Interview with Blueprint Gaming: A Leader in Gaming Innovation and Market Expansion

Article by : Maryna Mykhailiuta Nov 11, 2024

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Blueprint Gaming has evolved significantly since the founding in 2001, when the studio started with a focus on land-based casinos. Several years later in 2008, the Merkur Group (back then called the Gauselmann Group) took a stake in Blueprint, marking the beginning of the partnership. Subsequently to that, the Merkur Group had fully acquired the studio in 2012, and this acquisition is still active today.

Fast forward a few years into the future, Blueprint Gaming has expanded its focus to developing online and mobile slot games with the rise of igaming, which has become a colossal industry since. This has solidified our studio’s presence in today’s global slot market, with games like Fishin’ Frenzy, Eye of Horus and The GooniesTM being available on over 100,000 land-based gaming terminals across UK and Europe, as well as online platforms.

We hold several key certifications and licenses that allow us to expand into new markets, such as UK Gambling Commission which allows us to operate in our native market, ensuring compliance with our gambling laws and regulations, as well as Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) and Gibraltar Licensing which provides a base for operations in the European market.

The certifications are crucial as they ensure our compliance with the regulatory standards, as well as serve as the entry point to new jurisdictions. Credibility with these bodies is a “must have” in this industry, both while working with operators as well as while making sure that our games are fair and secure to our players.

I believe that the main thing that differentiates us from other providers is the product itself.

We have a truly diverse portfolio of player-focused games with a range of features and bonuses that ensures broad appeal from slot players. Our implementation of the MegawaysTM mechanic has also been extremely popular and that creative choice resulted in many successful games, such as Fishin’ Frenzy MegawaysTM or Eye of Horus MegawaysTM.

Our most recent jackpot system called Rapid Fire Jackpots has proven to resonate with new audience seeking smaller, but more frequent pot wins. New product launches like this always provides us with a lot of feedback that we consider for future releases, which is what allows us to stay current.

Blueprint Gaming also offers high quality branded content, such as slots set in popular themes like the GooniesTM, Rick and MortyTM or more recently The FlintstonesTM. We believe that incorporating these popular franchises creates excitement and familiarity in our players.

We also value good relationships with our operators, providing them with marketing opportunities as well as promotional tools and wider support with our games, which is what has allowed us to grow. As I mentioned before, we have a lot of presence in the land-based and digital markets, and this is the effect of those collaborations.

In March 2023 Bluepring Gaming has sealed a deal with Games Global, which has allowed for our games to reach more operators and players through the Games Global Plus platform.

Another notable partnership is with Light & Wonder, which sealed our integration with one of the largest aggregation platforms, expanding our own market reach.

Deals like that are important to us, as other than expanding out market reach, they also enhance our products as well as strengthen industry position, solidifying Blueprint as one of the leading game developers in the igaming sector.

We are currently working on developing the most effective strategies for collaborating with streamers and influencers as we recognise the benefits of reaching our players with B2C marketing.

Having these collaborations enhances visibility of your products to a wider audience, as often these channels have a dedicated following of thousands of people. Thus, having them play and review our games live on streams can have a positive effect on player retention, as a well-educated player will have more interest in the product.

We see igaming streamers as slot experts due to their high interest and exposure to a wide range of products. They often say things that end up being considered as valuable feedback, which is then used to improve our future games.

In result, we hope to build a strong community of players that stay updated on our latest product and build our brand along the way.

I’d have to give a spotlight to our new games in the Cash Strike series which have become very popular internationally, mainly due to their gameplay mechanics and high volatility with maximum wins up to 50,000x the original bet.

The series include one of our favourite features – Cash Collect, where players collect winning symbols that land anywhere on the reels. This feature is improved on in the Hotstepper feature, where the cash collect symbol moves down one position each round, thus further increasing the chances of landing more winning reels.

I believe that all these factors combined have contributed to this series’ success, making those games into more distinctive slots from Blueprint Gaming this year.

