Interview: Gigi Levy on his vision for 888
Ask 888 chief exec Gigi Levy about the biggest emerging trend in egaming and you get an interesting answer: "immersion".
ASK 888 chief executive Gigi Levy about the biggest emerging trend in egaming and you get an interesting answer. Yes, B2B, consolidation, convergence figure and M&A is the big picture winner from a corporate perspective. But on the consumer side, he answers “immersion”.
“For example, sports betting will be part of the experience of watching a game. Through your cellular, through your television, through an upper layer on the video, in the stadium by people, by you being able to SMS “ it’s going to be immersed. It’s not going to be a stand-alone experience.”
Poker, for which he says 888 has a proposition due that will change its market position significantly, will be played for money and for fun via mobile, the iPad, TV and through Playstation, as well as the web “ all with the same account.
With an API (application programming interface), a software interface that enables interaction with other software, other vendors will take a ‘widget’ and offer users’ accounts benefits to encourage them to do something in return.
“So, imagine you go into an affiliate website, but that affiliate is not a normal affiliate; it’s an affiliate that promotes a washing powder. They take the widget and turn it into the ‘washing powder roulette’ where you choose a number and if you win you win a prize or washing powder.”
He points out that ‘everything’ is a computer now “ the car, the phone, the laptop, the fridge. And the internet is all around us “ 3G, WiMAX, WiFi, LTE (the next step toward 4G) etc.
“By 2013 in western Europe more than 50% of the people will have mobile smart internet around them, in their hands.”
Combine that with the ability to take your identity everywhere through platforms such as Facebook Connect and the demand for game playing via sites such as Zynga, Playfish and Miniclip and you have an interesting equation.
“This is a huge opportunity for us because we come from a place where games are the main thing we do. I see a world where there’s a game in every store, and in every window there’s a QR Code [a two-dimensional barcode designed to be read by mobile phone cameras] and you may win something.”
Life and games will combine for real-world outcomes. He paints a vision of someone frequenting a bar regularly and being rewarded for loyalty with a game-like identity, giving the person more status “ combining ego, competition and the desire to play games.
“This is the way the world is going and I think the industry is very well positioned to take advantage. We have games, we have identities, we have wallets, we have everything. There will be a place for games to be immersed a lot more into the entire experience “ the watching and browsing experience, the playing experience, the shopping experience.”
This is why passionate web disciple Levy forces management to meet with start-ups, why he himself is investing in numerous new technology companies, and why 888 has built two play-money Facebook applications (one for poker, one for bingo called Bingo Island).
The company has also acquired corporate venturing stakes and offers services to a couple of internet plays it feels are aligned to this vision, including the online version of Rummikub, a popular board game.
“So we’re looking to immerse our games into the social networking and mobile experience and we are also looking to do a few more things around that which are clearly quite sensitive given we want to be first.”
Watch closely.
This article accompanies the CEO Interview with Gigi Levy in the May issue of eGaming Review.