Gaming Eminence sat down with Gabriel Rezende Germanovix, CTO of Firepot Gaming, to discuss software integration, game math algorithms, security, and compliance. Firepot Gaming strategically adopts new technologies, such as Kotlin and serverless infrastructure, to enhance efficiency. Balancing game volatility for different player types while meeting regulatory standards is a key challenge. Their flexible software architecture ensures compliance across jurisdictions without excessive customisation, leveraging adaptability as a competitive edge in the evolving gaming industry.
Gaming Eminence: Gabriel, in terms of software architecture, what are the key considerations Firepot Gaming takes into account when integrating new technologies, such as advanced analytics or real-time data processing, into existing systems?
GG) "When we need to integrate new technologies into our ecosystem, we consider employing them when we see a need to improve the efficiency of a process or when the tools we use diverge from industry peers. We are always looking at innovations and best practices in the industry. Two recent examples include switching some APIs from the Java language to Kotlin, a more modern language, and transitioning from our bare-metal server to a serverless one with a more strategic location for our clients.
As we have a multidisciplinary and well-trained team, we first assess whether we can develop these analyses and data processing solutions in-house. In other words, we determine whether we can create our own solution. For instance, we have our own graphics platform that uses the SDL library and supports only 2D solutions. It serves us well, but we are reaching the limits of what it can deliver without requiring new functions, extensive updates, and likely a lot of low-level implementations for handling images and animations. Therefore, we first explore whether our team of C++ programmers can improve our graphics engine or if it is time to transition to the 3D engine most commonly used by the land-based industry.
If this is not feasible, we choose a commercial solution that is the industry standard. I believe the key considerations for this choice generally include:
The reputation of the company and the software – Who already uses it? What are the reviews? Over the years, we have built many friendships and professional connections in the industry. Our clients also know many people connected to the sector. These relationships, along with our constant visits to major trade shows, allow us to stay informed about best practices in the industry. They also give us the opportunity to ask trusted individuals whether they are familiar with a particular tool and if they would recommend it. When evaluating a more generic management tool, we also consider which global companies use it and what their results have been.
Will this technology be capable of meeting all the requirements? Once we decide on a technology, we start investigating its capabilities or use a trial period to introduce it to our team so they can assess whether it meets their expectations.
What is the pricing model? – Is it a fixed fee, per seat, or per use?"
Gaming Eminence: In your experience, what are the most complex aspects of developing game math algorithms for video bingos and slot machines? How do you ensure these algorithms meet both regulatory standards and player expectations?
GG) "The most complex aspect of developing math algorithms for bingo and slot machines is balancing the needs of two categories of players and two categories of gaming rooms.
There are players who prefer a more volatile game, which offers the chance of paying out a high prize relative to the current bet. On the other hand, there are players who prefer a less volatile game; if a machine doesn’t pay anything for a few spins, they will leave.
There are also locations where, due to the number of machines and limited cash flow, they can't afford to randomly pay out very high prizes all at once (though this can happen due to randomness and volatility). And there are locations—such as casinos—where big prizes can be paid out, attracting more players.
Some combination of these four factors makes the development of mathematics quite a challenge. The key is to find the right balance.
Regarding regulatory requirements, I view them positively and naturally. Since the beginning, I have been trained to develop games that are completely random and fair, following the principle that no play should take into account the machine's past. In this respect, to align this with players' expectations, it's enough to find the same balance point mentioned above: the volatility of the game, combined with animations and mechanics, is the key to success."
Gaming Eminence: How is AI leveraged in the development process at Firepot Gaming? Can you provide a specific example of a problem that AI helped solve in your game design or testing phases?
GG) "With the AI innovations on the highlight, we are researching and developing applications for it. Considering an important Data Intelligence tool, we are researching ways to determine the best game title swaps in the casino floor. Many of our customers have several spots with our games but do not have a specialised team for dealing and analysing performance. We want to provide them with a suggested strategy so they can keep more games that play well and remove the old titles or underperforming ones.
In some other areas, however, we do not plan to use it. For our graphics design and art conception and drawing, we do not have generative AI involved. We value the talent of our people and we prefer to keep it as an artisanship and value our own creativity.
We are also soon shipping a better integration for all our game machines. We are developing an integrated solution that allows us to have full connection with all of our online machines. This is going to provide easy access to our newest titles, enabling clients to upgrade their machines with no cost with whatever well-performing titles that we recommend, with client’s approval."
Gaming Eminence: What methodologies does Firepot Gaming employ to ensure the integrity and security of your gaming software, particularly when integrating with third-party platforms or hardware?
GG) "The year 2024 was the year we implemented a strong culture of testing and quality assurance. Until then, this department hadn't received the attention it needed, and we were suffering significantly from bugs. After consolidating our processes in 2024, 2025 will be a year of further improving and optimizing the QA department, and we have a project underway to automate testing to the most extreme level possible. Automation means reducing the workload of engineers and eliminating the human factor in testing.
Since our company works exclusively with the land-based market—that is, with physical machines—we have an additional challenge: remaining compatible with our customers' various hardware. Each customer has their own cabinets and motherboards, and so far, we have been fulfilling this mission well. We have customers across America: South (Paraguay, Chile), Central ( Guatemala, Jamaica, Puerto Rico), and North (United States, Mexico).
The methodology used in testing is mainly regression testing. With years of experience, we have created several tests for the most common cases, and when something new or important arises, we update the test spreadsheet.
Currently, as I mentioned, we are automating the tests to make the process increasingly faster. We use the most prestigious game testing and certification laboratories as references. The experiences gained in the certification process are integrated into our internal testing so that new certifications are more efficient."
Gaming Eminence: Can you explain how your team approaches software development for games that must comply with multiple jurisdictions? Are there specific tools or practices that help streamline this process?
GG) "We try to keep the platform as flexible as possible. That is, our approach is not to have software for each jurisdiction, but instead, with each new jurisdiction, our new release is updated with the necessary changes without affecting or making it incompatible with others. To achieve this, if necessary, we create more configuration and customization options in the game's operator menu.
As a small company that is now emerging in the industry, we can say that we have more flexibility and can serve our clients in a more personalized way. I always like to make the comparison between a small boat and a cruise ship—everyone agrees that running a cruise ship is much more costly, bureaucratic, and time-consuming. We use this competitive advantage to include any of our clients' requests in our menu, from enabling a specific phrase on the game screen due to a jurisdiction to setting up a communication protocol for a printer that sends data in cents because, on the other side, there will be an integrator board that will read the data in cents. We can say that our menu will have many more options to switch on and off.
In our view, jurisdictions that require something very different are exceptions. In most cases, the current model can adapt easily, and with a few changes, we already have a new version that meets the new jurisdiction. After years of going through some jurisdictions, the changes start to become minor.
I believe that what simplifies the process is usually having experience in the area and knowing how to interpret the requirements well."