Gianluca Crimaldi, Booming Games: “Whatever we develop, we want to make sure our signature remains clearly visible across our games”

Ahead of SBC Summit Lisbon, Gianluca Crimaldi, Head of Account Management at Booming Games, discusses localisation, player engagement and content innovation in Europe’s increasingly competitive igaming markets.

Exclusive interview.- With regulated igaming markets becoming increasingly crowded, game studios are under growing pressure to offer more than a large portfolio. Localisation, player engagement and differentiated content are becoming essential to standing out.

In this exclusive interview with Focus Gaming News, Gianluca Crimaldi, head of account management at Booming Games, discusses the company’s approach to strengthening operator partnerships and expanding its presence across Europe. Ahead of SBC Summit Lisbon, he also highlights Booming Games’ latest releases, its focus on localised and customised content, and the growing importance of data in understanding what players respond to.

Crimaldi also looks at the studio’s plans to move beyond traditional slot content, including its partnership with Live Play Mobile and a new project set to be announced soon, as Booming Games looks to make the player experience more interactive and engaging.

SBC Summit Lisbon is a key opportunity to meet operators from across Europe and other major igaming markets. What will be the main focus for Booming Games at this year’s event, and which aspects of your portfolio are you most looking forward to showcasing?

Our aim is always to make the most of these events by meeting face to face with our existing customers. With many of them, we share a long-standing relationship and a history that goes across multiple companies and years, making these events a great opportunity to strengthen those partnerships, discuss new opportunities, and understand how we can continue to support their growth.

At the same time, our talented sales team will be on the ground throughout the event, actively meeting potential partners and scouting for new business opportunities.

We will also be proudly showcasing our portfolio of slots, including our latest releases, new innovations, and our partnership with Live Play Mobile. And there is one more exciting announcement that I won’t spoil during this interview — you’ll have to visit us at the exhibition to see what we have prepared.

For us, events like this are not just about showcasing products; they are about building relationships, exchanging ideas, discovering new opportunities, and giving our partners a chance to experience what Booming Games has been working on first-hand.

Booming Games has continued to expand its game portfolio and strengthen its presence across regulated markets. How are operators’ demands for casino content changing, particularly in mature European markets?

I always say that regulated markets are much more saturated today than they were 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, you might have had 25–30 game providers competing in a market, whereas today it is not unusual to see an average of around 90 providers in a single regulated market.

With so many suppliers offering increasingly similar content in terms of themes, mechanics and overall player experience, simply having a large portfolio is no longer enough. The real differentiators are localisation, strong and tailored commercial partnerships with top operators, and innovative engagement tools that can help content stand out and perform.

This is exactly the direction we are taking at Booming Games. We are already investing heavily in localised content, developing customised deals and solutions for key operators, and exploring new ways to increase player engagement beyond the traditional slot offering.

We currently have several projects running across different teams and markets, and we believe this approach will be increasingly important as regulated markets continue to mature and competition becomes even stronger.

“Regulated markets are much more saturated today than they were 10 or 15 years ago […] Today it is not unusual to see an average of around 90 providers in a single regulated market.”

Gianluca Crimaldi, head of account management at Booming Games.

With players increasingly exposed to content from hundreds of studios, what makes a new slot stand out today? Are you seeing greater demand for innovative mechanics, stronger themes, localised content, or a combination of these factors?

It’s really a combination of all these factors. Thanks to the data we have across our systems, we can identify what works, where it works, and what players are responding to. We then use that information to improve what is already performing well, while also looking for new concepts and ideas that can help us offer something different from our competitors.

At the end of the day, I believe a great product needs a strong commercial team behind it to reach its full potential, and the same applies the other way around. You can have a great commercial team, but without the right product, it becomes much harder to achieve long-term success. For us, it’s about having both sides working together.

“At the end of the day, I believe a great product needs a strong commercial team behind it to reach its full potential, and the same applies the other way around.”

Gianluca Crimaldi, head of account management at Booming Games.

Europe remains a highly diverse market, with significant differences in player preferences and regulatory requirements from one country to another. How important is localisation to Booming Games’ strategy, and which European markets do you see offering the strongest opportunities for further growth?

We consider localisation very important, especially in our top markets. This is why we have been working on a series of branded games and dedicated projects together with our customers across different markets, adapting our content to better fit local audiences.

Across Europe, we are currently seeing strong growth in markets such as Poland, Portugal and the UK. At the same time, we are working on dedicated projects in three other major markets, which we expect to start delivering positive results from the next quarter.

For us, localisation is not just about translating content or changing a theme. It’s about understanding what works in each market and working closely with our customers to create content that has a better chance of engaging local players.

As the industry enters the final part of 2026, what trends in game development and player engagement have surprised you the most so far this year, and which ones do you expect to become even more important in 2027?

Certain mechanics, such as Hold & Win, will probably always have a strong position in our portfolio. At the same time, some of our newer games, like Fish Tales and Tasty Bonanza Max Scatter, have performed extremely well over the last quarter, reaching new records week after week.

Our product team is working hard to keep up with the demand of releasing around one new game every week, while also managing different types of projects — from lighter reskins to heavily customised games. This becomes even more challenging in regulated markets, where certification is required and timelines can be much longer.

Considering that we have one main studio handling all of this, I think the team is doing an incredible job.

We will continue developing game series because we believe there is value in building recognisable titles and concepts, but at the same time we want to keep bringing new ideas and avoid becoming repetitive. Whatever we develop, though, we want to make sure our signature remains clearly visible across our games.

Beyond simply increasing the number of titles available, where do you see the biggest opportunities for Booming Games to differentiate itself over the next year, through technology, content, partnerships, market expansion or other areas?

We are already in the middle of two phases of expansion. The first one started last year with our partnership with Live Play Mobile, which brought a new level of interaction to our games. We now have live hosts entertaining players across our games, while players can interact through live chat and receive rewards through different live engagement tools.

We have also started working on a second project, which we will be announcing very soon. I can’t share too much about it just yet, but you will already see some hints around SBC, so definitely keep an eye out for it!

For us, these projects are part of a wider strategy to go beyond traditional slot content and find new ways to make the player experience more engaging and interactive.