2023 was a great and productive year for Slotegrator. And since December is a month of reflection, it’s time to look at what goals were fulfilled and what new goals we should set. Let’s take stock of how our year went.
For Slotegrator, 2023 was a year of thorough research, deep insights, rethinking, and qualitative growth. We traveled the world, connected, analyzed, implemented, and analyzed again. We learned all the trends, became convinced that we are on the right path, and finally determined our goals for 2024.
First, a quick look back at the most noteworthy events of the year.
2023 was very eventful in terms of gambling market regulations.
We saw new regulations appear on the map: Brazil finally regulated sports betting, Peru introduced regulations, Colombia regulated advertising while Belgium banned it, the UAE established a regulator, India reformed its tax policy, daily fantasy sports were forbidden in Germany, and rules in Georgia got stricter.
One of the gambling industry’s most renowned regulators, Curaçao, moved to enhance its reputation and introduced major changes to its licensing system. On the other hand, Anjouan entered the stage to offer operators relatively affordable and hassle-free licenses.
Slotegrator is expanding into growing markets around the world. We have signed a deal with XSA sports in Brazil to provide gaming content from our portfolio to Latin American players, and expanded to Romania and Greece through a partnership with 1x2 Network.
Slotegrator Business Development Manager Ayvar Gabidullin commented to Casino Guru News on the massive growth of Latin America and Asia:
Brazil recently enacted a provisional measure to regulate sports betting after a five-year wait. Mexico is struggling to rein in the country’s gray market, but in the next three years, the market is expected to grow by 33%. Peru, formerly a massive gray market, recently passed iGaming regulations. In Columbia, there will be a new set of regulations intended to combat problem gambling by requiring online operators to, among other things, detect risky behavior, display warning messages, and enable players to exclude themselves and limit their deposits.
Macau is called "the Las Vegas of Asia", Singapore is known as an iGaming hub, and the Philippines is still considered the iGaming center of Asia due to its POGO program. India has plenty of potential with a population of 1.3 billion, increasing internet connectivity, and spreading mobile usage; Chinese players are famously happy to visit offshore platforms spending ¥1 trillion ($145.5 billion) annually on online gambling, much of it in cryptocurrency. The Georgian gambling sector grew by 23% in 2020 and keeps growing despite the stricter regulations; Armenia has become a regional innovation hub with a tech-savvy population.
This year was intense for the regulated gambling world, and we stayed on top of every little detail that could potentially be important for our clients. To provide you with the most relevant information about the gambling laws we created (and keep constantly updating) an interactive map.
This year, we created and launched an Interactive map of gambling regulations that provides essential information about almost every country in the world, allowing you to start your research with the basics: whether online and offline gambling and betting are legal and regulated in a chosen place. We also keep posting monthly Industry news to give you detailed updates about all major changes in the industry as soon as they appear so that you are forewarned and forearmed.
We also traveled a lot this year — Slotegrator visited many iGaming events in 2023. Among them were SiGMA Asia in the Philippines, ASEAN Gaming Summit Philippines, GAT Expo Colombia, Spice India, SAGSE Latam, Casino Beats Summit, Belgrade Future Gaming, Central European Gambling Summit 2023 (CEGS23), Romania, and SBC Summit Tbilisi. We also presented with a stand at several expos, including SiGMA Malta, SBC Summit Barcelona, SiGMA Cyprus, iGB LiVE Amsterdam, SiGMA Brazilian iGaming Summit, SiGMA Eurasia in Dubai, ICE London, and SiGMA Africa in Kenya.
Our Managing Director, Yana Khaidukova, commented:
Expanding into key markets around the world is crucial for international gambling providers like Slotegrator, and we keep searching for new opportunities to contribute to our clients’ growth.
Our team dedicates so much time and effort to participating in various events for a reason. Our main goal is to establish as many mutually beneficial contacts as possible — this results in deep and detailed knowledge about current industry trends and players’ preferences.
Our partners also focused on players’ demands this year. They developed products based on the new technology trends, signed deals in new or developing regions, and shared their experience with us.
We constantly collect and update information about new technologies, game types, payment methods, and player behavior. In an industry that evolves as fast as iGaming, relevant, up-to-date knowledge is essential — which is why we produce so much informative material in our Academy section. Our detailed report about modern players was released in December and another one about gambling trends in 2024 is about to be released in January, follow our news to stay up to date.
There is nothing new in the idea of integrating as many gambling products as possible to the platform, as players’ preferences change and vary. However, demand evolves, and this is another aspect that we studied in 2023. New formats like crash games, provably fair games, and esports became dramatically popular and took positions in a list of the most popular game types such as classic slots or poker.
