iGaming Daily

Andrew McCarron (00:00.248)
Good morning and welcome to the iGaming Daily live from the exhibition floor at a busy ice conference in Barcelona. I'm joined by one of the industry's most renowned and most sought after streamers, Brian Christopher. Brian, how are you doing? How are you finding Barcelona so far? Loving it. It's so beautiful here and I think I'm on the right time zone now. So that's good too. It some time to get adjusted, right? Yeah, about nine hours time difference between here and California. Wow.

You are, you know, I'm gonna get straight into it and talk to you about streaming and everything you do. think our audience, know who you are. You know, one of the most decorated streamers around us, as I said, at the top of the show. And it's really interesting to me that you utilize YouTube as a platform more than others. Can you just tell us a little bit about some of the benefits and why you choose to kind of be on YouTube? Are you so prevalent on that? That's where I started.

Right. originally I just posted some videos on there for fun. Didn't really know what I was doing. And that's where I got my big break. I posted a video playing Cleopatra that just went completely viral. I looked it up yesterday. It's a couple of a couple million views on it still. Still going strong. Check it out if you haven't seen it. But it's pretty funny. And I had like a huge jackpot on it. And so that's what really got me started on YouTube. And it wasn't until years later that I was like, I should probably add this on to Facebook. Yeah. And then Facebook took off as well. So.

But for me, like YouTube's been really good. They're great about gaming as well. They allow you to do it, whereas some other platforms are little more tight on that. And so we've never had any issues with them and they've been really great for us. Nice. Is there anything you kind of do differently compared to other streamers to be so successful on Facebook and YouTube as opposed to other streaming platforms? We pretty well put a lot of the same similar content across each of them, but there's different characteristics of our audience on each of them as well.

Our audience actually is a little bit older on Facebook, for example, and the audience on Facebook is more apt to watching short form videos more than long form. So we tend to give them a little bit more. of course, on Facebook, you have a lot more photography that you put out there. So I've been sharing a lot of photos and videos from our stay in Barcelona, whereas YouTube is strictly just gambling. Yeah, that's really interesting, I guess. Some are about building your character, some are just about pure games.

Andrew McCarron (02:22.434)
really interesting and I guess social media has evolved and their demographics evolved too. So, you know, we were close to seeing it with TikTok in the US. We might still see it, who knows. But I think it underlines kind of not the volatility, but just, you know, these things change, right? The audience of Facebook changes. What do you do to kind of keep up with knowing the change in demographics that are on your platforms, if you know what I mean?

We just listen to our audience. Basically, that's been my goal from the beginning is just listen to what they want. You know, when I first started my videos, I used to swear in my videos and they told me straight up, we don't like that. So I stopped. Just turn it off. Don't swear anymore. You know, like little things like that. I just listen to what they like and what they don't like. And as it's been growing, like for us, for example, Facebook was a very young audience for us at the beginning. And then over time, it got a little bit older audience. male and female are pretty well right down the middle on both of them as well.

We just cater to whatever they're asking for and always want to try and stay ahead of the curve. Always reinventing ourselves, trying new things to stay on top. Because when I first started this, there was only a couple of channels doing this. Now there's hundreds of them, right? And they're all trying to do, they're all trying to be Brian Christopher. And so they're copying everything I do. So I now have to like reinvent myself so that we all don't look exactly the same. Yeah. Is that a, it's a compliment obviously, but is that a little bit of a nuisance as well?

I'd say it was annoying at the beginning and then I realized, okay, yeah, it is a pretty good compliment. And when they stop trying to like mimic me, then I have a problem, right? Yeah. So yeah, I don't mind it now. And in fact, I actually I try and help other channels a lot. I did I did a big boot camp last year. I had about 15 different channels that came out all at different levels. Some of them had only 5000 subscribers. Some of them had half a million subscribers. And I just try to like encourage them to do better and show them what I do that works and like.

I don't hide any secrets and at the very end of the day, feel like people are, they're not just watching us for the slot content. They want to know us as people and our personalities and who we are. Yeah, for sure. I guess it's interesting, right? Like you, you do the bootcamp. That's absolutely fascinating. And I guess how do you kind of get people to take from you what you do best, but also bring out their own character? Cause that's important. Yeah. That's what I tell them is like people want to see you. I mean, we could play the exact same game.

