PROFILE / MFORTUNE
ENTERTAINING THE MASSES
mFortune wants to be seen
as a mulit-vertical operator. It
has been developing separate
brands for its casino, poker
and bingo products. The firm
won Mobile Bingo Product
of the year at the recent eGR
Operator Awards, and Llanos
says bingo is “an incredibly
popular product”. And he
says one of the secrets of
its success is simplicity.
“We had somewhat of a
first mover advantage with
bingo. It was something we
developed from an early point
and we have been able to
use that customer-centred
learning to develop our
technology and improve the
product. I think it’s about not
overcomplicating it. Bingo is
bingo. Keeping it simple has
served us very well,” he says.
"Our bingo marketing al most
has a brand and identity of its
own and that’s something we
are exploring with poker."
Desktop games
closely mirror the
mobile experience
building is on our radar and it’s something we are looking
to develop, but at the moment we like to see very specific
returns for any advertising we put out," Llanos says.
But he says the firm will remain "mobile-focused" in
its marketing. “We don’t collect emails, we collect phone
numbers. We use SMS shortcodes instead of URLs. And
I don’t think that will ever change. Our CRM is all SMS
based and we rely very little on email. We’ve had CRM
systems come in to pitch to us, but it’s always emailbased and that doesn’t suit our needs so we built
our own,” adds Llanos.
“We are a private company and we are still owner
managed so we don’t have the marketing budget of
some of our publicly listed competitors. As a result we
have to be very ROI driven with our marketing spend.
We are looking for app installs, click-throughs and we
look at everything in granular detail. That said we are
still active on TV, but we use things like SMS shortcodes
in our advertising."
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Poker too has proved a
success in terms of player
acquisition, although less of a
revenue driver at the moment
and Llanos admits they are
focused more on monetising
its existing poker player base
than acquiring more players
through the channel. But he
says the products are starting
to stand on their own.
"Our bingo and our casino
are starting to serve different
markets and we are beginning
to have different strategies
within the company. But
as mFortune we like to be
seen as a gaming company
rather than just a casino or
bingo operator. We are an
entertainment company and
we have a lot of games that
we continue to develop. That’s
the way the market is moving.
We are all just entertainment
and gaming companies with
a broad range of products
under our umbrella."
THE FUTURE FORCE
But retaining UK customers is only part of the firm’s
ambitious plans for 2015. It plans on taking its first
tentative steps in the international market. Until now
mFortune has been an exclusively UK operation. But the
roll-out of desktop games and a newly found confidence
in its product portfolio have shifted its perspective.
Wilson is clearly not lacking in ambition for the
brands. “Look at the global map. The UK’s a dot. We
need to cover the rest of the world,” he says. Italy is one
of the main regulated markets on the list of targets, but
surprisingly it’s the hugely competitive Scandinavian
region that mFortune seems set to try and crack first.
“The Nordics will be a region we will make tentative
moves into during H1 2015,” Llanos says. “Mobile is
incredibly well supported in the Nordics from an
infrastructure point of view so taking our mobile
technology there will be a really good opportunity.”
Taking the likes of LeoVegas, Casumo and Mr Green
on in their own back yard will be no easy task and
it's testament to the confidence the firm has in its
operations right now. It remains owner-managed with
no debt and, Wilson insists, no desire to be bought out.
There's no doubt where the opportunity lies. The
mobile gaming market is just getting started with the
sector at the start of a rapid upward curve both in the
UK and the rest of Europe. There's a growing confidence
within mFortune that it can win a major chunk of it.
"We are producing good content, we’re serving
our players well, we have excellent customer service
and we are on a strong footing to really push on and
become something great," Llanos says. "We are a
player-driven brand that has been learning a lot. We are
a maturing brand that is just figuring out where we sit
in the market. But watch this space, we have some very
exciting things coming."
W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M