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Evoplay's CEO Ivan Kravchuk has spent the past year talking less about "trends" and more about the small, stubborn details that shape how a game feels in the first 30 seconds. In a market where new releases stack up by the week, he describes design as the difference between a title that is sampled once and one that becomes a habit.
The company's recent awards, product experiments, and North American push have turned that design-first view into a measurable business story, with Evoplay pointing to stronger engagement and rising bet volume across the first half of 2025.
In an interview conducted by BonusFinder this fall, Kravchuk linked Evoplay's momentum to a tight loop: build with clear mechanics, test with real players, then ship with enough polish that nothing feels out of place. He also described expansion as a design problem in its own right, with new jurisdictions forcing studios to recheck what resonates locally without losing the studio's identity.
Awards that doubled as a design checkpoint
Kravchuk pointed to a summer award run as a public marker for work that had been underway for years. He said Adrenaline Rush took first place for Game Design and Art Direction at the SBC Awards Europe 2025, and later received Industry Innovation of the Year at the SBC Awards 2025.
He framed those trophies less as a finish line and more as a test of whether an idea can stand next to other studios' best work. Internally, he credited the design and art teams for turning ambitious concepts into playable products that still behave like casino games, with clear rules and readable outcomes.
The company has also been recognised before. Kravchuk referenced Evoplay's 2022 Game Developer Awards results, where Star Guardians won gold for Game Design and Art Direction and took silver in a separate innovation category, in what he described as early validation for the studio's direction.
Why does design show up in retention metrics
Kravchuk's core argument is straightforward: players notice imbalance. As he put it, "Game design is fundamental." He described weak design as something that shows up quickly, whether the interface feels unintuitive, the pacing of rewards feels off, or the visuals and mechanics pull in different directions.
His description of good design leaned on balance and flow. "Good design is always about balance," he said, linking that balance to how mechanics cooperate, how wins land in rhythm, and whether art and sound support what the game is doing.
He cited Evoplay's long-running Hot Triple Sevens line as a practical example of iterative design. Across releases such as Hot Triple Sevens Special, American Sevens, and Hot Triple Sevens Hold & Win, the company has kept a recognisable core while adding features and themes in measured proportions, an approach he said helps titles become long-term favourites.
Adrenaline Rush and the Push Beyond Familiar Slot Grammar
Kravchuk described Adrenaline Rush as a first-of-its-kind 3D racing title in iGaming, built around manual controls that allow players to influence what happens during each race. In his telling, that skill-based layer was the point, and also the risk, because it asked casino audiences to learn a new kind of interaction.
To make the concept stick, the game leaned into video-game language: multiple cars with distinct attributes, characters with personalised storylines, and a structure that treats each race like a short episode rather than a spin-and-stop sequence.
He also highlighted gamification features, including leaderboards, player statistics, and bonus rewards, which he said encouraged longer sessions. The project later expanded into two related products, a slot titled Adrenaline Rush: Super Boost and a crash game called Adrenaline Rush: XCrash, forming what he described as a connected storytelling universe that could meet different player tastes.
A Growth Story Built on Launches and New Verticals
Evoplay has attached numbers to its recent run. Kravchuk said the company recorded a 47% rise in activity and a 24% increase in total bets in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024.
Speaking with BonusFinder, he linked that lift to multi-year groundwork, then to a set of newer initiatives: entry into lottery and bingo formats, new development concepts, and a stronger B2C push aimed at tightening the relationship between studio and player.
That relationship work included wider collaboration with affiliate platforms, media partners, bloggers, and influencers, alongside direct outreach to players through interviews and feedback collection. Kravchuk said one partnership produced a joint title, Uncrossable Rush, and that early results exceeded internal expectations for popularity and engagement.
Testing also became more visible. He described an "exclusive test campaign" for Oath of Steel run with SlotsCalendar, where players were invited to share feedback on graphics, mechanics, and gameplay, and where that feedback was fed back into development decisions.
Canada as a First Step into North America
Kravchuk positioned Canada as a strategic entry point, describing it as Evoplay's first step into North America. He said the company received a supplier licence from Ontario's Alcohol and Gaming Commission earlier in 2025, and later announced a partnership with Caesars Entertainment that expanded its footprint in the market.
He described the environment as mature, with a sizable base of players and a local studio scene that is attentive to production quality. In his words, "The market is especially interesting because of its mature gaming environment," and he argued that variety matters, with a portfolio spanning slots, instant titles, and crash games used to test what different audiences respond to.
Through partnerships with operators including Caesars Entertainment and Rivalry, he said a range of titles were already available in Ontario. He cited classics such as Hot Triple Sevens, Hot Volcano, and The Greatest Catch Bonus Buy, alongside a football-themed instant title called Penalty Shoot-Out.
What does expansion mean when each market has its own preferences
Kravchuk said global expansion has been part of Evoplay's operating model, but he described Canada as a market that demanded extra focus and resources compared with some earlier launches. The payoff, in his view, was the chance to learn what resonates locally in a highly developed environment.
He described the next phase as gradual and portfolio-led: introduce more titles, widen the partner network, and continue running promotional initiatives built around player input. The longer-term ambition, he said, is to expand further across North America, using early performance data as a guide rather than a marketing script.
Conclusion
Kravchuk's comments returned repeatedly to the same point. For Evoplay, design is not a layer added at the end, but the structure that holds everything else together, from award submissions to regional launches.
The company's 2025 story, as he described it, has been a blend of experimentation and restraint: pushing into new formats and game types while guarding the balance that makes a title feel coherent. In a crowded release calendar, that coherence is the product.