During day two of CasinoBeats Malta Digital saw attention turn to technical compliance and the challenges faced by developers to create entertaining games, whilst also ensuring that territorial restrictions are met.
Jesper Kärrbrink, executive chairman of Green Jade Games, who was featured on the ‘Mastering Technical Compliance To Grow Your Global Footprint’ panel sponsored by HiPay, highlighted that the biggest challenge is the differences between compliance regulations between territories.
He stated: “The biggest challenge is of course the differences in regulations among the different countries. It would be a dream to have one European Union standard for instance or a world standard but that will probably never happen and it hasn’t happened so far.
“You have a certain set of rules in Sweden, you have a certain set of rules in the UK and then you have some in the Czech Republic and Colombia ect. Five, six, seven years ago you made a game, you released it, and bang you were done, today it’s a totally different ball game basically you have to have different versions for many many countries.”
Antonio Zanghi, managing director of Maxima Compliance, also emphasised to suppliers that the key to mastering compliance is to ensure that the basics are completed or firms risk having to redevelop the games before the titles go live, which will increase financial cost of the product.
Zanghi said: “The typical things that happen with any of our clients is that they will come to us, thinking they have a product ready to go live, but then they can’t go live because they have missed out a whole chunk of things.
“The basic things like you might have missed out an entire section of the requirements because, for example, the regulation has changed since the very first time they started carrying out their analysis. The monitoring of a multi-work jurisdictions is extremely complicated and could be a conflict of approach, and that is one of the biggest roadblocks for suppliers.
“The lack of visibility of changings, or the interpretation of those requirements and how they need to be implemented is actually one of the biggest problems that impacts most of the suppliers in the industry.”
The panel, which was moderated by SBC’s content director Ted Menmuir, also discussed the fine balance between when technical compliance should be introduced when developing a new game, with Zanghi emphasising that the process needs to be done as soon as possible.
He explained: “I think the problem that suppliers face, especially when operating over multiple jurisdictions, is not integrating technical compliance, both product compliance and change management, within the earlier phase of development. I think the difficulties in trying to fix something that you have already developed is huge.
“A supplier operating in multiple jurisdictions will be faced with numerous differences between one country and another and the ability to understand those differences, earlier on in the process, is absolutely key for success.”
However, whilst agreeing with Zanghi, Kärrbrink raises that it is imperative to create a correct balance that will be instigated to ensure that while the games comply with jurisdiction guidelines and responsible gaming, they also remain entertaining to the customer.
“We have to stay within compliance, we have to have responsible gaming in mind but at the same time we can’t make games that nobody wants to play, “added Kärrbrink. “It’s like asking a winemaker to make you wine that nobody wants to drink because people should drink less.
“So we have to find a balance, we still have to make a very bold and nice wine but still, it has to be within the limits and those discussions are always healthy to have and we need to have them.”
“It’s super important that the industry can balance compliance, responsible gaming and innovation.”
The panel also featured a powerpoint presentation by Dafydd Williams, head of business development at Maxima Compliance, whereby he detailed the firm’s new product, complitech, a system which allows developers to check and compare compliance restrictions from 20 igaming jurisdictions, including the likes of Spain and the UK.
The system also allows you to gap analyse jurisdictions to ensure that suppliers know of the regulation changes needed to be implemented on games if they wish to branch out to other regions.
Kärrbrink concluded the panel by stating that if there was one piece of information that should be learnt, it’s that technical compliance has to be at the forefront of a games development process in order to easily supply titles to multiple operators.
He cmmented: “Technical compliance has to be part of the game development process otherwise it would be too expensive and it’s too complex today to develop games for all these markets and be in compliance and trying to do that without expertise.”
“I don’t think there will be united regulations in the world, more and more states will open up, more and more countries will open up which will mean that it will be more and more complex.
“With increased complexity it’s more and more easier to go wrong in this. Stay on the right side by having, whether it is internal or external, having technical compliance and people knowing the regulations is key and putting it in the development processes as early as possible, but not during the creative process.”
CasinoBeats Malta Digital, delivered in association with Gaming Malta, takes place from 30 June to 2 July 2020 and features 40 virtual exhibitors, numerous networking opportunities, 130 leading speakers, and countless business opportunities for 3,000 senior decision-makers from operators, suppliers, affiliates and other industry stakeholders.
Alongside the exhibition, networking and conference, all delegates also gain access to the full range of entertainment on offer, including free-play slots, daily competitions and a selection of prizes.
Find full details of CasinoBeats Malta Digital, including information about how to register and the discounts available on company group passes, at the event’s official website: https://sbcevents.com/casinobeats-malta-digital/
