BLOX Chief Commercial Officer Karl Grech discusses the company’s recent partnership with Pragmatic Play, and what it means for BLOX’s Italian player base.
We’d like to discuss your recent partnership with Pragmatic Play – they’re a highly-respected gaming provider, and BLOX is really starting out. How did the partnership evolve?
Here at BLOX we’re dedicated to helping Italian gaming operators offer players a truly experience, so we strive to provide a vast range of the very best casino games from the world’s most popular studios – and Pragmatic Play is very much one of the iGaming industry’s leading content providers. The studio is well-known for its multi-award winning, engaging and evocative gaming products that span slots, live casino and bingo. Its slots are sought by players around the world, and Italian players are no exception. By adding Pragmatic Play’s excellent offerings to our platform, we are further increasing choice for our clients, providing more than enough content to satisfy even the most demanding players. We’re looking forward to a long and successful relationship with the Pragmatic Play team, and are absolutely confident that our clients will be impressed with how popular their games prove to be.
What is it about Pragmatic Play’s catalogue that stands out for you?
Given our focus, it has to be their growing range of slots available in the Italian market, including brand new releases like Joker King and The Hand of Midas, and favourites such as Eye of the Storm, Madame Destiny Megaways, and Congo Cash. With their high production values, appealing themes and engaging features, we’re confident these games will be particularly valuable additions to our existing catalogue.
What are Italian players looking for in a games offering?
Italy has a strong land-based heritage, so we expect some players will return to land-based casinos when life starts to return to something resembling normality. However, the pandemic has accelerated the inevitable shift towards online gaming, especially with millennials, who are more receptive to online offerings and expect a “one-stop shop” offering everything they want instantly. As in other markets, we are also seeing an increasing demand for social interaction. At BLOX, we’re committed to ensuring our offering keeps up with these trends, enabling our clients to keep ahead of the curve.
Is live casino big in Italy? What’s the main driver for the iGaming industry in Italy?
As previously mentioned, Italy had a sizable land-based slot player base, and the closure of physical casinos due to the pandemic has pushed many of those players to online casinos. But, games like Roulette, Baccarat, and Punto Banco have also long been popular in the country, and those players have been discovering online alternatives too. Given that Live Casino is the closest digital alternative to physical casinos, we feel it’s critical to offer a live dealer line-up to enable Italian operators to fully capitalise on this rapidly growing vertical.
