Mechanics & Player Attention

What makes a game, a brand, or a partnership stand out in today’s iGaming market? Belatra Games experts spoke to industry media about the importance of authenticity in building a strong brand, shared insights into the rapidly evolving Latin American market, and explored the games and mechanics that can drive deeper player engagement.

Quotes from Kateryna Goi, CMO, for iGaming News Today

About the value of face-to-face connections:

The more digital our world becomes, the more valuable face-to-face interaction is.

The pandemic fundamentally changed the way we work. Many companies never fully returned to the office, and in a global industry like iGaming, most of our partners are based in different countries. We can exchange dozens of emails and hold countless video calls, but sometimes a single conversation in person is enough to build the trust that moves a partnership forward.

About building teams and better leadership:

Great ideas rarely come from one person. A successful marketing leader is someone who knows how to build a strong team, create an environment where people feel comfortable sharing ideas, and remain open to learning from them. I've never believed in the leadership style of "we'll do it this way because I said so." I don't think the best leaders are the ones who always have the right answers. They're the ones who ask the right questions and surround themselves with people who know things they don't.

About creating reasons to care:

The biggest challenge for marketers won't be creating more content. It will be creating reasons for people to care. What will truly differentiate brands is their ability to stay authentic, build trust, and create experiences that people genuinely remember.

Quotes from Florencia Mendiuk, Account Manager LatAm, for iGamity

About market-specific formulas:

At the same time, it is noticeable — and it is completely normal that everyone wants to understand the formula for success in each individual country and the obvious patterns of behavior of the players. But there is no single formula, no matter how we look for it. The market and players are dynamic, so real success is achieved through constant data analysis and communication with local operators — they are the ones who best know the preferences of the players and can track trends in their behavior.

About mechanics over themes:

Providers can draw inspiration from local history, culture, and current trends when creating games, but none of this guarantees success. Equally, a game built around a theme with seemingly limited appeal can unexpectedly become a hit. In the end, success is more driven by the mechanics than the theme.

About the rise of local operators in LATAM:

One more interesting observation: unlike some other markets where international brands dominate, Latin America is seeing the rise of more and more strong local operators. They understand their markets inside out and often prefer working with providers that genuinely understand the local landscape as well.

Quotes from Ivan Shlapunov, Key Business Development Manager, for Yogonet

About global competition:

We are no longer just competing within our own industry. Today, we are competing with the entire landscape of modern entertainment for a person's most valuable resource — their time and attention.

About introducing a mechanic with progress:

People love having a sense of purpose and progression. It’s incredibly satisfying to feel like you are achieving something, which is why shifting the focus toward thoughtful, built-in features makes so much sense right now. For instance, instead of just waiting for a lucky combination, players can embark on micro-quests or collect special boosters that build anticipation. Another approach that works beautifully is a visible progression track — something we actively explored in our game Make It Gold.

About customization of online casino slots and localization:

The most powerful tool in our growth strategy is collaborating with operators through tailor-made customization. It’s a genuine triple-win scenario: the operator gets an exclusive blockbuster that sets them apart, the players get a fresh yet reassuringly familiar experience, and we strengthen a deep partnership.

Quotes from Kateryna Goi, CMO, for С-lvl Media

About misconceptions related to the Latam market:

What international providers can still underestimate is how different player preferences can be from what we expect based on a market’s geography or stereotypes. A good example for us is Peru. Princess Suki, a game built around Asian aesthetics and themes, remained among our top-performing titles there for a long time after its release. Who would have expected an Asian-inspired game to perform so strongly in a Latin American market? But it showed us that player preferences can cross cultural boundaries in ways you don’t always predict.

About the real success of the game:

I believe a successful game should ultimately be measured by long-term engagement, not just by its first-week performance. So I would say that the real goal of a successful launch is not simply to attract attention, but to build a product players want to return to. That is where retention, long-term engagement, and ultimately the lifetime value of a game come into play.

About the trends in the iGaming industry for the coming years:

I believe the biggest force shaping the iGaming industry will be the players themselves — and, more specifically, how quickly their expectations, preferences and attention evolve. We are already seeing shorter attention spans, stronger demand for personalised experiences and growing competition for people’s time from other forms of digital entertainment. This means the industry will have to become much better at understanding not only what players like, but what keeps them interested and what makes them come back.