With an impeccable portfolio of live dealer games, sports betting solutions and RNG games, Vivo Gaming can simply be described as Live at Its Best! Martin Hodges, Marketing Director at Vivo Gaming recently spoke to Casino Colada on joining Vivo and the world of live dealer casino!
Mr Hodges, first and foremost thank you for taking the time to answer some of our burning questions! Let’s jump right in and ask you how does a typical day of work look like for the Marketing Director at Vivo Gaming?
There are always a lot of calls with the marketing team, updating each other on the progress of various projects. I work with an extremely enthusiastic team, and they’re all constantly bursting with ideas so that tends to be a particularly energetic part of my day. It’s similar with the product team who are committed to creating the most exciting wares possible.
I’ll inevitably find myself discussing upcoming events with their organisers and, of course, I need to review social and web stats. Then there’s the fun stuff like chatting with our media partners. It’s fair to say there’s never a dull moment!
What does 2022 hold for Vivo Gaming?
This year is going to be a big one for us. The past 18 months have seen a huge migration of players from land-based to online casinos, who have really been enjoying our products. We don’t want to take these new players for granted though. Naturally, there will be some that want to return to land-based, but we are developing a wide range of new products and innovations to make sure our clients have the means to continue keeping their customers very happy.
This will include our new CMS Lobby, which employs cross-platform technology and an enhanced user experience. We are also looking at refreshing our existing studios as well as upping our brand awareness and updating our website to reflect all these slick new additions.
What is your favourite live game, are you more of a poker or blackjack guy?
My favourite has always been Blackjack. You’re always likely to interact with fun characters as it’s such an easy game to learn. On the other hand, there’s a lot of thought that needs to go into your choices so it’s that perfect combination of easy to learn but difficult to master that defines all the best games.
I like the idea of poker, but I have a rubbish poker face, I’m sorry to say.
Given your titanic resume, you have been a part of the iGaming industry for more than a decade – what do you feel are the newest trends from the standpoint of a game developer?
There is so much going on at the moment. One of the positive things about the events of the last two years is that it forced the industry to innovate its way through the crisis and we’ve come out the other end reaping the rewards of all these forward-thinking initiatives. The most notable technological advances that we can see having a meaningful impact are virtual reality and the metaverse.
This seems to be the next step for live, placing players in a 360-degree virtual environment where they can react with each other. Personalisation will be a big part of establishing this momentum as well. We’ve all embraced communicating and socialising digitally and now it’s time to consider the next steps in that dynamic.
Does Vivo Gaming plan on opening a new studio in the EU?
We do indeed. We have plans to open two new studios in Europe this year, which will include all the new toys we have been working on recently. Keep an eye on our news feed for updates on these.
Do you see live dealer games and crypto becoming an integrated solution for players around the world?
As the metaverse and virtual reality gain traction, it would make sense that a crypto payment method would be part of this approach, so it is certainly something that we are looking at implementing.
CasinoColada would love to be inspired by your words of wisdom, so let’s go for what we like to call Words to Live by: Inspiration in a sentence!
I like the phrase “Nobody has ever bet enough on a winning horse,” and I think it’s very apt for Vivo Gaming’s prospects.
