Differentiate or die in online casino

For several years the world of online casino felt like a commoditised sector with innovation around brand rather than product. But new launches from Gamesys and William Hill give an insight into the way mobile and the competitive environment is dramatically changing the old dame of egaming.

Once upon a time, the casino vertical was pretty simple. You picked your preferred software supplier, set up an affiliate network and off you went. The leading operators excelled in acquisition marketing and CRM and broadly there wasn’t a huge difference between many of the sites. In fact most operators embraced the conformity.

In the UK nearly everyone had a Playtech casino, in the Nordics everyone had a NetEnt product and for consumers it was really a choice between the red one and the blue one. But over the past 12-18 months we’ve seen a significant shift both from suppliers and operators towards more differentiated product sets.

While familiar looking games such as Cleopatra, Starburst and Rainbow Riches still dominate across the vertical what we’re beginning to see is far more differentiated content. Playtech and NetEnt games may be the most commonly seen, but most of the major sites heavily promote “exclusive” or in-house content.

Trying to cut through

Increasingly we are seeing software providers working closely with operators to generate this content, from Core Gaming with SkyBet to NetEnt with LeoVegas and Mr Green. We’re also seen the rise of in-house studios from some of the bigger operators with Paddy Power’s Cayetano subsidiary churning out new games at a rate of knots.

Games built bespoke by gaming studios give some cut-through in a cut-throat sector. In-house games meanwhile give operators that extra 5-15% of revenue that makes a huge difference to both top and bottom line in an era when regulators are keen to take an ever larger cut of the pie. But it’s about more than exclusive content and increased margin.

The smaller screen real estate on mobile means the death of the one-stop-shop where operators throw hundreds of different games onto a desktop platform hoping to cater to any potential user need. While these still exist on desktop, on mobile we’re seeing a far more considered approach. And Gamesys’ new launch was an interesting preview of what may lie ahead.

Monopoly Casino is a mobile-first launch from Gamesys using Sci Games content that has proved hugely popular both online and in land-based casinos as well as Gamesys-developed content using the Monopoly brand. It’s a joint venture that would have seemed extremely unlikely just a couple of years back, but times have changed.

Lessons to be learned

One of the bigger lessons from social casino and the hugely competitive battle for players was operators need cut-through with product as well as brand. When everyone has the same casino software and the same games through the same RGS this is a tough task to achieve. Simon Mizzi, Gamesys marketing director, summed it up neatly when speaking to EGR at the launch of the site.

“[Monopoly] has been such a strong and successful brand within egaming for years and the gameplay lends itself perfectly to a truly immersive and differentiated gaming experience, which is exactly what Gamesys is all about,” he said. Other operators have focused on a single brand, while 888 has launched new brands to target more distinct demographics with Wink Slots clearly aimed at the softer end of the market.

At the major sportsbooks it’s been a slightly different approach. William Hill, the UK’s largest online casino operator, told EGR it was building a “destinations-themed” strategy with its live casino Mayfair product complementing its Vegas and Macau brands. The latter was a recent launch using exclusive content from Scientific Games aimed at the Asian market both at home and further afield.

Betfair also recently launched a Macau tab, with exclusive content from TGP Games, and several of the major software suppliers are ramping up their “Asian” content output as the operators look to target more specific demographic niches. As the battle for new acquisitions switches to mobile and personalisation moves from concept to reality this demographic targeting is only going to become more prevalent.