Why SOFTSWISS Repositioned Its Brand | Miranda Guliashvili

Hello and welcome back to another episode of I Gaming Real Talk and I'm here with Miranda from Soft Swiss. Miranda, welcome to the show.

Thank you for the inviting. It's our pleasure.

It's not been long since we spoke in Brazil.

It was Brazil.

It was Brazil. But Manila also like just one word, but it's always great to have you on our show and also hear insight straight from you. Yeah, it was very specific board. It was predictions. So definitely board but predictions.

Yeah. Yeah. Did you see the video? It just went out.

Predictions.

Yeah. Yeah. It was the only one that is like completely different from everyone else. So it stands out as well.

Yeah. I think it got quite good attention from the LinkedIn community.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I mean I just saw the news this morning from your PR team that rebranding and repositioning has happened.

Yeah.

So I'm curious to understand also for the audience like why are you taking the decision now like why now?

I think the timing is reflecting properly because this is the time where the industry is changing rapidly. It never like it's not that time specific but especially towards the regulated markets. If you take a look into the deep dive everything towards the regulated markets gets more deep or new markets get regulated. So with this repositioning let's call it I think it's a very good timing because we are answering to that.

This was something that we were doing all the time but this time we are supporting this idea in a way that we will continue what we were doing but in a deeper level. So from the market perspective also the requests and expectations from the partners are changing rapidly not only the regulations. So we are answering to that in a way that we are not only technological provider anymore. We are the ones that you can trust in a way that will be your advisors.

We will help you with the regulated markets. We will advise you where to expand next.

I think that's how it is matching this time.

So it's not just a change in logo and font but much more catered towards where the company is heading really.

I think that's true because the logo and the visual identity is the second...

But the first is the repositioning of the idea what we will do we are heading where we were heading before we are continuing what we were doing in the past but we will do with the biggest highlights of the regulated markets because earlier this year we announced that our goal primary goal this year would be to be more on regulated markets and that's how we are answering to that.

Okay and is there any specific markets in terms of regulated markets that you're focusing on this year?

Definitely we are focusing on two very important regions itself which is Latin America and Africa and from those regions we are threatening from Latan Brazil definitely then Peru and Colombia. I think we had the same wording in Brazil but this is truth and we are reflecting on it and for Africa for sure it will be South Africa even more. Okay.

And those are the like still very mature markets already but still very emerging.

Mhm. Okay. That's great. And what does this repositioning rebranding mean internally as well as externally for partner and clients and operators? Yeah. When we announced this, we received a lot of questions like what will change for them? Yeah, for sure. Okay.

Because it's all over the LinkedIn, it's all over the media.

But the partner should not expect like drastic changes towards even though we changed the identity of the logo, visuals, colors. They should expect that what we were doing in a past for them we will do but with much more highlights we will help them even more. Not only technologically but as I said with the advices we will be reliable partner even more. Not only the technical direction anymore but with the advices with the full ecosystem of expand expanding with them.

We will suggest that we will take you through these markets and we will grow with you.

Basically bar. So they don't need to expect like drastic change but expect much more energy and much more highlights from our side for the towards the regulated markets.

Okay, I think that's pretty clear and internally are there any changes to to kind of cater towards the need and the demand for regulated markets?

I think it's much more like this is something that much more reflects internally because externally people see that the logo font was changed the colors been changed but internally this is much more power and the chance for us to combine and unite towards one goal to be more on the regulated market. So...

Okay.

Internally I think you saw maybe how much energy and resources the marketing team put. So internally it goes the same but it's much more than it seems externally.

Yeah, I think it's a smart move because you know instead of just saying that we are going to change our focus towards a certain type of markets if you make a change that is visually visible then people start asking hey why do you change it and then it's an opportunity to explain okay this is the change focus and that's why.

So I think overall it's a smart move to make these little changes because they're not very big as such when we look at the big picture only sort of a change that is noticeable for partners to say hey what's happening and then you can say this is our...

Exactly you asked me from the beginning about the moment why now and that's exactly the answer that I tried to answer and you did now with this with this question also because all these years we've been communicating this that we are doing this that we are the reliable technological software provider that you can trust but now we use this momentum to show that besides that we're full ecosystem that you can trust on every market that is possible in this industry.

So I think that's how it's I don't know the change within each other right the change and this change just reflects what we were doing already but it reflects tangibly because it was not so clear before maybe.

So now that it's bit different.

It reflects directly and tangible it's more clearer.

Yeah and also I recently saw this campaign where you know employees were holding little board signs saying that soft swiss has more... is that the campaign?

Right. Uh it's the campaign that started a bit early before we announced the definitely the brand repositioning. Yeah.

And I don't know I think people saw that it has very good I don't know the communication and all the...

Absolutely because you know what even me personally even though I am in the industry for a long time I didn't know softswiss has an aggregator.

That was our goal.

Until the campaign. I thought okay soft is a platform provider that's what I know about soft but during this campaign I myself understood that there is an aggregator and it's one of the top three actually.

So I think that campaign was also something smart to give my perspective as a marketing guy from the outside it definitely hit the nail on the head in terms of what is it that is being offered overall holistically internally as well.

You're totally right some people get confused but our idea was about this campaign that some sometimes people are biased right from what we start and it became successful. People directly associates with that product especially like it might be for some people game aggregator for some people casual platform depends on what our partners are using or depends on that community of our partner but in reality what we wanted to say that we are much more than one product itself.

