What is Branded Content Licence?

A branded content licence is the agreement under which a game studio uses somebody else's intellectual property — a film, a band, a television format, an athlete's name and likeness — in a slot or live game show. It is a commercial contract with a rights holder, and it is entirely separate from the gambling licences a studio and an operator hold. The defining feature is that it runs for a term. A studio licenses a property for a fixed number of years, and when the term ends the studio must stop distributing the game unless the deal is renewed, which is why branded titles are heavily over-represented among games that vanish from lobbies. The rights holder may decline to renew for reasons that have nothing to do with the game's performance, and rights to music, a likeness and a trademark can sit with different parties whose agreements end on different dates. Two things follow that are worth knowing. A branded slot carries costs an unbranded one does not — a licence fee and often a royalty — and that cost is met from the same budget the return is paid out of, which is one reason branded titles sometimes carry returns a little below a studio's own norm. And because the tile art usually carries a rights notice naming the licensor rather than the studio, that line is the quickest way to see whose permission a game is running on.