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Gamification in The Gambling Industry The
Future is Here |
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Gamification, by definition,
denotes the practice of using gaming techniques to help users solve problems.
It takes something traditionally mundane and turns it into a game, making the
activity all the more appealing.. |
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Today, the worlds most
well known brands and pop culture favourites, for example Marvel Comics, are
capitalizing on gamification through the online gambling industry. As interest
in land-based casinos continues to fairly stagnant and markets for online
casinos continue to grow, iconic figures such as superheroes are being used in
branding and game strategy. A traditional slot machine, for example,
could be deemed as mundane to the more modern gambler. Gamification, however,
gives the goal an exciting third dimension it is far more fun to try and
beat a character from a well know book, film or folklore and engage in a
non-bingo side bet when certain symbols present themselves on the wheels. A
more innovative approach is to make the whole casino experience an adventure, a
development that will lead the industry into the future. Just take a look at
Casino Heroes, for instance:
its an adventure game where players have a mission to accomplish, while
playing their favourite casino games.
But Gamification is much more than
jazzing up the old casino games. It is all about customer retention. Gaming
sites of all types spend such a lot of money in gaining customers in the first
place that their loss is a great cost. An article by the Harvard Business
School on
E-Loyalty identified the cost of acquiring customers was so
high that the customer would need to be loyal for for 3+ years to reach the
break-even point and that 50% of customers would leave before that time. So
just a small rise in retention leads to a huge increase in
profits.
Retention Rewards Players are involved in a
new community that rewards them with new levels, special features and even
money.
Goals Customers have targets to meet and play when they
would not otherwise be.
Status Leaderboards provide a need for
constant monitoring which means returning customers.
Feedback
Constant interaction and continually reaching targets in order to reach a
higher one is what makes games addictive.
So retention revolves around
the game psychology of practice and repetition to get better, make the task
easier, achieve higher status etc.
Change A good example of
how the e-gaming world has adopted gamification techniques are the exchanges.
Originally a brilliant innovation that brought flexibility and greater value to
customers. When the market matured (competition became real) they resorted to a
host of reward schemes and out-and-out exchange games that rewarded customers
with lower commissions and a whole separate world of leaderboards with prizes.
But much more than that, the lead exchange went so far as to punish big winners
on the betting markets by taxing them heavily, resulting in an exit to leave
just high volume, small/medium profit customers.
New
Worlds Its every where! DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) has come in from the
other side of the equation. Take sports like baseball and American Football and
create a league based game using a collection data points involved in the
sport. Then add prizes or money to the league winners and you have a massive
potential market that has been realised in the USA and soon
elsewhere.
Further more its not immediately obvious but all the major
gaming consoles allow betting on the video games. Each system details its own
list of games that can be played through the use of tournament based betting
sites.
The Law Inevitably the legal powers are getting into
the act. When does betting on a game or paying to participate in a league
become straight gambling? Well in many US states it has suddenly become illegal
and others declared as legal. Europe will probably have the same mix but the UK
is likely to stand firm on the principle that anything goes in the gambling
world, its a free market! |
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