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BettingBusinessInteractive • FEBRUARY 2012 Essential Guide to ... ICE 2012 GTECH G2 Customer-driven development
Amongst all the launches and presentations at Earls Court, it isn’t always easy to stand out from the crowd, but this wasn’t a problem for GTech G2 at ICE 2012.
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Tech G2, the blue chip iGaming and sports bet- ting full service provider, showcased an array of new products and technologies and report- ed a very warm reaction from visiting delegates. “As the industry’s first - and foremost - event on the cal-
endar, the three days at ICE set the tone for the year ahead,” commented GTech G2’s vice president William Scott. “It is vital to have a great show and we were ex- tremely satisfied with the feedback to our groundbreak- ing offering.”
Casino Job, the company’s first-ever 3D title, pushes new boundaries and leads the way for a pipeline of new game development in 2012. Players adopt one of four true- to-life characters, including an Angelina Jolie lookalike,
INTRALOT INTERACTIVE
Being creative as well as security conscious
Among the many new products on the Intralot Interactive stand at ICE was a simple slogan that informs about the company’s philosophy.
I
ntralot Interactive had a sim- ple mantra at the ICE show at Earls Court - that it ‘Secures In- tegration. Unlocks innovation’. The ‘rich, but very short’ mes- sage conveys both the security aspect of the firm’s products, but also the creativity needed to engage players believes George Zenzefilis, the general director at Intralot Interactive. “Security is absolutely nec- essary,” he explained. “Some
GEORGE ZENZEFILIS: ‘SECURITY IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY’
people have understandable concerns over the interactive channel, which is why we take it so seriously.”
Among the innovative new products In- tralot Interactive launched at ICE was its NFC-powered Game Solutions and the new HomeSmartPlay family of solutions which gives players access to an extensive sporting catalogue via their remote con- trol and allows them to engage in betting by way of iTV.-
Zenzefilis has big hopes for the HomeS- martPlay product as he believes long stand- ing innovation has started to change the na- ture of television. “TV is a device that hasn’t changed too much over time. Its position in the home has not been exploited, but we are getting to the point where people are starting to realise it can do more than just show TV programmes.”
Zenzefilis explained that Intralot Inter- active fundamentally believes in the value of switching from the ‘user interface’ to the ‘user experience’ model and this has brought about the creation of the Universal
Gaming Experience which al- lows all customer interaction points to be managed in a single and transparent manner, irre- spective of the engagement model (through retail channels, internet, mobile or iTV) or his preferences of game play. Universal Gaming Experi- ence creates cross-platform mobility and unification from a player perspective, offering shared login and authentica-
tion, shared wallet and a seamless deposit- ing system across the platforms. Also launched at ICE was the NEFOS In- tralot Cloud that provides gaming opera- tors with Game Library instant availability, technological scalability, operational flexi- bility and resource optimization to meet their demanding business goals across all gaming channels, along with improved time-to-market efficiency and reduce costs. With NEFOS, Intralot undertakes the administration of the provided services, while the gaming operator easily and accu- rately monitors and measures cloud serv- ice use and performance.
Zenzefilis said that the company was continuing to grow thanks to its ability to change and absorb new ideas and ways of operating. He is keeping tabs on develop- ments in the online space in the USA, but is finding that the Group’s existing lottery clients are helping the Interactive side of the business expand in Latin America as demand for online gaming in those terri- tories grow.
and crack into the casino safe against the clock. Also debuting at ICE was GTech G2’s development of GMS Flightboard. It allows operators to communicate and interact with their players in real time, ensuring that operators never miss a vital moment in their players’ jour- ney, and to create a truly personalised experience for every player.
“Our development is all driven by one person,” said Do- minic Mansour, vice president product management. “The player is number one. Everything that we have de- buted at ICE highlights that commitment. You only have to look at our mobile prototypes and see how we studied players thumb and finger movements when developing the games.”
PARSPRO Sportsbook key product at ICE
The number of sportsbook providers exhibiting at ICE Totally Gaming is a good sign for the sector according to Parspro’s Thorvar Hafsteinsson.
n influx of international sportsbook companies might be perceived as a bad sign to existing suppliers but Thorvar Hafsteinsson, sales and marketing man- ager at sportsbook developer Parspro, thinks the competition is a good thing. “It was noticeable how many more sportsbook providers were at the show this year,” he commented. “Sports bet- ting had a very strong appearance this year. There were number of new ex- hibitors, offering sports betting, and to me it is pretty clear that we will have more competition in the close future, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If we have in- creased competition I think that the busi- ness in general will gain from that. It could mean that more and more operators look- ing for sportsbook products will attend the show in the future and create further opportunities for us.”
A Hafsteinsson commented that there
was already huge interest for sports bet- ting in Eastern Europe, with many opera- tors and suppliers from the region visiting Earls Court. Parspro was exhibiting its live betting system Juliet, the pool betting system Cordelia and core betting server Miranda, along with its ppTOTO Parspro Betting Server. Hafsteinsson comment- ed: “In general I was pretty happy with ICE Totally Gaming. There seemed to be less traffic around than last year but more quality leads - everyone who came to the stand was worth talking to. Operators seem to be looking towards pre match sports betting and Live betting as a source of increased revenues.” Parspro has been integrating more au- tomation into its systems, but Hafsteins- son believes there should still be an ele-
With convergence being a major talking point in the in-
dustry, GTech G2 understands the importance of providing players with a seamless gaming experience across all gam- ing channels. “Our vision is to see more players constantly playing our games than ever before, wherever and when- ever they chose to play,” Scott stated.
Alongside sister company Spielo International, GTech G2 illustrated its vision of this experience. Games includ- ing Book of the Sphinx, available on land-based gaming machines, online, on mobile devices and on tablets, showed just how the gap between the virtual and physical worlds can be bridged. Scott added: “We are proud of the developments that we’ve made in the last year and we are very excited about the next 12 months.”
ment of human control for some markets. He explained: “A number of suppliers are looking towards increased automation in order to offer operators more markets and at the same time cutting down on op- erational costs. I feel that the combina- tion of both automation / manual opera- tion is important for operators in order to stay competitive. Certainly some of the smaller sports that are run, depending on which market an operator is in, will al- ways require an element of human inter- vention.”
Hafsteinsson also noted that the sup- ply market is becoming even tougher as some firms diversify: “A development seems to have been the odds suppliers have started offering software and the software suppliers have started offering odds. Previously these two sections of the market worked together as a team, but it now looks like they are crossing paths so I can see it to be a very competi- tive marketplace in the coming year.”
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