ONLINE 2012 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? 58 FEBRUARY 2012
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