Pulse
Endorphina: The signature of a great entertainer
By Phil - 23 September 2021
What space does Endorphina occupy in the iGaming market?
We like to identify ourselves as a games and service supplier for our business partners. However, for our players, we act as entertainers.
Even though the company started off being built on traditional business values and“old-school” gaming intelligence – we are now a flexible and young team.
The games we supply to the market have a special signature that allows them to be instantly recognised. Our symbols, sounds, mechanics, and themes all are part of our branding. We are very happy that our initial effort is now paying off and that we are achieving what we’ve been always aiming for – a strong and loyal player base.
Since the turn of the year, Endorphina has expanded its market presence in Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus and now moving to the Czech Republic, amongst others. What is your market mapping strategy? Is Europe the priority?
We are a European company, so it is only natural for us to enter markets where our games, services and ideas resonate the best.
However, we do not limit ourselves to Europe only. We have strong partners in the LATAM market and are growing with operators in Africa as well.
We believe that these emerging markets will be adopting European players’ behavior in casino and slot games even though they are currently more enticed by sport-focused products.
There’s been a lot of digitisation to replace live events in the past 18 months. How have you found the digital experience compared to the traditional conference and exhibition circuit?
At first there was strong enthusiasm from the industry. The industry seemed to believe that digital events would somehow move to the next level and that it would at least be on par with the live ones.
Unfortunately, that prediction turned out to be false. Conferences, panels and speakers were successfully handled online and there was a good list of attendees.
However, the expo and virtual stand format is something that did not work out at all. People were “online” at the event, but it was not the same as meeting them at their stand in person, where everyone is happy to talk. It felt more like they had the event in the background in one of their browser tabs, while working.
What are your expectations for the return of live events? Do you anticipate a swift return to the previous ‘normal’ or a mixture of hybrid events going forwards?
There is a hunger and need for people to start meeting again offline. Hybrid events are a good format for small/medium size organisations and there is room for them.
Having a local audience and panel, while broadcasting the event to the online audience, works well for a conference format.
The “normal” that we previously experienced was too overcrowded with the number of events getting a bit out of hand – according to the industry. Every week there was something going on.
We believe that until the end of October 21, we should make the most of the spike of live events and attend them as much as possible. Since you never know if governments will be forced to apply new restrictions.
Do you have any firm plans on where Endorphina will be showcasing its products?
Absolutely. As mentioned previously, we will be taking advantage of the fact that the event organisations are alive and kicking – SBC Barcelona, iGB Amsterdam, Both SIGMA and iGamingNext in Malta – we look forward to being there in person.
Can you share any details on the new titles and innovations Endorphina will be exhibiting?
Since these events are after a two-year hiatus, we do not want to overshadow the fact that everyone wants to connect and talk in person.
Usually, we are known for bringing a strong entertainment program together with a new game release to showcase.
As an example, we released our game Cash Tank during the last ICE and our live show consisted of shooting money out of a real tank!
We have had some crazy ideas for this event, but since there are local health and safety restrictions now in place, we decided not to implement them for this expo.
We would love to, but in our experience when Endorphina creates some entertainment and throws in some legendary merchandise – there is a line around the whole stand!
Will titles that weren’t able to be promoted ‘live’ in the past year make a come back, or will everything be removed off the shelf?
As we already mentioned, during the upcoming events, we will not be promoting a specific game title. There will be private showcases and demos for current and future customers. But the stand itself will not have a theme like we did during the last ICE event.
We believe these events will be more about networking, so we are aiming to provide a nice environment for it. We will still of course have interesting value proposals for the operators and we want to discuss those in a pleasant and live environment. Who isn’t tired of the video calls?
Looking towards 2022 and ICE London, what’s in the product development pipeline?
We have a new interesting IP in the works. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal many details. But as you see from our previous game releases, we are keen on creating a product line from the successful game titles – like we did with the Lucky Streak and Chance Machine series.
The strong branding strategy that Endorphina brings to the operators, makes it easily recognisable for players. In this chaotic and overpopulated market of slots studios – we believe that having a clear and simple brand with proper product communication for players is the key.