That's how this new repositioning also reflecting that we're full ecosystem but each own product has its own brand identity also. Yeah each color each separate section.

I think with that campaign we say what we wanted to say that we are much more not one product full ecosystem because the time is flying so fast everything is changing rapidly and I really believe that no one has time to go ahead and bain into many directions when you need one full ecosystem in order to operate successfully. You just need to come to the one that will give you everything. Yeah. And also less invoices. [laughter]

Yes. Less contracts.

Yeah. It's also a very very big thing on the operator side. The less providers that they have to deal with, the better efficiency for the finance teams as well from what I'm hearing. The last thing I also want to touch a little bit on is the prediction markets and the product that you recently launched for the prediction markets. Can we talk about it a little and how's the initial interest so far?

Do you already have operators on that or what's what's going on in this because it's like it's like the hottest topic of the year kind of.

It is it is definitely the hottest topic and I'm so happy that we had this much flexible sports book team that launched basically in two weeks when we saw the there was the demon they directly get go ahead and created this product negotiate all kinds of terms and conditions from the provider for this for the prediction market and we launched the product and We have already a lot of partners that are live with this project basically as it's very very new in comparison of the existing partners we have even much more bigger pipeline of the integration and of the contracts being held.

I mean I was when we were in Manila the biggest topic also even though it's the different region...

It was still the prediction markets.

And I really bec really believe that the markets will became the equal size as casino and the sports book over the time but very short periods of time to be honest so we're very proud of our prediction markets solution.

But are you not scared that it might take away the business on the casino and sports book side because if we look at the data it used to almost 90% of the contracts on Kali and poly market were sports contracts now we're looking at the volume if you look at the volume they're about 70%. So it has reduced people are realizing the difference between prediction markets and sports book.

But essentially what I'm trying to understand and the main question is are you not you know concerned that this might take away some of the core business.

We are not concerned or we are not scared.

We are embracing it because I really believe that if there is something that is very popular amongst the end users and amongst the operators we really need to answer that and this will not be something that the other sections other categories will be go down or something like that they will grow also that's the opportunity from the production markets that's how I believe I don't know that's my idea but I really believe that this will bring the new segment of the users of the consumers that you can or the operators can wisely use and make the cross sale of it.

So I don't think those mature sections very very mature that takes like decades of building it will go down easily or will take some kind of share.

Instead it will bring the new segment totally that is not exactly like attracted to the sports not exactly attracted to the games itself but something new. So I really believe that industry not only us overall needs to follow that kind of trends but make sure that they will be translated into something stable. That's how we are doing it and that's how we believe it.

Okay. From what I'm seeing within the industry, there are operators who want to launch their own prediction markets platform but they lack certinity because it's moving very fast and you know some of the states in the US are already saying that it is not entirely legal. A lot of things are happening around it.

So you know the prospective operators that come to you, what sort of certaintity or what what do you tell them to kind of give that certaintity because that's what they're looking for? They don't know and there's no real kind of regulations yet. So what sort of conversations are you having at the moment?

To be honest that is true that they the majority is following the trends and they are asking me like you know we we have a community and people come to me they ask me it's like I also have no idea because this is very new area altogether.

Yeah. So that's true like when there's something new and people don't understand that's a trend and they are trying to follow it. So they need to be keep up with this trends otherwise you might be behind because how fast the industry is changing.

For those kind of people, we still talk with them and ask and try based on this advising sessions what is their main goal just to answer the trend that is your part or just to maintain new category just to implement the new thing for your brand that will bring even more and if they are ready for it or not because even though we are ready it doesn't mean that everyone is equally ready for it or even though it's a trend it does not mean that it could be their direction.

Some operators they don't have a sport section because they don't care about it or they don't want to have it as a suggest suggestion.

So what we do is we carefully get through them into the product. We give them very clear demo. We give them the information. We ask those questions back. We give them the education about the product because this is something new. We didn't know two months ago either. This is I would say the educational approach because we understand we were in this kind of situation before we launched the product. So we clearly understand their demands and their questions.

So we try to go through step by step.

Yeah.

And by step by step I don't mean slow I mean fast but before to have a qualification process if it's a real need for this specific market or not. And with this specific market also and its approach we avoid and we don't meet that kind of regulation restrictions because there is none now.

Like there is few for example Brazil reject it even though it's a regulated market and we clearly answer that also we don't have that offering for the Brazil because simply the government doesn't allow it but US allows it it's a freeing country so...

It's made for us exactly.

Well thank you so much Miranda for giving the insights on the rebranding as well as repositioning and what it means internally externally as well as your prediction markets product. I think what we have in prediction markets right now is very early on. So for someone for a company for a technology company like soft swiss to lead the spec and to provide the certaintity to whoever wants to explore this is a big thing.

Yeah, I think if someone has the capacity to try and implement it, they should do it and they use it for them to try to find the diamond and that's the best option as they do for the games for example. They always try and experimenting. That's what they need to do. There is no harm behind it. Try you might track the your own desired segment or you might not. But it's worthy of trying because I believe either you will answer the trend or you will either find the hidden gem.

So it must is worthy of trying.

Thank you once again for joining me and I'll see you on the next one probably.

Yeah, that's my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.

So that's it guys for today. Thank you for watching. Do share your thoughts in the comments below. Follow Miranda if you're not already on LinkedIn and I'll see you on the next one. Thank you. Thank you.