Sugar Skulls

About Sugar Skulls

Jackpots and free-to-play may be very different propositions, but Wilson judges both against the same unromantic measure: whether they produce value for the operator.

For free-to-play, that process can begin before the customer has committed money. “It’s about building muscle memory, providing achievable incentives to players and gamification,” Wilson explains. By lowering the barrier to participation, a free-to-play game can provide an accessible first interaction with an operator, while repeated play builds familiarity and creates a reason to return.

The format, however, cannot simply be copied and pasted from one market to the next. “We’ve found that the more localised the offering, the better,” Wilson says. “We’re talking about building anything from sumo wrestling to Love Island, as well as the headline sports. Ice cage fighting has been a popular one in a certain market for us.”

What is Sugar Skulls?

But Playtech has claimed that the Spectrum report, which is now publicly available, was unable “to confirm or refute” some of Black Cube’s claims, “as Evolution failed to provide Spectrum with significant information it had requested”.

Evolution declined to provide a comment on the update.

Notably, Spectrum said within its report that it did not believe Evolution had engaged in any illegal practices. It also refuted allegations concerning cash payments and the use of Evolution’s games in sanctioned countries.

About Sugar Skulls

Rodano spent almost ten years spearheading policy at Playtech as the supplier’s chief policy officer. Then between January last year and August 2026, he led its global player-protection efforts as chief sustainable gambling officer.

During his tenure, Rodano was instrumental in deploying an AI-powered behavioural analytics platform, BetBuddy, which is designed to identify and intervene in potentially harmful gambling behaviours. 

Before moving to the private sector, Rodano served as the director of remote gaming at Italy’s regulator, Agenzia Dogane e Monopoli, for almost a decade.