iGaming Daily

00:00
Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the iGaming Daily brought to you by OptiMove, the number one CRM marketing solution for the iGaming market. I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. We at the iGaming Daily are reflecting on some of the year's big stories and today we're taking a special focus on the iGaming market and I'm joined by Danny Lee of Slot Beats to do that, to look at some of the big stories, to also look ahead at how they will impact the market moving forward.

00:29
Danny, it's been a big year for iGaming. It's also been a big year for films, so to kick us off, I want to know your film of the year. What was your film of the year? I actually, there has been a lot of good films this year. I did get around to watching The Substance after all the times you told me to watch it and that was a very enjoyable watch. Quite a crazy one, but I actually think, I mean, the film I'm looking forward to most is still about to come out. I'm pretty sure it comes out in like a week or so, but Nosferatu.

00:57
by Robert Eggers that looks really good, I can't wait for that. So I think that could be the best film of the year. A late contender? Yeah, very late contender. It might even just squeeze into 2025, but definitely one to watch. Nice, I love that. And no love for Dune Part 2? You're not a fan of Dune Part 2? Not the biggest fan, to be fair. I did enjoy it, just it is quite long. I'm not the biggest

01:26
I don't mind Star Wars and stuff, but June, I'll just, to me, this might be like horrendous to some people. I don't know. It all seems a bit like the same. Ooh, controversial. Starting off with some big takes early doors and yeah, it's all because it's like one story as well. It's a bit much, but yeah, you gave my answer away. It's the substance. I thought it was brilliant. So, so different, so unique and yeah, let's crack on with the podcast. Let's look at the year that was today. As I said, we are reflecting on some of the more interesting stories from iGaming.

01:56
2024 as we head rapidly into 2025. I'll start with one Danny, that is the Philippines market, some massive developments in the Philippines market this year. It has been absolutely fascinating to watch. Yeah, I've seen you've been covering the Philippines all year. It's almost like every week there's another development in terms of Pogo's or even the licensed market as well.

02:21
Can you tell us maybe some of the key developments that have been going on there across the year and sort of what position we're in at the moment? Yeah, well, you know, it obviously started with the State of the Union speech, I think it was the State of the Union speech from President Marcos announcing the outlawing of POGOs from the market. And then, well, then, you know, there's obviously the rumor mill that, as with all politicians, is this just speech? Is this going to be legitimised? Are we going to see this?

02:50
know, cemented. But it was met by the crowd there with a raucous reception. It really received well by the general public, this move, and it has since just developed at an absolutely massive rate, at an absolutely rapid rate, to the point now where, yeah, I think we get into next year and there are no Pogos in the Philippines. We saw it kind

03:19
signed into policy earlier in December. So yeah, since then it really has taken shape and it's a new look Philippines market heading into 2025. Definitely. And so what do you sort of think that this means and all these developments mean for like the rest of Asia, the rest of the continent? Jason Yeah, well Asia is one of the most exciting markets continent-wise. There have been some really exciting developments from Asia in terms of growth. Obviously we've got Thailand, we've got Japan.

03:47
Macau continues to thrive as well. And the Philippines has always been kind of a hub for operators expanding into Asia. There's a real heritage in the Philippines. There's knowledge and history when it comes to gambling that you just cannot, you don't just get that overnight in other markets. So there'll be a keen interest, even if there's not a massive operator presence, but like

04:17
Philippines and continue to utilise the expertise that has grown there since it kind of opened up. So yeah, even now after the decision by president Marcos. Mason Hickman Yeah, I mean, for an island nation, it does really seem like a real focal point for gambling in that area in such a huge continent. Now, like I said earlier, you've been covering this a lot across the year. Could you just maybe explain how quickly these sort of stories developed throughout the year and the sort of pace of those changes?

04:46
Yeah, it really varies on the market, right? Like we've seen kind of slower developments in Thailand, but we've seen, we've seen this one really push on. And I think that's because of the political momentum behind president Marcos. Danny, another thing we saw this year is a splurge of M&A activity, particularly from evolution. It kind of continued a trend, but what moves did the supplier make earlier in the year? Yeah. So while evolution obviously...

05:12
always had a number of slot studios under their belt, recent acquisitions such as No Limits City, I'm not sure if it was last year or the year before, such huge studios that have a lot of appeal around them and lots of fans, lots of players that want to play the games. They've got loads of different slot studios but one thing that they did do earlier this year, I think it was in February, we saw them delve into something quite a bit different to just producing slots and iGame titles and...

