iGaming Business magazine Live Dealer Focus 2018 | Page 7

Live Dealer Focus
INNOVATION, EVOLUTION
2018
AND WHAT PLAYERS WANT IN THE FUTURE
The igaming industry is up against stiff competition from the wider
entertainment business but its continued success will depend on
what it can learn from its rivals’ expertise in audience engagement,
writes Todd Haushalter
The future of gaming is in our hands. Suppliers and
operators of online and land-based gaming are
responsible for the direction of our industry and those
who innovate well will be the winners in that future.
Unfortunately, much of what is hailed as innovative
is either misaligned with players’ desires (for example,
skill-based gaming), has little to do with making gaming
more fun for players or is just a recycl ing of old games
with new tech. Being a ‘mobile-fi rst’ company is not
innovative; it is just how you survive in 2018. It’s like
having a secure website – you just have to do it.
The real competition for our industry is YouTube,
Netfl ix, video games and other (mostly) indoor leisure
activities. People sleep and work for 16 hours a day,
commute and eat for another two hours and with the
remaining six they enjoy leisure time. We are competing
against the biggest companies in the world to get a
portion of this precious six hours. Gambling is fun. The
act of risking $1 on an uncertain event for the chance
to make $2 is an incredibly engaging experience, even
if it is just a simple toss of a coin. But expectations are
getting higher and players want more. Skill-based
games could work but not in the form they are being
tried at present. This does, however, represent an
excellent opportunity to evolve our industry. Remember:
the original skill-based game is blackjack and it does
just fi ne – so there is opportunity here.
The live casino space, being a sort of combination
of YouTube (video), Facebook (social) and, of course,
casino, is in a unique position to advance the industry
and bring forward a new era of gaming. This is exactly
what you have been seeing at Evolution Gaming as
it enters its third phase of innovation. The fi rst phase
was the invention of the live casino space, with a live
stream of table games online and players betting. Phase
two was about enriching the experience. Games such
as Immersive Roulette offer slow-motion replays of
the ball landing, while in Controlled Squeeze Baccarat
players reveal (squeeze) the cards as they wish. This
was about trying to make the games as enjoyable as
they are in land-based casinos. Then, close to its 10th
anniversary about a year ago, Evolution Gaming took
the industry into phase three, set to continue at least
into 2021: entertainment gaming.
This new era introduces the ‘entertainment’
component to the games. That does not mean adding
music and dancers to a standard roulette game,
but rather offering players a ‘game-show’ style
experience where they can play along and win huge
prizes. Enter the game Dream Catcher, with a giant
1,000 kg wheel on a studio set that resembles a
1980s-style game show, and run not by a dealer
but by hosts who socialise with players while keeping
the action going. There are multipliers typical of those
found in slots, which can turn $1 into thousands on
a single game. YouTube is loaded with videos of huge
wins as Dream Catcher has become a phenomenon
and now one of the top 10 games in the world –
a distinction held by very few games released in
the past fi ve years.
Building on this entertainment-gaming theme
is the recently released Lightning Roulette, which
supercharges the game by striking between one and
fi ve numbers with lightning every round, which then
pay 50x to 500x. The studio looks like something out
of Frankenstein’s laboratory and it is easily the most
complex and expensive studio ever done in live casino.
The game is conducted by a host who calls all the
action and interacts with players. This game takes a
concept that players already know and like (roulette)
and adds both entertainment and jackpots.
The next generation of games from Evolution,
and hopefully others, is sure to combine the
opportunity to win huge sums of money with
entertainment and perhaps even some of the world’s
most famous board-game and game-show brands.
Traditional games will remain popular for the next
decade or more but this new era is sure to help
keep gaming exciting for audiences who are looking
for more than just a gambling experience.
Todd Haushalter is chief
product offi cer at Evolution Gaming,
the biggest live dealer online casino
in the world. He has held senior
leadership positions in the operations,
supplier and online sectors of the
gaming industry, working directly
with more than 300 casinos across
30 countries. Prior to his current
role, Todd was corporate vice
president of gaming operations
for MGM Resorts International.
iGamingBusiness | Issue 110 | May/June 2018
37