APIgrator solves the issue of online casinos’ gaming offer — it enables one-session integration of any games from our 17,000 titles portfolio, including the most popular game types and new releases, from over 100 providers from across the globe. In 2022, APIgrator was certified in Lithuania, and this year it was certified in Sweden.
Caacon Casino commented on their cooperation with Slotegrator:
Our partnership with Slotegrator has significantly enhanced our operations. They played a key role in setting up our company, navigating the complexities of obtaining a casino license, and streamlining the payment system. Slotegrator's extensive network of game providers has greatly enriched our platform, offering an impressive variety of gaming options. We sincerely appreciate Slotegrator's essential support and guidance. Thank you for being an integral part of our journey.
Among other trends we identified several cutting-edge technologies that are in demand today and promise to be popular among players in the next year — artificial intelligence and all products of blockchain technology, including NFTs, provably fair games, and cryptocurrency, are going to be a must-have for online casino operators in the near future.
Ayvar Gabidullin shares his view of the industry’s main trends with Website Planet:
- Casinos in the metaverse. I’ve also seen some ratings of these casinos (dated to 2023), and it is a very interesting direction for iGaming to develop in.
- The launch of VR products, which are already of great interest in the gambling industry. The market is beginning to move in this direction, because these technologies are becoming more and more available.
- The emergence of new types of games. In order to stay competitive, providers will continue to create completely new types of games. These will include NFT integration or opportunities for players to be creative, as Aviatrix did, for example, by introducing its crash game with a customizable NFT token to the market in October 2022. Gaming providers who bet on NFT, KYC verification, first-person table games, and crypto bonuses will be the leaders of the next several years.
- Expanding interest in stream betting. Industry experts predict that this trend has a bright future. Such a solution has the potential to increase players’ confidence in esports in general, as well as to make the format of stream games more popular.
- Digitalization will be a catalyst not only for the emerging markets like Latin America, Asia, and India, but for the European market as well. I recommend watching our overview, below, about gambling industry trends in 2023. It’s like a roadmap for our market today.
We also implement this knowledge in our products and solutions. As our first steps in this direction, our turnkey platform was updated with new modules and features for smoother and more optimized online casino and sportsbook management: the Casino Builder module for beautiful website UX, the KYC module for more efficient AI-driven player verification in compliance with regulator’s requirements, the Anti-fraud module to identify suspicious behavior, the Artificial BI module for a quick and effective analysis of platform metrics, the Bonus module for a quick adjustment of bonus campaigns, and other features like Progress bar, Wheel of fortune, and integration of ChatGPT. Read more about this solution in this article.
We also reaffirmed that we went to the point when we became one of the pioneers of the Telegram Casino solution — this product is only becoming more and more popular due to a progressive penetration of the app itself and the growing popularity of portable gambling.
Among other important trends in the iGaming industry is a consolidating focus on regulatory compliance and responsible gambling. Our team has met many gambling industry members and noticed a growing interest in ESG in the industry.
Slotegrator Head of Marketing Svetlana Kirichenko commented for Safer Gambling Week:
Responsible gaming and safe games must be at the frontline. As a software provider, we understand how important it is to make sure that our clients understand the regulations and policies of responsible games, including self-exclusion and other player protection measures. All participants in the industry need to know more about responsible gambling initiatives and events. This activity helps to identify gambling problems and to recommend measures for dealing with them.
Slotegrator shares regulatory updates and continually reiterates the necessity of legal operation. Paying attention to this issue is a sign that the industry realizes the importance of safe and responsible gambling, and that it begins with us.
Slotegrator’s solutions and services were nominated in the following categories in 2023:
- Innovation in Mobile, SBC Awards 2023
- Mobile Gaming Software Supplier, Innovation in Mobile, EGR B2B Awards 2023
- Online Casino Provider of the Year, SiGMA Awards Americas 2023
- Platform Provider of the Year, Aggregator of the Year, AffPapa iGaming Awards 2023
- Aggregator of the Year, Sigma Manila Awards | Asia 2023
And we won in one category:
- Sports provider of the Year by Affpapa iGaming Awards 2023
We had an interesting journey and we enjoyed going through every milestone of 2023. We appreciate our extensive partner network, every new deal, and every new connection, as well as every insight and every development we got this year.
We are looking forward to 2024, hoping it will bring us more interesting events and achievements. We wish our partners and clients growth and prosperity in the next year.
