Olga Levshina: "BGaming is a very rapidly growing gaming company"

One of the most-anticipated events for the gaming industry this year, the SBC Summit Barcelona 2023, recently wrapped up. During the event, the Casino Guru News team had the opportunity to meet BGaming's Chief Commercial Officer, Olga Levshina, who discussed important recent achievements for the company as well as future prospects.

Q: A full year has almost wrapped up and we are sitting here with BGaming's Olga Levshina. Can you tell us a little bit more about your journey as a company this year and if you can where you want to be today?

A: Hi guys, yes. Today BGaming is a very rapidly growing gaming company and provides iGaming content for online players. Our portfolio right now is around 100 plus games with different mechanics which just cover all possible players' tests. We spread around our games and our portfolio is powering casinos worldwide. This rapid growth shows that not only the portfolio is growing and our clients, but also BGaming itself.

I'm also a great example and thankful to the company after just recently I was promoted from head of sales to the CCO of the company. Big thanks to all the efforts of our internal team who made this huge success, and I would like to thank them as well. I think that in this growth process every person had an impact and that's why thanks to that we are here and stationed to present our games to the rest of the world.

Q: That sounds great. Can you tell us what have been your highlights as a company so far this year?

Yes, actually, there are lots of highlights we could use this year but probably I would just mention a couple of them. One of the biggest highlights, or even milestones, which I would like to mention is just BGaming’s huge marketing landscape campaign for Latin America. We also recently just received the certifications and license for our games in the Spanish market, which means our games now will be available for all Spanish-speaking players all over the world. That's one point which I would like to highlight and that's why the Barcelona SBC Summit is so important for the BGaming team to present our games here.

Another one I would say that it's Blaze casino, our study case with Blaze casino but probably if you're interested, we can talk about that later. I can describe it in more details, and I would like also to highlight our portfolio, including such games as Gemhalla – God of Multipliers, a selection of dice-themed games, including titles like Wild Cash Dice, Dice Million, and the already successful Dice Bonanza; and new Halloween-themed releases, including Bone Bonanza and Monster Hunt.

Q: Thank you, that’s perfect. We saw that you have collaborated with Spanish muralist Jay Kaes, specifically for SBC Summit Barcelona. Can you tell us a little bit more about your motivation behind the decision and what it offers?

A: It's a very interesting collaboration and I'm also excited about that because the main idea is "When art meets gaming." This is our third collaboration with the local artist during this year and we would like to impress the visitors at the exhibition by not only presenting our online games, but also showing them from another side. The local artist can help us with that because they are showing our heroes in a more high-tech innovative way. This is how BGaming’s characters are introduced to you and all visitors and that's why I’m sure we will continue all these collaborations with local artists like Jay Kaes.

Q: Very interesting. So, BGaming recently released a case study with Blaze.com in which you outlined the joint success achieved. Is this case study indicating of BGaming's collaborations in the iGaming industry as a whole?

A: Game customization is a really very personalized thing and it's a very unique one and that's what BGaming is offering to the partners. The case with Blaze was also what we decided to show to the world and all players. We produced around five customized games already and we see what kind of boost these games made when compared with their original ones. We definitely reached this distraction of the players and our partners as well.

We are very happy with the results because we reached KPIs with growth from 30% to 80% for each great game, which is really amazing. That's the main point with Blaze, plus we are looking forward to expanding our presence with players within the Spanish market thanks to our certification we received recently. For that market, we would also love to integrate some personalized unique games as well.

Q: BGaming has been rapidly expanding into the field of game customization. Is there a limit to how far you can push these tailor-made solutions?

There is no limit to the customization. With the customization, we try to provide new experiences for the players tailored to the casino where they would like to play. I would say that we already see in our platform the engagement of the players is much higher and we see that mathematical games might be totally different when compared to our standard titles. Right now, there are around 100 games customized for our main partners like Stake, Blaze and others. We continue to expand this at present, and I would say that customization is a unique feature but at the same time, we don't have any limits.

