Panel: The 2026 D2C Playbook: Unlocking One Of The Biggest Revenue Drivers In Games.

All right. So, yeah, thank you everybody for attending this one and putting up with me for a bit longer. So, this session is entitled the DTC the 2026 DTC Playbook, unlocking one of the biggest revenue drivers in games. So, thankfully, after my talk of some

numbers, we have some experts that can actually talk about how it all works.
[laughter]
So, as I said, Craig Chapple had a conversation with PocketGamer.biz, but please, if you can introduce yourselves. Wilson?
Hi everyone. I'm um Yeah, my name's Ben Lyon, and I look after partnerships at Agnum for the Western Europe and UK region.
Hello everybody. I'm Gustav from Pixel Federation, best known for Train Station 123 and soon coming out games. And I do business development, being involved with the MORs and this kind of company, so that's why I'm here.
I'm Valerie. I lead sales and partnerships at Stash globally. I've been with Stash for the past year, and I joined Stash from Applovin, so very much familiar with all of the reports that we've been sharing on user acquisition as well.
All right, perfect. So, we'll we'll jump straight into things. So, I guess following on from from that session, so which some of the publishers have openly called direct consumer like a strategic

priority or of of strategic importance. Uh should everyone I guess you'll all say yes to this probably, but should everyone be doing direct consumer now? But importantly, does it actually work for any and all genres?
Um
What's up?
Yeah.
Yeah. Um Look, short answer is every publisher should be considering and evaluating direct consumer. Um we strongly recommend that. Whether it works or not is really based on the execution. Um and I think the question really it's all about specificity, so making it specific to your app and crucially to your user base. So really, if you start framing the question around is it relevant for this genre or that genre, then actually direct it more towards can I effectively and does it make sense to build a journey for my users to be coming off app and then want to come up come off app and have that is a repeat behavior. Once you're able to sort of target that and answer that sort of approach and that question,

then the doors kind of open to different genres. I mean, that naturally everyone associates sort of social casino or RPG with um with your direct consumer. But as soon as you're able to answer that sort of question that actually if when looking at my app, am I able to does it make sense and can we create user journey where users want to come off app and engage on a platform and keep coming back and engaging on that platform, then the floodgates really open to your sort of casual, hybrid casual, and even in some cases, you know, we're working with some hyper casual where as long as they've got a high percentage of IAP revenue, which is rare granted, but if they're able to answer that question correctly, it does work in our experience.
Okay.
I would add to that that it could actually create like one more layer in the relationship you have with your players somewhat. Uh so, if you happen to have like good relationship with your players, it sort of adds to that like, okay, so we together we can do, you know, we can add you you you can give you some more and you know, we [clears throat] have this kind of secret relationship, wink wink.

So, it really works like that a little bit. So, I feel like that's one of the angles you can approach it with.
This is a good angle. I was going to say that, but I'll say something else.
[laughter]
I'll say it again. I guess it's pretty good.
I'll say it again. Like, I think customer relationship is something that is not it cannot be taken for granted and when you do D2C, that's the only way to build this direct relationship and that's the reason why it's called direct to consumer, right? Another layer that I wanted to add to this discussion is our industry is still very much a parallel industry. So, as we could see from the numbers, like, the user acquisition cost is just something that is we don't want to discuss here because we want to stay positive. But, I think that whoever is not doing D2C, obviously from the vendor perspective, I'm going to be like, oh, you guys missing out, right? And you should do D2C and everybody should be doing D2C, but I think from the parallel industry concept,

you just get more funds for user acquisition, which is like not easy to acquire these days. So, if you put in your efforts, maybe not all of your efforts, and we'll discuss the effort part later, but if you put in your efforts into D2C, you just basically freeing up resources for user acquisition, which is not a small thing.
Do you think you basically if you don't do D2C, then you're kind of weakened in in kind of competing for users?
It really depends on how you execute and I want to second Ben here because he said a really good thing about like, it really depends on the execution and how you want to do this. Like, you can flip the switch and it's working on paper, but then to get the results, you have to earn them. So, I think that's where it's coming from, but short answer in my opinion, yes.
[laughter]
Yeah, but I feel like adding that it's everybody's so positive about this and they should, but I what what is not being said is that it's not going to be easy. Like you see these numbers and they were like 40s, well, that's a lot,

