Play’n GO’s Anna Mackney: “We’re building deeper relationships with our UK-facing operator partners”

Play’n GO’s UK regional director, Anna Mackney, emphasises the UK’s importance and how they’re gaining market share while deepening relationships with key operators.

Exclusive interview.- In the highly competitive UK market, Play’n GO continues to set the standard by delivering world-class casino entertainment that’s carefully attuned to players. Focus Gaming News spoke with Play’n GO’s UK regional director Anna Mackney to find out more.

How important is the UK to Play’n GO?

It is a core market for us here at Play’n GO for quite a few reasons. 

Of course, the UK has a long history of trend-setting when it comes to online gaming. It was among the first to introduce a modern regulated framework, it’s a large and important consumer market, and it has a particularly demanding audience which always expects the best.

This brings plenty of opportunities, while also presenting challenges that keep us on our toes. This is not a place where we can rest on our laurels; if we aren’t innovating and working towards great new products, someone else will be. Players have so many options that we need to be offering fresh and engaging content if we want to retain and expand our position.

From a regulatory standpoint, the UK has often led the way when it comes to sustainable and responsible gaming. These are areas Play’n GO also prioritises, so we’re a natural fit in the country. 

We’re really encouraged to see other jurisdictions following the UK’s example, particularly when it comes to taking firm action to protect players. The UK Gambling Commission’s decision to ban bonus buy features from online slots is just one instance of this. We consider these features predatory and not conducive to creating a sustainable and safe gaming experience for players, and other markets are now also coming around to this way of thinking.

Finally, many of the Play’n GO team are based out of our London office – in fact, we’ve never had as many team members in the UK as we have now – so this really is a home for us.

“From a regulatory standpoint, the UK has often led the way when it comes to sustainable and responsible gaming.”

Anna Mackney, Play’n GO’s UK regional director.

What has been keeping Play’n GO busy in the UK recently?

We’re really happy with the performance of our titles in the UK right now. We’ve been steadily gaining a bigger market share while deepening our relationship with key operators. Over the last few weeks alone, we’ve gone live with some major operators which we considered missing pieces of the puzzle, including 32red and Sky Betting & Gaming. We have some more exciting new partnerships and launches in the pipeline, too.

A lot of our recent focus has been on attuning our UK product to ensure it is in line with the needs of our partners and their players. Today, we’re building far deeper partnerships with operators than ever before, and these extend beyond the typical relationship you’d see between a games provider and an online casino brand. It is about aligning on everything from marketing to product to affiliation, so we can together shape and innovate our product.

It’s important to provide value to UK players, and we do this via play times, entertaining base games and interactive base game modifiers, among many other things. This is ultimately about creating longevity while maintaining healthy but capped maximum win exposures. We have recently launched a number of titles that include a cash collector/value collector style feature, and we expect them to be popular in the UK market.

There’s also an educational component. We’re increasingly working with operators, particularly on the sportsbook side, to help with their cross-selling strategy, finding areas where our games can provide an introduction to those who are interested in exploring slots for the first time.

How is Play’n GO preparing for future success, in the UK and beyond?

Sustainability has been at the heart of what we do for a long time now. We’re thrilled to see some of the ideas we’ve championed become accepted across much of the industry, not just in the UK but in a growing number of regulated jurisdictions worldwide. We’re active in more than 25 of these markets now, and that number is only going to increase over the coming years.

I’ve always said that we live and breathe regulated markets, and that means we are always prepared for the unexpected. This isn’t about doing the minimum, but rather embracing this reality and supporting our partners with whatever comes next. While some fear the introduction of new regulation, we always welcome anything that will protect players and create the conditions for a sustainable pathway for our industry.

From our perspective, we’ll continue to build great games that emphasise the entertainment aspect. If online casinos can’t give their players great entertainment in a safe environment, there’s no future for any of this. We strongly believe we have the best content for regulated markets because put simply, our games are the most fun to play. The possibilities are limitless and we’re here to help operators explore them.