"Burning Keno will help operators to reach out to a completely new audience"

GT Interactive is launching a new lottery-like gambling game, Burning Keno. It is the company's first event-based keno game.

"What we're trying to do here with our Burning Keno is to give a better user experience and to offer user-centric features," Mirela Agatonovic, the company's Product Manager, tells Yogonet in a video interview ahead of the launch. "While playing the game, the user gets a feeling of a real-time game due to the draw time, which is 30 seconds. The game could be played with one to ten numbers, and the player could be immediately paid out based on how many numbers they're playing with."

In addition, Burning Keno offers real-time ticket sorting, instant re-bet functionality, and fast access to cold and hot numbers, she explains. "There is one more super key feature, which is a playing option with more than seven numbers. It gives the opportunity for a payout even when no numbers were matched, we can call this 'win when there is no win'."

Agatonovic says the company's biggest challenge was to build better features on top of the classical Keno game model. "I believe better user experience levels game-up, by providing and involving the user throughout the whole game-play and make an impression of a real-time game," she notes. 

When asked about how this further complements and fits in with the rest of EGT Interactive's offering, she says their iGaming portfolio consists out of slot games so far, but "Burning Keno is coming as a refreshment, and brings a completely new lottery play-style game. I hope it will be something that the players are going to like and have fun with."

As for the target audience, Burning Keno is going global. "Of course, initially, we are about to start with the markets that already have a tradition in lottery games. Actually, we are looking forward to their feedback and reactions," the Product Manager tells Yogonet.

"Based on the experience which we already have with slot games, we managed to have our lessons learned and streamline them, and build a completely new approach in developing this keno game," Agatonovic adds. "The game will help the operators to reach out to a completely new audience, and keeping in mind the features that we managed to build, I believe this will increase the player's retention rate and their commitment."