Interactive SINGLE WALLET GAMING
What’s in your wallet?
Comtrade’s Aleš Gornjec explores the practicalities of Single Wallet Gaming in both technical detail and as relates to the regulatory challenges such a solution faces
The exciting but in many aspects quite traditional gaming industry addresses some very core drivers of human entertainment. Players are predomi- nantly still playing traditional games, but the way they are accessing and consuming these games is changing. E-commerce, mobile phones and other inventions of the last few decades have opened up new communication channels that have not exist- ed before. The gaming industry is following these trends and offering players new forms of gaming proactively.
The first major changes were introduced in the year 2000 when IGT launched EZ Pay® ticket-in, ticket-out technology, which brought a significant change in the way players manage their funds within the casino floor. The casino industry fol- lowed with the introduction of various ticketing and cashless systems. On the one hand, players can now very easily move from one slot machine to another by using cards. Despite that, traditional coin and bill acceptors are still used, and today we typically see a combination of all types of cash handling devices used in casinos. On the other hand, gaming operators have started to track and analyze players’ behavior in order to optimize their business performance.
In parallel, a new era in the gaming industry com- menced. First, online gaming operations were introduced independently from the land-based casinos and electronic wallets became the foun- dation of all transactions. However, they were ini- tially distributed across various content providers. P In such environments, players have to manually transfer their funds between a central wallet and remote casino/poker/bingo wallets. Online gam- ing was accepted by many players and started to grow very fast. Operators and vendors tried to
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keep up with this very fast pace and their tech- nology was more complex and richer in function- alities almost on a weekly basis. Platforms and game content were accessible to everyone and players’ database became a core asset, often dis- tributed across various systems, and thus became more and more difficult to manage. As a result, a need for a centrally managed wallet emerged.
PLAYER AND THE OPERATOR BENEFITS For the player, the single wallet system offers
instant availability of their funds on every betting product. It thus appeals to all types of players, especially the ones who use multiple channels (mobile, online, land-based casinos) and multiple products (sports betting, casino, poker, etc.). A single balance enables the players to have a con- stant watch over their money; this transparency gives players assurance that they are in total con- trol over their funds. In large resorts, players can seamlessly transit from slot machines to table games; and single wallet can even be extended to other resort services like dining or retail. Although many land-based players still prefer to play anonymously, cashless systems and player membership clubs are emerging everywhere. Once money gets into the casino system it can very conveniently circulate between products either using cashless cards or tickets.
From the operator's point of view, the key is to find ways to improve customer experience, find the right marketing activities that appeal to the player personally, convince players to become loyal clients, and ultimately achieve the optimal business value from a single wallet solution. Integrating gambling into a single, unified gaming experience is only possible if the players can migrate across platforms; a single unified account
enables players to seamlessly transfer funds and bonuses across platforms. The convergence between land-based and online also creates great opportunities for cross-selling - previously exclu- sively online players can be given a bonus that’s only redeemable in land-based casino. Online sites can also engage land-based players when they are not in the casino; a well-integrated net- work can bring a land-based experience to their homes.
Once all products and channels are seamlessly integrated into a central wallet, operators can start running the following services on top:
PROMOTIONS & BONUSING Personalized promotions and bonusing, tailored to individual player’s preferences, lifecycle and VIP status is essential for effective player retention. Advanced bonusing allows eligibility and incen- tive configuration based on business rules, possi- bility of automation and segmentation of large number of players, and also full manual configu- ration for highly personalized awarding of VIP players. Centralized campaigns help shape the brand’s name and award the player’s loyalty to the gaming provider. Well-integrated bonuses also create opportunities for cross sales; bonuses, which can only be redeemed on a different plat- form than the one they were awarded on, can provide a strong incentive for the players to migrate between channels.
CENTRAL REAL-TIME ANALYTICS Central analysis of all player activities together
with promotional tools enables more efficient player retention. Traditional retail operations had to be managed with very limited amount of data,
AUTOMATED AND PERSONALISED
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