Incentive Games has already been designing incredible games, says the company’s new head of data, Tiago Vieira, who is confident that Incentive is only going to continue scaling up its offer. He brings a unique insight into the development process as a massive fan of video games and wants to see more opportunities to expand the casino gaming experience beyond the traditional norms. This transformative change will be based on Vieira’s own stomping grounds – data.
Q: Can you tell us more about your new position as Head of Data at Incentive Games?
Incentive Games has been growing incredibly quickly and building amazingly engaging games. Since their inception, they have been gathering this treasure trove of data that has been used to help the company build exceptional games to date, however, we’re now taking this to a whole new level. My top priority will be to make this data more accessible and visible to our teams, and to clients – who can also use this valuable insight to make the most out of their games.
Q: What attracted you to Incentive Games and your first role in the gambling industry?
As a massive fan of video games, I have always been interested in the psychology behind what makes a game appealing and engaging. I believe gamification still has a way to go but Incentive Games have proven themselves to be experts in this area and I can’t wait to bring my own contributions to the field.
Q: Why are data and data analysis so important at Incentive Games?
Incentive Games has been designing incredible games and their success is undeniable. For example, when VirginBet launched the game FIVES they saw a “transformational” growth. The game saw a growth of 816% last year alone and although these results are incredible, I believe the data we have been collecting will reveal which tactics have been working well for them and which haven’t. Simply put, it should reveal to us where we should place our next bets (pun intended).
Q: Can you give us an idea of the type of data you generate and also the volume?
I believe the company possesses two incredibly useful sources of data. The first is about how people behave, what interests them, what drives them to come back, and how much they like the product. We have millions of data points on that, from what features people most interact with, to time spent in-game. The other side of the coin relates to people’s preferences in relation to the context of the game. In the case of sports games, we have access to people’s opinions and feelings towards teams and players of the sport. We have data on all kinds of sports and leagues, from real-life sporting events to newer esports competitions.
How do you use data to improve games and help your partners unlock even greater value from them?
We want to make sure our games are easy to play, engaging, and fun. The data we collect can point out problems with the game flow like ‘Are people dropping out of the game at a certain point because the instructions are not clear?’. By looking at retention & activation metrics we can keep track of our game’s performance and detect pain points that can be easily fixed. At the same time, we can trial new game features with different subsets of our players and see how these metrics are affected so that we can decide which ones to keep.
What can we expect from Incentive over the coming six months?
Incentive Games has been focusing on a couple of big projects where we can put our expertise to the test. Data will play a big part in guiding these projects and will help us quickly identify what works and what doesn’t so we can pivot quickly and bring the best product possible to the market. I think we will see some incredibly engaging and fun games coming out that will blow our competition out of the water.