Gianluca Crimaldi, Insights on Booming Games Growth Strategy, SBC Summit and What’s Next
Gianluca Crimaldi, Head of Account Management at Booming Games, joins the conversation as the supplier heads into SBC Summit Lisbon with an accelerated release schedule, a growing presence in Brazil and new initiatives designed to push player engagement beyond traditional slot experiences. The company is also continuing to build on established franchises, its partnership with Ronaldinho and its collaboration with Live Play Mobile.
In this CasinoRank interview, Crimaldi discusses how Booming Games uses performance data to shape its portfolio, what gives certain titles long-term franchise potential, and why early market presence and local relationships matter in Brazil. He also explores strategic partnerships, live interaction within slot experiences, and the next phase of the company’s growth.
Booming Games is heading into SBC Summit Lisbon fresh off a run of weekly game launches and a major South America push. What’s the one conversation or announcement you’re most looking forward to having on the show floor this year?
Gianluca Crimaldi: Our aim is always to make the most of these events by meeting face to face with our existing customers. With many of them, we share a long standing relationship and a history that goes across multiple companies and years, making these events a great opportunity to strengthen those partnerships, discuss new opportunities, and understand how we can continue to support their growth.
We will also be proudly showcasing our portfolio of slots, including our latest releases, new innovations, and our partnership with Live Play Mobile. And there is one more exciting announcement that I won’t spoil during this interview — you’ll have to visit us at the exhibition to see what we have prepared.
For us, events like this are not just about showcasing products; they are about building relationships, exchanging ideas, discovering new opportunities, and giving our partners a chance to experience what Booming Games has been working on first hand.
You’ve nearly doubled your release pace this year, with titles like Blazing Bullets, Fortune Surge, Bubble Works and Henhouse Hustle landing back-to-back. Across all these launches, is there a common thread or mechanic that’s proving to be your strongest performer right now?
Gianluca Crimaldi: Thanks to the data we have across our systems, we can identify what works, where it works, and what players are responding to. We then use that information to improve what is already performing well, while also looking for new concepts and ideas that can help us offer something different from our competitors.
At the end of the day, I believe a great product needs a strong commercial team behind it to reach its full potential, and the same applies the other way around. You can have a great commercial team, but without the right product, it becomes much harder to achieve long-term success. For us, it’s about having both sides working together.
The Ronaldinho partnership has grown from Ronaldinho Spins into World Cup-timed titles like Streetball Bonanza. Three years in, what’s surprised you most about pairing a football icon with slot mechanics?
Gianluca Crimaldi: We have been pioneers of this partnership, and we have seen competitors trying to follow in our footsteps. However, our games have been engaging players for several years now, and we continue to see strong stickiness and player retention, particularly with our latest release.
The game was built around a strong underlying mechanic, and even after the World Cup ended, we have continued to see very strong retention, especially among South American players.
Ronaldinho is an icon across the world, and we wanted to create a game that truly reflected both his personality and his cultural background. We combined this with a strong and engaging mechanic, while the team paid close attention to every detail throughout the development of the release.
Your Hold and Win and Fish Tales series keep getting new entries years after launch. What tells you a game has “franchise” potential versus being a one-off release?
Gianluca Crimaldi: We usually conduct an in-depth analysis of each release, even though we often have clear expectations that are, in most cases, aligned with the results we see after launch.
The first Fish Tales was a huge success, delivering outstanding results. As a result, our team decided to build on this success by developing a series, enhancing the winning potential and further improving the game mechanics. Our latest release, Fish Tales Double Catch Max Scatter, has been one of our strongest releases of the year so far.
We also have several other successful series, such as Bonanza, Power Hit, 10,000, Buffalo, and Max Scatter, where we plan to further expand our portfolio while maintaining these recognisable signatures across selected games.
Brazil and South America are clearly the current growth bet, with new operator deals and exclusive Ronaldinho content leading the charge. What’s the biggest lesson from Europe you’re trying not to repeat as you scale there?
Gianluca Crimaldi: European markets are already highly saturated with providers, making it extremely challenging to gain meaningful market share, even with a strong product. Fortunately, we were already live with all major operators in Brazil before the new regulation came into effect, while many providers are only now planning their integrations.
Over time, we expect Brazil and the wider LATAM region to become increasingly saturated, following a similar trajectory to the European markets. In our view, established and proven providers will have a significant advantage, while new entrants will primarily compete for the market share that has not already been captured.
Having a dedicated presence in Brazil, with someone directly connected to local operators and maintaining close relationships with key stakeholders, has been an important factor in supporting our continued growth and strengthening our position in the market.
We also believe that building strategic partnerships and tailored commercial agreements, rather than relying solely on the traditional “integrate, launch and run promotions” model, will be key to ensuring sustainable, long-term and stable growth.
Where do you want Booming Games to be a year from now, and what’s the biggest thing standing between here and there?
Gianluca Crimaldi: We are currently in a phase of exponential growth, driven by a combination of a significantly strengthened product offering compared to last year and a strong Commercial team operating across all of our markets. More importantly, we operate as ONE team across all departments, working together to maximise Booming’s potential, and this combination is already delivering strong results.
Since last year, we have also partnered with LivePlay Mobile, introducing a new level of interaction to our games. We now have live hosts entertaining players directly within our games, while players can interact through live chat and receive rewards through a range of live engagement tools.
We have also started working on a second project, which we will be announcing very soon. I cannot share too much about it just yet, but you may already notice some hints around SBC, so definitely keep an eye out for what’s coming.
For us, these initiatives are part of a broader strategy to go beyond traditional slot content and explore new ways to make the player experience more engaging, interactive and memorable.