right? This is not going to happen overnight. And also, so it's actually quite simple calculation for you. You know like how much would we convert there approximately, let's say 40. Good luck with that to be honest, but then you know what's going to cost you. Do you know what's the margin differential? It's actually quite simple equation to to to do on your side.
I'm sure I might be really badly misremembering this from a panel yesterday that it was like maybe you can aim for like a lot less than 40. It was like 15 maybe or like 20 or and then you can work from there. Um I just wanted to follow up on the on the genre stuff where anyone can can can join in, but you said it's kind of available to any genre, but you have to kind of look at it differently. But that all that said, surely most is coming from mid-core. Is there really that much opportunity in a in a casual match free or or anything else like that?
Yeah, again, I I alluded to begin with, but it's based on that execution. Right,

so you know, Aganim for example, we focused for and I'll probably sending out probably back on a lot throughout this, but the most important thing is community. Creating that platform where it's a community destination as a a community page where your players where it's it's a true extension of your game. That's crucial where it feels native, a true extension of the game where your users are wanting to go on. They want to go on and engage. If you took that commerce layer out of it, this is the real good acid test and what you should be asking yourself. If you took that web store page out of it, took the commerce out of it, would they still come on and engage? Have you got an effective loyalty program, daily rewards claims? Do you have again, whatever's relevant for your players and your game. But, you know, is events, leaderboards, achievements, is there things there that they want to come on and engage with? Because then once you've established that, and if you you're able to establish that within the type of game that you've got, adding on that commerce layer becomes and then all the back end stuff to it

and your live ops, your targeting, how you can convert your experimentation, for example, that becomes incredibly powerful. And you know, that's when you start to be able to see those, you know, maybe 10, 15% of of of transactions happening off app to 40, 50% plus in genres that aren't associated just with social casino. Which which is again is extremely powerful.
Yeah, I will I would add to that to do that I feel like there is multiple ways you can entertain your players. And if you limit it only to the game itself, uh you should be thinking twice about it because there are other ways to entertain them. Like you can You said yourself, communities. It's amazing driver of not only revenues, but also to to retention, right? So, it's additional layer to your game. And if you if you do it right, I mean that was actually good test. Like would people come there even if a web shop was part wasn't part of that web shop and like a necessary discount wasn't part of that, would they come there? And if you if the answer is yes, then you are doing

right job. Eventually you will it will turn out into results. Hopefully.
I just wanted to add to that. I think um the key question here is not the genre, it's like if you look at any genre, like you're looking into like players that drive 50% more than 50% of your revenue. So, if you question who these players are, how you engage them, that is the question that really matters versus which genre you're operating in. Cuz you want to really what you want to do like it doesn't like it doesn't matter whether you have a match three game or it's a mid core game, it's a race game, whatever, you still look at the players that bring you most revenue. Now, the fact that these players, like whatever genre they operate in, you still want to have adoption, habituation. You still want these players to engage at a very deep level with you, and that's what actually matters versus like, "Oh, is my genre the right genre for me?" Like taking them out of the game to the store

or suggesting them alternative payments in the game. I don't think it matters that much. Of course, mechanics matter, but I think the question that every publisher should ask themselves is like, "How do I drive adoption, habituation, engagement, and very deep um relationship with the user first?" And then after that, you think, "Okay, what are the constraints that my game brings to that?" Um and that's the question that is secondary, in my opinion.
Mhm.
Yeah. Also, I I feel like the very fact that you already see the player engaging that much with your game, right? Like it's he's sending you signals in a in a metaphor of relationship. You already have those seven messages from them at that moment. So, they basically say like, "I want to be treated different. I actually I want to have a relationship with you." So, yeah.
So, um what about smaller studios that maybe just don't have the time to form a DTC strategy? Like, what's what small things can they do? You know, I just have a few questions here, but

