Compare.bet recently had the opportunity to catch up with Jo Purvis, Director of Marketing and Relationships at Blueprint Gaming, to reflect on a busy 2020 and talk about what’s next for the slot game developer.
Reflecting on 2020, Purvis told Compare.bet that despite the challenges faced by the company and the industry, Blueprint managed to record a solid performance driven by new content.
“Aside from the challenges that 2020 brought to the whole industry, last year was really strong in terms of new slot launches and plays across our games. We’ve enjoyed tremendous success with branded content, as demonstrated with the releases of Rick and Morty™ Megaways™ and Sausage Party™,” said Purvis.
“We also introduced new game formats to our content in 2020, bringing a new way of experiencing our slots. We saw the launch of the Power 4 Slots mechanic, which allows users to play across four sets of reels at the same time on popular games such as Gorilla Gold Megaways™ and Fishin’ Frenzy.”
The addition of these new concepts further diversified Blueprint’s offering, as the company continued in its efforts to develop content that will resonate with a wide range of players. Last year, the developer released a number of retail-inspired Reel Time Gaming (RTG) titles to the digital market, which proved to be another important step in broadening the appeal of its portfolio.
“Our wide range of RTG titles, which have been successfully transitioned from retail to the online slots market, proved pivotal in allowing retail players to enjoy their favourite games whilst pubs, arcades and casinos were closed,” said Purvis.
On top of this, Blueprint managed to ramp up its global expansion efforts. The developer expanded its presence in the Italian igaming market after partnering with LeoVegas to provide new content for the operator’s Italy-facing platforms.
“Italy’s an important market for us given the passion for casino games in the region. We have a great working relationship with LeoVegas and were delighted to deliver our content to their Italian-facing site earlier this year. The deal ensured LeoVegas’ Italian player base will experience slots such as Luck O’ The Irish and LeoVegas Megaways™ on their desktop and mobile devices for the first time,” explained Purvis.
But that’s not all for Blueprint. Like many other businesses in the online gambling space, Blueprint has its sights set on global expansion, more specifically the soon to be regulated German market.
Purvis said: “In 2021, Germany will also be a new important opportunity. Blueprint departed this market in late 2017 due to the ongoing regulatory discussions affecting the jurisdiction. The market moving to a locally regulated model will help payment processing and advertising, which means the scene is set for this online gaming market to be rekindled for Blueprint.”
The regulation of the German online gambling market has been a long time coming and dates back to 2012 when the 16 federal states approved an Interstate Treaty on Gambling, with the intention to open up sports betting in the regulated market for the first time.
After years of legal uncertainty Germany, the country’s states inked a new gambling treaty which is expected to come into effect from July 2021 and will lift the ban on online casino, slots, and poker.
Last year some of the largest online gambling operators in the gambling realm managed to secure their space in Germany’s soon-to-launch online gambling market.
In October, Entain, formerly known as GVC Holdings, announced that it had been awarded four online sports betting licences for its Ladbrokes, bwin, SportingBet and Gamebookers brands in Germany.
Other online companies in the gambling space including Gauselmann Group and Tipwin also secured approval to operate in Germany once online gambling goes live.
Purvis added: “Global expansion is always on the agenda as we look to make our games accessible to as many players around the world. Our content is enjoyed by players across multiple markets, so we have no hesitation in entering new markets if the opportunity is right. On the other side of the coin, maintaining our relationships with existing customers is really important too, particularly in the UK where we’re based. We’re regularly in contact with operator partners to ensure we’re delivering relevant content that players want.”
