Friday view: The demands of mobile casino
Chris Scicluna, platform manager at Mr Green, on the challenges and key enablers of mobile casino products
 
eGR Mobile Intelligence (eMI): How has Mr Green found the mobile casino sector so far?
Chris Scicluna (CS): We launched our new mobile casino in September and itâs had its challenges and benefits. The original idea was to have a fully functional casino on a small amount of real estate – which is a challenge in itself. This being said, mobile naturally provides several added benefits, the biggest one being that in its nature its portable allowing our users to carry their preferred online casino in their pockets at all times.
eMI: Have you been impressed by any other mobile casino products?
CS: There are several mobile casinos on the market that strive to shine and some of them are succeeding in providing a good experience, especially in the Scandinavian market. Some operators are also exploring native solutions which provide a very good user experience.
eMI: What are the key enablers for mobile?
CS: Platform is key, it has to be fast, fast and most importantly⦠fast! By its nature mobile is pervasive and users expect instant gratification from every interaction, users also naturally expect it to work in a smooth way as Appleâs iOS from the outset. The whole team received positive feedback when we optimised our mobile casino; mobile has to be at the usersâ fingertips, they want to play immediately.The platform has to be accessible on the multitude of devices and operating systems that exist and will exist in the future. The experience has to be unparalleled and easy to use making each and every primary action accessible at all times. Content is also key. People expect to play their favourite titles irrelevant of device or channel, they want to play their favourite slot whether they are on their mobile or desktop and expect the same experience each time.
eMI: And do these issues differ on tablet?
CS: I think the industry has been very focused on mobile lately, but the same cannot be said for tablet. Weâre seeing a positive trend in tablet activity, which the market has to adjust to. Tablets also have the additional benefit of providing greater real estate space allowing more contextual information on screen; plus thereâs the natural way in which users use their tablets from the comfort of their sofas, connected to a WiFi connection which allows for a much more stable and faster experience.
eMI: How different is it to make a casino product for tablet?
CS: It doesnât have to be totally different, but you can include additional experiences. For example on desktop we have VIPs that love to play table games like Roulette and Black Jack but at the same time have a micro-game of slots running on-screen at the same time. Tablet also has this possibility, so we could have roulette and a video slot on screen at the same time. Thatâs something thatâs almost impossible to do on smartphone. The key is to adapt the experience of the device/channel to the user whoâs playing, users interact in different ways on desktop, tablet and mobile.