Interview: Ambitious Yggdrasil celebrates ten years in iGaming

As Yggdrasil celebrated its 10th anniversary, gaming intelligence asked CEO Bjorn Klantz about his past and 2023 prospects.

For casino game manufacturers, this year has already released many new games and has been a busy year, including continuous expansion into regulated new markets.

"And Krantz said," It's an extraordinary journey, and we are proud of our team and the passion we have in all countries.

In real time, suppliers show 160 direct buyers in 22 regulatory markets, and content is in real time with more than 1, 000 buyer brands.

"This year, we plan to release more than 70 new innovative premium games in the local and global market. These games, for example, combine both Games, c o-developed with the core games produced by Yggdrasil and the partner master. I am proud to be able to work with such an expert who always follows the principle.

However, it has not been a problem since the founder of the founder Fredrick Elm Cubist in April 2022 and became the CEO.

"One of the biggest tasks is the dramatic change in the micr o-economic environment in consumer behavior, especially in Europe," says Klantz. And this is linked to improvements to regulate serious gambling.

"It's very important for me and my management to focus on the roadmap in light of our strategy and keep it in a valuable way, and for that purpose, the direction of the business is all the teams in the organization. He needs to be completely aggressive.

The Igaming Market, where competition intensifies, still has a unique issue, but Krantz believes that innovation and risk take are essential elements to respond to these issues.

"Because our business share is considered supe r-competitive, it is important that our strategies are accurate and that we do not deviate from our core business and focus," he explains. "Every time you move forward and challenge, you need to be aware of what you need to create in order to differentiate it with others and secure the next value for your customers.

"It is necessary to continue taking concrete risks and promote innovation and differentiation," Klantz said.

Active interaction with customers and players is an essential element in Yggdrasil's success strategy.

Passion for games is a key part of our mindset and we are committed to 360-degree feedback to get important information from buyers and players about our services, performance and service levels, allowing us to take into account the needs of our players more than any other company. ”

“This negotiable association is handled through close dialogue with buyers and streamers, our own business intelligence data and internal reflections,” he explains.

This negotiable relationship with buyers allows suppliers to draw innovative conclusions about new and existing content.

“For us, innovation has always been part of our DNA and culture. We have become popular with our own first innovations, like BOOST gaming, and our innovative set of GATI development tools that are compliant with regulations. The results of this innovation are helping Yggdrasil accelerate the implementation of its own mass strategy.”

For Kranz, innovation, risk taking and mutual dealings with customers go hand in hand.

"As a company, we need to create an outsider's perspective, take risks and support innovation at the top of our aesthetic agenda. Customer feedback helps us do that and also helps us adjust and update our content to meet our customers' needs," says Krantz.

"We know how important innovation is and how it benefits the company and overall image, and we are proud that more than 50% of our industry awards are about innovation."

Game-related innovation and mechanics

Yggdrasil has gained popularity for its innovative Game Experience Mechanisms (GEMs), YG Masters program and growing content portfolio.

GEMs are designed from the perspective of the player's skills. Each GEM defines the performance in the slot, adding a new element to the game that ultimately increases engagement and profit potential.

The company currently has a library of 10 high-quality mechanical frameworks, including Gigabox, MultiMAX and DoubleMax.

"We currently have a total of 50 games based on our high-quality mechanical system, and I'd say about 30-40% of new homebrew games use the GEM mechanical system," Krantz said.

Recent releases include Ragnawolves, a new GEM with WildEnergy mechanics, and StarFire Fortunes, a 10 GEM vendor with TopHit mechanics.

"The two frameworks are designed to maximize the player's impression and optimize the time and excitement in each game," Klantz said.

GEM's proposal is used by the YGGDRASIL partner under the YG Masters Program that was first announced in 2019 To be able to access To

"Our master program adds relevance to the company's local and global portfolios," says Klantz. Yggdrasil's partner is very talented, innovative, and has its own creative life.

