Speaking at the inaugural CasinoBeats Malta event in June, Simon Hammon, chief product officer at Relax Gaming, explained that industry events can ‘act as a temperature check’ for what the industry is thinking in terms of regulation, content and saturation of operators and suppliers.
Hammon spoke alongside Alex Cohen, COO and co-founder of Kalamba Games, David Flynn, CEO at Swintt, Ewa Kazmierska, COO at LVBet, James Ford, head of casino at LeoVegas and Kim Larsen, igaming consultant at Agrippa Consulting to discuss the topic of innovation, and the debate as to whether we even need innovation.
Speaking about the panel session, Hammon pointed out that the most enjoyable element was the topic of discussion itself: “It’s a very hot topic in the industry, and I think we’re suffering from a lot of the problems that were raised in that room.
“I think that there was a good mix of operator and supplier viewpoints which is really healthy for a common discussion and so I like the dynamic of the operator and supplier input.”
When quizzed about how the CasinoBeats Malta event has helped address the topic of innovation, Hammon commented: “I think that events such as this are very important, and I think that what they do is they encourage discussionary topics which you might already be having behind closed doors, or with colleagues, and so you get a wider perspective.
“It’s a calibration largely of what the market is feeling, and acts as a temperature check, which I think is super healthy. Events like this offer good networking opportunities, and you get to discuss those with competitors, with operators, fellow suppliers, colleagues and I think that’s a healthy mix.
“They draw the kind of discussion as to where the market is heading, and so I think that’s a key thing for these events.”
