Pulse
BLOX: Quintessential Italian maestros
By Lewis - 5 May 2021
Unlike many solution provider’s in the market, BLOX is firmly focused on cornering a single iGaming market – Italy. G3 interviews Karl Grech, COO of BLOX Limited, to find out how, why and whether the company has its eye on developments elsewhere in Europe.
Why is BLOX exclusively targeting the Italian market with its gaming and content aggregation services?
It was a natural choice for us. Our team has extensive experience working in the Italian iGaming industry, so we understand the unique requirements of both operators and players in the country. Of course, the consistent growth in the Italian market also makes it attractive for BLOX.
What differentiates BLOX’s iGaming platform from others in the Italian market?
In terms of innovation, we analysed exactly what gaming operators want and need. We’ve stripped it all down, and then rebuilt it to offer the perfect, scalable and customisable solution that combines first-class service with excellent products on the technical side.
From advanced risk management and fast product integrations, to a convenient but powerful back office and reliable, fully hosted managed solutions. The result is a platform optimised for today’s gaming businesses – rather than a legacy platform with new features tacked on, like so many others are.
For example, we know the future is mobile, not just on the player side, but also for entrepreneurs and executives who want to manage their businesses on the go. BLOX is truly omni-channel by design, without sacrificing functionality or user experience.
Italy’s betting and gaming market faces some of Europe’s toughest regulated market conditions. From a platform provider’s perspective, what are the main challenges of operating in this environment?
Regulatory pressures are increasing in many markets, but it is true that Italy is particularly challenging in some aspects. With so much media scrutiny, and a constantly evolving regulatory framework, we believe the key to long-term sustainability is focusing on promoting responsible gaming.
How tailored is BLOX’s platform to Italy’s regulatory requirements? How important is knowing the peculiarities of the market?
We have built the BLOX platform on the expertise of our Italian product team, years of product development will help our end user to have a best-in-class gaming and sports experience. We did put the customers at the heart of the platform, the Italian market is a combination sportsbook customer primarily with a growing propension to online casino.
We have built a strong seamless casino and sportsbook experience ready to take care of the new omnichannel customers landing online from the retail experience. We have built every single component of the platform and successfully passed all the certification needed.
With a pandemic depressed sports betting market, 2020 was a breakthrough year for Italy’s online casino market. Is iGaming set to become Italy’s dominant online force?
With the sports calendar so heavily impacted by the pandemic, and land-based casinos closed, it was unsurprising to see significant growth in Online Casino and Poker. However, the Italian market was already seeing a millennial-driven shift to digital even before the pandemic, so it is best viewed as a catalyst, accelerating the pace of change.
What are the opportunities for brands to offer both casino and sports betting?
Players want choice, so the more an operator can offer, the better. Though many have downplayed it in the past, cross-selling between verticals is increasingly important to extend player lifetime value, and build strong engagement.
New products, such as RNG-driven Virtual Sports, are also blurring the relationship between casino games and sports betting, making cross-selling more effective.
Since the turn of the year, BLOX has expanded its slots offering with several studios including Fugaso, Eurasian Gaming, Kalamba Games, iSoftBet, Gamzix and Espresso Games. What is the selection process? What qualities do you look for in a studio?
We are now working with more than 20 incredible studios and we will be adding even more soon. Though we appreciate the need to offer a comprehensive selection of well-known providers, we are also determined to differentiate our line-up.
To this end, we are always on the lookout for the most promising startup studios. If we see a new brand that is producing games we feel will perform well, we are more than happy to help facilitate their market entry.
Another advantage we bring to the market is that we can move faster than the competition. In our market analysis we found lengthy processes and delays are a huge problem for operators right now, and this is something we want to do better.
Italy has a significant land-based slot audience. What types of online games are popular with Italian players? What themes and mechanics resonate well?
The closure of land-based casinos due to the pandemic has forced players to shift online, and games like Roulette, Baccarat, and Punto Banco are very popular with Italian players. Saying that, we are seeing the rise of a new generation of Italian players that has not been so exposed to land-based games, so trends are definitely shifting.
If the crisis continues well into 2021, we expect to see a shift towards more community elements, at least until land-based casinos can fully and sustainably re-open. The desire for human interaction is very strong, and is no doubt fuelling the Live Casino boom – a vertical we expect to continue experiencing strong growth.
How significant is the back office of an aggregation platform? We often hear about back office improvements and optimisation, but what does that actually mean for developers day-to-day?
Very significant. Power and features are one thing, but an overly complicated and poorly designed back office can be a time sink, and make running a business a nightmare.
Our back office platform has been built, from the ground up, to let game providers focus on doing what they do best; developing awesome games. It comes fully loaded with all the services and features needed, along with some really cool extras, but it’s intuitive and efficient.
With Germany and the Netherlands set to implement new online gambling legislation this year, does BLOX have any immediate plans to expand its reach beyond the Italian market?
For the moment we are firmly focused on Italy, and want to ensure we put 100 per cent into achieving a successful market entry there. However, we are keeping a close eye on developments elsewhere and do see plenty of long-term potential, so watch this space.
