With recent advances in handset technology and reductions in data charges, 2008 is shaping up to be the 'year of mobile'.
This comment was recently made by Noel Hayden, CEO, Gamesys Group, as the company licenced Rapid Mobile Media's ThinkPhone and Active Provisioning platforms to extend its online gaming experiences to mobile phones.
In an exclusive conversation with bulletbusiness.com's Ritesh Gupta, Gamesys' strategic operations director Steve Clark said by licencing technology from Rapid Mobile, the company has been able to create products that can take advantage of the latest handset features and, get remarkably close to the quality of the Flash versions of its products on the PC.
"Luckily our games are built on a flexible architecture, which has let us connect mobile client software easily into the same back end that runs our PC service and that means instant access to the same login and wallet as well as sharing of progressive jackpots," Clark told bulletbusiness.com, which is gearing up to conduct 5th Annual Mobile Gambling Summit Europe, scheduled to take place on 18-19 November in London this year.
"The mass market in for any new device can generally be said to have arrived when the content becomes important, not the technology. For mobile phones, which have been true for voice and texting for quite some time, is only just becoming true for data and games applications as speed issues and memory constraints reduce and screen sizes increase," said Clark.
He added: "Whilst we are not quite as bullish as one of our pure-play competitors - who has said that there are more mobile phones than PCs so mobile gambling will be bigger than the PC market - we believe that mobile will significantly boost player acquisition as well as extend the use of other players, by enabling them to take their gaming entertainment on the move or at home in front of the TV or otherwise when not at a PC."
Capitalising on mobile phone's strength – a truly personal device
Rapid Mobile's chief executive officer Jeremy Copp believes there is a huge potential in extending the gaming experience so that users can continue to play the titles they are familiar with when they move away from their PCs.
"With the mobile phone being a truly personal device and with the user all the time, there are many more opportunities through the day for gameplay than offered online – whether it is filling time on a journey to or from work or relaxing in comfort at home," said Copp. "Consumers no longer have to be concerned about additional data charges for gaming and the gaming providers' ability to deliver exciting and engaging experiences regardless of the phone type gives users the opportunity to play for prizes at any time, anywhere."
Rapid Mobile believes that it is important to be able to provide a high quality gaming experience within the constraints of mobile phone devices whilst providing a highly secure and robust communication infrastructure to the gaming operator's back end. Not only do games need to deliver rich animated graphics but also include sound and vibration cues to enhance the experience. It is also important to ensure that the mobile games can be delivered to as many consumers as possible.
On how mobile gambling sector is expected to shape up, Copp said that it is critical that the mobile gaming shapes up as an easy to use and an engaging experience for the user in order to maximise take-up and repeat play.
"This means making registration and access to the games on the mobile phone as simple as possible - for example not requiring the user to have any knowledge of the phone that they own -, engendering confidence in the security and robustness of the end-to-end service, and delivering great gameplay experiences," he said.
For his part, Clark said, "From our point of view it is familiarity and sharing the big jackpots with the web are important but quality and customer support are also paramount. The mass market customers are not all technophiles and making using the mobile familiar and as easy as possible is essential."
Integration of web offering with mobile platform
Gamesys Group has plans for seamlessly integrating its games with its web offering meaning that members can use the same login and wallet on both mobile and the web and play the same games for the same progressive jackpots.
On how mobile phones can complement the existing web offering, Clark said the company would stress on the importance of availability of favourite games and sharing the big jackpots with the web.
"That is why we are building mobile versions of our web products that are fully integrated and that means in terms of customer support and promotion too, as well as unified login and wallet – not just bolting on any old mobile offering alongside the web portfolio and hoping it will work. Rapid's technology let's us do this as effectively as possible," he said.
Copp pointed out that there are opportunities for gaming operators to use mobile games to act as both an enhancement of business from existing users – offering them more opportunities to play games when not online – and as a platform for capturing a new audience of players who might only participate on their mobile phones.
The key to enabling both of these constituencies, according to Rapid Mobile, is to make sure users are not discriminated against based upon their mobile handset type, and to make the registration and login to existing accounts as friction-free as possible.
"It is also important that the quality of the gaming experience on mobile is as close as possible to that online," he said.
Copp says the mobile phone is a natural device for participating in real-time play – users generally have the phone with them at all times and can therefore take part either in time critical games or simply to fill time, without having to have access to a PC online. There is an opportunity to promote the real-time aspect of mobile gaming, which not only adds to the customer experience through anticipatory excitement, but also grows the market by delivering incremental usage.
"Mobile gaming also adds the potential for socially based participation, enabling play when together in groups of friends (perhaps at events) or even as an alternative to having to visit dedicated 'bricks and mortar' establishments that increasingly are being forced to restrict the traditional experience through smoking bans and similar. The mobile channel can improve the social gaming experience for users at the same time delivering a further growth area for the market," said Copp.
On the other hand, Clark said, "The important thing is to remember what we are trying improve customers' experience of – we are improving their experience of gaming and it is a means to that end if we improve their experience of a mobile phone along the way. It is the improvements in handsets, reduction in data charges and of course the technology and know-how we are licensing from Rapid that enable us to make many of the technology issues go away and let us focus on the bit we do best which is the gaming and this in turn will extend peoples' entertainment and use."
Gamesys will be promoting its products both on portal and off portal. The company has a partner model on the web and are offering similar in the mobile space.
"Most mobile operators we have spoken to are aware that the traditional mechanics that they are used need revisiting and indeed seem to be doing just that," shared Clark.
5th Annual Mobile Gambling Summit Europe
5th Annual Mobile Gambling Summit Europe is scheduled to take place on 18-19 November in London this year.
For more information, click here: http://www.bulletbusiness.com/mobilegambling08/
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Contact Ben Satchwell at +44 (0)207 375 7163 or email ben@bulletbusiness.com
