Zitro University: "from Fortnite to the casino"

Patricio O'Gorman, a professor at the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and author of the book Silicon Valley vs. Hollywood published in 2018, was a guest speaker at Zitro University, the training seminar and trade show that Zitro hosted last week in Buenos Aires.

During a lecture titled New consumers, behaviors, and technologies in today's digital era, the digital management and strategies specialist spoke about the challenges posed by modern entertainment. He began his speech with the question What does Zitro mean to you?. He also highlighted the fact that many of the notions brought forward by attendees—interaction, innovation, and renovation—are related to the upcoming trends.

And, according to O'Gorman, the upcoming trends are also related to business models that are already being implemented by companies in other entertainment fields, such as Netflix, Spotify, and Fortnite.

As regards Zitro's venture into real-money and social casinos, he placed special focus on some of Fortnite's features, which are easy to replicate in the world of casinos and bingos to attract new patrons. The video game's model includes weekly updates—at least 52 per year—, daily challenges, limited modes—for instance, last week, an Avengers mode was set to coincide with the movie's release—, a social nature—it serves as a meeting —, and finally, it is an online game in which up to 100 users can participate at the same time, offering a fully comprehensive experience.

"Zitro's Let’s WinUp! offers some of the same features, which are ultimately related to the notion of 'personalization,' enabling users to be an individual different from the person they are in real life. Someone I like and is not necessary me, with my daily problems. That is what this app has in common with Fortnite, which by the way last year made USD 3,000 million in revenue," O'Gorman explained.

As regards its monetization model, he pointed out that the highest revenue percentage comes from the sale of skins (personalization features of the character which do not award competitive advantages). The game is totally free and does not include traditional adverts. He finally highlighted Fortnites high stimulation and a wide range of diverse results.

"I believe I can win, as every time I play there's a different story. Very much like what happens with games of chance. The money spent by those players has nothing to do with their chances of winning."

Fortnite is also venturing into a new entertainment modality that could be very appealing to casinos: live digital events. The most recent example was the Marshmello concert, which became the largest gaming event to date.