“Imagine Live leads the way via innovation and putting the player at the centre of the experience:” Global CEO Matthew Charlesworth

Can you tell us about the launch of Imagine Live at this ICE London edition?

We took a significant risk for ICE 2023, our first expo with a dedicated stand revealing the new company and branding, we brought to life a captivating product experience I had only been dreaming of for a very long time and one that we only finalized in late January. As our core product is blackjack and as the most recently launched live casino supplier, we simply have to offer partners and their players a different player-centric experience from all the others. We took 7 technicians, 2 dealers and recreated on the stand our No1 studio environment based in Yerevan. Back in December 2022 we placed a full-size studio blackjack table, dealer’s chair, shoes, discard holder, table felt and our robot arm into a wooden crate, said, a small prayer and sent it all off by air freight to London. A huge expense and as I said a significant risk, but everything arrived in one piece, and by 90:30am on Day 1 we were all set up, dealers at the table and I believe we stole the show in terms of innovation and visual impact of a never seen before player experience for Blackjack. 

At ICE 2022 when the Live product launched on the Digitain stand, we welcomed Todd Haushalter ‘The God’ of Live Casino innovation and CPO at Evolution were we demoed what we had built so far, over a few beers I explained that at ICE 2023 we had a dream to make other Live Casino suppliers stop, look and think to themselves ‘I wish I had thought of that’ in the same way we all do with so many Evolution games, judging by the feedback on the stand and many comments since I am pretty sure the dream was realized. 

Besides the blackjack experience, we also teased with our first Game Show, Pirates Plunder. This is a classic 54 segment wheel game with bonus rounds, we have literally recreated what we describe as the lower deck of a pirate ship in a dedicated studio. Walking into the studio the smell of wood is amazing.

What was the visitors’ feedback like?

The feedback on the products as well as the short and long-term vision was fantastic. We are incredibly open with our plans in terms of strategy and product roadmap, and that was very well received. We are committed to not copy-paste products, Promo Tools, or the Back Office, but lead the way via innovation and putting the player at the centre of the experience.

How do you see the European market at the moment?

Highly competitive from the supplier perspective, so content is key. All big operators have all suppliers and it’s hard to stick out from the crowd, commercials are key as well as offering new games that the decision makers look at and think they must have them. I think operators are a lot smarter of late, just because a supplier launches a new game, it is not necessarily going to be promoted or given important positioning, if the game tile does not make it to the top of the pages, then it is not going to be especially successful. This applies to slots, RNG table & Live.

What is your opinion regarding the change of location of ICE expo for 2025 and in which of the 4 cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and London) would you like this show to be held?

All of those locations are cold in February. I think the important part for ICE is getting the show into the summer months. 40,000 people converging into a space for 3 days always has the same result, we are all sick the next week. From a selfish point of view, I would prefer it was moved to Spain and renamed so ‘Sol’.

Can you tell us the goals and plans for this year and in which countries would you like to expand or grow?

We are in the license acquisition period, so all markets and countries are on our radar. The goals are simple, we have a very challenging road map of new games, some are mainstream must-haves, Asian-themed, Indian-themed, and others will be brand new not seen before in the marketplace. We will also open our first European studio in Romania, as well as launch our brand-new building in Yerevan which has 8 floors where Live Casino has 2, I am pleased to say that space is absolutely not an issue.

Which other trade shows are you going to participate this year?

You will see Imagine Live in Amsterdam, Barcelona & Malta with a stand, plus we will attend a few select others without a stand.