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HERMES SOFTLAB
A new generation of
gaming platforms
Ales Gornjec, Business Development Manager (Gaming) for HERMES
Softlab explains the requirements for the new generation of gaming
platforms and the obstacles they face
M
any would believe that the online operators buying up poker assets, or vice verse, of
and land-based gaming worlds are so bingo operations being added to Sportsbooks, and of
different in approach and execution Sportsbooks being added to casino platforms. A
that they have very little to teach plethora of deals, in fact, and one which the software
each other when it comes to the and technology behind the companies in question
technology they each employ. Such a viewpoint would has struggled to cope with and adapt to.
be utterly wrong.
The second problem has been around as long as
In our many discussions with both sides of the there have been casinos. Land-based operators have
industry over recent years it has become ever more added systems as they have gone along. Covering all
apparent in particular that there might be a call for a aspects of the business, from front of house to
new generation of gaming platforms, integrating both backend, but none of them truly integrated or even
land-based and online casinos on the same platform, designed to be integrated.
which set us at HERMES SoftLab thinking
immediately about what the possible obstacles to this As an example; a casino hotel operation will often
new generation of gaming platforms could possibly have systems covering the gaming aspect of the
be and how we could get to overcoming these business, and then a completely different set of
obstacles on behalf of our customers? systems for the hotel part and neither of them
integrated in any meaningful sense. Throw in possible
We believed ourselves to be well-placed for this online complications and the scale of the problem
task. We are an international company providing IT becomes clearer.
solutions and software engineering services, serving
high-tech vendors, telecommunication service Now this situation could probably carry on forever
providers, financial institutions and the public sector. if it wasn’t for one extremely salient fact – the
service levels expected by the customers are forever
Complementing the strong software development changing, and in order for casino and hotel
background with IT integration services and operators to continue to keep their existing
solutions, we offer leading edge expertise in the areas customer base happy, and even more importantly in
of storage management software, embedded systems, order for the operator to attract new customers, the
network systems management, e-solutions and backend software systems need to be relied upon
customised application development and application more and more.
modernisation. Our task for an integrated system for
land-based and online gaming was still no mean feat, Yet to do this kind of management needs more
however, no matter what our IT bona fides. The information than their legacy systems are able to
complications of how both the online and the land- provide. Often barely coping with the workload as it
based industries have grown, and how their technical is, the un-integrated systems found in the ‘computer
and management requirements have grown with rooms’ of many operators simply aren’t built for
them, means that there were layers of complications today’s trading environment. Truly useful business
to confront. intelligence will drive businesses forward, giving them
the tools to compete and thrive. But if your systems
For a start, many companies in both sectors of the simply can’t provide the information needed, then
industry have grown through acquisitions. There are that business intelligence will never be good enough
numerous examples, of sports-betting operators to give management a chance.
buying poker operators, of land-based casino
companies buying online casinos, of online casino This was the start of our journey towards offering
58 FEBRUARY 2009
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