"The important thing to add to the program is the opportunity for partner pasters to license our mechanical framework."

Currently, 30 GEM games are participating in the Masters Yggdrasil Program, and partners can use the company's mechanical framework IP during the game.

"We are grateful for the partnership and believe that all participants have a merit." "We always discuss the nature of the program and work closely with our partners to increase the value of the program."

Krantz believes that the competitive Igaming market is complicated, but does not limit Yggdrasil's ambition.

"Our business environment is very competitive, it is not easy to provide new and destructive ideas or add innovative improvement to existing things. Therefore, we always move forward. It is very important to understand your needs, provide trendy content according to the movement of the market, and to work on data based on data. I am convinced that we can discuss points and create a foundation that can be posted.

Innovation is not limited to products.

"It is important to introduce innovation throughout the company, even if it is an innovation that realizes more advanced automation or an improvement in expandability that enables more flexible ways of working."

"But, as well as the product, we will promote or invent new very effective mechanics and roc k-down mechanics, which we call GEM, and further optimize the continuity of the game.

In recent years, AI is an indispensable factor in this year's Yggdrasil, which is attracting attention in artificial intelligence (AI).

"We have already integrated AI in the process of developing the game, and we are not reluctant to see where it has the ability to take us, but with the current product, we are too late to flatter the performance results, and also the excellent feelings of the players, so we will continue to spend the concern of AI and its development," says Krantz.

The company is still in the scratch stage for using AI, but Krantz believes that the industry is waiting for an interesting journey to determine how it has the ability to improve AI in its own operations.

"We really like what we are looking for, we currently have outstanding qualities and significance, and we look forward to further new knowledge on how to expand this in our portfolio-strategy," he says.

Roadmap for the second half of 2023

Yggdrasil has almost doubled its manufacturing scale year-on-year, so next year is going to be a very tough year.

"We look forward to many innovative premium games next year. We are proud of the fact that we have expanded the release of the major Yggdrasil games that we run ourselves," says Krantz. "This expansion was made in response to buyer and player demand and is considered the biggest part of our strategy to increase our mass market portfolio.

This was also driven by Yggdrasil's entry into the ancillary regulated iGaming market, which it has been active in this year.

"We can say that we have a strong turn to enter new markets in Europe. "In the near future, Bulgaria and Croatia, as well as Latin America, will be the focus of entertainment development markets.

In January, Yggdrasil announced that Lotería de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Lotba) was allowed to transfer its slots to a licensed operator in the Argentine city of Moscow, with the iGaming-Personal market set to open in early 2021.

Among the first games to launch in this jurisdiction will be games featuring Yggdrasil's famous gems and YG There are games for the Masters program. YGGDRASIL launched Personal Plan in Colombia last year and entered the Latin American bazaar for the first time.

"In general, we are clearly sticking to our strategy of market adaptation and access to the Latin American market will increase further as it fits our strategy," says Krantz.

The US is still considered a necessary growth market for YGGDRASIL.

"We are working on two games in the US, but of course the South American bazaar and our strategy to access it are very important for us and we have a long-term growth project," he continues.

YGGDRASIL is also one of many igaming suppliers that have acquired a new license for the software of the Swedish B2B IGR.

"We have a historical heritage in Scandinavia and have many players in Scandinavia, especially Sweden. "This is an important step by the regulator and we are proud to be considered as part of the licensing regime."

Integration

In addition to entering new markets, Yggdrasil announced some time ago the integration of its in-house game teams and individual studios to establish new games in-house.

"This is an important step that allows us to clearly validate the entire production process, from content to development, and to combine our local and large portfolio strategies as part of our 1st Games unit," Pennis explained.

"We are writing a very interesting time at Yggdrasil with many positive changes. We are very happy about this and honestly believe that the effects will be seen in our business in the future.

10 years since its founding, Yggdrasil has been on an endless road, and there are fresh milestones and innovations to come.