Q: Certainly, customization has its benefits, and in the context of this player-centric approach what have been your most successful and worthwhile product releases that have enjoyed a strong reception by the community?

A: First of all, we're focusing on the players. The players in front of us and this is our target audience. To satisfy the players we start to collaborate with them and collect their feedback. We are analyzing their feedback and with this help we are creating and improving our games. For example, BGaming recently released Gamhalla slot. Streamers and players from Scatters Club provided valuable feedback for the development of this game. They advised what they like, what they would like to change and that helps us to be prudent into developing this player-centric approach.

Also, I’m pleased to share that we have an exciting collaboration in the work. New game Aztec Clusters, created in partnership with the Casinolytics analytical platform and streamers, is set to be released by the end of this year. I'm sure that you will be just as excited with this interesting game.

Q: Great. We are looking forward to that. What do you reckon gives BGaming a competitive edge over the studios that are equally determined to differentiate their offer and deliver an outstanding experience across the board?

A: Additionally, to what I mentioned already about the customization, about the player-centric approach, I would like to add that we have a customer-dedicated success manager who is just helping to analyze everything for casino operators. This includes ways on how to improve their figures and to find the best possible contact for the players.

We are very easy-going in terms of the integrations, we provide a lot of opportunities. It is possible to integrate BGaming's games with direct integration for using any aggregator we are working with. As we have an amazing and diverse portfolio of games, any player can find the game that best suits them. I think this is one of the most important advantages we offer to our players and operators.

Q: That’s amazing. Can you describe other trends that have become relevant to BGaming’s internal development processes outside of the customization options?

A: Right now, we are very strongly focused on the lower personalization for the players because as I mentioned before we are focused on them. But what does lower personalization mean? This is the creation of a personalized lobby for the player in a way they can see their preferred card games, along with other preferred games depending on their behavior, as well as preferences in terms of features.

One of our main goals right now is to satisfy the players with all possible tools and we develop in that direction. Players should be happy, excited and satisfied when playing BGaming slots and that's vitally important for us. What I would also like to add is that we are following the trends and we are one of the pioneers in using AI technology. We released in April our first Alien Fruits title leveraging such technology, proceeding with the Wild Chicago online slot in June. Their static graphic elements were 90% generated by AI.

Q: Interesting, thank you. This question is a long one. You are hosting a social initiative which will give visitors a chance to receive merchandise illustrated with Kaes' work. You also offer visitors to donate to charity of their own choice. Why do you organize such initiatives and industry gatherings, and do you feel that they've been a success?

A: Right now, at the SBC Barcelona, our partners have the opportunity to receive merch from us here with art of our heroes from Jay Kaes. We provide high-quality merchandise such as T-shirts, hoodies, laptop cases, suitcases but also additional to that we would like to show society we are a company that encourages customers to engage in charity.

In our previous campaign that was also in collaboration with local artists, we included an option for a donation to UNICEF and United24 in support of Ukraine. But this time, in an alternative gesture of goodwill, our partners have the option to contribute an equivalent amount to UNICEF, offering support to the victims of the Morocco Earthquake. This initiative emphasizes the profound impact that small actions can have in transforming lives.

Q: We do have one last question. What is next for BGaming throughout the rest of the 2023 and next year?

A: We are definitely growing very fast and particularly we are very proud that we received the Spanish certification license, and we are additionally planning to grow our presence today for the rest of the Spanish-speaking audience. In addition to that we are growing in the European markets. We are focusing and targeting right now to see if we can secure certifications from Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland. In Latin America, we are going to expand soon in markets such as Colombia.

In terms of diversification of BGaming’s portfolio we are planning the release of interesting mechanics which will be very exciting for our players. We are launching and already working on the scratch game vertical called "Scratch Alpaca", which is very similar to the standard scratch games but represents the virtual IP version of those games that people across Latin America enjoy. There also will be more cool exciting games in cooperation with streamers and players. Those are only a few of our priorities and I'm sure that we will have a lot of things to surprise our players and our casino operators with this year.

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