Earlier this year Kalamba Games and Wildz collaborated to challenge eight Twitch streamers to win the chance to give input into the design of a new slot title, with the link-up marking the first time that a games supplier had teamed up with a casino to leverage the streaming platform in such a way.
With the slots streaming ecosystem frequented by CasinoBeats on many occasions during recent weeks and months, we caught up with the operator and eventual winner, CasinoTest24, to delve into future possibilities and the avenues opened up by the competition, which ran between April 27 – May 10.
“We anticipated a successful streaming collaboration with supplier Kalamba Games for this novel competition,” Melanie Hainzer, CMO at Wildz, began by touching upon the initial hopes for the streaming contest.
“Rootz is renowned for its innovation in the industry; being the first fully automated platform with machine learning, giving real-time awards to the games the player actually likes based on their average bets.
“Leveraging this innovative approach with our flagship brand Wildz, we loved the concept forged in partnership with Kambala Games and we’re eager to continue in this vein going forward.
“Furthermore, our streamers are passionate about what they do and these evolved relationships continue to be mutually beneficial, whilst keeping us ahead of the curve. This new focus provided positive exposure for our brand and dually created significant hype for our partners and excitement for what is to come.
“We were amazed to get the opportunity to create a slot on our own”
“We are certain this will pioneer creativity within our marketing team for future projects and are proud to be on the frontline of entertainment in the online casino realm.”
Before CasinoTest24 took up the mantle to discuss strategy in a bid to win the right to work with Kalamba to give input on the future development: “We were amazed to get the opportunity to create a slot on our own, but we knew we would have to win the competition against some other big streamers.
“At first we had to clarify if bonus buys do count for the competition, since there are quite famous slots like Machina Megaways which offer you such bonus buys, we discussed what the easiest way would be to win the competition. We also expected everyone who participated in the competition to do exactly the same, buying bonuses until you get something massive.”
The challenge saw the eight streamers compete to land the single biggest win on any of Kalamba’s back catalogue of games, with the aforementioned champion ensuring the triumph with a 977.4x win to bet ratio.
Moving on, CasinoTest24 expressed surprise at the level of competition: “To be honest, it seemed like some of the streamers lost interest in the competition when the leaderboard showed some quite big hits of around 700 to 800 times the bet I think it was.
“We didn’t try to win the competition too much until the last day, where we almost bought bonuses for 8 hours straight. We are actually surprised that we won the competition with a win that was around 1000 times the bet since we had several higher hits just by playing Kalamba slot machines outside of the competition.”
The cooperation was hailed as the first time a slots supplier had teamed up with a casino operator and Twitch streamers in this way, the design of which aimed to resonate with a large audience, as well as ramping up action and entertainment.
“It’s our true belief that collaborations with streamers will become more important”
Hainzer continued by guiding through the thought process of the competition: “Twitch continues to grow and is considered one of the largest social media platforms in existence. To illustrate, average concurrent viewers peaked at 1.4 million in Q1 2020.
“For our casino brands Wildz and Caxino, this has certainly not escaped our attention. The growing trend holds tremendous potential that can benefit not only the careers of our influencers, but that also appeal directly to our niche player segments, while positively showcasing our brands to a wide audience. It represents a successful formula that is likely to be replicated.”
Adding the group could well roll-out similar such initiatives moving forward: “To keep the exciting momentum going, we will enthusiastically collaborate on new ideas for streamer competitions.
“It’s our true belief that collaborations with streamers will become more important throughout the industry – not only for operators, but also for game providers alike. We’re excited at the prospect of devising concepts that surge to the forefront.
“Streamers spend endless hours playing on casino sites, and therefore are an incredibly valuable resource for driving innovation and helping us gauge player perspective. Streamers can provide a unique window into the functionings of a particular game; its overall gameplay, any exciting bonus rounds it possesses and the game’s relative volatility. All these factors allow prospective players to evaluate games before trying them out for real money in an immersive and fun way.
“Additionally, we regularly take advice from our streaming partners when it comes to website design and the developmental process that goes into website production. We consider this input invaluable and we know the practice will become even more commonplace in the future.”
“I think we can safely say we have not reached the peak for streaming entertainment”
One common theme encountered throughout recent discussions alongside suppliers, operators and affiliates is the undoubted potential that streaming possesses, with an expectation widely asserted that the wave is to continue gathering momentum.
A viewpoint shared by Hainzer: “If we review the amount of casino streamers currently and the growing number of viewers they attract, I think we can safely say we have not reached the peak for streaming entertainment. This is merely the beginning of a major movement, and additionally, there is always room for new creative talent.
“I do think however, that in order to reach larger audiences, streamers will have to incorporate more original content into their streams to make them more engaging for viewers. One area we are currently scrutinizing is content built around higher end/professional ‘show’ characteristics.
“Such ‘polished’ outputs are undoubtedly more pleasing to view, are attracting larger audiences, and will play a more prominent role in the advent of streaming in the coming months and years.”
To conclude, the conversation comes full circle and returns to the spoils of the victor, and progress on that all important slot title: “We had to learn that not everything we imagined would be possible to create, actually is impossible to implement in a slot machine. So we had to wipe off some of our initial thoughts and wishes.
“After all, we still create a unique slot machine that keeps some of the ideas we brought together. I think that players that like different mechanics in slot machines will definitely like it, and we are looking forward to the actual release.”
