such a situation, but I felt that it was a great opportunity to incorporate the game online and create a service that handles distribution."

Marshall admits that it took time for his business partner and operating Winston Lee to put his business on track.

The two brokers, of course, are currently producing their own content, rather than reusing the developer's title on a new channel. According to Marshall, the land studio shifted to online, but also had a fairly low commercial revenue.

"We didn't have our own platform, so there were two brokers. There was no powerful commercial model. "

However, from this point, mobile such as QuickSpin (later acquired by PlayTech) and Netent has emerged as the main development channel. However, Marshall added that the initial title was designed very similar to a "rectangular lan d-based machine".

This portrait mode in the dawn of Mobile Casino was often praised as a major innovation, and Push has been the opportunity to enter the company's development through a contract that develops two exclusive titles for Kindred Group.

"That was the beginning of in-house development," he says.

But Push has stuck to a fairly small content roadmap ever since, concentrating on a handful of titles while other studios, big and small, have taken a more "maximized" approach. In Marshall's view, other studios are there to provide volume, allowing Push to focus on quality.

"Operators are already serviced with a lot of content," he says. "Our approach is, what do players want? Do they want to play a lot of similar games, or do they want to play unique games?

"I think it's both. Our competitors cater to volume, so it's fine for the casinos and the players. [...] [...] [...]

He says the "metaphor zone" approach to development prevents the team from producing "truly unique" titles. But while this has worked "very well" for the business, he acknowledges that to be competitive, they need to increase the volume of new titles.

"Instead of making 50 games, you need a release pattern that will make you more competitive in the market.

When you compare features and functionality to volume, a small number of truly unique titles may offer something different, but this is not a guarantee of success. As Marshall points out, it is very difficult for beginners to create a title that guarantees top performance.

Push boasts a strong, albeit atypical, success rate of 60% to 70% of its titles performing well, and it will maintain this success rate while promoting its expansion plans by adding more titles.

"But you have to be nitty-gritty about what players like, what they want next, and what they don't want," he says. According to Marshall, knowing what players don't want is important, as it allows developers to know what features to avoid, which in turn makes the design process more efficient.

"It's very difficult in the end."

The battleground he sees is not so much volume, but player engagement, player volume, and individual game performance. In short, features and functionality versus volume.

Marshall attributes this to the acquisition of games technology provider GSI, announced in January this year, which gives Push access to solutions such as Hive Remote Gaming Platform and Mesh Aggregator, not to mention the expertise of industry veterans (and former OpenBet technical leads) Paul Evison and Paul Beatty.

Until this deal, Push was a purely front-end games studio, but with its proprietary u platform, it effectively controls its own destiny. The deal builds on the two companies' existing relationship, where Push acquired an example of GSI's remote game server and integration layer, and Marshall says the partnership "was the best due diligence we could have done on this business."

Marshall says the partnership "was the best due diligence we could have done on this business." "The two companies were a great fit. Looking at the speed and synergies of the teams together, rather than as separate businesses, made the possibilities much greater," he explains.

The deal "certainly played a role" in Push's supply deals with GVC Holdings, which it announced in April, and William Hill, which released content the same month.

"The UK has not been a key market for us because of our relationships with our partners, so we've been concentrating on Scandinavia and other parts of Europe," Marshall says. "It's great to get deals with such huge brands in the UK. At the end of the day, the platform gives us the opportunity to operate in the markets we want and control the whole distribution."

Regulatory uncertainty Having only raised significant capital in the past three years and having been a startup for most of its life, Push has the customers and technology to drive growth. But this coincides with a period of great uncertainty for online casinos, and slot machines in particular.

In the UK, there is growing momentum for bet limits of £1-£5. In Germany, players will be limited to €1 per spin. In Sweden, a weekly deposit limit of 5, 000 kroner will apply. The regulations will likely limit casino growth or even reduce casino revenues for the next few years.

Rather than lament the situation, Marshall sees the new regulations as a good thing. The industry is evolving this way, and that's how it should be, he says. But slot machines are designed to be entertaining. If regulations force technological changes that make them less entertaining, they're out of business.

"I am most concerned about technical requirements, but the destruction of entertainment experiences." Some of these requirements do not have evidence of reducing the harm of the game. " The regulatory authorities need to be realistic.

"Destruction of entertainment elements, whether restrictions on participation or spinning, especially in Germany, have a negative effect on the entertainment value of the game," says Marshall. "If the regulation takes that excitement, it is almost certain that the player will move to an illegal place."

Mr. Marshall pointed out that most of the regulations would affect operators, while suppliers could play more aggressive roles in discussions with the industry's wide stakeholders.

"As a supplier, I think it's important to cooperate with the operator at the forefront of regulations," he explains. "But you should not leave it to your customers or consider it as a customer problem. You need to think about how to support businesses."

Similarly, businesses can help their partners by speaking for their partners, especially for new technical standards. B2C operators have a lot of exchanges with regulatory authorities and tend to have a strong influence with regulatory authorities, so it is necessary to emphasize what will happen if the player's experience changes due to technical changes. Marshall is thinking.

He adds that creating a responsible sustainable industry is extremely important, but the ability to duplicate is also important. If you can't enjoy the player, you'll find a more entertainment site.

In the face of such a problem, Marshall believes that this push still has a lot of growth. He has just begun the financing process, and his support has been able to expand the vendors in a short period of time.

"Our challenge now is to give priority to opportunities and understand the possibilities." In the last five years, we have launched many businesses.

"Nevertheless, despite this growth, there are still many new customers, and there are still many markets to enter."

"We have many opportunities. We have already achieved a lot, but there are still many things we can do.