Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are the future of the gaming industry and OPTX is positioned to show the way in 2022 and beyond, according to Brooke Fiumara, OPTX’s co-CEO.
The Las Vegas-based data-platform company, which has tribal and commercial casino customers across the U.S., said that during the past three years, interest from operators of all sizes has grown in this space and will continue to do so. More operators are recognizing the value that predictive analytics can bring to the bottom line.
“We’re going to see a focus on enhancing the customer experience through understanding people’s preferences and what they might like from a game or restaurant,” Fiumara said. “AI and ML will be used to enhance customer experiences through all touchpoints.”
In addition, AI and ML will improve marketing and promotional strategies, moving operators closer to the goal of one-to-one marketing.
“That’s very challenging to do in an area like gaming, where you have so much data in volume and so many different dimensions of data around a single customer,” Fiumara said. “To compile all of that data and present it in a meaningful and actionable way is very challenging without newer technologies like OPTX.”
Fiumara said artificial intelligence can and will also be used for other areas of operations, including problem gambling, fraud, and game protection, in addition to driving revenue.
And the future for more innovation is bright.
OPTX’s data-science team focuses on three main areas of the casino business: slots, marketing, and player development.
“On the slot side, our data-science team works on floor optimization, using AI and ML to create recommendations to better optimize the floor based on all of the data available,” Fiumara said. “That’s everything from spatial data to the player data that influences game performance.”
In order to increase revenue, OPTX provides recommendations for making swaps on the floor, changing the specs on a game, and adding new games while removing others.
“From the slot perspective, OPTX is focused on total optimization on the floor to make sure you have the right games in the right place for the right players,” Fiumara said.
On the marketing side, OPTX zeroes in on campaign optimization and behavioral-based campaigns. Today’s operators deliver many different marketing campaigns via multiple channels —direct mail, email, and text. OPTX uses AI and ML to optimize the segments that already exist.
“We make recommendations on moving players up in the segment or down or maybe tweak an offer based on existing casino criteria,” Fiumara said. “We also take it a step further and can trigger behavioral-based campaigns based on AI.
“For example, OPTX can recognize when a new member has a high propensity to be a VIP and rather than wait a week or two for a traditional campaign to kick in, OPTX can trigger a task for a host to automatically contact them and reach out either same day or the next day.”
From a player-development standpoint, OPTX uses AI to make recommendations to hosts about whom they should contact, how they should contact them, and what offer they should provide to yield the highest ROI.
“OPTX is designed to ensure that the host team is focused on the right players at the right time without all the noise of previous or historic analytics,” Fiumara said. “It’s super simple and that’s one of the great things about OPTX: We’ve made complicated models very easy to use.”
OPTX expects to more than triple the size of its casino customer base by the end of 2022 and Fiumara said it will be an exciting year for artificial intelligence.
“You will continue to see more recommendations around marketing and player development and you will continue to see more product features that incorporate AI and ML,” Fiumara said. “The example of that is floor visualization. Coming into 2022, you’ll be able to simulate changes on the floor, so that you’ll understand the impact before they even happen. It’s the same on the marketing side; running simulations of campaigns will help you understand what the overall impact to the business would be.”