I'll go over a couple. What small things can they do? Like, is it even worth for them to kind of dedicate that significant time for this? I I did speak to one indie a while back, and he was just like, I he was actually like, "I just kind of miss the simplicity of the 30%."
[laughter]
Yeah, we
Yeah, I can go first. I I have a very distinct opinion on smaller studios. I think they should do it. I think the question is, um again, it ties back to revenue for me always.
[laughter]
But, um it's also interesting to see like, "Oh, like you shouldn't do D2C because you're small." And the question is resource in, right? So, do you have enough resources? Should I focus all of my resources on user acquisition and like doing the right things like making sure this users retain? Um, or D2C would be just a distraction for me. Now, um, I'm really I think that's an a competitive advantage. Just like, um, in the early days of user acquisition, people would tell you, "Oh, you cannot jump skip a ball like it's only, you

know, like or you cannot do user acquisition at scale if you're small because it's prohibited and Google is going to ban you or whatever." So, I think, um, what's interesting about smaller studios is that they have way less eyes on them. And I think for them, if they're doing this stuff in the background and they're just like invested into this heavily, they're going to have this advantage that they're going to have this advantage early, uh, before we sit in here in like 3 years from now and D2C is just such a norm and we're not questioning it any longer. Um, and for smaller studios, like they're going to have this advantage early. Uh, it is way harder for some of the bigger studios to pivot and actually build out D2C. So, this is why we see sometimes people get sent to D2C just because it's like fancy and you want to do this and everybody else is doing this, but people are being sent to this within the bigger studios just because they lack resources and they cannot pivot. So, I think for smaller studios, the advantage is that you're building everything out early, but aren't you investing to the direction um, that is going to be profitable and beneficial for you within

the next few years. Now, obviously, and I think, um, Gustav and Ben can second me on that, resources is a big question here, right? Like, the, um, the allocation of the resources, but I think D2C is going to become such an, like, nobody's going to question, like, when you're building a small studio, you're not doing like, "Oh, like should I do user acquisition or maybe I should wait out?"
[laughter]
You know? So, I think, uh, it's just becoming such a normal uh, part of like the core composition of your how you operate that if you do this early you've got this early um, early adoption early advantage um, kind of thing. So, yeah, I'm curious about your thoughts.
Yeah, I feel like um, at certain size at this doesn't have to be only like small studio but at certain stage of a product even like you still do those 80/20s right? And I don't honestly know if I mean it really depends on the genre and also on like do you have community? [clears throat] Or do you plan to have community? If yes then yeah, probably but if not really

then there might be some other things you want to do first before jumping into that because there could be a situation where this could be really too soon to do it to be honest. And destruction for sure. I mean yeah, so yeah. That's my opinion.
Mhm.
Yeah, just to come at it from a maybe a slightly different angle. I think the last point you added on is could it even be a detriment to the smaller studios.
Yeah, exactly.
From our viewing and our experience time isn't the biggest constraint or resource. There's you know, you've seen them all here. There's enough D2C vendors out there. They should be taking that operational lift off you and their products should be as such that it's there's enough there out of the box for you to deploy effectively from day one. The real risk is is deployment and execution. So, and that's what's really a detriment to your that's really where the risk detrimental risk comes in whether you're small or large. Detrimental to Okay, so poor execution. So, what's that mean? Maybe a clunky user flow, too many steps to payment.

Doesn't feel native or a true extension of the game platform. You know, too many layers of friction where the users fall off in the user process. So, not only is that detrimental to your D2C performance you've tried to optimize or launch with but it's actually going to be detrimental to your game and your players. And so there's actually on launch with the platform you recommend you know, if time is a constraint, but it's also to be able to effectively understand what's going to work for you. So, basically, recommend scale it back, launch, and have just have a really clear strategy and approach. So, launch with, you know, one to two clear incentives for them to come out to engage with the platform, whether, again, whichever is most relevant to your users, but whether that's a loyalty program, daily rewards, promo codes, creator programs, et cetera. Limit your skew in your product availability. Don't oversaturate that. Have a really clear intent with your offers. And then, thirdly, just experiment, but that's what your D2C provider should be there to do for you, advise you how to experiment.

