In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, Neale Deeley enumerates the key ingredients in creating a great product for virtual sports players.
What makes a great virtual sports product?
One school of thought says that prioritizing the games’ graphics is the way in order to lure players to patronize the product. Graphics, according to some, is the tool in order to attract not only the hard core players to try the offering but also those who are curious of trying it.
On the other hand, there are those operators who believe that focusing on players’ gaming experience is the right strategy to bring in people. For them, virtual sports operators should go beyond offering fancy 3D graphics to players.
Then are operators like Neale Deeley of Betradar who believe that the marriage of great graphics and superb gaming experience is the standard of a great virtual sports product.
Deeley pointed out that these two components are needed in order to lure players and make them patronize the offering. Operators, according to Deeley, also need to find the right product that works well with punters.
“Graphics is what attracts people into the product in the first place. They are the eye catching component of it. But they are not the piece that gives punters the experience of playing the game. It needs more depth,” Deeley told CalvinAyre.com. “Punters need a reason to bet. So the meta-game is significantly more important for retention of players and convert them into high-value players. But the graphics are absolutely necessary to entice them in the first place. So the combination of the two is what makes it a great product.”
At present, Deeley noted that there had been an increased acceptance of virtual sports worldwide. He attributed the increase not only to the sheer volume of people playing the product but also the money it generates for the operators.
Even the younger generation, who are used to the gaming environment, has already embraced virtual sports in their lives.
“It doesn’t have a tail-off performance. It is not seasonal as some products. It has become more and more of a mainstay, and a nice profit generator, and of course, once you get to that status, lots and lots of people become more and more interested and they look for alternatives put out on their websites or in their shops,” he said. “ The younger generation full accept it. They are very used to eSports. They are used to the gaming environment. So when they see computer generated CGIs for virtual sports with a nice betting product wrapped around it, they are very comfortable to bet on it and they are happy to move between real sports and virtual sports and get their entertainment that way.
