Viewpoints: The latest innovation on casino floors

Andrew Burke, CEO, Bluberi 

As CEO, Burke is focused on building a high-quality and fun company that emphasizes creating innovative products, designed with the intent to create market disruption and entertainment for players. Burke instills the philosophy of pushing the company and himself to be 1% better every day, while creating a positive company culture that encourages employees to deliver their best work and have a good time doing it. 

Kathleen McLaughlin, VP of Marketing, Novomatic Americas 

McLaughlin brings decades of firsthand casino management and global gaming experience to her role as VP of Marketing at Novomatic Americas. She has worked across every facet of casino operations, from slot product strategy to floor optimization, in markets ranging from Las Vegas to Macau, to Tribal gaming and VGT routes in the US. That blend of local insight and international perspective gives her a unique lens on how innovation is shaping the North American gaming floor in 2025. 

Keith Kruczynski, VP of Studios – North America, Ainsworth Game Technology 

Kruczynski is a veteran game designer and R&D executive, having spent 12 years as Director of Game Development for Bally Technologies – prior to stints at IGT and as the first-ever VP of Game Development for Gaming Arts. 

Eric Schultz, VP of Studio Operations, Konami Gaming 

Schultz was appointed VP of Studio Operations at Konami Gaming, Inc. in 2023, backed by more than 20 years’ experience in casino games engineering. In this role, Schultz is responsible for the leadership and direction of Konami’s overall game development operations, including new product development, future product enhancements and existing product lifecycle support. He oversees skilled engineering and design teams spanning game software development, art design, sound design, math design and project management. 

What types of innovation have been gaining popularity among retail slot players in 2025 

Andrew Burke: 2025 has been a tale of iteration and reimagination on popular game mechanics more so than a story on innovation. If you study the highest-performing titles from 2025 you will see a lot of player-favorite elements including three pot fillers, cash on reels and hold and spin. Fortunately for both us and players, there are almost endless ways to reimagine and combine the best gaming mechanics. At Bluberi we spend a ton of effort trying to understand where the market is and how players respond to the latest and greatest mechanics. Our latest Devil’s Lock & Shark Lock games called Slice n’ Dice really highlights the Bluberi approach to creating products. In these games we have expanded upon and reimagined both cash on reels and hold & spins in a unique way. Presenting something familiar in a new and exciting way is what we believe results in the best products.  

Kathleen McLaughlin: In competitive North American markets, where players are surrounded by choice, these cabinets function as anchor points. They are the high-end retail displays of the slot floor. The size, the light spill, the content choreography, they command attention in a mass of standard cabinets. From the operator’s perspective, they set the tone for a section of the floor and create an environment where players settle in for longer sessions. From the player’s perspective, ergonomics matter: reclined seating, expansive visuals, and intuitive control panels make the experience feel personal. When you get that balance between spectacle and comfort right, you are turning a five-minute trial into a thirty-minute or more session.

These cabinets are not just innovations; they are floor economics and loyalty machines disguised as art. Feature rich gameplay mechanics, especially advanced multi-level progressives, are also on the rise. In the North American market, the strongest performers are combining cinematic animation, dynamic progressives and multiple trigger bonuses. Pair that with a well-known brand and you have a proven formula for both revenue and brand loyalty. Omnichannel and branded content continue to be powerful drivers, with games launching in both land-based and online formats to extend reach. Data integration is also accelerating, as live play data connects directly into loyalty programs, enabling a more tailored experience for players. 

Keith Kruczynski: We have been seeing a lot of perceived perception, such as the ever-popular three-pot games, for a while now, and they don’t appear to be going away any time soon. Coming up with new ways to display that mechanic and enhance it in different ways, by adding more “pots,” for instance, is proving to be a popular way to extend the life of those games. The Symbol Catch mechanic, where players collect a certain symbol to gain more rewards or larger rewards is gaining popularity, a few games featuring that come to mind and have been receiving a lot of attention lately. It has been around a very long time but when you find a new way to display it to players, such as with hold & spin, which we feature in quite a few of our games, we’re able to give an older mechanic a breath of new life. 

