Parimatch CPO: ‘We want to become a Netflix in the gambling world.’

Parimatch is building a technological entertainment platform that’s changing the face of the betting industry. The company’s goal is to move away from the classic idea of the bookmaker and become a gaming and entertainment platform. The company made its first move in the fall when it presented the new game Footboss. Parimatch CPO Sergey Berezhnoy explains how a simple session-based game is about to change the way we think of betting forever.

Footboss: the concept

The ultimate aim of Footboss is to free ten major football stadiums from the grip of invading giants. The game’s key character is the coach, whose daily task it is to train his players to take winning penalties and practice unconventional tactics.

At first glance, the game seems simple, but with every new session, players discover new ways of enhancing their skills along with their chances of winning. Randomly distributed rewards and tasks give the journey unexpected twists—always expect the unexpected: different objects, different quests, and different heroes. And then there’s the added interest of loot boxes: a kind of “kinder-surprise for adults.”

By playing Footboss every day for just five minutes, you can upgrade the skills of your football team, learn about the vulnerabilities of your giant rivals, notch up victories, and win real prizes — Samsung Galaxy Note 10, iPhone 11 Pro Max, MacBook Air 13″, Sony PS4, iPad Air 10.5″, to name but a few.

How Footboss Refreshes the Betting World

Footboss was proposed as an exciting alternative way to promote Euro 2020. Apart from focusing on high odds, bonuses, and competitive margins, we decided to give players a variety and new emotions.

Gamification and betting is not an entirely new approach. Even the official APL app has a built-in fantasy league that mixes reality and the virtual world.

We went one step further and came up with something similar games don’t do—we intertwined the game world with the real world of football. We wanted players to have fun creating their own football story.

Thanks to Footboss, players have been returning to Parimatch not only because they want to place bets or check out the odds but also to take a break, win a match or two and get a prize in the process. The game is session-based for a reason: players don’t get stuck playing it. After a couple of boss fights, it’s easy to get straight back to whatever you were doing.

Footboss as a non-trivial bonus for players

Footboss isn’t about money; it’s more about emotions and brand loyalty. The game is entirely free. To get started, all you need is an account with Parimatch. For the gameplay, we chose the “free to play” model: the more you play, the more you progress for free. In this model, the player’s status isn’t essential—what matters is the desire to play.

We wanted Footboss players to experience new emotions when interacting with the platform. On top of emotions, we integrated loot-box mechanics to add gifts that included prizes ranging from game equipment to iPhones and MacBooks.

Immersion in the game world and a new betting experience

Footboss is a refreshing experience that combines relaxed gameplay with a love of football. Together with their team, players create footballing history as they trek through the stadiums of Europe. Although the game is pure fiction, it is saturated with football: the top player on the team is Terminalaldo, a character very similar to the real Cristiano.

We presented the unique game’s fantasy world as part of the advertising campaign being prepared for Euro 2020. The transfer of playable characters to the semi-real cinematic world increased engagement a lot more because the gaming concept proved viable despite the cancellation of the championship.

In this story, betting is more of a bonus than a necessity. The coach offers to do additional tasks such as place a bet on Esports, football, hockey, or basketball. Involvement like this helps players to progress through the game faster and get in-game items, but they don’t have to.

Reaching the competitive audience segment

Footboss got into the segment of the audience that is driven by a desire to win: players immediately competed for the number-one rating. We noticed the race in the rankings and decided to give motivated players more opportunities to prove themselves through in-game quests.

Game launch results

Over 100,000 players participated in the first version of the game, where they fought over 1,000,000 battles and completed more than 350,000 quests. For the 36 days of the promotion, players opened 405,834 loot boxes containing hundreds of real prizes from Parimatch.

Despite Footboss being session-based and designed for five minutes of gameplay, some players scored 10 hours of game playing and completed the game four times.

We consider the launch a success because we’ve given players new experiences, expanded the platform’s capabilities, and identified growth points for interaction between games and betting.

Entertainment platforms are the future

In the first test run, we only tried out ten percent of the game mechanics from our arsenal. So far, we’ve built a conditional “stadium” where new battles will unfold: new seasons and championships, quests, stories, characters, and content. We will also integrate other sports and gambling.

We are planning to add new mechanics such as PVP so that players can compete against each other. The PVP format will enhance the engagement and the variety of gameplay through fight emotions, new team lineups, item sets, and tactics. We are also thinking about integrating actual events from the world of sport connected with betting promotions.

COVID-19 has affected the whole world and has become a powerful impetus for betting to move forward. Parimatch is moving beyond the classic competition model—we’re already building a gambling entertainment products. Thanks to the game integrations, we are changing the perception of betting and giving players new emotions.

Parimatch is continuing along the path of innovation in the betting field and is already introducing exciting new approaches to gambling.