Set even set them up for you. Um, but, you know, through experiment, through experimenting, you get to learn what's going to work for you or not. You know, what works for you and your app doesn't work for another. So, experiment, iterate, learn, and then continue optimize. And time really shouldn't be the main limiting factor, and it really shouldn't be the main detrimental factor. It's that poor execution.
All right.
Go for it.
Did you want to add anything?
Yeah, may may I two more points for me? It's like one is like what do we have to realize that the things you are building on your web shop is not going to be seen by all your players, right? I mean, in the best case scenario, it's going to be Yeah, and just keep that in your mind, right? So,
I guess it would be technically, in theory, that would be seen by your most engaged players. So, they're technically
Fair enough.
Okay. And well well, one more point I wanted to say is like what you shouldn't do as a small studio, for sure, is like try to build it yourself, because we did that. So, coming from the company who actually built our own web store, and I wouldn't call us like small studio, right, anymore, but it we totally see how how much of an effort it is like uh

on the legal side, what what what all kind of things you need to be aware of. It's uh like if you are talking about like thinking about things you shouldn't be thinking as a game developer, I feel like I I don't want to say like these guys can help you, but they they definitely can.
So, is that like costly in terms of just all of your time? And does it take a long time to just build it yourselves?
Yeah, totally. But also, and you are reinventing the wheel. Like, because you are building something which is being built by somebody who is And also, like, this is not the your expertise. Like, you didn't probably do, you know, 20 web shops before you are building your first web shop. So, you will make all the mistakes that to be done there. So, again, like, there is advantage to that. And if you build it, you can if you feel like, "Okay, I can keep that small uh like, bigger part of the margin to myself even, sure, why not?" But uh it's going to cost you a lot of effort and also a lot of thoughts, which you should be probably investing elsewhere.
Did you
No, just one last point, I think. Um I want to second what the guys just said.

Um but also, like, from the smaller studio perspective, like, should you do this early? And I I think the question the key word here is do. Like, maybe it's not something that you actively do very early. Should you plan for it early? Absolutely, yes. So, I think that's um that's one of the things like with ads, with anything that you're planning to do for your game, like, you obviously building the gameplay and the gameplay around it, and you thinking about how users are going to engage like what community mechanics to be building around this. So, what Ben said is really, really valuable because you want to um consider for D2C even if you're not not doing this from day one. So, that's I think for smaller studios is way more important as compared to, like, oh, like, should I do this or should I not or like, be in between? Like, no, you should do this, maybe like, not from day one, but you should strategically plan for it um and see how your players engage and assume that even if you're

not building this now, in year or two from now, like, this is going to be crucial part of your community and you wouldn't have to pivot then.
Mhm. So, uh I'm going to jump ahead one one questions dangerously. But uh how important is cuz we're kind of talking about it anyway. How important is community building to a D2C strategy? And does it require like a dedicated team on building your community or just a person to actually maximize it? I assume that's very important to D2C, but
Well, I would say like anything you do, you will have to have dedicated people to that because if it's just like a their side hustle, we all know how it's going to end up, right? It's It's just like in your spare time. Yeah, sure. You did it before, right? So, I would say like you have to dedicate your people because also they learn faster and everything. How important? Doesn't have to be important. I would say like D2C actually could be one of the ways to build community. So, I would actually put that twist on it. It's one

of because it's always difficult to build community. So, this could be one of the ways to get them elsewhere and you know, entertain them elsewhere, right? Not only on app. So, that that's my angle. And because I can also see situation where you don't have to have any community. You can just go for, you know, play the discount game which is of course not the easy I mean, not the smartest in the long term, but you can just play that. And if you have smart enough players who will understand that, they will just uh yeah, it could be pretty simple. I don't You don't need community in my estimation to be okay. Anyone else?
I'm going to be controversial.
That's That's what we're here for, but
Yeah, sorry.
[laughter]
Um in our, you know, central to what we do in in our experience and where in our performance data where we're able to tie back to what drives the highest performance, it it's community. We think community is essential because for without building on that, your direct-to-consumer strategy really and you know, this is where maybe you could only just focus on just a simple web

store with all paid direct checkout link, you're only catering to high purchase intent or whales, which ultimately can be just a very small percentage of your user base.
Mhm.
Yeah, on the whole. Whereas, if you're able to build that community where people are able to come in and build, community is very important in changing that behavior. So, the default behavior of a user is to purchase an app. But, for your direct-to-consumer strategy to be effective, you need to be changing that behavior, right? Discounts work, but they're not strategically often the best because how much you going to discount and you're just giving them something for free. And then, at what point are you discounting and you're actually losing the margin that you've taken away from that the whole point of it. Whereas, to change that behavior, we feel community lends on the three main things of motivation. So, the motivation of them coming to the hub and actually purchasing. Um building a habit, but crucially building that trust. It's got to be trustworthy is where they're purchasing. So, for us, community is is huge on that on that behavior change. But, yeah, it's all controversial.

