Egaming industry predictions for 2016 - part 8
In the last of the series, eGR asks industry experts to predict the big themes for the next 12 months
Shenaly Amin, UK Country Manager of LeoVegas
1) Wearables – 2015 was a big year for wearables, but they were very much an early adopter product. However, with Google having already released updated Android Wear watches and Apple bound to unveil a next generation Apple Watch in 2016, we expect next year to see a surge in the adoption of wearables. In turn we anticipate a variety of gaming-based wearable applications to appear through 2016. We’re sure some will be amazing and others less so – much like how the move to mobile saw a surge in mobile applications of varying quality. However, it won’t be all about applications, wearables will also change how the industry communicates with customers and we’d expect that change to be more immediate.
2) Big data – The online gaming industry has not been making the best use of big data yet but we’re confident that 2016 will be the year in which this will change. Ultimately the more we know about our customers’ preferences the more we can create greater experiences for them.
3) Personalised experiences – Following on from big data, we’re expecting to see experiences become more personal. Customers are seeing the rest of their online entertainment become more personal to them, whether it’s their Spotify playlists or their Netflix watch list, so they will expect their online gaming to follow suit. Much of the industry is already offering personal gaming experiences, but we’re sure there’s more to come and we’re looking forward to seeing how the industry moves forward in this regard.
Patrick Jay, consultant
1) Third-party suppliers – Nearly the whole market is reliant on OpenBet and Playtech, so the question is how to break that reliance without trying to be a tech company. The operators will be needing to explore being tech leaders but does culture and market size help or hinder?
2) Regulation – The UK retail industry will be transformed by the mega-mergers but they will need to keep a very watchful eye on Westminster. While the channel is far more resilient than people think, it is time for a thorough re-examination of how the business works, what the new threats are and how to overcome them. Politicians will continue to grandstand and the operators will be more collaborative and open to address.
3) Technology – Models, simulations and algorithms will increase the knowledge gap between the trading teams and their customers which should see margins improve modestly, all things being equal. But this will also be extended into predictive modelling for equity positioning, what a price changes really means in terms of P&L real-time profiling and customer database investigating for trading decisions and for C&M activities around player rates, life cycles, values, etc.