Driving growth across fragmented U.S. markets

The U.S. still poses a huge strategic opportunity for operators and suppliers alike in the online casino vertical, but getting the content strategy right is crucial to scalable success.

That’s according to Stephen Orchard, our Head of Commercial Operations, SlotMatrix, who spoke to SBC about the state of play in the US and how SlotMatrix has viewed regulated markets across the nation as a strategic growth region.

As a global provider, SlotMatrix has an intriguing perspective of the U.S. in comparison to Europe and LatAm and how regulated markets compare across those regions.

Orchard said: “The U.S. market compared to LatAm markets and European markets, is a relatively new market. I think a lot of providers at the beginning were a little bit naive to think that it would be exactly the same as Europe.

“In the beginning, the market was straightforward. Your old-school Vegas-style slots (worked best), three reels and seeing where the money is going and seeing where the money’s coming out. It needed to be quite clear. The market’s evolved now though and we’re looking at a big stack of games like high volatility games with huge different bonus types.”

The U.S. has long been viewed as a huge growth opportunity for global operators and suppliers. While some European sportsbooks have called it quits, the online casino side of the industry is still popular with global players looking to take advantage of the U.S. opportunity.

As a global supplier, EveryMatrix stands ready to support those operators.

“When we look at growth into the regulated states, we continue to not just grow into different states but to sign more operators,” said Orchard: “There are new operators from Europe who are going into the U.S. who we are supporting. We’ve gone on that journey with them from the beginning strategically. Teaming up with those big brands in the U.S., even supporting the European brands is hugely, hugely important.”

Signing more and more operators is a particularly important task considering further legalisation of states is looking unlikely. Currently there are seven states with regulated online casino gaming, but any further attempts have failed in multiple legislative sessions.

One argument that is often parroted is the land-based sector concerned about the cannibalisation of their businesses.

In Orchard’s view, they needn’t worry.

“We are an addition to the markets already out there. I think cross cannibalisation’s been a conversation in the U.S. since I’ve been around. There is a lot of political reluctance in the U.S., I believe, and for the gambling verticals. And there seems to be quite, I believe, a lot of unified messaging from the online industry. Our approach is to treat the US as a multi-year opportunity as opposed to a market that is going to expand over the next six months because, in reality, I don’t think anybody really knows what will happen.”