FEATURE LIVE GAMING
possibly can. Now, we’re still doing that but we have the processes markets can attract the biggest private and publicly in place and we think we can add more value to our licensees. listed licensees – around 70% of the top 20 in Europe in We’re [effectively] beginning to think and act much more like an fact. Liljevall and his team may never discount one day operator,” Liljevall says, pointing out that the company has just working in Asia, but for now he is more than happy to stick to and begun to develop a business intelligence team capable of analysing grow what the business has developed and become experts in and potentially improving what it currently does. The ?rst of these before venturing elsewhere. employees has just arrived with a number of others scheduled to I know the company well but until I arrived in Latvia's capital city, join as the year progresses. I'd never seen the business in action. Until you do, you simply don’t An example could be, he suggests, individual triggers for VIPs; realise what it takes to run such an operation to the precise levels something a handful of its clients are already working on within that Evolution is required by its licensees and the service level their own teams, but an aspect that has not yet been thoroughly agreements each party agrees. analysed on the supplier side of live and which does not have the “The place runs like clockwork”, explains Helen Hedgeland, who rigorous processes in place that could develop and take it to the runs the company’s London office and all its communications, as I next level. watch Liljevall swipe his index ?nger The scale of the operation is across a ?ngerprint reader to allow vast with 1,000 employees, 700 us into Evolution's inner sanctum. of whom are dealers that operate It runs like this largely down to the across more than 100 tables on COO’s maniacal attention to detail three rotating shifts every 24 as he shows me numerous slides and hours. The main gaming ?oor is discusses processes from analysing impressive with dedicated tables and reducing the speed of a game Svande Lilijevall | COO, Evolution from the likes of 888, Ladbrokes, round of blackjack to the size of a Unibet and Paf sitting alongside dealer’s ?ngernails and how this a generic VIP section that can affects the method, speed and be used by operators if they so wish, as well as individual branded efficiency at which the largely female dealers deal cards while on tables and other single generic tables that again can be used by camera. “There are hundreds more like this”, he says, promising not smaller operators should they need them. to bore me, but I understand immediately the degree to which he Many of these have permanent branding in place, however a has had to go and to which he and his team have gone to take live number also have the option of a blue screen allowing the operator casino this far. more ?exibility when it comes to signage and advertising. Before “Until now we have been very focused on industrialising live they even reach that stage, each dealer receives three weeks' – the processes, procedures and making live work as best as we
"WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN VERY FOCUSED ON INDUSTRIALISING LIVE. WE'RE STILL DOING THAT BUT WE'RE BEGINNING TO THINK AND ACT LIKE AN OPERATOR"
888 is one of a number of operators with dedicated tables and dealers using Evolution's services
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