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Unveiling the Untapped Hidden Potential: Interview With Endorphina
By Ivan Potocki Jun 23, 2019 IndustryFrom the latest releases, over the information about the biggest wins, to plans for the future, this Endorphina interview reveals many interesting details about the company.GamblersPick caught up with Jan Urbanec, CEO of Czech-based game developer Endorphina, for an in-depth interview about the company’s latest releases, current project, and plans for the future. We also used this opportunity to reveal what Endorphina titles are biggest hits among the players, talked briefly about the biggest-ever win on an Endorphina game, and also touched upon a controversy that came about when the company released their Maori slot back in 2016.
Tell us a little about your latest recent releases, Ancient Troy and Almighty Sparta?
The combination of a strong theme and proven math has been very successful for us, so we had a back to back release of Antiquity-themed games.Both games are visually very attractive and can bring in some great wins. Just a few days after the release of Almighty Sparta, there was a nice big win. The lucky player ended up with 100 free games and the total multiplier of his bet was around X2300.
Are there any games in your portfolio that you consider your flagships? Any games of which you are particularly very proud of?
Definitely, to name a few:The Voodoo slot has a lot of charisma and really draws players in with its hypnotizing music and green colors. also has fantastic mathematics that can bring you several full-screen views during one spin.
Our Minotaurus slot has been overlooked for a long time – probably due to the lack of knowledge of the game's potential, but we knew what the game can bring from the beginning. After a few streamers took the time to understand the game and unveiled the potential for other players, the game skyrocketed in popularity.
What was the biggest win on an Endorphina game in 2019 so far? And what is the biggest win on an Endorphina game in all the company’s history?*
In 2019, there were several wins that moved around the 50,000 EUR mark – in different currencies. However, those were some significant bets.
Interestingly enough, the most amazing wins usually happen on lower stakes – such as when the players bet very low and frequently. Our games often deliver them a bet multiplier of 4 or 5 thousand.
The actual amount in money may not amaze you. But when you calculate what the potential of a game is if you would place larger bets – you soon realize that there are some big wins prepared for you.
To give you an idea, one of the biggest wins in our company’s history – we once had a 50 Bitcoin win on Safari (a game loved by the high-roller players)Jan Urbanec, Endorphina CEO
In the past you’ve had some controversies around your slot releases, thinking specifically of the Maori slot. How did this affect the company and what did you learn from it going forward?
We have several approaches on how we create new games. One of them is to study a cultural phenomena, understand it and then create a tribute. This approach worked on several markets and the customers together with operators were extremely pleased that they could have a local game.We believe that this approach would work with the Maori game as well.
Often times games carry a caricature kind of feel with a cartoonish feeling – we wanted to avoid this approach and chose to portray the culture properly and tastefully.
Unfortunately, the Maori tribes and organisations did take offence with our game and requested us to withdraw it. This was of course a possible risk that we took, but we never had any intention of damaging anyone’s feelings.
You are an operator based in the Czech Republic, does this somehow come into play in your work? More so, is the Czech market a positive environment for a software provider to grow?
I would not call Endorphina an operator, since these are our clients.
The Czech gaming law is very specifically regulated since January 1st, 2017 and since then, the market started to grow and professionals began to arise in both Prague and in the entire igaming industry. This made our position in the Czech job market more relevant and allows our company to grow.
In how many markets are Endorphina games available? Are you interested in entering some geos in which you are not present nowadays?
Endorphina always understood that each market requires a different approach - specific service, custom themed games, cultural norms and business practices.
Players and casinos are used to something and we as a game provider who enters the market from a foreign country has to respect and adapt to those norms.
Our games are popular in central and eastern Europe, CIS countries and are penetrating the LATAM market - all of which has a huge potential.
We also recently impacted the Belgium market very seriously and released our custom games that target the taste of the local players.
In 2019, we are heavily investing into entering newly regulated markets and are having our games certified left and right! We strongly believe that our games have untapped potential in the Nordics.
The iGaming industry is ever growing and as a natural result, it has become very competitive. How are you dealing with the competitive market, do you find a need in innovating and/or extending in order to keep up with the Joneses?
The main mistake that we want to avoid is just to simply “keep up.” This implies that you should stay behind and copy what the competition is doing.
We go our own way while respecting the customs of the players.
We released an innovative, and truly seamless bonus system. It allows casinos and platforms to completely control the awarded bonus money and free-spins in real-time. All of this is directly in their system without the need of accessing our backoffice.
Six months into 2019, do you have any plans/goals for the rest of the year?
Our plan until the end of the year is to enter two new regulated markets. So more players can enjoy our games.
Also we will have a big technical update coming.Some old titles are going to get fully revamped into native HTML5. We are especially looking forward to “Minotaurus” - that game captured the heart of many players so we’re excited to see how its updated version will be!
We've noticed you're going to participate in the Japan gaming congress and PAGE?You are right, we went to Japan to understand what is going on in the local market, get a feel for the players’ behaviour and examine the trends.
The culture is very interesting and since the market is moving towards being regulated, we want to be up to date.Regarding PAGE, we are looking forward to get to one of the main centers of igaming in Asia. There are a lot of opportunities in Manila and we are convinced that the classic European slots are missing in this area. This is a product that players understand and trust.
Thank you for taking time to sit down with us and answer our questions. I’m sure many players were keen to know more about the company and, hopefully, we were able to answer at least some of these questions. It seems like you have a big year ahead so we wish you the best of luck in the future and are looking forward to new Endorphina games
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