Localization, player retention, and the growing use of artificial intelligence were among the issues drawing operator attention at the SBC Summit, alongside continued discussion around prediction markets and regulatory developments in Brazil.
Speaking with Yogonet during the event, Ataur Rosul Abeer, Principal Business Development Manager at Slotegrator, discussed what operators should prioritize when launching an online casino, why speed to market matters, and how AI is changing areas such as customer support, player analytics, and personalization.
Abeer also addressed the importance of adapting platforms to individual markets, the differences between desktop and mobile casino experiences, and how operators can use player data more effectively to improve retention and engagement.
Looking back at the SBC Summit, what were some of the biggest trends and conversations you noticed?
SBC is one of the biggest exhibitions, and it has been great, to be honest. Regarding the trends, right now a lot of people are talking about regulation in Brazil because of the recent developments there, so there is a lot of discussion around that.
On the other side, prediction markets are doing really well, whether peer-to-peer or fixed models. From our side, we are also seeing a lot of interest in prediction markets; they are growing like crazy right now.
Slotegrator is showcasing its prediction functionality. How does that work from an operator’s perspective?
Operators can basically create the tournament, match, or prediction themselves. They can choose what they want to post on their website, and players can then place bets based on those questions. Operators have the flexibility to decide what kind of predictions they want to offer and how they want to present them to their players.
What should operators keep in mind when choosing online casino software?
Right now, almost everyone wants to open a casino, but before you start, you need to understand exactly what you need for your project.
First of all, there are compliance, integrations, and the flexibility to integrate different features or providers. Payments also play a huge role because if you do not have a proper payment solution, you cannot really run your project in the market.
Nowadays, it is also all about AI, so you need to bring at least some AI functionality into the platform to make life easier. You should not have to do everything manually. These are the things operators need to understand first before they start developing the project.
Since you mentioned AI, where are you seeing it having the biggest impact on the operator side?
There are several areas. From an operator point of view, one is analytics, especially player behavior analytics. You can understand whether someone is a good player or a bad player, what games they are playing, which pages they are visiting, and what types of games or bonuses they are looking at, even if they are not actually playing them. AI is really helpful in tracking that behavior and collecting the information.
Another area is customer support. Support can be a headache for operators because you need an experienced team that understands the issues and can provide the right solutions and explanations.
Now, with AI, you can set up automated support around specific topics, such as deposit issues and other common problems. AI can respond to the player very quickly. If the player has a more complex issue, such as something specific involving a bet, it can then be transferred to a real agent.
Why is speed to market such an important factor when launching a new project today?
If you are not in the race, you are obviously losing revenue. Every month, more and more operators are entering the market. If you want to enter B2C as an operator, you need to do it fast.
You also need to keep up with market trends because everything is changing very fast nowadays. Brazil is a good example. Regulation was introduced and, within a relatively short period, the market has already gone through a lot of change. The market moves very fast, so keeping up with those trends is really important.
Launching a casino is one thing, but retaining players is a much bigger challenge. What do operators need to do to keep players in the long run?
It is a very good question, but also a difficult one because there are many different factors. An operator without players is nothing, and getting players is really difficult right now. There are different ways players come in. You have organic marketing and organic traffic, and then you have affiliates. You can also have different types of players coming through casino, sportsbook, or prediction products.
The important thing is that you cannot offer the same thing to every player.
For example, during the FIFA World Cup or Cricket World Cup, you need to understand what kind of offer you are going to give to players. Some players may be much more interested in sports betting than slots. You need to identify those players and offer them the right promotions, coupons, leaderboards, challenges, and sportsbook-related incentives.
This is also where AI comes in. Through AI, you can analyze those players and then provide different promotions and bonuses to different categories of users. Everything is connected, but the most important thing is that you need to know your players first.
Slotegrator’s platform is designed with localization in mind. How should operators approach specific markets?
Over the last year or year and a half, we have been trying to make our platform easier for operators to customize.
For example, we have the Casino Builder. Operators do not need to go to their front-end developers every time they want to change the website, the colors, or something else. That is also part of localization.
If we are talking about India, for example, you cannot simply take a black or dark-themed website and launch it there. India is more colorful and has a different visual style. With Casino Builder, operators can choose the colors, change banners, and move different game categories themselves.
For example, if tomorrow is Independence Day in India, the operator can prepare a theme the day before and then simply publish it. The player reloads the front end and sees a completely different look.
We also support multi-currency, and multiple domains or projects can be connected through one back end. So if an operator is targeting India and Brazil, for example, they can use different themes for each market and customize them however they want.
That is one of the major features of our platform. We have also launched prediction functionality, so operators can create whatever kinds of predictions they want and allow players to join and place bets.
Most players now access betting and casino products on mobile. How should operators adapt the experience for those users?
To be honest, I have noticed that many operators try to make the web-based casino and the mobile version look exactly the same, and I think there is a big difference between them. When you are playing on a PC or laptop, the experience can be different and more detailed.
When it comes to mobile, you are using the phone with one hand, so it needs to be much more user-friendly. The design and navigation need to be easier. On our platform, we support web, mobile, and tablet versions. We also provide a Telegram Mini App, which can be useful and more user-friendly in certain markets.
For mobile, the main thing is personalization and ease of use. You should not just show everything on the main page and confuse the player. It needs to be simple.
We also provide an APK format for Android, so players can download the application file. For iOS users, there is also PWA functionality, allowing them to add the platform to their home screen and access the website directly from there.
Operators now have huge volumes of player data to process. How can they turn that data into something useful?
I think AI is the best option right now because you do not need to do everything in the old manual way. Manual work takes time, and there can also be mistakes. AI is going to take up more space because it can help personalize and separate all this information.
As an operator, you are receiving different kinds of data, including KYC information, player activity, and player movement across the platform. For example, many players come through affiliates and then visit different pages without making a deposit. You can see what those players are looking for and where they went. The important thing is being able to separate that information into useful categories.
It is really difficult to acquire players through affiliates, and a large percentage may just become normal first-time depositors rather than highly valuable long-term players. Only a smaller percentage may become very strong players, and there can be different levels among them. If you use AI to separate that data properly, you can then provide the right promotions, bonuses, and game offers to different groups of players.
Operators already have enough data. The important thing is turning it into proper, useful data and separating it in a way that makes it easier to run the business.