Andrew McCarron (04:40.066)
have the exact same outcome and have two completely different videos. So it's all in how you interact and everything else. And it takes a while to really like find yourself in videos. Cause a lot of people are nervous at the very beginning. And it took me probably at least a year to like really get comfortable talking. Cause you're literally, if you think about it, you're literally sitting in front of a slot machine in a busy casino talking to yourself. And at the very beginning, was nervous. People were like staring at me like, what is that weird guy doing over there? You got a camera, you're videoing.

And eventually get over that and you don't really you just block out the rest of it and you just imagine who it is that you're talking to So I just imagine I'm talking with all my fans and they're just my friends. So I'm just like hey guys What's up? Let's try and this jackpot together and we just have a good old time then yeah that authenticity resonates in what you do for sure Yeah, and also a testament to your character into what you do is the partnership with that MGM Yeah, just talk to us about that. How much of how proud does that make it? my god. it's pretty pretty special actually to be like

an ambassador for MGM amongst the likes of all the biggest stars out there in the world. So yeah, we're literally still like breaking ground. It's only been about half a year since we started our partnership, but we're continuing to grow. We just shot a few commercials and some photography. So they're going to start seeing more of me out there in the spaces, but we're really loving, have grand ideas for what we want to do with it.

And yeah, so I'm going to continue to do more live streams, but also live events. We just held a big one recently at MGM Grand Detroit. Had hundreds of fans come out to that one that MGM put on for us. So it's a really good way to connect with people in person as well as online. Nice. And can you give us a little clue into any of the upcoming...

A little teaser into any of the upcoming things? we're trying to work more with other companies as well. So like we recently did a thing with IGT's Play Digital and you know, when they just released Mystery of the Lamp, we were one of the very first streamers to be able to show our audience that. So I love being able to premiere new games and then show everybody what you can do online. So we definitely want to do more of that. Evolution as well, we worked with them to promote their brand new Crazy Time that came out. I was the very first person being...

Andrew McCarron (06:45.154)
that was able to go onto their set and actually like put on the costume and check it all out right before it went live to show everybody what it's all about. And it's incredible how these things go together. You you watch these live game shows, essentially is what they are, on BedMGM and you just wonder how this actually happens. And to be able to see that and show my audience how it all comes together is really special too. So we definitely want to keep growing those audiences, those relationships rather, and also see where else we can take this. Cause I know there's a lot more directions we can go in.

with our partnership. Yeah, that's awesome. And I know you're predominantly a slots player, but you mentioned crazy time. I think we've seen it's been quite exciting for me to see, you know, live dealer and slots have always kind of been in their own lane. But the growth of game shows and this evolution of game shows that we've seen feels like a little bit of a bridge between the two worlds. I don't know if you agree with that. And I don't know.

how you feel about the growth of kind of game shows and where they can go in the future. Yeah, I'm fascinated by it. Like just growing up, you know, I love like the prices right and all that kind of stuff. And I feel like I'm literally a contestant on that show now. You know, and it also builds community because you can actually chat with other people in the chat while you're playing. Yeah. And honestly, the hosts are so much fun. Like you really every host has their own personality. Like we're talking about personalities before. Like they've all got different things that are unique to them. And I love watching them and getting to know them more.

So it's really, I think it's going go very far. think, I think you're going to see a more of that in the future as well. Yeah. You mentioned something really crucial. That hosting role is important because if that person's a little bit flat, it just kind of brings the whole energy down. And it's like, they get to be a host of a huge game show. Like, you know, if anyone ever wants to be the host of a huge one on a network, well, now you can actually do it over a year and be seen by a massive audience too. Yeah. Would you, uh, purely hypothetically, I think you know what's coming.

Yeah. Would you ever take that? The Brian Christopher game show? Legit, I asked him if I could do it. I was like, can I please be a host? But there's like a whole like thing you have to go through, the gaming commission to be approved. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, OK, I don't really have time to do that. I like, I just show up and do an hour of it. But no, it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. And kind of I guess you kind of touch on it there. But, you know, when you partner with MGM, you're obviously very...

Andrew McCarron (09:05.518)
very raw, very authentic, you're very you, you know, fairly unedited, you are an authentic version of yourself. When you partner with BetMGM and not just BetMGM, but other big brands and generally speaking for streamers, how important is it that you kind of retain the creative freedom and you don't let them put limitations on, I'm not saying that they ever have done that, but generally speaking, when you're partnering with big brands and there's a lot of maybe bureaucracy.

