Taras Kozovit: “Asia is an important area for Spribe to focus on in the future”
Focus Gaming News spoke with Taras Kozovit, business development manager at Spribe, about the company’s plans for the Asian market.
Exclusive interview.- The Asian gaming market has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, prompting Spribe, a company dedicated to developing innovative iGaming products and casino games, to direct its attention towards this burgeoning market.
Focus Gaming News sat down with Taras Kozovit, business development manager at Spribe to talk about why the company sees the Asian market as a tremendous untapped opportunity, with its fast-growing online iGaming market and demand for non-traditional content.
Why do you consider Asia to be such an important market?
Spribe sees the Asian market as a tremendous untapped opportunity, one which offers the chance for us to expand across the region. Asia is the fastest-growing online iGaming market in the world and it’s clear that our games will be perfectly suited to player preferences throughout the continent.
Titles such as our flagship game, Aviator, are super lightweight and can be played on any mobile device without consuming significant volumes of data. They also provide fast-action gameplay with some such as Aviator being multiplayer and social. When you consider the size of the market, and how well-suited our games are to it, it should come as no surprise that Asia is an important area for Spribe to focus on in the future.
What is the current state of play in Asia? Who are the major operators and what sort of games do players prefer?
Like most emerging jurisdictions, Asia is a mix of regulated and unregulated markets, and this can make it a difficult one for operators to approach. That said, such is the potential that plenty of operators are keen to get in on the action and many of the international tier-one brands are already present in that market. Household name brands in core markets across the world are now building up their presence in Asia. We’re excited to see what we can do to help support this in the future.
How do you see the market evolving and growing over the next couple of years?
The Asian market is still very much finding its feet and will absolutely continue to ride a steep upward growth trajectory over the coming months and years. This will be driven by the iGaming industry with fiat currencies, but also cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The Western world is still trying to figure out where it stands on crypto, but it has been widely adopted across Asia and consumers want to use Bitcoin etc to wager at online casinos and sportsbooks – so we have to adapt to that, and fast. We find ourselves looking at a whole world of opportunity around iGaming and crypto and it’s an exciting time, one where we’re at the cusp of a revolution that will significantly change the betting industry.
What will be driving this growth?
Consumers in all global markets want to be entertained, and gaming is an entertainment activity for many. It’s also baked into the culture in a lot of Asian countries. Of course, online and mobile gaming must be delivered in a format that players are seeking, and that’s why our crash games like Aviator, as well as other formats such as Mines, Goal, Plinko and HiLo will be hugely attractive for those operators targeting Asia. The demand is there for these games, and if operators in Asia offer them to players, the online iGaming market will grow at pace in that region. That these games are multiplayer and social is a big part of this – consumers are now seeking engaging and interactive entertainment experiences and at Spribe, we always go to great lengths to ensure our titles offer this in spades.
What are the greatest challenges being faced by operators and providers? How can they be overcome?
Meeting the demands of player preferences is our greatest challenge right now. Operators who think they can go live with a selection of traditional slot games and leverage the market’s huge potential will quickly find out they are wrong. Asia is a market where non-traditional content reigns supreme. Players expect to be able to use their skill, intuition and tactics in their pursuit of a win – hitting spin and waiting for the result of the game just doesn’t cut it with this audience.
What is the key to unlocking the market’s full potential?
Fresh and innovative content. Aviator is now the world’s number one crash game with more than ten million monthly active players. We’ve been able to achieve this because when the game hit the market in 2018, there was nothing else like it. Since then, we have fine-tuned the design, UX, gameplay, etc so that it keeps getting better and better. Players in Asia are more advanced when compared to those in some mature markets – they expect exactly this type of content and simply won’t engage with an online casino brand if crypto-style games are not available in their lobbies.
“Aviator is now the world’s number one crash game with more than ten million monthly active players.”
Taras Kozovit, business development manager at Spribe.
How are your games helping operators to do that?
Aviator is proven to engage the lucrative but hard-to-reach Generations Y & Z audiences and it does this in all global markets. Operators looking to make a play in Asia will want to tap into these player cohorts, and they also need to offer next-generation content if they are to appeal to a broad player base. Of course, it’s not just Aviator that operators can add to their lobbies – our full portfolio covers Mines, Dice, Plinko, Keno, Goal, HiLo and Hotline. We’ve so much to offer the market in Asia, and we can’t wait to get started.
