Only a week away, ICE London has been generating great expectancy within the industry for months now. The event, set to take place on February 7-9 at the ExCel London, is expected to be the biggest edition on record, and the place to be to catch a glimpse of what the future of gaming will look like. Among the companies taking part in the renowned tradeshow is Inspired Entertainment.
Ahead of the event, Brooks Pierce, Inspired’s President and CEO, spoke in an exclusive interview with Yogonet about the company’s plans and expectations for the event and the year ahead.
Inspired is ready to return to ICE – from diverse omni-channel content to a new server-based gaming-ready cabinet – we are poised to deliver Winning Entertainment to our customers!#WeAreInspired #GetInspired #ICE #InspiredVirtuals #SeasonNeverEnds #iGaming #onlinecasinogames pic.twitter.com/bDk78dZDCM
— Inspired Entertainment, Inc. (@Inspired_News) January 23, 2023
What will attendees approaching Inspired’s booth find?
We’re especially excited to show attendees our new server-based gaming-ready cabinet, Vantage, which can deliver Inspired’s well-established high-performing multi-game solutions in record time with supreme quality and effectively supports new functionality that allows players to easily search, sort, and swipe for games.
We’ll also be highlighting all the newest “BIG” games. Inspired is becoming known for our “BIG” retail and online games, built around some of our highest-performing free-spin mechanics: Big Bonus, Big Spin Bonus, and Big Fortune.
BIG games are offered to customers for retail and online, like Big Piggy Bonus, Big Wheel Bonus, Hot Bonus Joker, Gold Cash Big Spins, Animal Antics, Stacked Fire 7s Big Spins, Big Christmas Present, Big Fishing Fortune, Big Horsey Fortune. We now have retail and online customers asking us for the BIG games’ roadmap.
We’ll also have great Virtual Sports products to show, like Inspired’s V-Play Home Run Shoot Out Legends game, the product of our multi-year contract with the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA). We can use the names, brands, images, personas, and likenesses of MLBPAA members and other legendary players such as Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Cecil Fielder.
Players can watch some of baseball’s legends step up to the bat once again and play against each other as Home Run Shoot Out Legends delivers the excitement of home runs with its incredibly lifelike graphics. And the upcoming Women’s World Cup makes this year’s ICE the perfect time to showcase the first-ever female-led virtual product, Women’s Soccer.
This is only the beginning — there is so much more to see. Visit Inspired at ICE to see all our Winning Entertainment content and solutions.
Vantage cabinet
Given ICE London’s status as one of the major global events in the industry, what are your expectations and objectives for the expo?
We’re expecting an extremely busy and successful show. Our objective is to “wow” our customers — to strengthen our partnerships and ensure they continue seeing us as innovators in the industry. We will launch a new cabinet and showcase a diverse portfolio of content of new iGaming and land-based games, mechanics, brands, and promotional tools.
How would you describe the industry’s and your clients’ current demands at the time? What markets will you focus on at the expo?
For ICE, we have customers coming in from all our key markets — North America, Greece, Italy, and of course, the UK. Due to ease of travel, we see more of our European customers at ICE than at, say, G2E in Las Vegas. We believe that Inspired’s strong product portfolio across our business segments will appeal to operators worldwide.
Inspired announced a new, exclusive, long-term contract with @paddypower, a UK-based bookmaker that owns and operates over 350 betting shops in the UK. Read the complete release here: https://t.co/hXBCbCATcZ#WeAreInspired #GetInspired #gaming #slots pic.twitter.com/IyCruEK7oi
— Inspired Entertainment, Inc. (@Inspired_News) December 12, 2022
As 2022 concluded, we saw Inspired sign an exclusive long-term contract with Paddy Power to provide its fully integrated managed services for all UK estates. Could you share some updates on this matter, initial feedback, and performance?
We are gratified that betting shops across the UK have renewed their agreements with us, and we are looking forward to getting the Vantage cabinet installed later this year on the back of a very successful trial.
Vantage represents the sum of what we’ve learned over the years through continuous listening to customer feedback. We’re excited to introduce the Vantage cabinet to additional jurisdictions outside the UK later this year.
The event comes as we enter a new year for gambling. What is your assessment of the company’s performance in 2022, and what should we expect from it in 2023?
Inspired had a great 2022. We’re hoping for an even stronger 2023, which is why we are so excited to showcase some of our key product launches. Our digital businesses, Virtuals and iGaming, had record highs in 2022, and in 2023 we’ll also be fully deploying our iLottery content.
We view ourselves as a content provider regardless of whether the setting is retail or online, and we are focused and driven to provide engaging content in whatever way our customers’ players interact with our products.
