Reel Races

The Reel Races – designed in the kitchen, devoured online

What do you need to create a casino tournament like the Casumo Reel Races? Well apparently all you require are a pair of scissors, some pieces of paper, coloured pens and an old kitchen table. Oh, and some really talented individuals. Voila.

The Reel Races are a fast paced immersive experience. Tournaments that are exciting, rapid, with real time feedback that offer players so much more in terms of engagement and satisfaction. The results speak for themselves. During the past three months, more than 100,000 players joined a Reel Race spinning over 50 million times and grabbing a total of 600,000 euro in cash prizes. We also gave out more than 1 million free spins to those who joined. How’s that for smashing?

Originally conceived as a winter tournament for the Christmas period, the project evolved and took centre stage following tons of messages from enthusiastic players who really enjoyed this new way of playing casino. We had hit the mark, with a compelling tournament that fulfilled our players’ needs.

What we wanted to create was a more engaging experience for our players that was both rewarding and fun.

 

Casumo Reel Race behind the scenes

An attempt to revolutionize the industry in the middle of the night.

 

“We looked at what other casinos were doing and thought that the tournaments that existed were weak, especially in execution,” says Mark Busuttil, Producer for the Reel Races product.
The average casino tournament until the debut of the reel races did not offer much interaction with the player. Their implementations were also rather slow and delayed results until the next day. “What we wanted to create was a more engaging experience for our players that was both rewarding and fun – an in-game experience with the boosters concept – to give even the unlucky player a potential to win.” Other operators used a flat point structure that did not enable this. “We also created a sense of strategy – previously unheard of. This was done by not being game specific.”

The original team behind the Reel Races consisted of five talented individuals – a designer, a producer, and three developers. They would sit in the kitchen in the old offices for weeks, using paper prototypes where every single module was cut out of paper, coloured in and fitted on the table.

A mockup of how reel races would look was then created by the developers based on the paper designs.

Next came the prototyping. This was a new approach to designing, and it suited the nature of the Reel Races which are heavily dependant on the randomness of any game. We delved directly in creating a dummy prototype using an actual game so we could get a feel of the experience early on in the project. Having a prototype available also pushed us into testing this out with some of our loyal users using a controlled beta group. We invited a number of players to contribute to the project within a test environment. Their feedback made the Reel Races the success it is today.

 

Casumo Reel Race behind the scenes

The team refuelling before the next development session

 

But what was the thing that made the Reel Races a reality? Collaboration – that’s the secret ingredient of the Reel Races, fuelled by Indian food and free flowing coffee. At one point, so many people wanted to be involved in this exciting new project that the five man team became a 12 man band, working long hours till after dark for more than two months. All those involved say that the experience taught them invaluable lessons such as working together and being able to listen to each other’s suggestions.

 

Casumo Reel Race behind the scenes

In-development refuelling.

 

“In the end, it was an exciting and rewarding journey, full of energy and fun.”

Available on both mobile and desktop, the Reel Races are an ongoing project, improving and changing continuously. We at Casumo enjoy feedback and frequently involve players during the early stages of the product to ensure that the result will be something awesome.

Here’s a comment one of our fans cared to share with us: “The Casumo Reel Races provide a very unique gaming experience which both myself and my Twitch viewers love. I often stream the Reel Races as I love the competition side of this feature, and the £1000 reel race every evening sure is fun.” – Nickslots

Do you feel like racing? Check out which Reel Race is on right now.

Casino offer

100% bonus up to £25 and 20 Bonus Spins

Sign up

18+. New UK customers only. Opt-in required. 20 Bonus Spins on “Sahara Riches Cash Collect” and 100% Deposit Bonus up to £25 on first deposit. Min. deposit £10. 30x wagering requirement for Bonus Spins and Deposit Bonus (game weighting applies). Max. £5/spin or £0.50/line or £10/round (Live Casino). 30 days expiry. Payment method exclusions apply. Play responsibly • www.begambleaware.org • T&Cs apply