How important is it that you retain the creative freedom and are still able to be yourself? For me, it's the most important thing possible. So I mean, in all of our agreements, it basically says we would like you to talk about these things, but Brian may or may not say it. You know, like I have full creative control. They do not approve any of my videos. I just do them and send and then put them up. I'll just go live. You know, I'll just showcase everything. And, you know, if I ended up doing a scripted thing, it just wouldn't be authentic anymore. And that's why I like for better MGM or when I'm on a casino floor.

I use 100 % of my own money to gamble with. Because to me, that is authentic as well. I can't get excited if I'm losing someone else's money. It has to be real. My wins are my wins, my losses and my losses and my losses are all mine too. You can tell when other players, when other streamers aren't, they aren't being authentic, right? 100%. Yeah, there's other streamers out there that definitely, can just, mean, the ones with like millions in their accounts and stuff like that. I'm like...

I don't personally as a viewer, I don't find that exciting at all because they're not getting excited. So I don't share in that. It's you know, there's a wow factor for a few minutes, but then I get bored of it. Like I want to see the adventure from like start to finish of Brian starting with a thousand or ten thousand dollars. let's see where he gets to at the end. You know, that to me is more exciting than someone just pressing a button and not really caring. Just they're just there to get a paycheck. of. Yeah, I guess that's why your fans are, you know, they feel kind of close to you because they've been on that journey with you and they've perhaps even gone on it.

by themselves by playing the games that you play, I it's it's that authenticity. Yeah, it's that connection. And that's what we always, you know, focus on is building our community. And that's what we're great at. Nice. And I wanted to ask you about Rudy's as well. A really cool, a really cool one. Talk to me about Rudy's. Yes. So the Rudy's is our fan club. Essentially, you know, these are like paying members. We have over 5000 of them right now. And that was my my wants to have a really tight community.

Andrew McCarron (11:25.646)
There are other slot communities out there, but they never really felt that close. And so I wanted to start something where people had to pay a membership because that meant that they wanted to be there. And I literally just charge five bucks a month. I'm not doing it to make money. It's just to make sure that they want to be there. then so they get private live streams. We do an annual event called Rudy's Weekend.

in Vegas where we take over the Plaza Casino downtown. And even last night actually at the ice party, I went live there for my fan club. Just so they could be a part of the action. And it's really great chance again for us to build community. I was chatting back and forth with them one on one in the chat. Whereas normally when I do a live stream, I'll have 10,000 people in. I can't read every comment, I can't respond to everyone. But in our fan club, there's only hundreds of them that show up every live stream. So I'm able to really connect on a better level.

And the name Rudy's came from the fact that I say the word rude a lot when you're playing slots. And so when it came to them naming their own group, they came up with the Rudy's. So the nice. Yeah, I like that creative. Creative like you. Yeah, it's contagious. And those Rudy's those nights at the plaza, those weekends at the plaza. Yeah. Without, you know, what happens at the plaza stays at the plaza, of course. But.

What do they look like? They sound like a lot of fun. They are so much fun. And what's really great is like they are every, you know, every age group, every category, they're from all over the world. They fly in from everywhere. So I mean, we do events in Australia and across the States and Canada. like our event in Canada, I had a fan of Fly Out from Bermuda to join that event, you know, and we had fans from Singapore come out to the States and also Australia and

It's really really great and and within our community they've built their own communities There's even like a a subset called the Rudy corns These are these are fans that love unicorns and so they've nicknamed themselves the Rudy corns and they have this whole like subset and so a lot of our fans will meet at our events and then find their own community in that city that they're in and then they will go off and gamble on the weekends together and it's really amazing. It's so amazing like the closeness of that we have built with people out

Andrew McCarron (13:38.734)
That is so cool. think it's like anything really. Following a smaller football team, following... That community that you get is so beautiful. I love that. You're all sharing something and you win together, you lose together. I guess that's all part of it. The Rudy Korns, we're going to look out for them. They're to be a big group in the future. I did want to ask you about producing your own slot content as well. Obviously, you've got the audience there for it because...

The Rudy corns, the Rudy's that they're ready for it. So, yeah. Well, what, how did you find that process? Was that fun? Very fun. So yeah, I was approached about three years ago to do my own slot machine. It was an iteration of pop and pays the original slot machine and they were doing a pop and pays more version. So they asked me if wanted to be a part of it, which is really special. And so we Brian fight it. We, we, added all my sayings to it. And then I added a lot of things that I love about slot machines, certain little.

features that we added into it. And now we have another slot machine coming out in just a few months called Brian Christopher's World Cruise. We host lots of cruises all over the world, about a dozen of them or so every year. And so we thought this would be a really great theme for us to do. So that'll be coming out in about April or so. And then also we've been able to bring our games online. So we're hoping to do a lot more of that in the future too. Awesome.