Eric Schultz: Digital entertainment across all industries is more interactive and dynamic, and the gaming industry is no exception. More than any time prior, players are focused on getting into bonus features that are new and engaging. Concurrently, games are becoming more character driven. We are seeing more whimsical characters that are closely intertwined with interactive features. An example of this is Konami Gaming’s new What the Duck game. Animations of the game’s cowboy duck character help anticipate, deliver and celebrate various feature events throughout the game play experience.

Other game play innovations continue to iterate on popular ‘what you see is what you get’ and ‘cash on reels’ reward systems. These mechanics are appealing to players because they clearly communicate what they’ve won, and how. One recent release that leverages this type of mechanic is Buzzr, based on the vintage TV game show channel. Random credit prizes appear on the center reels, awarded in conjunction with a Buzzr symbol on reel one. If this occurs with credits on all center reels, players also have the chance to hit a bonus Card Sharks or Family Feud symbol on reel five, taking those credits into bonus events and boosting the prizes even higher.  

Is there a strategy behind choosing to develop completely new slot titles for casino floors versus re-introducing a more familiar game? 

Andrew Burke:  In recent years there has been a major push to extend internal franchises. The results speak for themselves, but players are playing titles that they are familiar with. At Bluberi we are certainly leaning into and building our own brands. This includes our successful Devil’s Lock franchise as well as our newest hits including Timber Jack and Honey Bomb. In many ways extending a brand just makes good business sense. Our teams can start from a place where we already have a strong player recognized theme and can focus on just enhancing the play experience for players.

However, it is important to have a balanced approach between extending existing brands and creating new ones. It’s a fine line and it’s hard to predict when players will be fatigued on a specific theme. We are committed to our biggest brands but are also working on several new concepts at any given time. We have recently released three great games in Raging Red, Dancing Pots and Berry Bucks. All these themes contain the elements that would make them ripe candidates for extension.  

Kathleen McLaughlin: There is always a balance between innovation and familiarity. New titles, especially those on premium cabinets, create buzz and pull in players looking for the latest experience. But reintroducing proven titles, especially with strong IP, taps into nostalgia and reduces rollout risk, provided the math model is strong. The most notable floors use a measured hybrid strategy. You anchor with titles players know will deliver, then inject standout new games to maintain excitement and drive interest. No matter how beautiful the hardware is or how strong the brand, the math drives the success and performance dictates footprint. 

Keith Kruczynski: Here at Ainsworth, we follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of our games are based on previous successes, whether ours or something we have seen in the field that resonates with players, and where we can maybe incorporate a popular feature into a new game that we are creating. We try to make around 20% of our games completely new and innovative. We have seen some success with that, such as Dragon Legacy. We debuted that game with a feature that has never been seen before at IGA this year, and plan to show an improved version of it at G2E.

Also, the way our Neon’s Bonus Blast interacts with its sign package is completely new and unseen on casino floors. Another focus of ours has been brand extension; taking some of our most popular and recognizable titles and adding on to them with new games that combine some of what made the initial game popular but add some new art and features to take it to the next level. You’ll see that at this year’s G2E with games such as San Fa Fortunes and new titles under our Triple Troves family, for instance. 

Eric Schultz: It is very common to see recognizable game brands return, because everyone benefits. Players enjoy it because it’s familiar, but with some new components added. Casino properties appreciate it, because it’s less risky than an unknown theme. And game companies like it because it allows them to dip into their existing intellectual property while providing something new for the market. At the same time, it is important to maintain a healthy balance of entirely new game creations and brand extensions. Leaning too heavily in either direction is a risk, either of game product obscurity or game product oversaturation.  

When creating these new titles, has it become a requirement to integrate land-based games into an online format in recent years? 

Andrew Burke: Increasingly we are seeing a future where all of our games will end up online. Today it is not a one-for-one transfer because of the effort required to port our games from land-based to online. As a result of that effort, we only try and send our best products online. At our core at Bluberi we believe in quality, and we just won’t do something if we don’t see a path to quality. As a result of this commitment to quality we have been very focused on our land-based business, but we are not naïve. We believe online will be a much bigger part of our strategy over the next several years. 

