Day two of CasinoBeats Malta Digital has placed ‘The Future of Gaming‘ as a central focus in proceedings, with affiliates, platforms and aggregators all put under the spotlight by number of senior executives.

In a panel entitled ‘Live Casino: At a Crossroads,’ Jeremy Taylor, managing director of Genting Online, Christos Mavridis, live casino manager at Stoiximan and Betano, Sam Brown, CCO of Hero Gaming and Stefania Mincu, head of casino at Ellmount Interactive, dissected the live sector, under the watchful eye of James Bennett, director of Square in the Air, who moderated proceedings.

“Firstly though I’ll just say no it has definitely not reached its peak,” Taylor asserts to get things underway when pressed on how far can the sector the sector can potentially grow, or if it has in fact reached its peak

“There’s huge opportunity out there and that obviously depends on the type of business and the strategic direction that it wants to take, and it depends on the market,” he continued.

A viewpoint shared by Mincu who added: “I totally agree that the variety of products and innovation overall has attracted more players into the live vertical, also as the game providers have been looking into offering customers more products for different markets. 

“It’s also the trend overall in society with millennials and how new habits are affecting behaviour, and here I am referring to the migration from land-based to online.”

Innovation in live casino has continued to move at pace throughout 2020, continuing recent momentum, a trend added to earlier in the day as Evolution Gaming unveiled its third money wheel game in Crazy Time.

“We need to understand that responsible gaming is something that happens at the lowest levels of customer value all the way through the top

“Technology in live has been one of the most, if not the most, innovative and adaptable vertical in gambling for the last few years, and it seems to have innovated a lot more than other areas in my personal opinion,” Bennett offered on the rate of pace throughout the sector in recent years.

An outlook shared by Taylor, who highlighted the growing variety of gaming options available on the market, as well as Genting’s own live streaming capabilities from properties across the casino operator’s global portfolio as a key facet in appealing to a range of punters.

Attention, however, quickly switched to that of VIP players and responsible gambling, areas that are continuing to gain much attention. This is particularly evident in the UK where the Gambling Commission launched its consultation on VIP customers last month, which seeks to consider the proposed changes to the rules that operators must abide by when transacting with high value customers.

After offering a view that there’s increased trust in the live casino product, Brown explained: “I only to some extent agree that live casino is a VIP product, I know that that’s often mentioned, but again I think it’s played at higher stakes but I wouldn’t say that as such it’s more naturally a VIP product. It can be a product that is consumed and enjoyed by all different value levels of players.”

A stance backed up by all panellists, with Mavridis pinpointing the wider availability of products and a continued innovation drive as part of a concerted effort to adopt a more approachable product for casual punters. 

“What’s really important is not what a player is staking, it’s the frequency, it’s the behaviours they are displaying, negative patterns. And we’ve got so many excellent tools at our disposal now with the increased prevalence of things like machine learning, we can build models and we can predict very early what’s going to happen,” Brown continued.

“And plus from a regulatory standpoint there are some very very specific measures that we all must also revert to, so for me we shouldn’t treat VIP’s any differently when it comes to responsible gaming. I think we need to understand that responsible gaming is something that happens at the lowest levels of customer value all the way through the top.”

CasinoBeats Malta Digital, delivered in association with Gaming Malta, takes place from 30 June to 2 July 2020 and features 40 virtual exhibitors, numerous networking opportunities, 130 leading speakers, and countless business opportunities for 3,000 senior decision-makers from operators, suppliers, affiliates and other industry stakeholders.

Alongside the exhibition, networking and conference, all delegates also gain access to the full range of entertainment on offer, including free-play slots, daily competitions and a selection of prizes such as iPads and cash.

Find full details of CasinoBeats Malta Digital, including information about how to register and the discounts available on company group passes, at the event’s official website: https://sbcevents.com/casinobeats-malta-digital/