05:40
know like live casino titles stuff like that because they acquired Live Spins. Live Spins is something we've been covering a lot on slot beats and casino beats in the last couple years and we've really seen them grow in terms of the brands that they partner with. So if you don't know what it is it's just basically like a social streaming platform that can integrate directly into an operator's platform so that when a player is on an online casino lobby they can access this little Live Spins platform and watch some of their

06:09
streamers play games that Lifespans has partnered with to like, um, play along with them as well if the players want to make similar bets or like getting a chat room with them and interact with the stream. It's a really like engaging way to, to sort of implement streaming into an online casino lobby. So yeah, definitely an interesting one that earlier this year. Yeah. I think it kind of sets, uh, sets the agenda for kind of marketing moving forward that you think, uh, uh, I guess the

06:37
power of influencer-led content is only going to heighten? Yeah, certainly. I think this move really signalled that the big players amongst the iGame and suppliers in the industry are really taking streaming seriously. And you can understand why we've seen the format grow so much in the past year and we've seen gambling streams become more and more popular, especially with the rise of kick and how that sort of derived a bit from the owners of stakes, stuff like that going on.

07:05
It's grown so much within the iGaming sector with many names forming brand deals with streamers and companies forming brand deals with streamers and some streamers even making their own games. And this move from Evolution I think showed that both operators and suppliers and even players who interact with this LiveSpins platform are benefiting from this growth and actually getting more out of their online casino experiences.

07:33
Yeah, big year for the regulatory landscape is about to change in a sense for for kick and subsequently for gambling streamers across the board. I'm going to be interested in seeing how that unfolds right with the new regulations on kick and a little bit of friction into how users engage with gambling streams on kick. It's going to be very interesting the year ahead for streaming platforms. That was one really fascinating M&A deal.

08:02
Have we seen any more in the online casino sector this year? Any other that's any others that really stand out? Yeah, of course. M&A activity is always such a huge part of what we cover on casino beats and slot beats with acquisitions, consulate being made. Um, a couple that I did pick up on maybe one of the bigger ones for me this year as a fan of poker was a GG poker acquiring the world series of poker from Caesar's for I think, uh, $500 million. That to me was like such a huge deal because it is probably like

08:31
the most famous event in poker and taking that from Caesar's is a huge move from GG Poker for an operator to take that mantle and continue the World Series and try and make it a better product. Other things we saw this year, I mean, we had IDT's gaming and digital business being sold to Apollo Global, I think it was, with every holdings

09:00
Another one that quite intrigued me early on in this year, I remember when we were at ICE we were speaking to Walter Bugno from Games Global about how they had acquired Digital Gaming Corporation earlier this year, which really sort of helped the company try to get a bit of a foothold in the US market and really focus a bit more on North America. So I did think that was an interesting one to point out as well. Yeah, that was an interesting conversation with Walter, is it?

09:27
Kind of crazy to reflect back on that, because it was at the very start of the year. It was, yeah, interesting, interesting times, interesting to see how we've come on from then. That was that was on the yacht, right? Yeah, on the Games Global yacht with Walter Bugner, CEO Games Global. I'm going to guess that's the only time you've been on a yacht in 2024. What makes you think that, Joe? Yeah, that's my sole visit to a yacht this year. Very enjoyable. But yeah, so it was some big...

09:56
some interesting moments for the UK market too, right? Yeah, there's plenty of change that we witnessed in the UK this year. Obviously we've still got the rumblings of the white paper consultations and the results that have come from that, so would you like to delve a little bit more into that, Joe? Yeah, well obviously governmental change really fuelled that. It paused it for a bit, stagnated it for a while. When was that? When was the election this year? That was... July? June, July, yeah, mid-year, which is kind of crazy, right?

10:24
The second half of the year is somewhat flown by. Yeah, mid-year election, we were ready for change before that. It kind of stagnated, it caused a bit of uncertainty. But here we are now, we have some clarity. We have the rent levy which will be implemented. How the funds will kind of, there are still questions remaining about how the puzzle will kind of unfold there.

10:50
But we do have some clarity and of course we have state limits to being implemented. How do you think these are going to affect slots in the UK? I mean I suppose when you look at having a limit on play obviously a lot of operators maybe might feel a bit afraid in terms of like revenue coming in like is there a big high roll as they're being hindered by this but at the end of the day there's still plenty of opportunities for these players to spend.

