Gaming Realms boss: We've laid the foundations for the future
Chief exec Patrick Southon (pictured) believes operator's technology and marketing prowess will see it achieve profitability in 2016
Gaming Realms CEO Patrick Southon (pictured) says he is confident the operator will become profitable by the end of the year having “laid down the foundations” for future growth.
Earlier this week the AIM-listed operator reported a 109% year-on-year increase in H1 revenues but a loss of nearly £3m after it significantly increased its marketing expenditure during the six-month period.
Gaming Realms recently signed several new marketing agreements to promote a number of its brands, including a partnership with E! Entertainment to launch the first ever TV sponsorship deal for Slingo.
However, speaking to eGaming Review, Southon claimed the £9.5m marketing investment, when combined with the strength of its in-house platform, would pay-off in the long-run.
“We’ve been going for three years as a listed company and only had our own real-money platform for two years, but I think we are seeing the growth from that now â we have laid down the foundations,” he said.
“It’s quite hard for a new brand and it takes a while to grow, so the deals we’ve done with The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and, to a certain extent, Bauer Media will give legitimacy to our products and allows us to grow quicker and faster.”
Gaming Realms’ H1 report also showed a significant rise in the number of new and average monthly depositing players, 84% of which were using the London-based operator’s mobile products.
And according to Southon, the triple-digit player increase showed the operator’s decision to target a young, mobile-savvy audience had proven successful.
“Our central assumption was that bingo was a very similar demographic to social games and lot of the bingo players have switched from playing bingo to games like Candy Crush and it’s because it’s better on the devices that they use,” he said.
“So we’re trying to re-engage that audience with gambling games effectively, the 25-35 year olds who probably haven’t been too exposed to bingo because they don’t use a desktop so much for their entertainment.”