Kathleen McLaughlin: Without question. In today’s environment, game launch is rarely land-based only. Operators want that title to appear online quickly so they can leverage brand momentum. Increasingly, content that begins on online channels is being adapted for the physical floor. Piggy Prizes, Wand of Riches, is an example of our Green Tube online performance translating into a land-based product rollout for Novomatic Americas. This approach is particularly effective for brand reinforcement and player loyalty marketing, where player engagement spans both in-person and remote channels. It is about giving players the same entertainment value and brand experience, whether they are sitting in a VIP chair on the casino floor or playing from home. 

Keith Kruczynski: It is not a requirement to integrate land-based games into an online format, but it’s definitely a good practice. For a company of our size, doing that makes us more competitive. It is a good way to introduce our titles to a whole new audience, and if it catches on in the online space, maybe when those players go to a brick-and-mortar casino they will recognize it and play it there, too. We can also gather a significant level of data from online games to let us know if a title is resonating, and that can help us create better games for both markets. We saw a lot of success with the omnichannel debut of our San Fa games last year, even being honored for Top-Performing Omni-Channel Slot Game, so we are focusing on bringing more of our games to both mediums. 

Eric Schultz: Online delivery is a requirement to consider as we’re developing games. To accommodate the different form factors, our development teams are continually exploring new design solutions. Land-based media is innovating at the same time as we’re looking to accommodate online delivery, which requires additional planning and development on our part, in order to translate that unique land-based content to online channels. But it’s a challenge that is manageable and we’re targeting our first omni channel release with K-Pow! Pig Brilliant Buddha.

And even beyond the new titles, Konami has a long legacy of popular, land-based slot content, spanning hundreds of themes over two decades. We’ve only just scratched the surface on the amount of proven popular content we have available to deliver online. The more top titles we bring to more formats, the greater the opportunity for players to enjoy their favorite slots however they enjoy.

Are there ways in which specific requests from the operator have shifted in 2025? 

Andrew Burke: Operators continue to want variety in their products. At Bluberi, variety is extremely important to us. We look at each product roadmap like a portfolio of investments the business is making. Like all good investment portfolios, you want to be diversified. This gives you the best chance of creating games that will resonate with players when competing with a limited pool of resources. Our competitors invest several times more in R&D, but rather than matching their spend, we focus our resources on delivering exceptional quality and bringing truly unique games to market. If we bring products that are effectively the same as our competitors, we are giving our operators very little in the way of variety.  

Kathleen McLaughlin: Performance has always been the baseline. If a game does not meet stringent performance targets, it does not stay on the floor. That is true in North America and in all markets. We have seen the minimum performance threshold continue to rise; and what continues to evolve is the demand for acquisition flexibility. Operators want sourcing models that fit their capital strategies: a mix of purchase, lease and lease-to-own. They expect seamless integration with loyalty systems and backend analytics so they can track and personalize play in real time. And we have seen a shift in bet structures, with floors offering a broader range from penny to dollar-plus denominations in the same cabinet to appeal to both casual and high-limit players.

The other thing that has evolved are more LED display designs with transparent LED displays and synchronized, lower profile bank backdrops that transform a game by delivering game centric content right at player level to keep sightlines clean. These shifts reflect a heightened, more sophisticated and data-driven approach to floor management in North America. Operators here are looking for innovation that is not just flashy, but measurable in performance and adaptable to market demands. That is the sweet spot where long-term loyalty and profitability meet.  

Keith Kruczynski: Operator requests have not changed, per se, but we have seen more variants in what they are looking for. Player groups and tastes can vary widely from market to market, and even from casino to casino within a specific market. Operators know their players very well and are looking for games that will resonate and excite their specific players. We do our best to honor those requests and design games that will appeal to a wide variety of players. We have recently been performing some focus groups in different markets for that reason: to get a better understanding of what we are doing well and what we can do better, what players across the country like and don’t like in a game, so we can create games that will make players happy and operators successful. 

Eric Schultz: Working closely with our casino customers, we often receive feedback that directly impacts product. Game configuration options are one of the biggest areas we hear feedback from operators, because market appetite for different setups can evolve rather quickly. This can include bet level, denomination or progressive reset options, to name a few. This feedback is one of many reasons we value our close relationships with casino customers, to help inform future products, so that we’re set up for success and it ultimately benefits all involved – properties, players and the manufacturer. 

Kirk Geller

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