Elena Milovanovic represents Expanse Studios at a pivotal stage in the company’s international expansion. Over the past year, the studio has strengthened its footprint across regulated markets in North America and Europe while expanding its aggregation and distribution reach through partnerships with companies such as Bragg Gaming Group and ESA Gaming. Alongside new certifications and market entries, Expanse Studios has continued to focus on scalable distribution, mobile-first gaming experiences, and proprietary engagement mechanics designed to support both operators and players.
In this CasinoRank interview, Elena Milovanovic discusses why promotional efficiency has become a major industry challenge, how player behavior data influences Expanse Studios’ game design strategy, and why the company believes the next wave of iGaming innovation will focus on improving operator performance rather than purely cosmetic features.
Across your recent conversations with operators and partners, what business challenge comes up most often, and how is Expanse Studios helping address it?
Elena Milovanovic: Promotional efficiency. Operators spend heavily on bonuses, but traditional wagering requirements kill completion rates—most players never finish them. That friction wastes promotional budget without generating retention. Partners wanted mechanics that deliver value without the frustration, which is what drove us to build Bonus Bet.
It eliminates wagering requirements while giving operators control over the economics. Operators don’t just want more games, they want tools that solve retention problems. Content alone commoditizes quickly in B2B—differentiation comes from addressing operational challenges.
Expanse has a unique advantage because of its close relationship with a global operator. How does having the “inside look” at what players actually do influence the way you design a game compared to a studio that doesn’t have that data?
Elena Milovanovic: We see what players actually do, not necessarily what they say they want. Session data shows abandonment spikes on games with tutorials or complex features. That drove our design approach: immediate engagement, zero learning curve. Super Heli exemplifies this—instant action, RTP visible in real-time, session lengths above industry average because players understand it in seconds.
The operator relationship also exposes geographic differences most studios never see. What performs in Brazil doesn’t always work in Europe. Access to live data across dozens of jurisdictions lets us test before committing development resources. We design for actual player behavior, not theoretical preferences.
Your portfolio is highly optimized for mobile play. As we look at 2026, do you think the industry has finally reached a point where “desktop” is just an afterthought, or is there still a specific business case for it?
Elena Milovanovic: Mobile dominates heavily in volume, but sometimes desktop drives disproportionate value in specific markets. High-stake players in certain markets still prefer desktop for larger wagers and longer sessions. Of course, we always build mobile-first, but optimize for both.
Desktop isn’t an enlarged phone screen, it’s a different experience with controls and layouts suited to the format. And the data says there are still 15-20% of sessions there that generate a respectable portion of GGR, so you don’t want to treat that segment as an afterthought. Desktop isn’t dying, it’s just serving a different player segment that happens to be highly profitable.
From traditional slots like Pia to unique titles like Titan Dice or Circus Fever, Expanse has a very diverse range. From a B2B perspective, why is it important for a studio to offer “niche” games alongside the blockbuster slots?
Elena Milovanovic: Operator portfolios need depth, not just volume. Blockbuster slots drive aggregate numbers, but niche titles serve specific player segments that generate disproportionate loyalty. A crash game player isn’t interchangeable with a slot player—they have different session patterns, risk preferences, and retention triggers.
Offering both means operators can address multiple audience segments without integrating five different studios. Portfolio diversity isn’t about being everything to everyone—it’s about giving operators tools to segment and retain different player types efficiently.
Despite your global reach, Expanse maintains a very agile, boutique feel. How do you keep that creative “startup” culture alive while scaling up to meet the demands of major international partners?
Elena Milovanovic: Small teams with full ownership. Each game has a core team that controls the entire cycle—concept through deployment—without complicated layers of approval. We also avoid bloat by staying disciplined about what we build. Not every market opportunity requires a new game; sometimes it’s smarter to optimize existing titles for new jurisdictions than chase every trend.
The boutique feel isn’t about size, it’s about decision speed and creative autonomy. When a team can move from concept to prototype in weeks instead of quarters, you maintain startup energy regardless of scale. Otherwise, bureaucracy kills creativity faster than growth does.
If we were to sit down at the next big industry gathering, what is one “innovation” or trend that you hope Expanse Studios will be leading the conversation on?
Elena Milovanovic: Operational mechanics over cosmetic features. The industry obsesses over graphics, themes, and bonus animations, but the real innovation opportunity is, first and foremost, in tools that solve operator problems. Bonus Bet is the first step, but there’s a broader shift coming where content providers compete on utility, not just entertainment value.
Studios that build features addressing operator economics—not just player engagement—will differentiate in a crowded market. By the next major event, we want to be known for content that operators deploy because it improves their business metrics, not just because it looks good in a catalogue.
With a background in digital media and a keen eye for emerging technologies, Ronaldo bridges the gap between players and platforms through clear, insightful reporting to the iGaming industry.
