First off the block
Jeff Millar, Commerical Director North America, Evolution, speaks to Gaming America about the industry giant’s plans for 2022.
What are Evolution’s goals for 2022 in US and Canada?
Back in 2021, we already launched our live casino offering and our slots portfolio in several states, including: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and when it comes to slots we also launched in Connecticut and West Virginia. This year, our plan going forward is simple. We want to be the first provider in every state as each state opens. That’s the baseline. We want fully operational live casino studios wherever they’re needed. We’ve always prided ourselves on offering state-of-the-art, live casino studios; and our experience working over in Europe has provided us an amazing foundation from which to supply unmatched players experiences here in North America, without ever sacrificing game integrity or trust.
How is early progress going in Evolution’s recently opened Michigan studio?
We are very excited about the expansion that is occurring in our Michigan studio. Before the summer, we expect to have received regulatory approval for the launch of new game types including Lightning Roulette and Craps. We also have four well-known Michigan operators that will launch brand new dedicated environments. These new areas in our studio will contain tables that match the branding of the operator. We’re especially excited to introduce these new operator-branded games.
Are there any further plans to open new studios and launch newproducts in North America?
Whether it’s games in our live studio or our innovative slots, our product offering for North America will continue to expand in 2022. Our aim is to offer our full suite of games to our partners and their players, so that they can have access to our high-performing slots and our classic live studio games; such as Live Roulette, which are always going to be player favorites. And we have new games that have proven to be successful out in Europe that are now coming right over here to North America. The real question for this year is: how do you make yourself unique in such a competitive environment? The answer: dedicated live casino tables and larger multi-table dedicated environments. With dedicated tables, operators can customize the whole look and feel – big brands have already experienced great benefits from this and we’re also seeing real success with the option to brand dedicated first-person games. It gives operators full control over branding and the ability to run their own live promotions. The choice is entirely theirs.
On the slots side, it’s finally time. Time for Red Tiger jackpot games to hit North American shores. What’s so great about them? They’re entirely configurable by the operators and can be pooled across multiple Red Tiger games – whether daily, hourly or both. We know this new and innovative progressive jackpot format will be loved by players, as they chase these winnings while the clock ticks down.
As you know, we acquired a fair few companies last year and one of these was Big Time Gaming (BTG). They’re known for their innovative approach to game design and one of the things North America can look forward to is the fact BTG will be finishing development on some incredible new titles. These are going to be released exclusively by Evolution later this year – so you’re going to want to stay tuned for more updates.
Now that mobile sports betting in live in New York, and Ontario iGaming is expected to launch imminently, where else is Evolution excited about in 2022?
We are excited to see a new bill introduced in New York to legalize online casino. The bill was just introduced last week and includes a tax rate of 25%, which is much more reasonable than the 51% tax rate for mobile sports betting. If the bill passes, this could be the largest opportunity in the US for online casino yet. Other states we are keeping a close watch on include Iowa, Illinois and Maryland among others.
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