Interview with Mario Ovcharov, CEO at UltraPlay

First, we would like to read a few words about yourself. Our readers love to hear top-class professionals describing themselves.

Mario Ovcharov: I have been involved in the online gambling industry for over 5 years delivering innovative betting products and contributing to UltraPlay’s firm positioning on the global gaming market as the leading eSports betting data and platform provider.

It has been just over a year since you took over as CEO of UltraPlay. What would be your biggest achievement during this period?

Mario Ovcharov: I wouldn’t say I have personally achieved anything. It is a team effort that achieves success, and leads to solid partnerships, big customers, and a number of awards.

Tell us more about eGold.gg. How is it different from the other cryptocurrencies in the market? What’s its USP?

Mario Ovcharov: The eGold project started with a mission to unify gamers worldwide and offer them a next level of entertainment through specially designed betting cryptocurrency. By its nature, eGold is a pure utility token where players can get cash back on every bet. It basically uses the numerous advantages of the Blockchain technology to speed up and make betting faster and more attractive than before.

The project was received extraordinary by the crypto and betting community. Foundations were laid for what can be called crypto betting revolution. Now, we see many betting brands offering altcoins to their players. We are working to offer the best for our customers and users, and great things are ahead of the project.

We would also like to hear more about UltraPlay’s award-winning product – ODDS.GG? How is it going to revolutionize the betting scenario?

Mario Ovcharov: It was a fantastic year for our eSports betting suite and ODDS.GG in particular, which was reflected in several international accolades from both betting and IT perspective. We started offering betting on eSports 5 years ago and we were the first to provide such product on the online gambling market. Actually, UltraPlay was the first company to offer live betting on CS:GO. Since then, ODDS.GG doubled the number of competitive game titles reaching almost 30 games at that moment, including the eSports sensations PUBG, Fortnite, NBA 2k League and many more. The popularity and usage of ODDS.GG increases exponentially. Moreover, if we look at the landscape now, eSports has a much higher growth pattern than any other gambling vertical in the last few years.

You have introduced some innovative features in the eSports front-end. How do they fare with the customers? And what are your new plans on the eSports segment?

Mario Ovcharov: We believe that User Experience and User Interface play a significant role in today’s product development. Having been on the cutting-edge of technology for over 9 years now, we strive for highest quality and best entertainment for the end-users. Thus, our product is constantly upgraded so that our partners can positively experience the change with a strong boost in terms of players’ satisfaction. In UltraPlay, we love new technologies, and throughout the years, we have established ourselves as pioneers in emerging sectors, where new audiences are brought together. UltraPlay’s eSports dedicated front-end solution is specifically built to answer the wide variety of requirements those new audiences have, such as Millennials, favoring easy-to-use layout, intuitive tools and functionalities. BUFF.bet is a perfect example that our efforts are going in the right direction with the recorded boost in terms of betting brand recognition and players’ acquisition, conversion and retention. To offer eSports now is not enough. You need to go over the top. Impressive eSports betting entertainment is what we aim and successfully deliver for over 5 years now.

The multi-game module of UltraPlay’s casino software has been in the news. Are the customers loving it? Tell us more about the feature.

Mario Ovcharov: It’s been decision backed by solid research and analysis of player’s casino behaviour accumulated from leading online gambling brands. Our advanced multi-view module enables up to four games to be played simultaneously – something that many players turned out to request and use on a daily basis.

UltraPlay’s affiliate platform is known to be pretty comprehensive? What makes it unique? We will surely have some wannabe affiliate marketers reading this. What is your advice to them?

Mario Ovcharov: We use a top-notch affiliate software that manages our clients’ affiliates, connecting all aspects of the affiliate marketing cycle for the betting brand. It’s intriguing how affiliate marketers can benefit from eSports and penetrate in this challenging sector professionally. They have to understand and manage this new gambling vertical that has specific audience and mechanisms.

UltraPlay is one of the early adopters of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, having started using them since 2011. Do you think the company managed to leverage the early bird advantage? Finally, do you foresee any disruptive new technologies in the near future?

Mario Ovcharov: UltraPlay’s early adoption of Bitcoin positioned the company among the crypto leaders in the iGaming market and expanded the business partnership network even further. Not only our direct business results are positively affected by our visionary decision back in the days, but also our thought-leadership is further strengthen and shared during the large-scale international gambling exhibitions we usually attend.

This interview has been published by  European Gaming on the 14th of March 2019.