How was the experience of this edition of CasinoBeat Slots Festival?

It was another great event for us, with leading games developers such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, Play’n GO, BetConstruct, Netgaming, ThunderSpin, Kalamba Games, and Habanero showcasing their latest releases and a number of titles yet to hit the market.

As with the first edition of the CasinoBeats Slots Festival, the main focus was on product testing through play and all the new games were available to try. The casino teams of many of the world’s largest operators attended and took the opportunity to play and compare the games.

We also added some elements to the event, including a number of educational sessions and bringing in leading streamers FruitySlots and Chipmonkz Slots to put some of the games through their paces on Twitch and YouTube.

What feedback did you receive from the participants?

The feedback from the games studios and delegates was very positive. People enjoyed the opportunity to get early access to the new slots and try them out, and they also loved watching the streamers. Most importantly, games developers have told us they picked up some useful leads.

We’ll take on board all the feedback we’ve had and look to bring in further improvements for the next edition of Slots Festival on 11 May.

What were the highlights?

I’m always impressed by the creativity of the games studios and how they keep on coming up with fresh ideas, so the chance to get a first look at some of the games that are likely to be huge hits with slots players later in the year was exciting.

The educational content was great as well and it was fascinating to hear the insights of  Cristina Niculae (CEO, Interactive Gaming Group) and Simon Hammon (Chief Product Officer, Relax Gaming) about the industry, as well as to learn about the development of the Wheel of Fortune Megaways™ game from Nik Robinson (CEO, Big Time Gaming) and Enrico Drago (SVP, IGT PlayDigital).

What do you think are the benefits that this forced passage to the virtuality of events can leave us after the pandemic?

From SBC’s point of view, we’ve learned a lot from having to take our events programme online - and we’ve also discovered some surprising benefits.

The digital format has allowed us to reach a bigger audience than ever before, including people from a host of new markets, and provided lots of data that has given us greater insights into what delegates and exhibitors want from B2B events. We’ll certainly be using that information in the planning of our physical events and believe it will help to drive further improvements in our offerings.

The switch to virtual also opened our eyes to some new potential uses of technology for events. We’ll be incorporating some of them in our first physical conference and expo of the year, as CasinoBeats Summit will be in a fully integrated live and digital format to allow people who can’t travel to Malta to enjoy the content and view a parallel online version of the exhibition.

What are the next events organized by SBC?

We have a busy schedule of digital events focused on regional markets coming up in the first half of the year, including SBC Digital Italy (17 February), SBC Digital Latinoamérica (2 - 3 March), SBC Digital Africa (30 - 31 March), and SBC Digital North America (9 - 10 June).

It’s exciting for us to be running another digital event for Latin America, after we attracted a huge audience for the successful inaugural edition last year. Delegates returning in March can expect a high-level speaker line-up tackling a conference agenda that examines topics such as regulation, opportunities in igaming, effective marketing strategies, the latest developments in Brazil, the launch of the regulated market in Buenos Aires, esports betting, and the future of lotteries.

In the second half of the year, we believe we’ll be able to return to staging physical conferences and exhibitions, and have five major events scheduled:  CasinoBeats Summit in Malta on 13 - 15 July, SBC Summit Barcelona on 21 - 24 September, SBC Summit Latinoamérica in Cancún on 27 - 28 October, Betting on Sports Europe in London on 9 - 11 November, and SBC Summit North America in New Jersey on 30 November - 2 December.