The value of the account manager in an igaming company

Yuri Berwanger, Account Manager at Caleta Gaming, talked about why good account management strategies are essential for the prosperity of game providers in today’s highly competitive environment.

Opinion.- In all industries, business is about creating and nurturing solid customer relationships. It could not be different for iGaming companies. Well-designed games with a wide distribution network are not necessarily successful releases nor do they perform well in the long term. Sometimes an extra push is needed.

Good account management strategies are essential for the prosperity of game providers in today’s highly competitive environment. Making the games available to the operator’s platform is just the first step. Managing game positioning on the customers’ websites is key for increasing games exposure to as many players as possible and boosting its revenue, especially when combined with great game design and strong distribution.

It is also part of the account manager’s job to understand, through data analysis and conversations with customers, how to acquire a new audience, retain the existing one as well as reactivate players who show a lack of activity. The analysis of games that are not performing well is also very important and often complex.

Yuri Berwanger, Account Manager at Caleta, said: “Working to improve the game position and visibility on the operators’ websites is a complex task. I do believe there are three factors that move this challenge: competition, differentiation, and relationship. Some clients distribute games from over 100 game providers and all of them are looking for a better positioning to attract players. One of the account manager’s challenges is showing what makes us different as a game provider and what are the benefits of making our games better positioned”.

“On the other hand, having a great distribution channel requires the account management team to build relationships with different customers. Caleta’s games are integrated to aggregators, which distribute our games to various operators through their platform, but we are also directly integrated with some key operators. These two types of clients require completely different approaches. Each company has different internal processes and ways to launch, promote and position games. It is the account manager’s job to identify these specific needs of each client, and customize ways to attend to them to achieve win-win deals”, Yuri added.

The process behind account management requires several skills for this position, as building a relationship with a client is not something that appears out of nowhere – it must be built and improved over time.

Yuri explained: “One of my first tasks, when I joined the Caleta team, was to schedule meetings with our clients to understand how their internal structure works, strengthen relationships, reinforce Caleta’s differentials and be present. For example, at Caleta we have a large variety of games, themes, and game types with a great emphasis on our video bingos – which to me still have a great market potential to be explored. We also have great experience developing custom and exclusive games for operators, which brings incredible differentials to our company. Additionally, innovation is differentiation. Caleta has been implementing new innovative ideas, bringing new features and engagement tools in order to improve the player’s experience. Innovation ideas are conceived internally and sometimes from customers’ and partners’ inputs and are always developed by our team. Maintaining good relationships with the customer helps to collect suggestions for improvement and innovation”.

With the pandemic, it became clear how face-to-face contact makes a great difference when it comes to strengthening relationships. Caleta is participating in key events in the iGaming industry and is sponsoring the Brazilian iGaming Summit (BIS) next week.

Regarding the importance of attending events, Yuri added: “Participating in events is an excellent way to increase Caleta’s brand awareness, promote our work, expand our networking and be able to meet some customers with whom, so far, the only interaction was virtual. I am very excited to have a chance to meet our customers in person at BiS and certain that Caleta’s participation will be a great success”.

Caleta Gaming is a Brazilian game provider for the casino industry that continues to focus on delivering engaging content to players all over the globe by providing agile and seamless API Integration to operators and aggregators. The company has built a strong and balanced gaming portfolio with 90+ titles, including slots, video bingos, kenos, lottos, and scratchcards. Caleta delivers original and customized games, totally developed in-house with proprietary technology by its ever-growing team.

See also: “Caleta Gaming is in its best moment in terms of growth and maturation”