Odeeo is an in-game audio advertising solutions platform that launched back in 2020. Since then, the company has expanded across the Middle East, Europe and the Americas and continued to form partnerships with mobile publishers.
We spoke with the CEO and Co-Founder of Odeeo, Amit Monheit, who before his time at Odeeo worked as the head of growth and monetisation at Audioburst and also has over seven years of senior experience at ironSource.
We discuss the mobile games industry with Monheit, covering the fate of the hypercasual model and what console or PC trend the mobile space is yet to master.
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What is the single biggest challenge facing the mobile games industry today?
Game developers need to have faith in the monetisation ecosystem in order to commit to building mobile games. That faith has been eroded over the past few years by changes to the app stores and the broader digital economic shifts. They need to know that there are stable revenue streams that will be available to them. This is why we’re so bullish on trying to bring more brand advertiser revenue to publishers and developers. The more that we evangelise diversification and reduce volatility in the advertising sector, the more confidence game developers can have in understanding the economics of their business.
What game has been on your phone the longest?
Football Manager – going back to when it was Championship Manager!
Is hypercasual gaming here to stay?
Hypercasual gaming is certainly here to stay, and I’m excited to see how it will evolve. The fundamentals of hypercasual, the ease with which someone can start playing, and the addictive nature of the games speak to a huge segment of the mobile gaming audience, many of whom may not ever play other genres of games. In some ways, hypercasual games are the only true competitors to attention-grabbing apps like TikTok. I believe the current challenges to the hypercasual space, such as the crackdown on excessive ads, will force greater innovation and creativity in the space.
The mobile space evolves at a much faster pace than console and PC gaming, but is there a console or PC trend that you think has potential within the mobile space?
One thing that console and PC games have historically been brilliant at, which is a bit of a weak spot for mobile games, is creativity and investment around audio. Whether it’s the radio stations in GTA, the instantly recallable Super Mario theme, or the cinematic scores of Final Fantasy, classic “video game” music never really crossed over to mobile. The sonic landscape of mobile games is still ripe for innovation.
What was the fundamental appeal of the mobile games industry that brought you to it?
My co-founder Elad and I had done tours of duty around many parts of the digital landscape, including gaming, before starting Odeeo. What drew us back to the mobile games industry were two things. One is the fact that games bring people joy, that it’s an industry that really does contribute to more positivity overall in society and plays an important part in connecting people. Secondly, the mobile gaming community itself, which is made up of so many of the brightest, most creative, and most entrepreneurial people in the world.