As I’ve noted before, in a previous life, I worked in customer service for an online gambling site. Whenever I heard another agent droning on, lifelessly talking to a player about their issue, I’d remind them that we’re not dull bureaucrats working for a telephone operation, we’re in gambling. This should be exciting and entertaining, for us and the customer.
It looks like Playtech Head of Live Casino Innovation Kevin Kilminster takes the same approach. He recently spoke with Gambling Insider about the state of the industry. He said:
“One of our biggest ambitions is entertainment. We are the entertainment industry; it’s forgotten. Everyone focuses on the money – it’s the last thing I think about. I want to make sure a player’s first click is as good as their last. So we really focus on the entertainment part.”
Kilminster sees a lot of innovation possible in the live casino space to vindicate that focus. As fewer and fewer online players are familiar with brick and mortar offerings, they can try something totally new. “There’s never any industry in the world where you’ve reached the pinnacle of how far you can innovate,” he said. “You just make sure what you’re doing is to the best standard it can be and you’re pushing the boundary. I think, at the moment, it’s at a good progressive state but who knows what’ll happen in the next five years?”
That focus will have to be on the new generation of players. “We’re going to deliver a new experience, which really focuses on millennial players, entertainment, excitement and bringing players a new version of core games,” Kilminster said.
Kilminster notes that there are challenges for the product though. Live casino is at the cutting edge of technology, and it can be tricky to keep it within requirements and expectations when it’s such a new product. Ultimately though, it’s about what will be good for the customer. “It has to be an enjoyable experience for the player,” concludes Kilminster.
That focus matters. The industry puts out new products, not because they will bring in money, but because the players want better entertainment. We look for better payment options not because they are financially better (but they may be, as in the case of Bitcoin SV), but because they remove one less obstacle to the entertainment aspect. Let’s not forget that.
