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All the fun of a live casino in the comfort of your own home? Matt Broughton looks at just how close Evolution Gaming are getting to the dream product
Mermaids: it’s just really never going to work is it? Obviously they look very nice bobbing about in the water waving and cooing, and yes they always have great hair and fantastic upper-body definition (swimming daily is a tremendously effective exercise regime) but there’s all that ‘luring sailors to their death’ to deal with, not to mention mackerel breath. Should you successfully convince one to accompany you to Butlin’s for a super-saver weekender, the impracticalities of being with someone who’s 100% fish from the navel down become all too clear. Never mind any romantic notions; simply making it down in time for the bingo becomes a saga unless you happen to have a hospital gurney or shopping trolley to hand, and one awkward mention of ‘seafood salad’ on the menu and she’ll be flapping home on the first viaduct.
Now I appreciate this isn’t a standard opening for an article about live casino providers, but upon visiting the home page of EvolutionGaming.com, the first thing you can’t help but notice is the siren smile of a fish/woman and the promise of live slots in which “…players’ fortunes take on a whole new spin with the appearance of the Live Mermaid”. Intrigued? Yes, I thought you might be. Sadly you’ll have to wait another 1,006 words before I mention her again (textbook journalistic teasing).
Evolution Gaming was founded in 2006 with the sole intention of bringing live mermaids to a wider audience (not true). What is true, however, is that in 2007 the company signed its first agreement with Coral, and a mere four years later serves 17 of the 20 top tier online operators, delivering live dealer roulette, baccarat and blackjack to gaming giants such as William Hill, 888, Ladbrokes and Party Gaming.
Broadcasting from Riga, Latvia, the company operates from studios spread across four floors, with around 270 dealers streaming live feeds across the globe. Head of Marketing, Helen Hedgeland, explains the studio set-up: “Our top floor is dedicated to VIPs and high rollers, so the surroundings are more luxurious with the girls dressed in elegant gold dresses. When you come in as a dealer you start on one of the normal floors and work your way up, so only the very best girls service the VIP groups.”
Evolution dedicates half its space to generic tables serving a number of clients, with additional areas housing blue screen chroma key facilities and dedicated client tables. “If you’re logging into roulette from two different operators you could end up on the same table with the same dealer,” explains Helen. “However, an operator like Ladbrokes or William Hill will have dedicated tables specifically for their customers only. If Ladbrokes wants its dealers to be wearing branded attire, or if it’s a Champion’s League night and they want to have the girls wearing Chelsea kits, we can accommodate that.”
CROSS-DRESSING
Many of Evolution’s clients take full advantage of the dedicated tables to host cross-sell and cross-promotional activities. During the Carling Cup, Ladbrokes held lucky draws at the table for their players. Similarly, on St Patrick’s Day Paddy Power included a number of €10 bonus cards in every blackjack shoe. “There are add-on promotional activities that just make it much more exciting,” says Helen. “For the Grand National last year William Hill had all their girls wearing jockey silks and announcing the races. This means there’s additional revenue to be gained simply because the clients’ dedicated dealers can be pushing other products. If you have a poker tournament starting in 20 minutes you can let your players know this.”
This engaging experience has helped many of Evolution’s clients improve player retention. Helen elaborates: “Customers have proven to be very loyal to particular dealers and will actually follow them around as they change tables to continue playing with them specifically.”
With more than 270 dealers operating from one location, Evolution is effectively running a casino. So how do they deal with security? Helen explains: “Security is paramount, not only from a compliance perspective, but to assure our players and secure that trust. Every spin of the wheel and every card recorded, and we also have pit bosses on hand. Ninety nine percent of issues are dealt with and resolved on-site there and then.”
As well as security issues, moving from RNG software to live dealers generally slows a game down, reducing hands/rounds-per-hour and affecting potential revenues. Evolution Gaming’s clients appear happy with this compromise, as Helen explains: “Speed has never really been such a big issue. Our output is really about capturing the experience of going into a casino and being dealt to by a real dealer. Operators seem to understand and value that.”
HIGH ROLLING IT IN
Evolution’s web site boldly claims its products “…attracts more high rollers than RNG”. I ask Helen why she thinks this is. “I think generally it’s that trust issue. Having your hostess immediately congratulate you adds that personal touch that lets you know it’s completely real; there’s no time delay and there’s no question that you’re being tricked out of your money in any way. These people are spending considerable amounts and don’t necessarily want to be playing against a machine. They want the thrill of playing against like-minded players, where the stakes are higher. I think the high rollers like knowing that where ever they are in the world there’s always that one place they can log in and play in a familiar and trusted environment.”
Offering native-speaking dealers is becoming a larger part of Evolution’s business; eradicating any obstacles created by non-English customers struggling to understand a staff of mostly Latvian dealers. In April Evolution launches Greek-speaking dealers, alongside their existing Spanish, German and Italian-speaking dealers. “What we’re hearing back from our clients is that localisation is key for them,” explains Helen. “When they have dedicated tables and native-speaking dealers they are enjoying much higher levels of customer retention and loyalty. Localised live games allow players to communicate more easily with each other and the dealer, and to establish strong rapport. Localisation also allows game content and betting limits to be tailored to specific local markets.”
An excellent example of this ‘fine tuning’ of products is London Roulette. Localised specifically for the UK market, it features only male dealers of a certain age, headhunted from the leading land-based casinos. Just through this cosmetic approach London Roulette now generates a significant amount of Evolution’s licensees’ total roulette revenue over generic roulette.
Evolution Gaming is keen to work with land-based operators as well as online companies, however... “We tend to only get involved when a casino wants an online presence,” explains Helen. “We could provide a service where online players could play alongside players sat in an actual casino on dedicated tables - but I think land-based organisations have had reservations about coming online simply because many online operators don’t truly understand land-based operations. It’s not just about playing the games in land-based casinos; they have huge loyalty schemes as well as amazing entertainment and customer service. I think another thing delaying land-based operators moving online is cannibalisation - they worry what’ll happen to their bricks and mortar casino that if they go online. I don’t think online has to be detrimental to land-based; I think you can use online to complement land-based. If you go for blue screen technology you can even have tables and backdrops mirror your bricks and mortar casino; drawing online customers to your actual venues.”
MERMAIDS IN GAMING
Evolution Gaming has more products to come in 2011, with several different releases scheduled by Q4. Some are adaptations of existing products, such as live mini-roulette, while others (and I know you’ve been waiting for this) are entirely new concepts such as “Mermaid’s Fortune”, which releases in Q3 and features live (yes, LIVE!) mermaids. “We have our own live mermaid beached in Latvia!” declares an excited Helen. “The core slots game is much as you would expect, but we have bonus rounds where our live mermaid appears, spinning a bonus wheel for players. She controls the bonus rounds and interacts with the players, encouraging them and being very personal to individuals. There’s nothing like it in the marketplace, and operators are very excited because it’s so novel and so unique that they think it will have that viral effect to attract new customers in a ‘have you seen’ way.”
I’m delighted to discover that a second live slots game is already in development. I ask which half-woman hybrid it’ll be based on, but am disappointed to learn it’s a secret. Damn. Fingers crossed for a half-woman/half-lager slots game before the end of 2011.
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