In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Stephanie Raquel, Carl Wahlin of Global Business Partners shares his view on how to lure new, tech-savvy gamblers while keeping the traditional, big players.
Perhaps one of the biggest dilemmas that most gambling operators encounter is how to make some changes in their operational infrastructure in order to cater to younger, technology-savvy generation and at the same time not to alienate their older but bigger players.
The so-called millennials are harder to please than the baby boomer generation before them. One of the reasons is that these millennials, which gambling executives call next-gen, are highly skeptical of corporations and traditional marketing tactics.
They are inclined to support companies they feel are in the same page with their aspirations to make the world a better and more connected place. Millennials are willing to pay a premium to do business with companies they feel operate transparently and are in line with their values.
As immediate solution, gambling companies tend to put all things that both the older players and millennials will like in a single product. For Carl Wahlin of Global Business Partners, that this kind of strategy has already become passe.
He believes that gaming firms should come up with a dual strategy for two different groups of players since the traditional players and millennials are two completely different market.
“The big players, the recreational players, they don’t want to be in a mobile device. They want to be. I mean, web-based, you can’t just drop everything and say ‘we are mobile, let’s go there.’” Wahlin told CalvinAyre.com. “The bigger players, the traditional players, they still want to be on the desktop. You need to cater new services and an operational flow, together with the interface that will cater to them. And you need to have a different strategy for mobile mass players that might demand something else. So, just trying to put back everything in one box and say that one thing fit for everyone. Those days are over.
In terms of helping players to transition from one product to another, Wahlin said that gaming companies should do this on a social level. Gambling firms, according to Wahlin, should always have open communications to customers.
Wahlin also added the importance of adding and listening to younger people in their operations team instead of telling them what to do since most customers are now becoming younger.
“Easily, everyone is talking about going from web to mobile. Maybe, that should also be the tool for how you communicate with your customer base. Make him more social, forums that are based on mobile device than the traditionally anyone sitting, looking at the internet from home,” he said.
