SBC Digital North America: Harnessing the omnichannel opportunity

June 10, 2021 7:50 PM
  • Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports
June 10, 2021 7:50 PM
  • Jake Pollard, CDC Gaming Reports

The increasing convergence of formats and gameplay between online and land-based environments means the industry must adapt to produce slots that attract offline players to interactive channels and vice-versa. Panelists discussed how to harness the omni-channel opportunity on the second day of the SBC Digital North America conference.

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Robert Mims, pit manager at SugarHouse Casino in Pennsylvania, pointed out that although the group combines land-based (via Rivers Casinos) and online environments (via Rush Street Interactive), “the average age of players on the casino floor is 55 and online it is closer to 40. Older players tend to play longer, but younger players play (spend) more” over shorter periods of gameplay. He added that the industry had to find ways “to capitalize on those aspects” and bring online players into bricks and mortar casinos and vice-versa.

One of the ways of doing that would be to harness the vast amounts of data that both types of operators, and online in particular, have about players. Oliver Bartlett, Director of Gaming at BetMGM, commented that the online casino vertical “was spoiled for data with every click and mouse movement recorded,” but equally the industry should not lose its instinct for producing great games through feel and quality. Hugely popular titles like “Starburst or Cleopatra were not based on data, they just worked,” he added.

For Kresimir Spajic, former SVP of Online Gaming and Sports Betting at Hard Rock, “data shouldn’t be about just collecting info, it’s about education and what you do with the data and how it’s communicated to the customer” and leveraging it to produce an improved experience.

Chris Boni, VP of Digital Gaming Products at IGT, pointed out that “slots titles have been around for years”, but the industry should also think about how a true omnichannel offering comes about. “Is it both sides coming together? Do you cater to older or younger customers? What are other industries doing and what will the supplier mix look like in the future?”

The pandemic has proved how valuable the online vertical is to the general health of the sector overall. Olivero Bartlett said slots were “relatively stagnant” as a product but remained a very “profitable vertical. Therefore it had to look at ways of “bringing in new players and executing a new omnichannel strategy to drive products forward.”

This was happening gradually, Spajic said, with casinos more and more aware of how a “machine built for a physical environment would translate online. We’re starting to see more convergence,” he said. This also applied to allowing customers to play online versions of physical slots and making the user experience and all player account movements as seamless as possible, he added.

When it comes to producing games that operators want, designers want to create and players want to play, IGT’s Chris Boni said it came down to finding a balance and “democratizing the process of content creation”. “If you look at Youtube you can see the amount of high-quality content that is created” in an open setting, he added.

But as opposed to Europe and because of the focus on land-based casinos until very recently, barriers to entry were very high in the U.S., and regulations made innovation very difficult and costly.

Bartlett said two factors were concerning, “market consolidation and the barriers to entry are so high I’m not sure we’re doing enough to encourage young and hungry producers. It is key to encourage the industry to support and incubate them going forward.”