11:17
in reasonable amounts and that's what these changes are about, right? It's about being more responsible for players and making sure that players who are in a position where they shouldn't be spending that amount of money on a spin or on any sort of stake, then they shouldn't be able to, you know, breach that limit that has been made. And there is research behind it and there's reasons why they have implemented it and...

11:42
I suppose it's just going to be fascinating to see what sort of impact it does have on sort of engagement and play retention, stuff like that, and whether there will be a little bit of a shift from some of those more high rollers, like I said, to maybe some unlicensed operators to the black market, grey market, something like that, because that is what these regulations are always sort of trying to avoid. We always get a lot of response from different trade bodies within the industry, sort of always warning against.

12:10
Are you pushing people away with these limits? Is it really necessary to bring them in? It's that balance, right? It's that balance between ensuring the safety net is strong and wide enough that it protects players, but also isn't kind of too wide that it cripples players' activity and sends them to the black market. Yeah, it really is that balance. It's tricky to find and I think it's going to be interesting to see how the impact and how significant the impact of the new slot stakes is.

12:39
in the year ahead. I guess also it's interesting to see if it fuels Slots innovation for the year ahead too with, you know, kind of less stakes, whether we see different innovations to continue player engagement. And yeah, another story from the world of Slots this year was kind of the rise in copyright cases. We had a few this year that could kind of worry and not good for the industry. Yeah, how do you think?

13:07
Do you think we've kind of seen a pause on them for 2025 as these legal matters have unfolded in the mainstream eye? I mean, it's really difficult to tell. I wouldn't be so sure if it would lead to a rise or a fall really, because obviously it's going to, well it should push studios to be a little bit more alert to these issues in terms of IP and infringement and what does have copyright and what doesn't and whether they are using mechanics that could infringe on another company, because a lot of these companies they are competitors.

13:36
and they are going to notice these things and they're going to want to make those accusations if they are, you know, considered to be true. But it's interesting to see how these types of cases have become a lot more prominent this year. The way we've sort of, both of us have had to be reading like through so many different court documents this year, it feels like we haven't had to do that so much in years before. So you wonder if whether maybe one has set off another and is sort of rumblings about, oh, is this company looking into accusing them? Does that mean that these ones are going to start thinking about this game?

14:06
I usually wonder if it would maybe snowball into more and more of these cases, but to be honest, in the latter half of the year we've maybe seen a bit of a slowdown. We had a few months with different really big name suppliers getting involved in these cases and I don't think we've really seen much of a huge case in recent weeks. I don't really know how much it says about the industry other than the fact that there's a lot of similarities out there in terms of mechanics, features and design elements which should be...

14:35
if anything, maybe because of these cases stir up a bit more innovation from studios and try and bring something new to the table, something that we haven't seen before and something that's got absolutely no potential to be infringing on anything else. Yeah, something that is completely unique. It almost kind of actually get over this tough patch of, it can be exciting, it can be an opportunity for new growth and for new innovation. And Danny, another question for you as we kind of...

15:04
The big question as we head into 2025, I think we've covered quite a lot of our game in there and I did want to ask you one on football because it's been a good year for you so far I think. You're doing alright Liverpool, you're top of the league, you're very close. Are you going to win the title this year is my question. I guess it's still a slot related question right? Very good, very good. I love it. Yeah.

15:33
I did like slots before, I like slots even more now that it's put it on. Yeah, it's looking very good, fortunately, on the red side of Manchester, and even the blue side of Manchester as well, that's also... Yeah, sorry to mention that, Joe, but it doesn't look like either side of Manchester is having too good of a period, which is very good for Liverpool, of course.

15:58
Any comments on that at all? Yeah, I don't know, Manchester's just crumbling everywhere isn't it? It's a bit of a mess. As much as I take solace in City's kind of temporary, what seems like temporary demise, it would be nice to see United pick up some form. But I don't know, my prediction would be that we sneak our way into the Champions League through the back door of the Europa League and I'll take that. I'll take that. And yeah, I can't get away from...

16:27
a slot victory in the Premier League. It looks like it's, yeah, you're already so far ahead. Fingers crossed mate, fingers crossed. Thanks Danny. It's been a really interesting year for iGaming and been a brilliant year for the iGaming Daily. Thanks everybody for listening to today's episode and for listening all year round. Have a great new year.