Yishai Habari, Founder of 777Mobile, discusses...
So here we go, another year almost over and we are looking forward to meeting at the only dedicated Mobile Gambling Summit in town. As mobile gaming falls into the cross categories of Mobile, Entertainment and Gaming and with an average of about 4 shows per category per year, one could spend all his business life running from one event to the other... the question is where all this is going?.. And more importantly... "Are we there yet"?
I have decided to focus at the various elements of Mobile Gambling and have attempted to give us all snap shot of where we are today from my perspective...
The Handsets - As the major companies such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson keep on supplying us with different designs, different shapes, forms and softwares, we are all getting more and more confused. "Windows" media seem to be getting stuck after a pretty good launch, Smart phones seem to be getting increased market share, BlackBerry is still dominating the business professionals market, and palm operating system seem to be lost somewhere in space. But wait there is more... we are about the experience a pretty big launch of Chinese and Taiwanese phones and it is not yet clear of what kind of operating system and specs they will be running on. All this means one big chaos where no common operating system is available. This also means nightmare and "hell on earth" for software manufactures.
Unfortunately this also means less 2.X versions, less innovation, a general slower move as well as a constant fight to be able to simply enable players to download and try our mobile games.
It is pathetic that the number one communication device in human history does not have common operating system! (All of you who "trashing" Windows on a daily based, you might want to think it again... :)
Technology - A lot has happened in the past 3 years. Phone are getting better and catching up with the different software requirements. More memory, larger, better screens, more stable operating software help us to create better experience. It is now clear that the downloadable versions are the way to go. It is also clear that J2Me and "the likes one" are the industry standards and the winning way to go. It was the same with web casinos where the flash version produced much lower value per player.
The power of having the application installed on the phone is not yet to be used by the software providers, the operators and the marketing companies. I believe that we will see more and more applications which are actually touching the "core code" of the phones and allow us to utilise all kinds of smart and fun capabilities. It is encouraging to see good software which runs and looks good, and I think that quite a few companies have made very good improvements in the past year which has brought the industry to totally new standard.
Marketing - As the mobile operators lose their control as the "exclusive starting point" and we see more and more web portals all over the space, it seems we are at the beginning of a "golden time". Billions of impressions goes some way to prove that the users love to surf, love to interact, and "mobile internet" is no longer just a theory. Do these users match our "gamblers profile"? Can we actually buy traffic without frequency cap, creative rotation, or all of the great tools which make web advertising pay? Is the casual user who surfs new sites actually clicking on Mobile Gaming banners and taking their time to download, register and deposit. These questions remain to be answered. By the time the 15 years old who create the majority if the traffic will be over 18, the answers for this questions will definitely be Yes... until than, I guess we have to keep on trying!
Mobile Operators - Mobile operating portals are clearly the most efficient ways to generate players to our Casinos. Mobile operators want to be in the business, but they usually don't understand or don't really take the time to truly understand our business model, needs, and support requirements. Mobile gaming is one of the only business models where the mobile operator is being paid by the provider instead of paying them. It is clear that the payment method can't be premium billing, and CC/Debit/Cash is the only way to go. If Internet Gaming was born in the US it is clear that mobile gaming was/is born in the UK.
About 18 months ago TMobile launched its mobile gaming portal with 3UK, Virgin, Samsung and recently soft launch by Orange. O2 is said to be "launching next month" (for the past 2 years!), and Vodaphone are "still making a decision". Meanwhile MILLIONS could be made if they would only let us do it right! At the same time I must say that they went long way and they are willing to listen to us now more than ever, however this is a very very slow game, and with the changing of personal and decision makers on regular base we are having very slow progress.
Legal - With virtually one country on the globe that regulated remote gaming, we are pretty much in a very tight environment. Yes, it is not against the law to play in most of the countries, but the fact that mobile gaming is unregulated, and we can't really promote our service open wide make things much harder. I think that we are about to face extremely strong legal issues and challenges. It is clearly not allowed to promote Mobile Gaming in Germany, however, what happens when German user gets UK sim card? Is he breaking the law now? After all it is 100% legal to play with UK phone number, and the user is roaming back to UK network (or at least he is been charged so...
Billing, CRM, Gaming License, Fraud, International Penetration, Games Type, Lotteries, Sports Books, Skill Games all deserve serious attention as well. But I'm running out of space!
If god created the world in 7 days, it is clear that Mobile Gaming is still at the end of day one.
4 years ago we asked ourselves - are people going to download the games?.. The answer today is absolutely - Yes.3 years ago we asked ourselves are people going to download, install and play? The answer to that now is absolutely - Yes.
2 years ago we asked ourselves, are they going to actually deposit? The answers to that today, is absolutely - Yes.
A year ago, we asked ourselves if we will actually see the high rollers playing? - well the answer to that is absolutely - Yes.
Are we ever going to hit the mass market in the next year? Are players going to play the same way they play on the Internet? Will mobile actually appear to larger audience like females and casual players? My bet is absolutely YES. It will most likely take a bit longer than we expect. After all we live in a business space where historically we been heading two steps forward and one step backward...
Until than, please make sure to keep your "Cardiologist" number handy, don't throw away that "psychologist" number just yet, and make sure to have a lot of patience, and deep pockets...
I truly have a lot of respect and appreciation to all of you who chose to operate in this space. We are young, fresh, innovative community, who actually like what we do. I'm looking forward to see you all at the show, learn what's new, share our experience and actually find out from you if "we there yet?"
