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Goodbye 2011… Hello 2012!
No industry changes in 12 months like an online industry, and 2011 was no exception. Matt Broughton caught up with some of Casino International Online’s 2011 contributors to look back… and look forward.
Dominic Mansour (VP of Products)
& William Scott (Vice President) GTECH G2
What has been the best thing about 2011 for you?
Dominic Mansour: 2011 was the year in which we successfully launched our first branded game (Sherlock Holmes) with a huge amount of commercial success. In addition, we have seen tremendous growth and success on our investments into the poker platform, with more exciting and innovative features launched in one year than ever before, we also saw a record breaking jackpot on the IPN which was fantastic! 2011 also saw us launch our brand new Bingo product and the results have been outstanding, with the business growing more than 20% YoY.
William Scott: It was great to have significant success is securing a large number of new customers in the WLA and commercial market including Barona in the USA, the Hungarian National Lottery and our phenomenal success in Spain. All of which were won in very competitive bids and our success is a testament to the innovation and development we have delivered this year.
What was the key product you worked on during 2011?
Dominic Mansour: Our product focus in 2011 was poker and we performed way ahead of our expectations. We delivered more content than in any one single year, our deliveries were on or ahead of time and we initiated the planning of our new poker platform. As a result, we have really closed the gap on our competitors’ offerings.
What was the toughest thing about 2011 for you?
William Scott: The toughest thing was getting ready for newly regulated markets and all the challenges it brings; new and old customers that need to be launched at the same time with local regulatory requirements.
Dominic Mansour: Against the backdrop of evolving regulation and market openings, in particular Spain and Denmark, our toughest challenge was not to deliver these on time, but to ensure we did so while continuing to invest in R&D of our products so we did not start 2012 behind the game
What will be your ‘big deal’ in 2012?
Dominic Mansour: Mobile is one of our big deals for 2012. We have a very significant and aggressive investment earmarked in the mobile space during 2012. Come October, we will have a very comprehensive, impressive and market leading offering to showcase.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge in 2012?
Dominic Mansour: There are always on-going challenges within a technology driven businesses, but the key to our continued success will be in ensuring we constantly deliver on time to our customers whilst ensuring we maintain the high pace of new product development and initiatives.
William Scott: At GTECH G2 we are committed to ensuring we lead the way in regulated markets as the leading provider to government markets and the world lottery industry. Ensuring that the regulation that is proposed makes sense from a government, player and operator perspective but also working with new regulations will be our biggest challenge and opportunity
Richard M. Haddrill, Chief Executive Officer, Bally Technologies, Inc.
What has been the best thing about 2011 for you?
The performance of our new ALPHA 2 Pro Series slot cabinets and technology platform has been very exciting in 2011. We are really seeing improved video content and overall game innovation that is enabling us to increase market share. Second, the advancement of our floor-wide picture-in-picture player network – iVIEW DM™ ? in the marketplace has been very rewarding.
What was the key product you worked on during 2011?
Our Systems sales team really focused on increasing the penetration of iVIEW DM in 2011, and I’m very pleased that we have announced some major contracts for this technology, including Caesars Entertainment, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Peermont Group Africa, Mohegan Sun, Casino Miami Jai-Alai, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Foxwoods, the Navajo Nation, and several others. Casinos have really embraced how this impactful technology can add dramatic levels of excitement across the casino floor with a very manageable capital investment.
What was the toughest thing about 2011 for you?
Throughout 2011 the global economy remained sluggish, resulting in a lower level of spending by consumers, and conversely, reduced investments in new capital by casinos. However, as we exit 2011, optimism is growing and casinos are starting to spend more.
What do you think will be your challenge in 2012?
I still believe that we in the worldwide gaming industry will continue to be challenged by the economy and by political uncertainty in a number of parts of the world. However, the economy also spurs many states and countries to consider gaming expansion as a way to create jobs and generate tax revenue. We see positive new market opportunities for Bally in Greece, Hungary, Brazil, Illinois, Ohio, Kansas, and Massachusetts.
What will be your ‘big deal’ in 2012?
There’s so much exciting activity for Bally, from new market launches like Italy, Illinois, and Ohio to key customer deployments across Canada and Africa, to the release of best-in-class games based on world-class brands like GREASE™ and Michael Jackson King of Pop™ - I can’t pick just one!
Matt Jellicoe, Director and Founder, Offsidegaming
What has been the best thing about 2011 for you?
The best thing about 2011 has been seeing the good, the bad and the ugly of regulation in Europe. In 2010 I was concerned that regulation would happen very quickly and would be black and white. In reality the speed of regulation has been slow and it has given traditional offshore operators time to adapt – whether to focus on pre-regulated markets or to develop business to business offerings. Instead of regulation closing doors, it has created many opportunities, especially for medium sized operators who control their technology and are not wedded to specific markets.
What was the key product you worked on in 2011?
