Interview: Skyâs the limit â part three
The third and final part of eGR Mobile Intelligenceâs exclusive interview with Sky Betting & Gaming director of products Conor Grant
eMI: Whatâs key for mobile poker?
CG: Ease of use. Internally we like to think players âsnackâ when playing poker on mobile, and what we mean by that is these sessions wonât be nearly as long as traditional desktop sessions, so we have to make an optimum experience that maximises their entertainment and that includes ease of use, log in and making sure itâs easy to find tables very quickly, so they can log in and play within a short period of time. I still think mobile is an area of growth for poker.
eMI: Has the independence of not being on a poker network helped?
CG: I think itâs helped us as a business. It means we can do our own thing and as a network weâre not plagued by rake back. Playtech has had to balance the liquidity by using different rake structures. We donât have that challenge, ours is about driving volume and liquidity. It helps having the TV channel to drive more exposure, but I think building a good product is paramount. Thereâs plenty more we could do with it, but we want to see how it grows. Weâve just soft-launched sit-n-go cash tournaments, so now weâll take a period of rest before thinking about how to form the next stage of development.
eMI: What can we expect from Sky Bet on mobile throughout H2?
CG: More of the same hopefully. Weâve focused a lot on product innovation and one of the key areas weâre committed to improving are our customers’ in-play experience. Weâve also created this entity called the Sky Bet club which is a loyalty scheme, and weâve got to maximise the opportunity around that, and hopefully there are one or two more surprises in the coming weeks and months. The market has got a little too saturated with me-too products, and the key for us is to really focus on what would differentiate our proposition and how to make our product better.
eMI: How much of a focus is Sky Bet giving emerging devices such as wearables and Google Glass?
CG: Probably not enough, but weâre keeping a close eye on it (no pun intended). As a business weâre well aware we donât have the resource capabilities that some of our bigger competitors do, so the key for us is the capability to identify, react quickly and develop the things that will add real value to our business. Wearable technologyâs still in an embryonic stage and hard to justify investment. We havenât seen any customer demand yet, or certainly not enough to start building the next phase of gambling apps for wearable technology. Will wearable technology be the future of betting in the next two or three years? I think it will, but whether thatâs glasses, watches or a new phenomenon I simply donât know
eMI: So would you say the mobile market will be shaped more by product than perhaps technology?
CG: I think thatâs a very fair assumption. Firms like Hills and bet365 and Ladbrokes to a degree, theyâre increasingly building capabilities. It points to a lot of change in the more traditional sportsbook strategies. Are people reacting to the different technology? I wouldnât say that weâre quite there yet, but I think itâs more about people wanting to build and differentiate through customer experiences. Mobile technology has released a lot of firms from the traditional shackles and limitations that desktop seemed to bring. Mobile is a lot more flexible and you can move quicker. I think youâll see quite a lot of changes and a few new products being released over the next 12 months.