Source : The Innovation Group
• In North America we spoke of the VLT movement , which has expanded in the U . S . and Canada , and added HHRs ( historical horse racing machines ) to the portfolio of distributed systems . We also were just then beginning to ask what would become of online gaming , which , despite massive expansion and the insertion of sports betting , is still a good question today .
The Past Five Years : What ’ s Hot and What ’ s Not
The Innovation Group ’ s Crystal Ball perspective for each year since 2016 is organized roughly into pre- and post-Covid periods in the chart on the following page . In a real sense , it was only during Covid that many of us acknowledged that change in the gaming industry — like other businesses reliant on leisure technology platforms — was ramping up dramatically . Interest in topics like data science , blockchain , online gaming platforms and payments emerged at later stages in the industry ’ s trajectory , but with a much more concentrated business development focus . Increasingly , these technology-driven business development categories seem more likely to be absorbed into gaming horizontally , in contrast to the vertical integration that brought casinos , parimutuel facilities and route operations together .
The graphic on the next page reflects our sense of “ what ’ s hot and what ’ s not ” historically , and going into 2023 . There are fine lines around some of the product categories as outlined , but for a qualitative review the distinctions should work . You can observe that 1 ) the darker the demarcation of the input , the hotter the topic ; and 2 ) the closer together the hot topics , the more quickly and intensively they have been explored .
2023 : Short-Term Trends
We are so used to discussing the unique forms of gaming critically , the simplicity of the manner in which trend information is illustrated in the chart can be misleading — the less-obvious cultural and long-term influences on the industry lie below the surface . Our holistic interpretation of these observations takes a few forms , which we share below .
Schism Culture . The speed of change in gaming and its technological nature have created a wide knowledge gap between its seasoned executives and emerging leaders . Within the companies developing gaming technologies , this trend is likely no more disruptive than in any other technology-dependent industry . But in operating companies , this is manifested in routine planning meetings where seasoned decision-makers have to rely heavily on input from professional peers who speak an almost entirely different language . For example , within gaming operations that are in transition , where competing player engagement strategies spar for resources , it seems that neither traditional nor new data-driven forms of marketing have really nailed it across the many types of players in the mix .
Dilution of Control . One of the most consequential advantages of the gaming industry is also one of its greatest weaknesses : We are insular . For example , it took traditional gaming companies several years to truly accept the earliest forms of loyalty and CRM — perhaps a decade behind airlines and credit cards . So , as the industry got its marketing analytics , operating platform technologies and security protocols together , the DNA of the tech companies helping make those technological transitions adopted the industry itself . We see this in the online space , in payments , and even security technology companies that have entered the lottery and platform technology ( CMS ) development businesses . The result is a dramatically diverse makeup of businesses that today identify as “ gaming companies ” and , thus , a dilution of industry control previously held by its operators .
Reorganization Fatigue . Gaming , lodging and leisure as a broader industry has been deconstructed and reconstructed many times , mainly for the purpose of boosting company valuation multiples . This trend began with the
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