INSIGHT
THE INEVITABLE DECLINE OF SLOTS?
The online slots market might appear to be booming but Gamevy CEO Paul Dolman-Darrall argues that it’ s the operators’ reach that’ s growing, not the appeal of the games, and that overly focusing on a narrow, niche product and player base could see the market slip away rapidly
YOU WOULD BE FORGIVEN for thinking that everyone plays slots and nothing else. Look around ICE or G2E and the flashing lights and endless jingling music of slot games take up most of the floor space.
Yet, in terms of popularity, slots are a niche market. The Gambling Commission’ s 2015 survey, Gambling Behaviour in Great Britain, showed that 7 % of the UK adult population play slots machines and 4 % play online. That compares with 46 % playing the National Lottery, 23 % playing scratch cards and 15 % playing other lotteries.
A valuable niche, though, surely? Slots players are often the most valuable set of customers, with high repeat play numbers. Yet in Vegas – the home of ranked slots machines – slots revenues are dropping as Millennials increasingly turn away from the game. For the first time, the casinos are making less money from gambling than from their other activities.
It’ s a view that often prompts disbelief from online operators. After all, revenues from online casino games are growing. What could be wrong with a rapidly expanding and profitable market?
As more people across the world become comfortable gambling online, of course the revenues will grow. There is a niche group of players who love slots, and the older demographic will become more accustomed to spending online. But the growth hides the underlying truth: the appeal of slots as a genre is not growing, it’ s merely the operators’ reach that’ s doing so.
The trouble with slots No one’ s suggesting you kill off a game that appeals to a high-spending group of loyal customers but the industry’ s obsession with the genre blinds it to other opportunities and risks under-investment in alternatives. In spite of enormous investment in brand licensing, hardware, software, art and technology, slots have changed little in terms of underlying mechanics.
The beeps and flashing lights have turned into more sophisticated animations, and the maths has become more complicated to accommodate free spins and other bonus features, but it remains a passive game that players, in a world where interactivity is king, can only watch.
On mobile, where players touch and swipe and tilt their phones, a slots game simply plays out, requiring nothing more than a single button press per spin. Whenever critics wish to stereotype the‘ zombie’ gambler, hypnotised into a state of unthinking win and loss, it is to slots machines that they turn.
I feel strongly about this because I am a gambler to my core. I will happily bet on anything: snow at Christmas, the Scottish referendum, and any sports match there is – including esports – roulette, blackjack and scratchcards.
In fact, I struggle to think of a game I won’ t play … other than slots – a game so boring I would rather fill out my tax return. And, although no decent entrepreneur or product manager should use their own anecdotal experience as evidence, I know that I am not alone.
“ The beeps and flashing lights have turned into more sophisticated animations, but it remains a passive game that players, in a world where interactivity is king, can only watch” iGB Affiliate Issue 66 DEC 2017 / JAN 2018
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