In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Stephanie Raquel, Myles Blasonato of Royal Wins how operators can prepare for the next generation of players.
Three years from now, the purchasing power lies in the hands of millennials as they finally dominate the global workforce.
Getting their money, however, is easier said than done especially since this generation is more discerning when it comes to the products they buy and the services they get compared to those who belong to the baby boomers.
Myles Blasonato of Royal Wins encourages operators to come up with a strategy on attracting younger players as early as today. The only way for operators to lure millennials to gamble is through skill gaming, according to Blasonato.
“[B]y 2020, 50 percent of the work force will be millennials. So you need to target these guys before that time comes around. So, pretty much, you can take advantage of these guys who want to play video games,” Blasonato told CalvinAyre.com. “The guys that are 65-plus years of age, they are eventually going to die out. And all you have left with is young guys that has grown up to a time when video games became a thing.”
Blasonato pointed out that skills gaming will soon be the next phase of online gambling due to growing number of millennials in the workforce. He gave at least three important pointers for operators before they jump into the skills gaming business.
The skills gaming expert said that they should focus on casual betting. He said operators can make money even from a single player through casual betting.
“So imagine a single player, candy crush style of experience, where you are not versing with anyone else, where you can actually bet and if you are good, you can actually make money from it,” he said.
Operators, according to Blasonato, also need to be adaptive to any challenges. Unlike the players from the baby boomer generation, Blasonato noted that most millennials easily gets bored and they tend to jump from one product to another.
He said operators may keep millennials engaged in their offering by actually changing the game on the fly.
“You kind of have skilled gaming that gets boring. Once the player gets really good, they’ll move on to something else because they are too good,” Blasonato explained. “With adaptive challenge, you can actually monitor the game, and actually change the game to make it easier or harder on the fly. Keeping people engaged and challenged with the game and they will eventually lose when the game gets too hard.”
The third and final strategy to lure millennials to play skills game is by giving loyalty points, according to Blasonato. He pointed out that millennials are known for asking rewards even when they lose. The loyalty points, according to Blasonato, will suffice for the reward-seeking generation.
“The thing about millennials like me is that I don’t like to waste money. So, you need to award them even when they lose. So loyalty points is our way of doing that. All the time you spend in the game is regardless of the win/loss rate,” he said. “You will accumulate reward points and you can redeem them in the store for things like digital cameras, earrings, Gucci bags, any kind of item that you want just to award them for their loyalty.”