Our most recent big innovation has been Rapid Fire Jackpots, which is a brand-new jackpot system that offers smaller but more frequent wins. We have now added this new mechanic to several of our games which proved to be a success, awarding over £1000000 in its first week after release.

We have also started experimenting with multiplayer slot gaming, incorporating features from HungryBear’s Slot Masters series, offering a social gaming experience.

These new innovations not only enhance the general player experience but also offer more interesting ways to win in new content.

A few names come to mind, like Fishin’ Frenzy, Eye of Horus or King Kong Cash. I think they all have the same factors that make them stand out to our players, years after original release.

I will pick Eye of Horus as an example to discuss, as this is the game I most often see played in land-based settings.

This game has the classic appeal, which comes with familiarity especially for our older audiences who were playing long before gaming evolved into igaming. It’s accessible theme and gameplay make it enjoyable to a wider audience who just want to have a casual session. Even its Expanding Wilds feature is easy to understand and follow.

Eye of Horus also offers high RTP, giving players a fair chance of seeing some favourable spins. This is highly appreciated by our players and thus it helps to retain their interest.

As we look ahead, I think Blueprint will continue to improve on its current content strategy, that is, leveraging brand content, innovating game mechanics and expanding on our established game families further to keep both, our new and seasoned players happy.

We previously spoke about global market expansion and multiplayer games – those are also the two fields we will continue to grow.

Our recent growth in international markets prove that our strategies work. For example, Canada (Ontario) has proven to be a fruitful market for Blueprint, especially for our Jackpot Royale games, and Italy has seen very promising growth as well, thanks to our relationships with major operators in that country.

We aim to continue to support and enhance our partnerships across the globe.

We have an incredible Compliance Team that monitors regulatory changes across the different jurisdictions we operate in, ensuring that our games match all legal requirements.

Blueprint also conducts regulatory audits and obtains certifications that allow us to function with the highest standards of security and fairness.

Partnerships with operators are also key, as they keep us unformed of new changes and help us adapt to new regulations. This dynamic especially proves how important it is to have market-specific strategies to comply with local needs.

Finally, we pride ourselves on adaptable game design and player protection measures, ensuring that our content provides fair and secure gaming environments for the end-user. This is why our players will find deposit limits and responsible gaming features in Blueprint slots.

Having all these strategies present and prioritizing compliance to the highest level allows us to “stay ahead” of regulatory changes, as well as enjoy good reputation in the industry.

I personally hold a belief that virtual reality will become more present in igaming future, especially once more multiplayer experiences will continue to emerge, which in effect will drive futher player engagement and community building.

Those experiences will also drive further innovation in presentation, like graphics and sounds to provide more immersive experiences during gaming sessions. Additionally, streamers and influencers will play a key role in driving those changes forward, as they will always look for the best games to play for their own audiences with potential for further community building.

Of course, those games will bring even more changes to gameplay mechanics, with providers hoping to match the high technological level of devices the games will be accessed on with their content.

Branded content will also receive more attention as providers will try to attract more players to their own products, hoping that their own games will be more interesting to the emerging audiences who are used to certain brands.

Any big jumps in technology and content like that will require further reviews by regulatory bodies, so player safety is sure to be the talking point in the future as well.

Our studio shapes many of our decisions on player feedback and by leveraging data that is accessible to our analysts, which reflects those changes in demographics and preferences.

We saw a big shift in players moving from land-based machines onto mobile, thus we have optimised our games for a wide range of devices to ensure that our content is accessible to the biggest number of players.

There was an undeniable interest in a wider range of features, bonuses and themes as the newer players want slightly more varied experiences than those which might be found in our classic slots. This change in preference is what drives our product roadmap. We try to create a diverse portfolio of games to ensure that there is something for everyone.

We previously spoke about our content strategy, new technologies, streamers and expansion in emerging markets – we are always analysing feedback and data to create specific strategies for growth in those departments, so please your eyes peeled to see what we have cooking for the future!