C OV E R S T O RY / W H AT ’ S N E X T F O R E G A M I N G ?
EGAMING’S
ONES TO WATCH
MR GREEN
The casino operator has
outgrown its native Nordic
markets and is now on
the cusp of a major push
into Western Europe. It
is also expanding into
social through its Social
Thrills subsidiary and new
demographics with its
Garbo brand.
CASUMO
Malta-based Casumo has
already achieved success
in the Nordic markets,
and 2015 is set to be a
year of both European
and mobile expansion.
Casumo’s products have a
strong focus on social and
gamification features.
INTERTAIN
The Canada-based firm
is rapidly building up a
portfolio of major gaming
brands with Costa Bingo,
InterCasino and Vera&John
already part of its stable.
More acquisitions are
expected to follow in 2015.
COLOSSUS BETS
The sports pools betting
firm has developed a
thriving B2B business,
providing its proprietary
betting and fractional
cash-out product to a
number of third-party
BETWAY
The multi-vertical operator
is spending big in order to
cause a splash in the UK
and has become a familiar
name within the sports
sponsorship market. It has
operations in a number of
regulated markets and is
expected to continue to
ramp up spend in 2015.
666BET
Launched by egaming
veteran Barry Martin just
before the World Cup,
666Bet recently acquired
Metro Play. Further M&A
activity is expected soon.
GVC
The firm is expected to
continue to be an active
player in the M&A sector
with a focus on dot.com
markets and has been
rumoured as a potential
suitor for bwin.party’s
unregulated business.
It recently invested in
Nordic-facing BetIt Group.
BGO
BGO is the gaming startup from Costa Bingo
founder Richard Skelhorn
and is already garnering
a reputation as one of
the more sophisticated
CRM operators out there.
Playtech recently invested
£10m in the firm.
Russia’s first forays into a regulated online gambling
market have proven to be murky at best, while South Africa’s
fledgling legislation – tabled at the start of the year – has
come unstuck under allegations of corruption within the
country’s National Gambling Board. Latin America still excites
many online firms and Brazil is as close as ever to regulating
its online gambling market, although whether or not this
progress will bear any fruit remains to be seen.
A draft bill in the country promises to legalise almost all
forms of online gambling and implement a European-styled
licensing structure with strict punishments for those who
flout those laws but as Neil Montgomery, partner at Brazilian
legal firm Montgomery & Associados says, success of the bill
is far from certain. “Our legislative process is most uncertain
and highly susceptible to political pressure,” Montgomery
says, concluding that process could yet take “many years”.
54
S
P R O D U CT &
TECHNOLOGY
operators, most notably
Betfair and Ladbrokes
Australia.
04
w PRODUCT IS TAKING UP MORE RESOURCES FOR
MANY EGAMING FIRMS
Product has finally emerged during the past two years as a
crucial differentiation tool and a real driver of growth. Rival
firms previously content to adopt a commoditised product
set have begun pouring resource into bespoke games, inhouse developed content and unique front-end wrappers.
William Hill’s in-house Vegas product has been a key part
of its success in 2014, while companies like Paddy Power and
Betfair have invested significantly in ensuring their products
stand out, with both firms boasting sizeable research and
development budgets.
Paddy Power’s Cayetano Gaming studio has been identified
as a key asset for the firm’s gaming products while Betfair
recently disclosed that its development budget will stretch to
£37m in 2015, with additional work on combining its flagship
exchange and fixed-odds betting products understood to be
in the pipeline. And the reason for this investment is twofold.
Firstly, customers now expect a far more sophisticated
and complete offering than ever before, both on desktop
and mobile. And secondly, these product innovations have
been shown to drive incremental growth. In short, if you
deliver a quality product, customers will increase their spend,
particularly in sports betting.
Betfair has delivered a number of key innovations such
as Cash Out and its nascent Price Rush product, and shown
an increase in organic revenue growth as a result. Investing
in similar ‘game-changing’ features will be required to drive
revenues in 2015. Bernard Marantelli, CEO at sports pools
operator Colossus Bets, says that product innovations will be
vital, particularly in saturated product verticals dominated by
a handful of big names, over the next few years.
And nowhere will this be more important than on mobile.
The mobile channels have shown if you build it, they will
spend, with customer values rising on the back of fast,
W W W. E G R M A G A Z I N E . C O M