Just a general one on slots while we're kind of on it. I wanted to ask you what you think the big mechanics will be this year, you know, looking ahead. Yeah, what are going to be the trends that kind of set the year at? Honestly, like, for slot machines in general, like, honestly, there's not a lot of new stuff happening. It's just like, what other, like, 8 Buffalo games can we come up with? You know what I mean? Every time you're in the casino, there's a new one that you've never heard of before. So...

There are some companies out there that are reinventing the wheel, like Gaming Arts, with our brand new game that's coming out. Blue Bear has been doing really great work with their Devil's Lock, and then they've had a few more games come out since then that's completely changing the way that we're used to playing. So I'm hoping for some more new stuff like that. even electronic table games are kind of taking over more spaces on the floor, so think we'll see a little more of that too. Okay, yeah, that's really interesting.

Andrew McCarron (15:59.726)
It's challenging though, right, for operators, kind of, or suppliers I should say really, I kind of empathize with them that, you know, like you say about the Buffalo games, as much as you know, want to innovate and you want to see new things in innovation, players love the familiar, right? They love familiarity. yeah, do you think that's kind of causing a little bit of stagnation in terms of...

Innovate a little bit. mean, so yeah, I fall off. I fall prey to it, too, right? If I see a new Buffalo machine landing in the casino, I have to play. I got to try it out, you know. But that's part of the part of the role that I play is showing, you know, my millions of people watching what are the new games that are out and teach them how to play so that they get that familiar familiarity of a new game that they've never even seen before.

So that way when they go to the casino next they'll be able to see that game and be like, I should play that one. Brian showed me how to play it. The bonus is really cool. I have to get that bonus. You know, that kind of that kind of thing. But yeah, I mean, essentially comes down to the math. And when a manufacturer figures out that, the math on this game is perfect, let's just keep replicating it and replicating it and replicating it. And sometimes they'll make it little harder and, you know, make it little more volatile here or there. But they know it works. Yeah. I guess, you know, it kind of taps into more that, you know, streamers are a really good tool to

you know, showing players that moving players away from what they know, I guess, and getting them onto new games. I guess streams are big tool for that. Also, I'll just say that like, you know, social casinos, they've figured this out now too. And so there's a lot more omnichannel things happening. So like, for example, like SciPlay and, you know, Light and Wonder, they're almost like matching up when a new game comes out. They'll bring it out on in the land based, but also on their apps.

because people then they become familiar on the app that they can now go play in the casino or vice versa as well. It's very smart. Yeah. And I wanted to ask you about that. A beautiful segue right there. I wanted to ask you about social and sweepstake casinos. I am English. The concept of social and sweepstake casinos that have kind of really been thrust into the news in recent years. Yeah. Yeah. It's absolutely wild to me. It's kind of bonkers. And I'm regularly talking to

Andrew McCarron (18:09.784)
Jess Wellman and our US team just trying to get a grasp of what they are. they're here. What do you you work with them? Social casinos have been around for a long time. They really have. And I won't mention names, but I've worked with lot of partners over the years. And I remember one time I did like a LAN event with a bunch of players that play a certain social casino. And they brought their VIP players. And these people willingly will spend

hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to purchase gold coins where they win or lose gold coins, right? There's no way of winning any money or anything else. But people just do it because they like it, you know, not being in a land based casino is not for everyone. Not everyone likes how noisy they are or in many cases how smoky they are. And they just they just want to be on their own in their own home where they can be in control of everything and have a good time and play the games they like. So

You know, it's not necessarily about, you know, winning money or prizes. It's just getting a chance to play these certain kinds of games. so some social casinos have figured out a way to offer, you know, a chance to redeem your sweepstakes coins for cash prizes, for example. Right. And so that's exciting to another layer of players or even the same kind of players, too. it sweepstakes has expanded so much over the past few years. I've been I've been working with sweepstakes, I think, for seven years already.

You know, and I love it. At the very beginning, I was so confused. I'm like, what is this? I don't get it. You know, as most people are. think today most people understand it now. I was the very first streamer to like bring that out to people to show them. And now a lot of streamers are working with different social casinos to show the world that. But I think it's fascinating. I love it. Because you have a dedicated channel to your social and sweepstakes stuff. Do you have a different audience for it or is it a similar audience to... Yeah, it's bcsweeps.com.

