BGaming: Driving partner growth with football games
Julia Alekseeva, BGaming’s chief product officer, analyses how to attract the sport’s audience.
Opinion.- It’s no secret that football reigns as the world’s most beloved sport. With simple rules, year-round events, and global appeal, it’s easy to follow and hard to ignore. Even those who aren’t die-hard fans likely know a thing or two about it.
In the igaming world, betting on football occupies a significant niche, which has long made online casino game providers wonder: Is it possible to attract the sport’s dedicated and passionate audience to online gambling as well?
Though the short answer is that anything is possible, casino operators have struggled with the task for quite some time. Luckily, as the moods shifted, and the popularity of crash-style and instant-win titles has heightened, it has inspired attempts to attach the football theme to the genres.
How BGaming incorporates football into its games
One of our latest football-themed releases took our recent hit, Plinko 2, and reimagined it with a sporty twist. In Football Plinko, players drop ball-shaped tokens onto a grass playing field, with each bounce capturing the energy of the game. From the goal-inspired entry point to themed sound effects and UI elements, the experience is unmistakably football. But we didn’t stop there — inspired by its success, we set out to build an original title that dives even deeper into the spirit of the sport.
The result is BGaming’s Penalty Duel, a title that required some trial runs on top of the usual research stage, to deliver a product that players always wanted but never knew could actually happen. We presented an early concept to visitors at BiS SiGMA Americas in São Paulo in 2025, received encouraging feedback, and took the game back to the lab to realize it properly.
Dual-mode gameplay — the kicker and goalkeeper modes — is the highlight of this release. You would think that having two games in one would result in a heavy build, but we knew that Penalty Duel had to load fast on any device at any connection speed to reach its audience, so we focused on delivering a lightweight demo. We succeeded: the end product weighs only 11 MB and has a quick WebGL load, so players in any corner of the world can enjoy it without any concerns.
I feel like I have to highlight that Penalty Duel is not just a football game. Part of its original appeal is the focus on Brazil. It is set against the backdrop of the Copacabana Beach at sunset, with the Sugarloaf Mountain cableway in the background. The atmosphere carries through in the characters, subtle elements, and music, making a complete, harmonious package. Our choice fell on Brazil because we were inspired by our SiGMA Americas’ visit and the country’s genuine and undivided love of football.
Finally, we believe that tapping into football’s exciting and dramatic nature is the key, and the first-person perspective solidifies players as the main heroes of the action, facing off against attractive, animated characters. Such immersion is the cherry on top of the football game.
However, if you decide to approach this, I recommend playing into the lighthearted, instant-win trend we have recently noticed on the market. This makes a game easy to pick up and play, both for seasoned gamblers and those taking their first humble steps on the igaming landscape.
Finding the right moment
Football stays in the spotlight year-round, but that doesn’t mean every moment is right for launching a themed game. It’s better to align with the calendar: timing your release with key sporting events gives your product a much higher chance of success and visibility.
For instance, the World Cup and the Club World Cup are two such events. When we were planning the release dates for Football Plinko and Penalty Duel, the combination of the Women’s EURO and the Club World Cup this July aligned just right, and so our June and July roadmaps had to feature them.
At the height of the season, fans are all over the internet and betting platforms, which is when you can catch their attention. Once the tournaments are over, though, what do you do? At BGaming, we always ensure the flexibility of our builds in case we need to adapt to the next best event. We also consider online post-promotion activities in advance to help operators retain their players. Not to mention that we aim to create our games in a way that naturally keeps gamblers returning for more.
Conclusions
To sum up the formula, keep your products fan-focused but flexible. Do some research and test your concepts beforehand. Time your releases to prominent football tournaments, and keep experimenting. Operators look to expand all the time, and driving the dedicated football fan base to them is a major achievement that all game providers are still pursuing.
Julia Alekseeva, BGaming’s chief product officer.
