Interactive FUTURE OF CASINO DEALING
What’s the score for dealers in the online Live Casino world?
G3 looks at the dealer training and working conditions in both land-based and online live casino environments and asks if the skills/jobs are the same? We begin by speaking to Evolution Gaming, a company at the very forefront of online Live Casino solutions
DEALERS, CAREERS AND TRAINING
Is online/land-based dealing currently a life-long career option or something that’s short-term, fast turnover?
ANDRES: Some dealers stick at the industry and some don’t. I think online has a significantly greater variety of job roles so there are ample opportunities to diversify and progress. That’s because the technical knowledge requirements and management of online brings further chal- lenges for a business. With those challenges come new roles and lots of scope for career advance- ment.
OLGA:Online dealing in the long-term is a big challenge, I would say. Land-based casino dealers are able to have an emotional exchange with players on a daily basis, but our dealers do not see their customers. You need to have a great imagi- nation and energy to maintain a warm, welcoming atmosphere and, at the same time, have fun at the table. On the other side, many roles and skills are necessary to support our business at a high level, and this creates a lot of career opportunities. Most of our employees are young and open-minded people who do not miss that chance. I can say from my personal experience that I considered this job as very short-term initially and here we go, almost six years passed.
HELEN: In terms of dealer staff churn, our levels are comparable to land-based casinos. It’s worth noting also that many of our dealers in Riga are university students who are able work the flexi- ble shifts around their studies. What’s interesting is that many young dealers often start by thinking that it is a short-term job. However, when they become a part of the team and the operations here they soon realise that it can become a career. In many cases that career path can be a natural
8 4 “There are numerous
examples of young dealers who get hooked on the buzz around the studios and have
progressed quite rapidly into
supervisory, team leader and management roles.”
extension of their area of study. We have mem- bers of the design team working on User Interface and User Experience who were Graphic Design students when they first came to Evolution as dealers. There are similar examples of staff in product development, risk management, fraud, general operations and IT roles. We are still a very young company but we have staff that have been with us long-term and were around when we first launched in 2007. There are numerous examples of young dealers who get hooked on the buzz around the studios and have progressed quite rapidly into supervisory, team leader and man- agement roles.
Having said that, there will always be those who see the job as a means to an end. For young deal- ers locally it’s certainly a well-paid and flexible job compared to other jobs they could take to sup- port their studies. And for native speaking dealers with the right personality and land-based or VIP experience, the rewards can be much higher.
Does online have the same career ladder as land- based? What are the current prospects for pro- motion in land-based and online – will we see dealers rise to senior level ranks as in the past and crossover both into online and land-based?
Andres Rengifo, Head of Operations at Evolution Gaming’s Malta studio
Andres worked initially as a land-based dealer, including a number of years in London Mayfair casinos. He then moved to the online world, heading up the VIP Hosts team in the dedicated William Hill environment at Evolution’s Riga studios. Around a year ago he relocated to Malta to head up Evolution’s studio operations there.
Olga Trofimova, Head of Evolution Academy
Olga went straight into the online Live Casino world in 2009 as a dealer at Evolution’s Riga studios. She has worked her way up through various roles – including Trainer and Assistant to the Head of the Dealers Department. In her current role she is responsible for the ongoing training and professional development of all Evolution dealers.
Helen Hedgeland, UK Managing Director at Evolution Gaming
Helen’s career has included time as an Account Director for the UK’s first LSE-listed internet agency and six years working in systems, hardware and games provision in the land-based casino sector. She has worked in Live Casino for almost five years with responsibilities that span marketing, client services, new business and senior management.
ANDRES: A land-based career typically starts as a dealer, then to inspector, senior inspector, pitboss, manager, director. Other avenues are cash desk, security and other operational roles a business would need such as HR, reception, restaurant staff etc. In online there is the opportunity to go into many more different fields – developer, designer, project manager, IT and infrastructure, technical ops, ops management, risk, marketing, sales, client account management and so on…
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