INSIGHT
“ If you’ re a new player who expects £ 10 or £ 15 to last them half an hour but puts it in a ultra-high-volatility game and loses everything in three minutes, a natural reaction is to put in more money, thinking you’ ve done something wrong” Stuart Armstrong, SlotGuru
Promising start It was first launched in Aspers Casino in January and earlier this month the European Casino Association announced it had entered into a partnership with the app provider, with ECA chair Per Jaldung saying“ the product was very well received by our members during a presentation at the recent ECA summer meeting at Resort & Casino Maestral”.
Armstrong says it is expecting to make announcements in the next couple of months regarding launches into other European casinos, and that the company is in talks with three to four new partners, all of which are land-based.
In part, the land-based focus comes from SlotGuru itself, Armstrong concedes, and with proven results in a land-based environment— for example, research by Aspers found that during its trial 84 % of users said the information was“ useful and informative” and 79 % asked that it continued to be available— it’ s no doubt an easier sell to bricks and mortar operators.
But there has also been some reluctance from online providers, he adds.“ The online customers we have spoken to want it but they want it embedded in their platform. They are very scared of people moving to other screens and moving away from the environment, which I think is understandable,” he says.
“ But the point we make here is that this is about putting the player front and centre and if you start treating your players with a degree of respect they will come back to you. Handcuffing them to a platform is not respect.”
Players access the app via a download code, which is provided by the operator, which pays SlotGuru each time it gives out a code. The reluctance of online operators is therefore perhaps justified – it’ s a lot easier for a player to use one site to get the app but then play with another than it is in the land-based environment.
Still, it may be a risk worth taking – although pricing is not publicly disclosed Armstrong says the cost to provide it to a player is akin to“ comping a customer a couple of drinks”, which is certainly less than the typical cost per acquisition of igaming operators today.
Responsible gambling focus There’ s an added benefit in that there is a strong responsible gaming focus, says Jaldung.“ Many of our members are already introducing technological innovations in a number of areas and an app-based solution for player education that also includes responsible gaming elements is certainly interesting.”.
Armstrong adds:“ A lot of work is going on in responsible gaming to help people acknowledge they’ ve got a problem. But very, very little has been done to stop people developing a problem and one of the things that we firmly believe in is it starts with education.
If you are not giving people information and they can’ t make effective choices, how can they be held responsible for their actions?
“ Let’ s say you’ re a new player and you’ ve got £ 10 or £ 15, you might put it on a machine and expect it to last you 20 minutes or half an hour. But if you put it in an ultra-high-volatility game and within three minutes you’ ve lost everything, a natural reaction is for people to put more money in thinking they’ ve done something wrong.”
Of course the other thing that happens in this example is that rather than chasing their losses, the player simply abandons the game and game provider altogether, which is even easier to do online than in the land-based environment and is certainly something an operator which has paid £ 100-plus to acquire that player wants to avoid.
Whether or not SlotGuru itself could be part of the answer to the eternal
“ It’ s a lot easier for an online player to use one site to get the app but then play with another than it is in the land-based environment” challenge igaming suppliers face in bringing down CPAs is not yet clear, but given the UK regulator’ s‘ consumer first’ mantra of late, the idea of educating customers and adopting a transparent approach does seem to be gaining traction in the gambling community.
It’ s long been the case that many of the most successful affiliates sites are those which educate players— maybe operators are missing a trick by not doing more of the same.
48 iGB Affiliate Issue 64 AUG / SEP 2017