Industry leaders assembled to explore slot players’ evolving preferences as 2025 approaches during this week’s SBC Summit Lisbon panel, Slot Trends: Designing for the Future Player, which delved into the nuances of what modern players seek regarding engaging experiences, innovative gameplay and rewarding structures.

The discussion is part of a broader trend in the gambling market, reflecting a shift towards more sophisticated and immersive gaming experiences.

Laura Petrauska, Head of Casino at Bet99, moderated the panel. Petrauska is also a SBC returner, having also contributed to last year’s panel in Barcelona. Before examining the future, she asked the panelists to reflect on the best slot innovations and games from the past 12 months of slots.

“The market tends to be a bit saturated,” said Aaron Magpayo, Chief Product Officer at Playnetic, whose company operates three in-house game studios.

Jekaterina Dubnicka, Marketing & Communications Manager at Slotsjudge & SEOBROTHER, used her experience reviewing slots for online slots guide Slotsjudge to pick out some specific titles.

“I can point out the top three of my choices: Rick and Morty Strike Back, Granny vs Zombies and Lucky Borscht.”

Myke Foster, Group Head of Gaming & Commercial Strategy at Fortuna Entertainment Group, added, “God, I love Plinko.”

Talking about what the modern player looks like, Dubnicka pointed out that modern players are interested in new themes, explaining, “a lot of providers are starting to do slots based on memes and on social media.” She used the example of the Pedro Pedro Racoon meme from TikTok, which has an online slot game.

Meanwhile, Dr. Eyal Loz, Chief Product Officer at RubyPlay, pointed out, “with younger audiences, we’ve seen a rise in interest in skill.” He also explained the benefits of these kinds of players. “This engagement, the players have much longer sessions on these games.” Loz is no stranger to SBC summits, having delivered a similar talk at last year’s conference.

Vsevolod Lapin, Deputy CEO of Playson, added, “players, as always – first of all, they are looking for clarity.” Moderator Petrauska agreed, “You don’t want to be overwhelmed by too many rule pages that you have to read like a book.”

Lapin also spoke about the potential of slot games that provide more than just a quality user experience and fun features, adding a narrative for players to enjoy. “Humans – they look for stories. They want to connect cause and effect,” he said.

The conversation moved on to AI’s role in the development of slot games. Many of the panelists pointed out how AI can increase productivity, with Loz saying, “people who are talented can use AI to increase their output by 100-fold.” He used his company’s example of using AI, particularly in the concept team, to shrink costs.

However, he was also very clear on what he thought the problems with using AI were. “First of all – it lacks concept. Second of all – it lacks depth. Third of all – it lacks IP.”

Many other panelists agreed that AI has limitations and the slot development industry still needs talented, creative people. “The slot is not about statics. It’s about flow. It’s about the sequence of events, and AI can’t grasp that,” Lapin said.

“Firstly, I think we actually can’t risk losing creativity from our industry for scale… At the moment it’s a big red flag for me if anyone is putting production assets live that are made with AI,” Foster said.

Lapin’s point about slot games with narratives was echoed by other panelists when the conversation moved to discussing potential slot trends in 2025. Loz, Magpayo and Lapin cited this as the most significant area of slot innovation in 2025. Lapin expanded on his previous point of talking about perceived persistence features as a beneficiary by “finding a really good explanation and connecting it to a coherent story.”

Loz said a “character-driven gaming experience” from slots can lead to new avenues like “opportunities to work with influencers,” while Magpayo added operators should look out for “good story driven, good narrative, eye-catching” games.

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