The leading games industry conference is almost here. Pocket Gamer Connects London is less than a week away and what a lineup of speakers we’ve got in store for you.

On January 23rd and 24th Pocket Gamer Connects hits home soil, returning to London for two days of insight-sharing, and contact-making interspersed with our world-famous thought-provoking panels, seminars, keynotes and more.

There are amazing networking opportunities and our expert sessions are your chance to get up close and meet some of the biggest names in mobile games in what will be our biggest and best PG Connects London yet!

In the run-up to the event, the PG.biz team spoke to Amit Monheit from Odeeo to find out more about the company, the work it does and his take on the global mobile games sector in 2023.

Monheit is the CEO and Co-Founder of Odeeo, a global leader in in-game audio advertising solutions. Monheit and his co-founder Elad Stern started Odeeo in 2020 with a vision of connecting mobile games to the evolving digital audio ad ecosystem, building on their decades of success in digital advertising.

Before founding Odeeo, Monheit served as Head of Growth and Monetisation at Audioburst after leading several global business units in senior roles at ironSource for over seven years. Since its launch, Odeeo has expanded across the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, and has established partnerships with some of the top global mobile publishers.

Be sure to join us at PG Connects London on January 23rd to 24th 2023 to find out more!

PocketGamer.biz: What can we expect to hear from you at PGC London?

Amit Monheit: More than ever, publishers need to diversify their ad monetisation approaches and tap into emerging parts of the advertising ecosystem. Audio has already proven to be a viable complement to existing ad monetisation, and we expect it will be an essential part of the revenue stack going forward. In our talk, Odeeo and DAX will explain how audio ads can benefit the user experience, why brands are more eager to invest in gaming than ever before, and why audio matters to them.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the games industry in 2023?

Game developers need to have faith in the monetiSation ecosystem in order to commit to building mobile games, and that faith has been eroded over the past few years by the App Stores and the broader digital economic shifts.

They need to know that there are some 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 diversification and less volatility in the advertising mix, the more faith game developers can have in understanding the economics of their business.

Is there anything happening in other areas of gaming - such as PC/Console that you think will impact the mobile games space in the near future?

One thing that console and PC games have historically been brilliant at, which is a bit of a weak spot for mobile games, is the 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.

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-grabbers like TikTok. I believe the current challenges to the hypercasual space, like the crackdown on excessive ads, will force greater innovation and creativity in the space.

What drew you to the games industry?

My co-founder Elad and I had done tours of duty around many parts of the digital landscape, including gaming, before starting Odeeo. And what drew us back 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 that play is an important part of connecting people. The second thing is the mobile gaming community, which is made up of so many of the brightest, most creative, and most entrepreneurial people.

Find out more about Pocket Gamer Connects London and get your tickets right here!