CASINO REPORT Competitive Research and Actionable Product Recommendations TABLE OF CONTENTS IMPACT DRIVER 3 Pre-Release Quest Events Release Road in myVEGAS Product Insights IMPACT ANALYSIS 8 Casino Events by Type Event Revenue Impact Event Market Share Impact FEBRUARY MARKET WATCH 12 Breakout App Update Notable Releases APPENDIX 19 2021 Liquid & Grit Slots Personas Premium Partnerships Casino Mechanics Taxonomy IMPACT DRIVER Features and events that boost revenue, retention, or downloads !3 CASINO > EVENTS > QUESTS Pre-Release Quest Events Release Road in myVEGAS !4 REVENUE ANALYSIS myVEGAS' revenue was +20% 6Do6D during the Piggy McBillions Release Road event and +79% 5Do5D during the King & Kraken Release Road event. myVEGAS $150K Revenue Downloads 3K Piggy McBillions Release Road King & Kraken Release Road $100K 2K Daily Revenue Daily Downloads $50K 1K 10/18/20 11/1/20 11/15/20 11/29/20 12/13/20 12/27/20 1/10/21 XDoXD = X days over X days. !5 Graph data is iOS, U.S. only. FEATURE TEARDOWN 1 4 Players complete a series of quests in the lead-up to a new machine release. Completed quests grant early access and other prizes. 5 Details • Players complete machine-specific quests to earn mystery prizes (1 and 2). 2 • The first quest awards early access to a new machine (3). • Subsequent quests involve the new machine and award boosts and chips (4). • New quests release each day of the event, but players must complete the previous quests to unlock them. • A chip bundle IAP automatically unlocks early machine access and includes a win 6 multiplier (5). • At the end of the event, players earn a bonus prize based on the number of quests completed (6). • The initial Release Road event, Shaq 9 Release Road, had players spin to fill a reward meter instead of completing quests (7). 3 Additional Information • See the following libraries for more images and videos: • King & Kraken Release Road 7 • Piggy McBillions Release Road • Shaq 9 Release Road • View all quest event impact drivers in the Wiki. !6 PRODUCT INSIGHTS Give players an exclusive reward for completing a progression. 1 People associate the quality of a reward with the effort required to obtain it, so letting players earn a new machine makes it seem more valuable.1 Release Road's early access further enhances this sense of prestige; two high-spending players we interviewed emphasized that they were excited to be the "first" to play a new machine.2 But because the new machine unlocks after just the first quest and all players get the same version at the end of the event regardless of their participation, Release Road may just shift engagement forward in time without actually prolonging it. An exclusive final reward, like a special machine cosmetic or bonus game, would create a deeper emotional tie to the machine that would persist after the full launch. In the words of one high-spending player, "You need to have something that people feel special about, 2 instead of 'any ***hole can get this.'"3 For example, a pair of competition events in FarmVille 2: Country Escape each awarded two versions of an exclusive character for top performers, contributing to +56% and +18% 10Do10D revenue boosts (1). Provide perks that affect other features and game systems. Quest rewards in Release Road focus primarily on boosts for the new machine, but these rewards would be more meaningful if they affected other features, too—like collection items or functional perks for other game systems.4 Hay Day's Farm Pass awarded these kinds of wide-reaching perks and helped increase revenue +56% MoM. 3 Show progressions and prizes as part of a whole. The first Release Road showed all milestones and tasks as part of one continuous progression (2), but the most recent releases use separate screens for each stage and turn all prizes into mystery boxes. Even quests remain hidden until players tap them (3). This fragmented presentation likely decreases motivation, as seen in a Harvard study that found players engaged almost 50% more when progressions were presented visually as part of a continuous whole.5 And because players don't know where they're going or what they're playing for, they lack the long-term context that makes short-term goals satisfying.6 All of this uncertainty can lead to lower engagement and spend. As one high spender said, "That's a big thing—to be able to see where you're at and to be like, 'Oh yeah, keep going. I only have a little bit more.'"7 1 An Experimental Study of Customer Effort, Expectation, and Satisfaction 3 Subject C; Age 52 male, $100/month spend, 20 hours/week playtime 6 The Power of Small Wins Effort justification for fun activities?: The effect of location-based mobile coupons using games 4 The Gamer's Brain, p. 138–142 7 Subject B ($100/month spend) 2 Subject A; Age 34 female, $300–$400/month spend, 25 