Yossi Barzely, Chief Business Development Officer at Pragmatic Play.

Pragmatic Play’s live dealer studio was recently granted a license to become operational, what can we expect?

We are proud to have been granted a Class II licence to operate our state-of-the-art Bucharest-based live casino studio after receiving approval from the Romanian gambling regulator (ONJN) – this is a tremendously important step as we build the industry’s first-choice live casino solution.

Live casino is an increasingly must-have vertical for operators globally, providing the perfect confluence between land-based and online play, and therefore an unparalleled acquisition and retention tool if deployed seamlessly as part of a targeted market strategy.

With this in mind, the introduction of Pragmatic Play Live Casino marks a new and exciting step forward for the company – one that sees Pragmatic Play evolve into a world-class multi-product provider. The ultimate aim? To not only reach, but surpass the highest standards in the industry through the combination of a solid reliable platform, the most advanced technologies, and a wholly immersive approach, managed by a team of highly experienced professionals.

What innovations in your live casino products can operators and players look forward to?

One of the key innovations we are bringing to market is a comprehensive suite of customisation options. We recognise that live casino must closely mirror the land-based experience in order to drive omni-channel convergence, and as such our customisation options in no way dilute the core experience, allowing operators to enhance their delivery by providing a product that is uniquely styled to the brand. Our main innovations are superior video quality and advanced in-house video broadcasting solutions offering the lowest latency in the industry, a state-of-the-art live studio featured sophisticated interiors design and premium quality professional video, as well as audio and lighting equipment from leading brands in the market. Moreover, we provide advanced, highly flexible and customizable marketing tools, extremely user-friendly game UI, innovative mobile solutionand fail-safe systems to insure minimum amount of downtime.

The fast growth of Pragmatic Play has been impressive, what has been the key driver behind this?

Our commitment to our aforementioned multi-product strategy has been very important. The fact that we provide multi-product content via a single API has been critical to the rapid growth we are experiencing. Our video slots offering is well established with a number of leading operators including Svenska Spel, PokerStars and Kindred Group, and for operators who are already live with our products, activating another vertical such as bingo or live casino is as simple and effortless as flicking a switch.

Furthermore, our impressive progress would not be possible without the hard work of the entire Pragmatic Play team. Every single member of staff is committed to our vision of transforming the igaming industry with unique experiences across multiple verticals, and having such a great team all pulling in the same direction has been instrumental in our achievements to date.

Can you expand further on Pragmatic Play’s key opportunities for continued growth?

The key message that we are pushing is that Pragmatic Play is now a truly multi-product supplier. We continue to develop the most exciting portfolio of expertly-modelled, innovative video slot titles, with plans to increase both the number and the quality of games we launch on a monthly basis.

As well as adding our live casino and bingo offering to our award-winning portfolio, we completed the acquisition of virtual sports supplier VSoftCo in 2019.

Ultimately, our growth opportunities emanate from our singular focus on regulated markets. In recent months we have signed a series of landmark commercial agreements broadening our reach in markets including Spain, Italy and Portugal, with leading operators including Kindred Group, PokerStars and Estoril.

What new games can we expect in April and anything on the roadmap ahead we should know about?

We have a number of new and innovative games already planned as part of our extensive live casino roadmap. Live Speed Roulette, Live Baccarat and Live Baccarat Super Six are soon to launch. Our turnkey marketing tools are also currently being rolled out to complement our live casino launch.

These tools provide our licensees with the freedom and flexibility to create custom promotions and events, enabling them to attract new players and capitalise on the existing player base through enhancing player experience, rewarding regular and loyal players. Growing player LTVs is key for all operators in a game of tightening margins, and these tools provide operators with the greatest scope for extracting maximum returns.