Long read: Tomorrow's world

Out with the old, in with the new. A quick look back into the EGR Technology archives tells us 2016 was a year operators began experimenting with several new technologies. From Unibet, Stoiximan and Betfred offering voice activated bets for the first time on mobile, to Betsson making its debut on Apple TV with its roulette app – egaming has been taking its first steps into unknown territory as it looks to shake up the sector and be the first to capitalise on emerging trends.

In fact, embracing new technologies has been a common theme over the past couple of years but as we roll into the New Year the industry is already mulling over how the tech landscape will change the sector in the coming months. Will virtual reality finally take off? Will wearables make their long-awaited breakthrough?

Not yet a reality

Of all the new technologies hitting the market at present, virtual reality is certainly one of those gaining widespread commercial traction. With PlayStation having released its new VR headset ahead of Christmas, and Google, Facebook and Samsung all investing heavily in the technology, the product is appealing certainly to the masses.

Research firm Juniper Research predicts 2017 will be the year when most content creators head towards the VR platform for both console and PC-based VR. However, mass adoption in egaming appears to be a long way off. Betsson says it has been experimenting internally with virtual reality, but CTO Stefan Nordin is less than optimistic about its adoption in egaming in the coming months. “I would love to play games such as Battlefield using VR glasses, but I’m not 100% convinced today that the mass market in egaming is ready yet,” he says. “I don’t see myself sitting on the tube with those big, ugly glasses playing casino. We are keeping an eye on it for future use,” he adds.

Nordin’s thoughts are echoed by Fintan Costello of Revenue Engineers, who believes VR is “still too far away” to be used by the egaming industry. “From a mass market perspective I don’t think we are at that point where there is the must play game or killer game, I don’t think that exists yet,” says Costello. “When it does and there’s mass market adoption, you will then see the gambling industry catch up with content. The VR content right now is confined to a casino.”

Even Alea Gaming’s Alexandre Tomic, whose SlotsMillion brand launched the first virtual reality casino in 2015, admits the technology is not yet ready for mass use. However, he does optimistically predict it will become the go-to technology by 2022, but more realistically in 2026. “If you look at the development of mobile, we started talking about it back in 2006, then LeoVegas had the first mobile casino in 2012, and 2016 became the year for mobile-first,” says Tomic. “It took mobile around 10 years to become mobile-first. In 2022, we see VR as being big and by 2026 VR to become the main device, like mobile was to desktop.”

William Hill, which became one of the first operators to launch a gambling app for the Apple Watch, is set to shun the use of technologies such as VR, AR and wearables for the year ahead. Instead, it’s opting to improve its back-end capabilities. “We’re not doing any work around VR or wearables at the moment,” William Hill’s group chief information officer, Kevin O’Connor, says. “More of the focus for us is around navigation, and in the back-end focused around messaging and how we are able to distribute the processing and distribution of our content.”

Rise of the machines

Instead, and as O’Connor suggested, operators will be sharpening their focus on to what’s under the hood in order to improve the customer experience and differentiate themselves within a clustered market.

One area which is predicted to see further use by operators is machine learning, according to LeoVegas’ head of sportsbook Andreas Bardun. “With more games and betting opportunities than ever before, the demand for more accurate searches, personalised content and recommendations has never been greater,” he says. Bardun also believes the use of machine learning will help improve marketing and customer segmentation “which always have been a big problem in this industry”.

Dorothy Creaven, Element Wave CEO, believes machine learning will create a “ripple effect” in the mobile gaming sector as it will deliver a more personalised approach for customers. “Machine learning will deliver one-to-one, individualised betting journeys where players will be matched with the bets they are most interested in, and at the time when they are most receptive to it,” she explains. Creaven adds that early adopters will see “dramatic improvements” in player loyalty and lifetime value while operators that continue to fight the battle with legacy technology will be left behind.

Another area of artificial intelligence that is predicted to grow in usage is chatbots. Juniper Research anticipates chatbots will grow in presence and popularity in 2017, and the industry has already been dabbling with the technology. Odds comparison site SmartBets trialled its own bot during the European Championships, while Onionsack has stated previously it plans to extend its sports betting text service onto Facebook Messenger.

“The demand for more accurate searches, personalised content and recommendations has never been greater” Andreas Bardun, LeoVegas

Costello believes moving an operator’s current standalone text-based service apps onto a user’s messaging platform makes “perfect sense” and he adds: “The technology is pretty much commoditised so it’s relatively straightforward to do. “There’s a great opportunity for affiliates to come and become the aggregator like ‘Get me the best odds on West Ham to win’ and the affiliate will provide you with the best odds and a link to the bookmaker’s site to place a bet.”

Shout to the top

While emerging technologies such as VR and wearables may be relatively low on the list of priorities, voice technology could be an exception to the rule. Voice recognition technology made its first foray into the gambling industry in 2016, used by the likes of Unibet, Betfred and Stoiximan to enable punters to place bets via voice commands. Stoiximan’s head of product design and innovation, George Kourakos, believes the technology can take off in the industry in the near-term, citing the speed and simplicity it can provide for sports betting on mobile devices.

“I think the betting industry has a great opportunity to take advantage of voice recognition and offer a great experience especially on mobile products,” says Kourakos. “There are technical challenges but with the appropriate research all of them can be overcome.”

Costello is another supporter of the technology, but instead believes it will be best used alongside wearables and smart TVs. “It will take a while but I think by the end of 2017 if everyone hasn’t launched it, they’re halfway through building something they are going to launch,” says Costello.

“In certain use cases, voice technology has an advantage so, for example, telling my TV what to do so if the bookmaker has a TV app, voice is probably one of the easiest ways to control it. The same with smartwatches, controlling it using voice is probably the best way to command it,” he adds.

As covered previously in EGR Technology, there are a number of industry heads that remain unconvinced with the technology’s use in egaming. One of those, Betsson’s Nordin, still believes touchscreen is the best method to place bets via mobile phones. However, he does envisage a possible use of the technology in the future. “Maybe voice and virtual reality might work in the future. If you look at smart home technology, such as Amazon’s Echo, you could envisage people using voice technology in the home environment, while watching a match for instance,” he says.

Existing trends

While operators will continue to be on the lookout for the technologies which can give them an edge, a large number of eyes will remain focused on the bread and butter. Mobile penetration will continue to grow in 2017, particularly in large markets such as Italy and Spain, where it has yet to reach its full potential.

Cherry CTO Dario Arruda believes some firms are still too slow to the party and says they cannot afford to wait any longer. “Mobile is certain to become the biggest revenue stream for operators in the future and adopting an omni-channel strategy will be imperative for those that want to boost player engagement,” he says. It’s perhaps an obvious conclusion but some mobile products simply aren’t up to scratch.

Big data, too, will continue to play a significant role as operators look to capitalise on the availability of information that can be used across the business. William Hill, which launched a new data warehouse earlier this year, will be utilising its data to gain a better understanding of punters. “This will help show us how to engage better with our customers,” O’Connor says. “This will drive everything from bonusing to promotions to customisation of the user interface.”

So while it’s difficult to call exactly what new technologies will emerge within the egaming sector in 2017, the one thing we can be sure of is that those that stand still will be in danger of being left behind. Whether that be through a failure to improve on current tech or adopting new technologies, customers have now come to expect the best UX and operators must deliver.