July marks a special occasion in the Relax calendar, with one of our earliest ventures closing another year of success. Bingo is an area that has always reflected our company’s ethos of driving differentiation, making waves from its debut right up to this day - its 6th year anniversary. Owing to the occasion, we sat with COO Martin Stalros, the orchestrator of Relax’s bingo since inception, to walk us through its journey.
1.It’s bingo’s 6th birthday, what stands out as the biggest highlight so far?
Looking back, it’s hard to single out just one, every year brought something new and exciting to the bingo domain and I’m so pleased to have been able to guide it and watch it grow.
The launch undeniably stands out as a really fantastic period, paired with the fact that we were given the opportunity to work with several brands of our partners at Kindred, including the brilliant url bingo.com. We were off to a strong start and it was such an exciting time to be part of the project.
Then, of course, there was a transition and enormous focus on mobile optimisation efforts, and the sense of satisfaction that came with seeing mobile usage rates skyrocketing was something my team and I will never forget.
In the last year HexaBingo and Bingo Clubs are two extremely notable achievements as well, ones which stand out as game-changers in the bingo vertical in my eyes.
Moreover, internally, we have always been well aware that we are doing great things, but it was really special to receive the EGR Award for Best Bingo Supplier last week. The time was so apt and it truly felt like recognition for 6 years’ worth of hard, passionate and enjoyable work from the whole bingo team.
2.Relax’s bingo is best known for breaking boundaries in its field, why is that and what is the latest innovation or development to come out of your department?
I’m proud to say that Relax’s bingo really does break boundaries in its sphere. From day 1 we sought to challenge the status quo and we did so by taking a different approach to the game. We saw bingo as more than the cookie-cutter classic it was often perceived to be, there was clear potential in the traditional, fun game and we actively looked for ways to breathe new life into it.
I think we succeeded in doing so by respecting the simple leisurely game it was at its core, and yet refused to shy away from modern elements, speed and anticipation - aspects that it was always criticised for lacking.
In the same vein, one of our latest initiatives was a vertical innovation too - the launch of Bingo Clubs. This is an integrated stats-centre in the bingo product that allows the player to unlock different information about your own play as well as the bingo community. It’s very engaging in that you can compete to beat your own, or your friends’ records, as well as unlock achievements, or just browse through tons of information about our bingo platform. It’s been so exciting tracing how our audience is interacting with this new style of play.
3. The bingo team never seems to slow down, what project are you currently working on?
Having the pleasure to work with our partners at Kindred Group gives us, amongst other things, the opportunity to work with one of the world’s biggest sportsbooks at Unibet, and get creative with a different field. We are just evaluating a recent Euro 2020 cross-sell initiative that was a great project to see through!
We’re now jumping onto a project that involves very interesting potential features and the roadmap is looking promising. I can’t share too much about what’s coming but I can promise that we will continue to challenge the status quo and make a bingo product that strives to deliver an excellent, engaging player experience! We will continue with our multi-market focus where we try to build our systems as flexible as possible to handle all new regulations as well as making sure we offer a fantastic experience for players all around the world.