You know, I like this. So, are we having this argument?
No, I feel like one of the things which was not mentioned is the personalization you can do with web shops.
Right.
That's that's to me and that's again like I mean, I feel like I'm not arguing about like don't build community, build community by all means. But, I feel like if you you don't actually again like let's pretend that you don't have any community, you can play that personalization card pretty strong like you can do your wells because also what I learned like we are building our own VIP program in a very early stage. What I see is like the biggest wells, they don't seem to be interested in anything but the game play. They just want to have fun and spend all, you know, like they just want to have fun with the game. That's at least what we see with our audience. It could be very specific. So, I feel like with those like I'm not going to engage them in community. They don't really care about like oh, do you want this new trend or something like that? They of course we do. They have money. [snorts] So,
Yeah. Uh
Yeah, I want to piggyback on what they just said. I think two points here is

first, network externalities for community, meaning that people who don't want to do things alone, right? So, I think to your point about whales who are not like they're not interested in the gameplay, but they also just want to be there and have fun. I think for them network externalities is something that is like extremely important concepts where you like you can't achieve this thing alone, but if you form group of people, you can achieve this together. So, you're going towards one goal together and whales are specifically prone to that depending on the genre, of course, but that is one important factor to consider cuz I think network externalities is something that a lot of a lot of games can strongly benefit from. The second point is engaging through community can engage people. You can show them a path to D2C to people who would otherwise would not even consider that, right? So, this is

this is an interesting aspect where like you have this percentage of the players who do like 40, 30, whatever percent for D2C and the rest is just like not willing to do this. Well, community is the tool. So, I think it is not a question of like whether you should do it or not. I think you should, but like in terms of like where you community can be a a really helpful tool where you you see that you lack in specific, you know, like force um to get people to adopt D2C and have them have fun while doing this. Um so, yeah.
Um one of the questions I want to ask is I'm just curious what the best practice is. So, if you have the option to put the direct payment link in the app, so it's just very smooth. It's just like they make a it's a normal purchase to the user on their end. Or is it best practice to actually just try and get them off to your community, your own platform and have them there. Like, what's the best practice or how do you deal with

having both of those if you have both options?
Yeah, like the direct checkout links, whilst they're available, are incredibly powerful. And there's different, you know, there's doing it right and doing it wrong as well. There's little nuances to that which can increase the performance. But you ask about best practice, whilst it's available, the best practice is to operate both. Right?
Right.
It's to operate both. Again, that's where we can you can see 30% to 40% of transactions also about 10% to 50%, for example, in genres that you don't normally associate. But the key thing is then again why we emphasize our, you know, the community side and the game hubs is that regulation can change overnight. So if that direct payment link disappears overnight, and it's already only available to to a very small percentage of of global users, you know, iOS US, that disappears overnight.
Mhm.
Then your entire if that's the backbone of your D2C strategy, it's gone overnight. Whereas if you've been able to use those both, but in the background if you've got this effective platform where your users want to come and

engage, they know that there's enough, they've got the habit of coming there, they they know that there are things that are beneficial for you, you know, there's a loyalty program where which is attractive enough for them where they want to come purchase there to accrue the points to unlock more attractive features, then that's almost I don't I won't say immune, but that's a longer term robust strategy where you're less relying on on on flippant changes in regulations and policies. That's where you're starting to own the entire D2C journey. You're starting to own your own your users, really. And that really should be the long-term strategy of your D2C strategy your long-term strategy for your approach to D2C.
Mhm.
Um so, hey, make hay whilst the sun shines. Get the direct checkout links in. Make sure you're doing it right. Test. Really maximize that as high as you can. But what are you going to do if the regulation changes or it disappears overnight? That's where the backup comes from. So, I have the two work in tandem.
Mhm.
Yeah, again, like the where you play take them elsewhere, that's where you actually build the