hours/week playtime 5 Pseudo-Set Framing, p. 1464 !7 Subject B; Age 55 female, $100/month spend, 20 hours/week playtime IMPACT ANALYSIS Investment and revenue trends for feature and event releases Slots apps: Big Fish Casino, Caesars Slots, Cash Frenzy, Cashman Casino, DoubleDown, DoubleU Casino, Game of Thrones Slots, Gold Fish Casino, Heart of Vegas, Hit It Rich!, House of Fun, Huuuge Casino, Jackpot Magic Slots, Jackpot Party, Lightning Link Casino, Lotsa Slots, my KONAMI, myVEGAS, POP! Slots, Quick Hit Slots, Scatter Slots, Slotomania, and Wizard of Oz: Casino Slots Bingo apps: Bingo Bash, Bingo Blitz, Bingo Party, Bingo Pop, and Bingo Showdown Poker apps: Governor of Poker 3, Mega Hit Poker, Poker Heat: Texas Holdem Poker, Pokerist, WSOP, and Zynga Poker - Texas Holdem !8 CASINO RELEASES MANY QUESTS Quests were the second most released casino event type in the past year, although missions were nearly tied with quests. Casino Events by Type (Past 12 Months) 200 150 100 Number of Releases 50 Quests Missions Rewards Purchases Collections Mini-Games Challenges Competitions Event types with fewer than 50 releases during this period are not shown. !9 QUESTS HELP DRIVE REVENUE Quest events had the biggest WoW revenue impact and second biggest MoM revenue impact among the top eight event types. Revenue impact is the average percentage change in an app's gross revenue for a given time period following a new release. Revenue Impact WoW (1/1/20–2/9/21) Revenue Impact MoM (1/1/20–2/9/21) Quests Quests Missions Missions Competitions Competitions Purchases Purchases Challenges Challenges Collections Collections Rewards Rewards Mini-Games Mini-Games 0% 1% 2% 3% 0% 2% 4% 6% Impact models made by Liquid & Grit by combining our data with revenue data from Sensor Tower. !10 MoM = Month over month. WoW = Week over week. QUESTS GROW MARKET SHARE Quest events had the second biggest WoW market share impact, outperforming mission events despite their similar impact on gross revenue and MoM market share. Market share impact is the percentage change in an app's revenue market share for a given time period following a new release. Market Share Impact WoW (1/1/20–2/9/21) Market Share Impact MoM (1/1/20–2/9/21) Competitions Competitions Quests Quests Rewards Rewards Purchases Purchases Missions Missions Challenges Challenges Collections Collections Mini-Games Mini-Games -1% 0% 1% 2% 3% -2% -1% 0% 1% Impact models made by Liquid & Grit by combining our data with revenue data from Sensor Tower. !11 MoM = Month over month. WoW = Week over week. MARKET WATCH New apps and notable releases from established competitors !12 BREAKOUT APP UPDATE: REVENUE ANALYSIS Cash Tornado Slots by Madness Limited Cash Tornado Slots' revenue increased +34% MoM in August '20 after the release of Diamond Challenges and +11% MoM in January '21 following the release of the Cash Club Kitten Collection. Cash Tornado Slots Revenue 80% Cash Tornado Slots Chinese Casino App Average Additional Information 60% • Released worldwide on 3/5/20 • Average daily U.S. revenue (90 days): $63,382 • Average daily U.S. downloads (90 days): 1,512 40% • View Cash Tornado Slots on the App Store • See our original write-up in the May 2020 Casino Report 20% Revenue Change MoM Revenue 0% -20% Jun '20 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan '21 Revenue data does not include the initial month of Cash Tornado Slots' MoM growth. MoM = Month over month. !13 Graph data is iOS, U.S. only. BREAKOUT APP UPDATE: FEATURE TEARDOWN 1 Cash Tornado Slots by Madness Limited Diamond Challenge (released August 2020) • Five machine-specific challenges award diamonds (1). • Diamonds can be used to skip challenges and buy coins, pick'em bonuses, and mini-games (video). • Diamonds fill a meter that advances players to the next reward level when completed. • Reward level 6 unlocks a leaderboard and a pick'em bonus with a grand jackpot. • The leaderboard ranks players by their diamonds and awards coins, collection items, club points, and a cashback 2 accelerator (2). • A $4.99 IAP doubles diamonds for 15 minutes. Cash Club Kitten Collection (released January 2021) • Players earn food from spins, XP levels, purchases, and a daily bonus. • Food can be earned both before and after players unlock their Cash Club pass. • The Cash Club pass unlocks a kitten leveling feature and other VIP benefits (3 and video). • Players feed three different kittens to increase their XP levels (4). • Each kitten's XP meter contains five milestone coin rewards per level. • Advancing all kittens to level 3 awards a final prize. 3 4 !14 BREAKOUT APP UPDATE: CHINESE DEVELOPERS During the past six months, Cash Tornado Slots saw the greatest absolute monthly revenue growth of the three apps below, pulling in over $2M in January '21 compared to just under $1.5M in August '20.