As the Canadian Gaming Summit gets underway in Toronto this week, Blueprint Gaming Director of Marketing and Key Relationships Jo Purvis offers Canadian Gaming Business a timely update on the outlook of the Ontario market and explains why there are so many similarities between British and Canadian players. 

Canadian Gaming Business: As you explore the opportunity provided by the Canadian Gaming Summit, can you update us on how business is performing in Canada for Blueprint Gaming?

Jo Purvis: The Canadian Gaming Summit has come at an opportune time for Blueprint as we’re investing a lot in the provinces there at the moment. Ontario, for example, is a jurisdiction where we’re seeing a lot of traction and, while some of that may be down to the similarities in player habits to our core market in the UK, we are also finding success with our tailored content. 

Our industry-renowned Jackpot King system is a perfect example of this. We have rebranded it as OLG Riches for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Association and as Jackpot Royale for all other Canadian operators and both perform incredibly well for us.

What works in the UK tends to translate very well in Canada – it is a similar market in terms of player preference. In the early days, a lot of the original UK retail games took their inspiration from the US land-based market and so naturally there’s somewhat of a crossover in terms of mechanics and gameplay and so that helps drive success.

CGB: Your new Rapid Fire Jackpots™ (RFJ) system is about to launch with smaller but more frequent pots – do you expect to see similar success in Canada as you do everywhere else?

JP: Much like Jackpot King, we’ll rebrand RFJ when it launches in Canada to Jackpot Royale Express. While the name might be changing, the benefits that this new revolution brings will be almost identical.  

Plugging a gap in the market, it will offer smaller, more frequent pots with five progressives ranging from $200 to $7,500, along with four fixed. 

The system really suits most markets and we are confident that it will resonate with all player bases. From the data we’ve seen during our R&D, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work over there.

When we look at stakes per user and the different player values, we think a large proportion of Canadian players will enjoy the new advancement in jackpot play. 

Traditionally, jackpot players have been classified separately from non-jackpot players, but our new innovation ticks the box for all players globally. 

We’ve kept the Jackpot Royale name within the title of our newer system due to the youth of the market and the fact that there is still room for expansion there – when players see Jackpot Royale, they’ll think Blueprint games and that familiarity will be key. 

CGB: What is next for Blueprint in Canada?  How do you plan to build on your early success?

JP: There is still a great scope in Canada for Blueprint. We are live with many of the key operators but there are still some we’re working on launching with to help us accelerate our traction there.

Retail still commands a large chunk of the spend in Canada and that’s something to be aware of as we try to cross-sell to players. But it’s something we’re working hard on, providing games that appeal to players there with features and mechanics that hold that familiarity for them.

Branded games go a long way to achieving that and of course, there isn’t any provider as established in bringing these successfully to market as Blueprint. 

IPs such as ted™ and The Goonies™ have proved hugely successful for us in North America so far and that’s something we’ll continue to leverage with the likes of our recent big launch The Flintstones™.

Looking ahead, we’ve got the next in our Rick and Morty™ series – Rick and Morty™ Strike Back – and we have the iconic The Lost Boys™ licence due for launch later in the year, which we are sure will resonate fantastically well in Canada.

There’s a lot to go at in terms of market growth and we’ve got a lot of exciting content on the drawing board to help us achieve that so that’s why events like the Canadian Gaming Summit are key in keeping us in front of the right people. Ontario and the wider Canadian market holds a lot more scope for us to continue moving forward.