Welcome Anthony, many thanks for taking the time to provide us with a progress update on StakeLogic Live.
Perhaps we can start the interview with:
Stakelogic is one of the most in-demand online games developers at the moment, why has it chosen now to enter into the Live Casino Market?
Our clients asked us to do so.
Since the acquisition by Triple Bells in 2018, Stakelogic’s market approach changed completely.
In record time the new Stakelogic games appeared on almost every tier-1 casino operator site in the world.
These same clients subsequently asked Stakelogic for live casino products with the same quality. Therefore, Stakelogic felt comfortable diversifying into Live Casino. Two months before go-live the two newly built Stakelogic Live Casino studios in Malta and the Netherlands are almost fully booked by our clients already.
How have you arrived at StakeLogic?
I was hired to set up and run the Stakelogic Live casino business.
With over 10 years of experience in the live casino arena, I am one of the veterans in this market segment.
As Stakelogic decided to build its live casino business from the ground up, I was provided with the unique opportunity to apply all the ‘best practices’ I learned from experience.
How did you go about building your team?
It is a mix of people.
I started to hire the best people with whom I worked in the past. This team provided a solid foundation to build the new organisation.
Over the last year, we have recruited many new team members for Stakelogic Live based on experience and talent.
They are coming from all over the world. Because of Stakelogic’s unconventional culture and its image in the marketplace, I have experienced that ambitious people like to be part of Stakelogic.
There are many solutions providers in the live casino market, why have you chosen to build everything from scratch?
Since 2018 the new management transformed Stakelogic into an end-to-end software factory, with development centres in Ukraine and Serbia.
Today Stakelogic does all its system developments in-house.
So yes, the Stakelogic studios, the technical architecture, including the front- and back-end software, were designed and developed internally.
I’ve seen pictures of the studio in some of your marketing, where is it located?
We are building two studios in parallel.
The new studios are in Malta (Birkirkara) and in the Netherlands (Eindhoven).
Stakelogic started building the studio in Malta. The demand for Stakelogic live content however appeared to be so overwhelming, that the decision was taken to immediately start building a second studio in The Netherlands.
The demand for Dutch game presenters turned out to be so high that it was considered impossible to find that many Dutch-speaking game presenters on the island of Malta.
How big are the studios, and will they be able to cope with the capacity?
The studio in Malta is 1.600 m2, the studio in Eindhoven is 2.000 m2.
The studios will host live game shows, automatic roulettes, live roulette, and live baccarat. Therefore, the studio’s concerned with more than just table games.
The current studio capacity is almost sold out before go-live.
Stakelogic is currently orientating where to build the next studio.
You’ve had experience with green screen technologies in your previous role, will you be using them at Stakelogic Live?
No, Stakelogic does not use green screens.
Stakelogic builds physical studios, as Stakelogic is aiming for the high-end of the market.
Realism is key. Playing Stakelogic live games should be the ultimate player experience.
How have your previous roles helped you in this one?
Well, as this is not my first Live Casino project, my past experiences have helped in creating a bigger and better version of what we have seen so far.
Not being limited by the constraints of an existing environment, Stakelogic provided me with the unique opportunity to design a studio based on the best industry practices and the latest technology.
And as quality prevails above cost within Stakelogic, the board and I have been on the same page since the start of the Stakelogic Live project.
What mistakes are you keen to avoid?
There are too many to mention!
Therefore, I knew exactly how I did not want it.
Live Casino is an evolving product and throughout my 10 years of experience, we have tried and tested different technologies along the way, leading us to the best methods.
The good thing with Stakelogic is that it is really a technology-driven company. We will always be ahead of the curve, that counts for our slots business as well as our live casino operations.
I am happy to say that we are now bringing the fruits of this approach with Stakelogic Live.
When you launch, what games will you go live with?
We plan to go live with Live Roulette, Automatic Roulette, Live Blackjack, Live Baccarat, and a list of Gameshows, however should remain a surprise a little longer…
Is there anything that has surprised you with building from the ground up?
My biggest passion is to do exactly this, building things from the ground up.
Our combined experience allows us to build everything exactly as we want it to be from scratch.
My biggest surprise was that things are looking even better than we had in mind.
Can you reveal any expectations you have for your game hosts /presenters?
We are looking for the best of the best with regards to all our staff members, particularly with our Game Presenters.
We are onboarding people with previous experience of course, but such experience is not strictly necessary to work with us.
We have an in-house Academy where we will be training every Game Presenter to our standards, so we will be training them to perform the “Stakelogic Way”.
Given this, we hope to offer one of the best – if not THE best – player experiences in the industry.
Live Casino is an entertainment platform; therefore, we believe that you can only have happy players if you have happy dealers.
We offer the best we can for our game presenters. You can see this in our studios. The finishing of this space is on the same par as the customer-facing office in Balluta. You need to see it to understand!
When do you hope to go live?
Q1 2022!
Will existing customers of Stakelogic be the first to have your live games?
No, it’s a mix of existing and new customers.
What licences/territories will you go live in first?
We will go live under the MGA and the UKGC license. For now, Stakelogic focuses on all European regulated markets.
Can you tell us about the sort of precautions have you put in place to deter game fixing and player fraud?
Stakelogic takes risk and fraud very seriously. It can make or break a business.
We have highly experienced internal personal with multiple tools, techniques, and established processes to make sure that such instances do not take place.
All regulations will be religiously followed, and we will deploy additional elements to further increase security.
How will you differentiate your games from the competitors?
First of all, the studios are of unparalleled quality, at least that’s the feedback we have got from everyone that visited our studios.
From experience, I know that the quality of the studio determines the quality of the product.
Where the games are concerned, the player will immediately recognise the hand of Stakelogic in it.
The UI, the features, the games will look and feel like genuine Stakelogic products.
The generic table games will be more beautiful, the live shows will be new and different.
Do you or will you have a USP?
Stakelogic would not enter into the live casino business if there would not be a number of USPs.
For Stakelogic the studios are an integral part of the product offering.
The studios, the designs and technology, are considered to be the next level by industry experts. Therefore, the game offering will be different from a player experience perspective.
The live game shows will add new elements to the industry as a whole.
What does your 2-year plan look like?
In two years Stakelogic Live should make at least 50% of the total Stakelogic business.
In the upcoming years, Stakelogic will continue to develop new live game shows and build studios to support the demand for Stakelogic live content.