So that one is, it's a similar audience, but like what we learned was not every casino player likes to online gambling or do they like to watch social casino play or do they like to table games? You know, it's very different. So on my Brian Christopher slots channel, if I start playing video poker or roulette, my ratings will drop. will not watch as much because they're there for slots. So I quickly figured out that I need to separate us out a little bit.

Andrew McCarron (20:38.39)
Because it's not for everybody. so that's why we have BC Sweeps, which is sweepstakes based. And then we have BC Slots 2, which is RMG, Real Money Gaming. And there's kind of a... There is a little bit of regulatory back and forth with the sweeps at the moment. I think the AJA have kind of said a few things. Yeah, where do you see this going? like, what do you think should happen in terms of sweeps? Do you think the framework should tighten? Or where do see this going?

It's working right now and it's expanding like crazy. So I don't see it going away. I think people just need to figure out how to work with them as opposed to against them. You know, it's obviously very popular. People understand how it works. You know, it's just like to me, it's no different than casinos that have bingo based slot machines, right? Or in some states that don't allow casinos with slot machines, have, you know, HHR, the horse racing, mechanical anal games. And I'm like,

What's the difference? It's the exact same thing. It's a slot in a different version. So, you know, they just figured out a way to make it to the masses, just like HHR did or bingo-based slot machines. And that expansion that you talk about is right now a state by state, so expanding across the states. I've heard it touted before that, you know, maybe we could see social or sweepstake casinos.

on these shores in Europe and in different parts of the world. Do you think they could be successful in Europe or in other regions? I don't see why not. I think if they brought it out here, it would be massive. It's fun. honestly, from my history, the RTP, the return to player percentage is higher online than it is in land based casinos. And they're able to do that. So for me, the player, I prefer that.

Nice. And I wanted to ask you as well about the Sports Grid partnership. Another really cool partnership for yourself. Yeah, we're super excited. So we're still working on how that relationship is going to happen. We've already had some of our videos on Sports Grid. We're uploading videos every week or so on there just to test the audience, see how they're reacting to it and everything else. But we do have a TV show in works that we'll be bringing out hopefully in the springtime or summertime as well. Awesome. So you get to...

Andrew McCarron (22:59.106)
You're going to be that presenter that you will be that actual host now. Yes, exactly. Exactly. So definitely looking forward to that. I can't say too much about what it's going to be like yet because we're still finalizing all the details, but it's going to be massive. I cannot wait. Focused on casino games. I'm assuming. Yeah. Yeah. Casinos and slots. Specific. Yeah. Not giving them too much away. I really can't. know, like sports sports group is amazing and they're bringing out a new, you know, a new channel, new platform for casinos.

And so that's not even out yet. So once that once that actually lands and our new product comes out, it'll be it'll be big. I had to probe because I'm so excited to see what that looks like. It's going to be so much fun. I'm sure me too. Brilliant. And I did also, you know, you know, I kind of plan to ask you about the the tick tock ban and then tick tock was unbanned. All of a sudden you've got a good following on tick tock. Yeah. Yeah, I guess just what.

What have you been going through the lot? It's not your soul. No, it's pretty small for us. We have a few hundred thousand followers on there. Tick Tock's a weird one. mean, shout out to the government who got Tick Tock shut down and shout out to the government who brought Tick Tock back. The same people. So so stupid. But, know, Tick Tock's a weird one because their policies don't allow gambling on their platform. Yeah. So, you know, at the beginning, we used to do live streams. They were really great for us. And then they tightened it up and said, no, can't.

and a longer gamble on here. So now we have to be innovative about what we post on there, because if we do a video of us just gambling or something, it'll be taken down. So, you know, it's never going to be our main focus, but it is a way still to bring, to attract a new audience and hopefully bring them over to our YouTube or Facebook pages. Yeah, I guess it really underlines that your content isn't just slots. Exactly. Your whole character, your whole persona, you're bringing that to life and you get to

do that on TikTok because, you know, without the gambling, it's just you, so it still works. Exactly. Yeah. Brilliant. And Brian, yeah, I guess lastly, tell the people where they can find you and thank you ever so much for your time as well. Of course. Yeah. The best place is bcslots.com. That's where we have our video content links and everything. And also we have fliptheswitch.com. That's our big content portal where people can learn all about how to gamble, where to gamble, the ins and outs. And we basically...

Andrew McCarron (25:22.146)
demystify everything there is to know about playing slots or gambling in general and sports betting.