eGR: Do you feel any other operators have successfully
introduced social gaming elements into RMG?
RS: To be honest, I would not know. We’re building what
we think is right and need to be really focused on that. You
definitely see that things are moving in that direction, but I
cannot think of anyone off the top of my head. Although I
think there are a lot of interesting things happening on the
land-based side of things when it comes to community slots
and using elements from casual gaming. There are some
really innovative features on the slots I saw earlier in Vegas
at G2E last year. Funnily enough, it seems to come quicker
to land-based than to online.
“RIGHT NOW OUR MAIN MARKETS ARE IN
SCANDINAVIA, AND WE’RE LOOKING TO TAKE ON MORE
MARKETS AS WE GO. BUT WE WANT TO DO IT IN THE
RIGHT WAY, AND THAT REQUIRES THE RIGHT PACE”
Razmus Svenningson, founder of Casumo
eGR: What are the features of the Casumo experience you
are most proud of?
RS: I wouldn’t really list a specific feature or thing that I’m
proud of. To me what makes Casumo great is that whatever
you touch as a player it should feel like something that
has been put there by a human being for a reason. That
someone has been there already for you to take your
hand and help you have a good time and find what you’re
expecting to find. Everything from animations scrolling like
butter, the feel of pressing a button, to things being realtime when you expect them to. All these small things put
together is what makes the experience. We want to move
away from features and talking about technologies and
rather look at what the player is doing and if she is having
a good time. Sometimes more is more, sometimes more is
less, and sometime less is more.
eGR: Have you found customers to be loyal to Casumo,
more than other RMG sites?
RS: This is something that we put great pride in. If people
stay with us, that’s when we feel that we’ve succeeded.
We’re all about keeping our dear ‘casumos’ and treating
them well. From all our combined experience and what I
know of the industry, yes they are [more loyal].
eGR: How does the Casumo experience fit with mobile
and what successes or challenges have you found with
this channel?
RS: Mobile is obviously important to us, just as for everyone
else. All our players are mobile, so we need to be as well.
We believe in tailoring the experience to suit the device it
is experienced through. That said, we also believe that it
should be a consistent experience. It’s extremely important
for us to create mobile that suits with the desktop. That’s
why you can experience gathering valuables, winning
trophies, reaching belts and all the other things you can
on desktop, also on mobile. We released our first mobile
product in summer 2013 and we have had a great response
and we still think we have a lot to achieve when it comes to
mobile. And I really see an opportunity in creating a better
mobile experience with our kind of product.
eGR: How do you cross-sell players into new games?
RS: In our casino adventure we have the possibility to hand
out valuables depending on either insights handing them
out ourselves or based on actions, behaviours that are
defined in our algorithms. We can recommend new games,
games that we think a player would want to play and so on,
based on any event or data we want pretty much. And we
can do so either in real time or to notify the player through
email, for example.
eGR: You are currently focusing on casino but could you
extend to other verticals in the future?
RS: That doesn’t sound impossible, we do entertainment.
But right now, our focus is casino.
eGR: Which markets are you having most success in, and
which markets have you got plans to expand into?
RS: Right now our main markets are in Scandinavia, and we’re
looking to take on more markets as we go. But we want to do
it in the right way, and that requires the right pace.
eGR: What is on Casumo’s agenda for 2014?
RS: Well, that was a big question. We have a lot in store for
2014. It feels like we’ve only begun so far, we’ve only been
live for a little more than a year and we’ve released both
desktop and mobile versions and grown our organisation
from just a couple of people to 35 in that period of time.
We will be releasing new products during 2014 and we will
continue to focus on creating the best player experience
there is, both on desktop and mobile.
“WE WANT TO MOVE AWAY FROM FEATURES AND
TALKING ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES AND RATHER LOOK AT
WHAT THE PLAYER IS DOING AND IF SHE IS HAVING A
GOOD TIME. SOMETIMES MORE IS MORE, SOMETIMES
MORE IS LESS, AND SOMETIME LESS IS MORE”
Razmus Svenningson, founder of Casumo
www.egrmagazine.com
58
Q&A CASUMO
more of this, but I can’t see anyone doing exactly what we
are doing today.