Since its inception, social slots pioneer Livespins has led with shared experiences as its unique selling point. It is built around the “bet behind” concept, allowing viewers to bet alongside streamers as they play slot games.
This was not far from CEO Chris Scicluna’s mind at ICE London 2023, where Livespins was launching an updated version of its user interface (UI) product.
“Basically, it’s a more immersive experience,” says Scicluna. “You can actually turn the phone landscape and then you can get the full experience.”
This encourages communicative play, he adds, with incentives such as reactions and the all-important jackpot.
“We have reactions, so you can react with the community while you are playing,” he says. “We have the lightning drops, which is a progressive jackpot.”
It’s similar to other products on the market; the more players engage, the bigger the jackpot becomes. It then drops randomly to one player, when it hits a certain threshold.
What’s different, however, is the fact that Livespins makes it a communal experience. Already it’s had a “great reception”, he adds.
Enter the Ambassador
Push to engage customers resulted in Livespins’ Ambassador product. With Ambassador, consumers curate their own gaming experience, by selecting the slot streamers they want to watch.
Scicluna says that Ambassador was created in response to a demand from the industry.
“The Ambassador product was born as we saw a gap in the market when speaking to our partners and operators,” Scicluna explains.
“At Livespins we recruit streamers and train them rigorously and they become great entertainers – the community is built within the operator products.”
This means operators can curate a pool of streamers for their existing players, rather than focusing on player recruitment.
“From this we saw a need,” he continues. “Operators are already investing a lot in external streamers and their own brand ambassadors, so how about if they could leverage this talent to stream also for their existing players?”
Enter the metaverse
For better or for worse, the metaverse is currently one of the hottest topics in the online casino space.
Scicluna says Livespins is looking to leverage the metaverse as a way to enhance its streamer offerings through virtual reality (VR) technologies.
“What we’re exploring with the metaverse is actually to have virtual streamers, which is a topic that’s being talked about a lot in the Asian market,” he says.
“Basically, the streamer would be like a character. We’re going to try that very soon, because it’s appealing to some markets.”
But Scicluna is not completely convinced by what the metaverse has to offer. He views it as just one virtual world in a sea of others.
“In general, the metaverse is a bit of an overused term,” he continues. To him, the metaverse is an environment where the player can immerse themselves and enjoy an experience. This means the focus is on building the immersive experience, rather than the world.
Going stateside
In line with the majority of online gaming operators, Livespins is looking for opportunities to expand in North America.
Last year, it entered the US online casino space through a partnership with Wynnbet. Scicluna says that the US is of particular interest to Livespins, as he believes the industry there holds a similar vision to Livespins – a mission to make the online gaming experience better.
“We are excited about the US because US operators and partners are in general more in tune with Livespins’ vision, they already have great talent and ambassadors they work with,” he says. “The US has Las Vegas as a backdrop, which is the pinnacle of entertainment, so they are very excited to bring the same level of entertainment they offer offline to their online experience.”
And according to Scicluna, Livespins’ expansion across North America could happen sooner rather than later.
“We are in the licensing process with Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ontario which will see Livespins debut its product in these great markets.”
Despite the prospect of a stateside expansion, new technological opportunities and developments in Livespins’ assortment of products, Scicluna has not been convinced to drastically change what Livespins has to offer.
He prefers to enhance what Livespins does best and not reinvent the wheel.
“We’re strengthening our product. We have a new redesign, which is going out very soon, and will make the experience much better.”