Recently it was reported that bwin purchased Dutch massive multiplayer online game MMOG gaming company UnitedGames. Some of the people I’ve spoken with have expressed some confusion about why bwin would have an interest in a company that doesn’t focus on gambling. Others think the long-term plan is for bwin to merge their gambling productgs with MMOG gaming. I have a different take.
I’ve long been a believer that most online gambling sites are as much in the entertainment business as they are into gambling. In poker, approx 90% of players are net-depositors (i.e. losing players). And for casino, bingo, and sports book type gaming, overall everyone is a losing player. So why do people play when they know that they’re going to lose?
Because the vast majority of people who gamble do so for entertainment purposes. Even the advertising for many sports books recognizes this with slogans indicating that the game you’re watching is much more exciting when you have money riding on the outcome. Both online and offline casinos recognize this as they license characters and names from other entertainment media and repurpose it into gambling such as Mission Impossible Slots.
So, let’s say you’re a poker room and your job is to increase the number of recreational players in your poker ecosystem. You can offer all kinds of bonuses, rakeback, or other incentives but recreational players don’t necessarily respond to those offers. But if you can find a way to entertain players you can increase not only just your sign-ups but also keep them playing more hours and for a longer lifetime than someone who is just offered poker.
From that perspective, bwin’s actions actually seem to be fairly savvy. Most gambling sites are run by experts in specific gambling niches and marketing people. But by bringing in some fresh eyes and people who have more of a focus on providing a fun and entertaining experience it may be bwin’s goal to merge gambling and entertainment.
There are certainly some interesting possibilities in this type of synergy. The first one that pops to the top of my head is what if bwin eliminated their loyalty program for lower level players but instead awarded virtual prizes like they do in MMOGs? You could set certain challenges for players that they had to accomplish on the poker felt and that might give them access to a ranking system where players compete against each other to accomplish as many missions as possible. Or if they play a certain number of missions they get access to hidden training modules or some other sort of perk.
Of course, I’m simply speculating but the important aspect is a change in mindset from being a gambling company to being an entertainment company. Sure, hard-core players will scoff at such things but they won’t be scoffing when they’re counting their money.
On the other hand, bwin may never attempt to merge the two and simply thought UnitedGames was a good investment based on cash flow and profitability. Only time will tell.
photocred to Psycho Al
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Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.
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