Back to reality

Gwen Andrieux, managing director and founder of Dice London, on how virtual reality is redefining the online casino industry

Virtual reality is here, and it is not going away anytime soon. In 2012, the little known Oculus Rift project launched a Kickstarter campaign and quickly raised $2.4m for their product’s development. Fast forward two years and the company was poked, liked and then acquired by the superpower of Facebook. Last year saw similar products highlighted at events such as E3 from the likes of PlayStation VR (expected release 2016), Microsoft HoloLens (expected release late 2016) and HTC Vive (expected release April 2016). Oculus Rift ’s pre-orders are expected to begin shipping as early as end of March.

Today, Google has waded into the virtual reality war with the California-based fi rm working on a VR headset, which will be a follow up to its Cardboard platform. According to the Financial Times, Google’s new VR product will feature “better sensors, lenses and a more solid plastic casing”. Like Cardboard, the new headset will rely on a smartphone for its display and “most of its processing power”.

With all the major gaming players now involved – not forgetting Nintendo who are also planning some sort of VR release in the not too distant future – it’s clear that VR is the big thing for 2016. And it’s not just gaming that’s expected to benefit from the VR boom. The adult industry is also expected to be revolutionised by VR. Indeed, another start-up company, VirtuaDolls, has recently made headlines after having to temporarily suspend its campaign due to overwhelming demand for their product.

The only sticking point for VR in 2016 is that, for early adopters especially, it remains a relatively expensive proposition. There will be low cost headsets available from the likes of Samsung but the device needed to power them will not be cheap, whether that is a hand-held device or games console. The type of consumer who will be willing to pay for this new form of entertainment is therefore likely to be the millennial Halo 5 enthusiast rather than a traditional slot games player.

Deep impact
So how will this affect real-money gaming? We saw some ties between the gambling industry and virtual reality being formed in 2015 with William Hill showcasing its Get in the Race initiative. This fuses GPS race track data with VR technology in order to create an immersive 3D race experience for the user, where they can race (and of course bet) as a jockey.

Crispin Nieboer, William Hill Online’s interim managing director, said at the time: “The trials will help us decide whether to take it mass-market, and will also inform as to how, for example, we could create an installation which could go in our stores – someone could, once there, put on a headset and immediately be immersed in the environment. Or we could provide it just through mobile with Google Cardboard. We will need to decide if we should allow people to bet in it, or whether it should just be an experience once you have already placed your bet on mobile or online. There is a bunch of stuff we could do with it”.

In September last year, Microgaming won the Digital Gaming Innovation of the Year award with its VR Roulette. It is a truly exciting product. It uses Oculus Rift wearable technology to transport the player to a casino in cyberspace. VR Roulette utilises the Oculus Riſt DK 2 headset with the Leap Motion 3D Controller to track a player’s hand movements, and then project them into the 3D world. Examining analogue interactions across real and virtual environments, Microgaming developed VR Roulette to study the immersive potential of 3D technology in the gaming industry, in doing so it has laid the foundations for building a VR product that will come to the market in the very near future.

Some still may consider VR to be an improved video viewing experience but it is so much more than that. Approaching VR as a wholly immersive experience brings a better understanding of what consumers want. This sort of immersive gaming initiative while in its infancy, is something that is starting to happen in the real-money gaming world. Enter, SlotMillions.com having launched in late October 2015, this is a real-money multiplayer VR casino. In it, you can visit the bar, choose to play any number of 3D slots games, chat with other players, and even just look out the window of the skyscraper penthouse and admire the view, just don’t look down.

Making VR a reality
Virtual reality itself will create new social possibilities for online casinos and this, again could prove a revolution for the industry. There are already applications like Oculus’ theatre, which allows friends to watch movies together and interact with each other’s avatars. The same will happen with online casinos. Where the online experience always fell flat versus the bricks and mortar casinos is the social aspect. As the technology improves, companies will be able to create virtual communities transforming what is a lonely experience online into something more social.

From a marketing perspective, VR opens the door to a new world. Facebook’s plans for VR headsets seems to be a big part of their future. Every time Facebook has acquired a business, it’s impacted how businesses interact with consumers on social media, and its purchase of Oculus is no different. We are already seeing 360 degree videos on our news feeds, and once VR gear becomes mainstream, Facebook will favour ideas that utilise this tech and you can expect the other major publishers to follow suit.

Because of the experience it creates, VR will offer the ability to create a new type of content. This is another game changer for the online casino industry as it’s always been challenging for operators to create interesting content out of their platforms and games. There is only so much you can do with reels spinning.

Here to stay: Virtual reality is not going away anytime soon

As VR will boost the evolution of casino products, the way we advertise and feed content to players will also have to improve. It will no longer be about hard selling bonuses and casino games but about showcasing the experience. Virtual reality sells an experience and it will require marketer and advertiser to be even more creative when planning and creating content. If you are not already planning new ways to adapt your content marketing, you should be.

Last year saw the rise of ad blocking software. As an industry, we have become accomplished at delivering ads to our target users. So much so that those consumers are being bombarded and are becoming more and more discerning about the messages they want to listen to. Relevant, interesting content is a way of cutting through the noise and by-passing ad-blocking.

VR users immersed in the experience will be even more resistant to crude efforts to interrupt their viewing. Not only will they not want an ad break to disrupt their experience, they are likely to find more and more ways to circumnavigate that interruption. Interruption marketing isn’t dead yet, but the successful marketer will be the one creating interesting content that will encourage viewing and sharing by users, leading to greater, and more positive exposure for the brands in question.

Here to stay
VR is here and it is not going away, the possibilities it offers are vast for those companies that choose to embrace it. Even though we will still have to wait a while before we see more iterations of VR casinos, it is time to start thinking about how VR will impact on your marketing plan and activities, as all predictions are that this change will be upon us soon and have a huge impact on all aspects of the way consumers interact with their mobile and other entertainment devices.

A great place to start might be with a 360 degree camera for photos and videos. Find creative and unique ways to incorporate it into your current marketing plans and go from there. As usual, the early adopters will reap the benefits of showing early initiative.

The last few years have seen massive technological advancements allowing more efficient targeting of the audience. With VR now coming into play, a full re-think of how online casino products are promoted to users needs to take place. VR and the real-money gaming industry is a match made in heaven, as through VR you can appeal to the younger demographic – the millennials – by creating a truly immersive gambling experience you are able to keep people engaged and playing for longer.

This is half the battle in maintaining growth in the industry. The way consumers are addressed will also need to evolve alongside the products if we want this to be a success. The regular marketing channels will soon be redundant. The future battle for customers will be fought using immersive video content – it’s time for the industry to get its head in the game.