relationship with them. So, it's like if you don't do that at all, like you are losing one of the best weapons you have. I would say so. Yeah, but by all means do the direct links, but and do them properly, I would say. Because that's you can lose a lot of money if you don't. Because people are extremely sensitive to to the payment methods and if there is like something which is doesn't really take, it's just like huh you can lose a lot of money that way. So, be be really conscious about it.
Yeah, Jill.
Yeah, just last point. I think in terms of like this is a very common question, I guess we both get. But in terms of like link outs versus web shop, what should we do first? Like should we do both? I think it's just again like if your question as a studio is now coming from like what should I do first? Like which same with like user acquisition, which network is first, right? Test first. Like it's the same with D2C. Like there's also launcher, right? There are so many like mechanics to engage with players directly. So, I think if the core question that you coming from is

like how do I engage my player base and how do I make them happy? How do I make them adopt WeChat, D2C and also just like have an amazing experience? This is like if you This is the strategic question you're asking first, then the answer is just going to surface itself in terms of like what you should do first. Cuz we have a lot of we also do launchers, right? So, there are a lot of publishers that I would advise against doing link outs before you do launcher just because your genre and your game is asking for it first and you should do launcher first. So, to me that's that's a very much a question of like how to make your player base happy versus the tools that you using to do that. But to second what you guys said, like I think it's it's always for the most successful studios. If you look at Plitika, Scopely, etc. Like they do wild combination of all of these things with some kind of like a focus on one, but they're doing everything just because

it does bring better results if you combine these things with the consideration of your player base habits.
Interesting because for me there is almost like I can imagine only very few examples where it will make better sense to start with direct links to be honest. Because again, because of the risk. It could change overnight. It will take some time. Like they will tell you that you can implement in Well, we did it with one client in two hours. Okay, but so do the thing which is for like longer term and
[snorts]
Ready.
Yeah. And and then then only to me like direct links are like really secondary to this just because of the risk.
But I think to your point like in terms of resources, indirect links are so much easier than web shop, right? So you just like it's plug and play basically. So if it's lower lift from I don't know about your experience, maybe we should talk, but with direct links like it should be you know, like lower lift comparatively

to web shop. So if you wanted to D2C like direct links is something that you can experiment with. Obviously, you still need resources to watch the performance, adjust, like see how your payment methods perform, etc. But I don't think like it's necessary like I don't I don't think it eliminates direct links as the first option, especially if you operate in a casual genre where like web shop you have to have like many considerations for.
I like this debate on the stage. Very good. Really really helpful I think for everyone to kind of go for as well. So you mentioned an interesting thing about regulations. How do you actually build your strategy around different regulations around the world because you only have one community. You can't split it into different things. But then I don't know if one region has uh 20% car or I don't know I don't know I don't know. I'm trying to think now. That's the wrong That's the wrong example. But if different regions do things differently, how do you kind of bring everyone together in this one little community? And how do you kind of get

around regulations, keep up to date? Does that make sense as a question?
[laughter]
Yeah, and maybe maybe I misunderstood so correct me. But I mean how do you stay up to date with the regulation?
Effectively.
Yeah, I mean particularly as a D2C provider, that is our job.
[laughter]
That is your job to do it. You have to be That That is also one of our sole purpose there. We need to know and understand the regulations, make sure we're compliant, understand what's happening and what's about to come up. But again, going back to my previous point, you really want to be building a D2C strategy which again is maybe a bit strong to say immune, but something that's more robust so that those nuances to regulations which will change and they will repeatedly change, you're not susceptible to it. It's a platform that you own and that's like use the journey that you own. That's That should be where the real focus is. So, short answer in terms of how do you stay on top of it? It's It's our job. We have dedicated teams for it, regional teams that that's that's you know what one of the reasons why we exist. But the

secondary side to that, you know and and larger you know you larger companies that have have their own in-built solution, they've got the resources available to be able to keep an eye on track of that themselves or they actually engage with a partner just to look after that themselves rather than taking the web store game up side of it. But um yeah, in terms of on top of that what we really try and emphasize and build is that longer term independence and a longer term strat robust strategy that is less susceptible to them. I think you can come at a really good take on it from being on the actual publisher side.
I was going to say it seems like a nightmare on the publisher side.
Yeah.
[laughter]
Yeah, to me it the community is actually the place where you can explain to people why there are different prices or something like that, right? Like you already have the relationship with that
I would say like this is quite easy to wash your hands there, as bad as it sounds. Like uh I mean we would I mean we want to treat you equally, but
Yeah.
because of this we have to do this. So that that's that's I feel like that's where you have the relationship where I can be really and should be transparent with them.
Mhm.