We have integrated Botsphere’s football product for pre-match and Live Trading and chose this over a fully automated solution. Botsphere is a trader driven tool that allows us to differentiate our offer whilst also allowing a trader to trade 2-3 games simultaneously. We have also focused our attention on Mobile.
What was the toughest thing about 2011 for Offsidegaming?
Managing growth has proved tough. Transitioning from a start-up with 40 staff and going through the evolution of bringing in senior management, and ramping up to 90 staff. However the results are clear now; our IT delivery and trading is a different game compared to 12 months ago.
What will be your ‘big deal’ in 2012?
Offsidegaming started as an emerging markets specialist and our heartland is still Eastern Europe – we recently started licensed operations in Belarus for example. However I think in 2012 we will sign a major deal in Europe as a software/operations provider. We are starting to work very closely with LVS (our software provider) and I believe we have a unique offer. LVS and Offsidegaming will be able to provide a unique turnkey offer across both internet and landbased shops bringing a Tier 1 software solution and providing strong operations at a fraction of the cost. This is something that we believe other providers could not service.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge in 2012?
Regulation throws up challenges and I think many large corporate operators will effectively become ‘grey’ operators next year; this will be interesting. Possibly many operators will be forced to choose which side of the fence they sit on when it comes to regulation.
Any predictions for 2012?
My prediction is that many regulated markets will have failed regulation next year as they realise that high taxes just create ‘offshore leakage’ on a large scale.
Sreeram Reddy, Managing Director, Cozy Games
What has been the best thing about 2011 for you?
The best thing about 2011 has been the growth the industry has seen in the mobile and social gaming space. For the last couple of years we’ve been working very hard towards building our niche in the mobile and social gaming segments, and with the industry heading in this direction in 2011 our hard work paid off and we slowly but surely have come out as leaders in this space in the gaming industry.
What was the key product you worked on during 2011?
The increase in the use of smart phones and android phones has been the leverage for us to grow with our cross-platform compatible games. We have developed our mobile strength in such a way that our games are now available on more than 600 handsets. This is how we had a greater penetration amongst the crowds and exponential growth with respect to smart phone users.
What was the toughest thing about 2011 for you?
Industry giants have been around longer and have bigger marketing budgets, hence their presence in the market is stronger than us. However, our niche strength in mobile technology has taken us a step ahead and given us the required presence and penetration.
What will be your ‘big deal’ in 2012?
Well, I hope the New Year brings in new opportunities to expand the market. So far the United Kingdom has been the hub of activity for online gaming, but the trend has been changing. The growth is slow but significant and my focus rests on the North American and Canada markets which are poised to grow on the social media channels. Competition in this industry is intense and to grow along with the changing trends will be a challenge this year.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge in 2012?
The advantage of growth in the industry is huge, and as a result innumerable online gaming and bingo sites are launched regularly. Bingo is the fastest growing sector of the online gaming industry in the UK today. Any industry that grows at a lightening pace has a certain pattern of growth which automatically turns towards consolidation, and this is what has been happening with the online Bingo industry. With consolidation comes a mixed bag of opportunities and challenges beginning with the player base shrinking. Secondly, with consolidation, the margin of error reduces drastically, and the need to maintain 100% quality and to evolve every day is a major challenge. As a result, the competition increases, and hence the demand for better promotions are the order of the day.
David Hunter, Chief Executive, Ukash
What has been the best thing about 2011 for you?
We have received two highly acclaimed awards during 2011. The Queens Award for Enterprise which recognises Ukash for its business growth and international trade and the business was also ranked 23 on the Sunday Times Microsoft tech Track 100. Ukash also achieved its first year of profitability, a remarkable 80% year-on-year business growth as a result of our continued global expansion and we now process over £500million of safe online transfers worldwide every year.
What were the key products you worked on during 2011?
Closing the loop on e-money payments with the launch of our UkashOut Mastercard was a key product launch for 2011. The card means that players can transfer their winnings back to cash by loading their cash on to the card. For the operator, the UkashOut Mastercard is a faster and more convenient system that marks the end of costly cheques, bank transfers and other traditional payout methods.
What was the toughest thing about 2011 for you?
Identifying smart, cost-effective ways to enter new markets; for example, we have had to think carefully about how we enter the Latin American markets due to local regulations and currency controls. Our creative thinking has however paid off as we are now live in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. Further growth is planned for 2012.
What will be your ‘big deal’ in 2012?
We aim to continue to sign-up a number of market-leading merchants in all sectors, including gaming and e-retail. But the biggest deal will be to enhance the utility of Ukash by launching several new products for operators and consumers including the enablement of a range of managed, ID checked cash-out services.
What do you think will be the biggest challenge in 2012?
Regulation is the key challenge across all markets. Both the complexity of different regulatory environments in different countries/regions and having the local knowledge to respond speedily. However, we are well placed with our networked-partner approach to doing business and see a number of exciting opportunities emerging, such as the US market.
