HOW CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR HAS CHANGED POST-COVID-19

Gil Soffer, SVP Sales & Business Development at Galaxsys, speaks to Gambling Insider about the popularity of fast and skill games, as well as consumer behaviour trends post-Covid-19 pandemic

How is Galaxsys creating a growth trajectory in non-traditional slot games?

Galaxsys is a young company. However, in a short time, the business has still led the way in creating market demand in the non-traditional slots vertical, by creating product experiences that appeal to players seeking a deeper pace of gameplay. The business has already achieved some key milestones, such as attaining triple-digit growth over the previous year and we now have one hundred plus partners. Which includes: regulated operators, platform providers, and Tier 1 aggregators within the iGaming supply chain. We are on track to exceed these numbers this year.

The growth trajectory is due to several factors, one of which is our investment in people. The Galaxsys team comprises over 60 iGaming product specialists committed to providing games built with the latest technologies and innovative solutions. Our games pipeline is to deliver a further 20 games by December.

What new demographic is fast & skill games falling into? And why is that?

This is an interesting question. We are seeing broad adoption of the games across specific demographic age groups and gender. There is a slight bias towards the Millennials, or Generation Y, who are digital natives. Given these digital natives have grown up with digital, their expectations are slightly different from Generation Z, whose DNA is entwined in digital content etc. Therefore, Millennials constantly seek newer, faster and quicker experiences. Overall, the category driver is that digital players have less time; they are time-poor, not time rich. Gaming is brief, so it only lasts at that moment. Our fast and skilled games, with quicker in-play, appeal to that player base, in short-burst formats to accommodate their busy digital lifestyles and consumption patterns.

What demographics are you not reaching with non-traditional slot games and how do you plan on expanding your demographic reach?

Whil there may be a perceived early adopter situation of Millennials engaging, we are seeing a balanced usage across most significant social, economic and geo-demographic player groups. To broaden appeal, we constantly look at behavioural data with our operator partners and aggregators, and run various pattern data software with our data scientists. We are also undertaking focus groups and participating in other forms of qualitative and quantitative market research; so that we are agile from a marketing standpoint to react to market trends or, indeed, to create developing market demand.

Why is there a surge in demand for non-traditional slot games and fast and skill games?

It is not a surge in demand per se. Post-pandemic, back to normality or new standard, the supply ecosystems have had to adapt from perhaps more rigid technology, and distribution infrastructure to deliver digital products and services at faster pace. With that, consumer consumption behaviours have changed in that perhaps there was more available leisure time during the pandemic era. But as we have moved to hybrid and different life situations, available free time has eroded. However, overall, digital consumers demand speed and near-instant gratification. Layer on top that games studios, like many businesses, had to get much better at listening to consumer signals. The result is Galaxsys is leading the way in meeting the demand but also creating demand generation within non-traditional slot games and fast and skill games category.

How many slot games, and fast and skill games do you currently have? How many more do you plan to have out by the end of this year?

For now, we have more than 17 fast games and five skills games, and by the end of the year we are planning to increase the number of fast games up to 30. In which we will include the game types that will cover the demand of players from all categories.

Which of your fast and skill games is the most popular, and in which regions are customers playing them the most? Our games are popular everywhere, especially in LatAm, Africa and Asia, but the craze is coming to Europe, US and Canada. Every region has its tastes: crash in LatAm, skill games in the Middle East and fast table and instant games in Asia; but the world is coming together, which makes the success of all our games.

Are there any ways you plan on improving your game? If so, what are your future plans for development?

The only way to effectively improve the games is to make data-driven decisions. To do that we are going to have the general data-gathering system, which will include: competitive analysing, player behaviour within our games and market trends analysing. This shall allow the business to improve its game development pipeline.