Mhm. That's interesting.
Something that is like I'm going to take a slightly different angle, I think, from the original perspective. Like if we're being completely honest, it's two It's two regions, right? It's US West in general and Asia Pacific. And this is where 80% of the revenue is concentrated. So you want to be adaptive to the regulations in this regions. And obviously you can play around and be like, "Oh, what's happening in UK?" Like you can always have your provider. And like you don't even necessarily have to partner with provider to know these things because um we just like as providers we're like this is our job to go like Toby is here um from Stash. Like he went to the court in San Francisco like to watch the actual life happening around the case. Uh but um so you can find these things online, right? Without even having to partner. My point is that um you should just define the regions that matter to you, obviously. And for most of the publishers it's going to be US and Asia Pacific. And web shops is the strategy that is like sell what it seems to be bulletproof compared to link outs

because there is no certainty around link outs still. Um it is looking promising from various angles as matches is looking detrimental from various angles, right? So if you want to do this right, like you want to see which regions your revenue is concentrated and and just focus on these regions. I think the answer is pretty simple to me.
Yeah, I would say like uh how you stay on top of that?
Mhm.
You just don't. That's why you work with these kind of companies.
Yeah.
Just unless you are working only in one region and you can you are a lawyer who is enjoying himself by you know following this just don't do it. Like it's it's waste of time. It really is to be honest.
So I have one more question which is who do you look at as best in class at direct consumer and what is it exactly that they do that others could at least look at replicating?
I think I think it will come as no surprise to remember but I think Scopely is an excellent example. They do it very

well. Um if you want to like a singular example just off my head WWE Champions that's that's an excellent example. If you want to look at it now what they've built the platform that they've built there again it touches on a lot of what I've spoken about. So it feels like a true game extension. It feels like a native game experience their platform. There's a ton of engagement and community and loyalty features there that are relevant for that type of user. And as I said before you can easily imagine if they just eliminated the store there you could easily see a huge proportion of their users still coming on and engaging with that platform. So it's what you know ultimately it's what we try and do. Ours is very similar to that but as I said I shouldn't should come as no surprise Scopely is a great example. But yeah just check it out yourselves. It's it's great. It's how you can just type it in WWE WWE Champions that sort of game hub platform they've got and as I said the key question to ask yourself is looking at this and if you play the app if they remove the store would I as a user of

that app would I still want to go on there and engage? You know it takes two minutes to look at it and you'd think yeah yeah they would.
Interesting.
I just got to say that. Unfortunately.
Um yeah I think WWE Champions is a great example. Unfortunately our chief product officer has actually worked on this game and did you see so shameless plug I'm sorry. Uh but no I think obviously Scopely right and then Plitika um, are the best examples in class to look at. Those people started like it was funny like the reason why I brought up Spencer and now chief product officer, he was working on this at Scopely. When he joined Stash, he was like oh, like he's he's looking at it from such a publisher, uh, perspective. And to me like those people like OG vets of D2C, they started doing D2C before it was even in a separate industry, right? So for them, like the fact that now it's being productized and there is a whole like there is like a whole number of competitors just like doing this like web stores and like we can do that for

you, that's a whole new, you know, game. So I think, um, like looking at I think social casinos is actually a great example, too. Like if you look at Huge or Kamagames, like they've been doing this for ages now. They've been sending iPads to their VIP users with side-loaded apps. They've been sponsoring their players' weddings. Like it's insane how deep their work goes with the communities. And, uh, direct-to-consumer existed before. And again, to my previous point is like if you come in from the strategic POV where the player is number one and then everything is secondary, this is where like, uh, those are the examples. So I think from the specific examples like I think I have obviously like a lot of respect to Scopely and Plitika. Like I think those are the companies that pioneered this before that was even a thing. So and they're still doing this pretty, um, impressively. So that's two examples that I definitely look at.
Okay, great. I think we are out of time, but, uh, thank you so much for those examples in the panel. It was great. Uh,

please round of applause. Thank you very much.
[applause]
Woo!