Meeting the needs of egaming

Meeting the needs of egaming

egaming: Coping with growth and competition Online gambling is one of the fastest-growing industries in the UK. As a result, operators are faced with a number of significant challenges such as increasing volume and speed of transactions, margin pressure, customer retention, compliance and the rise of mobile gaming. With the boom in the number of players in recent years, and increasing competition, the cost of servicing the market must be contained. Profit margins earned on egaming are significantly lower than those offered by over-the-counter (OTC) betting as a result of aggressive online pricing competition, for example best odds guaranteed promotions. OTC gross win margins typically range between 16% and 18% whilst online sports book margins are significantly lower at 6%-8%. Whilst the number of new registrations has increased markedly, the average spend per customer has declined, particularly amongst customers with a pattern of high stakes, which creates further margin pressure. Competition & Differentiation In the face of fierce competition and low barriers to entry, industry players have been forced to diversify their product offering as they look to differentiate themselves from their peers. This has been particularly true for traditional high street bookmakers who have seen their share of the overall gaming market eroded in recent years by online operators who have exploited the industry s low barriers to entry and come in with aggressive pricing strategies. Consequently, several high street players have established online operations, have increased the number of in-play betting options they offer customers and entered the fast-growing world of mobile gaming. Some bookmakers are also using self-service terminals in selected Licensed Betting Offices (LBOs), allowing customers to access the full range of betting opportunities generated by the company s trading team themselves. These developments are intensifying the necessity for scalability, speed, system integration, security and reliability in IT systems. Security & Compliance The number 1 issue and driver. Companies must be able to demonstrate that they are taking reasonable steps for the prevention of fraud and other irregularities and so must invest in robust security anti-fraud systems including extensive data monitoring and audit control. For example, those processing payments by card must comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. Furthermore with several UK operations now being based offshore, there is a clear need for secure, efficient remote data storage facilities which allow ready access to auditable data as required by local law. Branding & Reputation With a multitude of operators now vying for a share of wallet, brand positioning has taken on great importance. Recognising this, gaming companies have launched highly visible advertising campaigns in which they have recruited celebrities such as Ray Winstone and Shane Warne to add glamour and endorsement. These adverts are often strategically placed during live sports broadcasts and on sports websites, displaying the latest live odds. Industry players are increasingly adopting an integrated approach to marketing as they look to make their brands relevant to today s customers. This gives added pressure to ensure IT systems have a consistently reliable quality of service to support the increasing importance of customers brand experience and association. Contributions from Ovum MEETING THE NEEDS OF e GAMING / 2

IT can provide a Competitive Edge IT investment and development is at the heart of egaming companies current and future strategies to maintain and grow market share in a highly competitive industry. Dynamic industry growth combined with the natural peaks and troughs in demand in sports betting puts an enormous strain on IT systems, creating the problem of high and varying levels of demand for online services. This results in the need for secure cloud-based technologies to deliver private and hybrid clouds to support scale-up on demand, and cloud burst options. The need to differentiate service offerings in a bid to attract new customers has created several issues for IT, not least the need to integrate multiple systems, potentially running on a range of technology platforms, to create a consistent customer environment. For example many companies have prioritised the creation of a single customer wallet for all products they offer (bingo, casino, betting etc). This aims to enhance the end customer experience as a single wallet facilitates fund management and cashing-out. and increases cross-product revenue as it makes it easier for gamers to switch quickly and seamlessly between game types. Re-architecting existing applications, and developing newer more powerful applications using web-based development frameworks will help improve service effectiveness, and allow for greater integration between systems. Web-based application development is key to product and service innovation, and helps operators get a competitive edge. Websites must remain up-and-running at all times particularly due to the dramatic rise of in-play betting. For example, 80% of revenues are from in-play betting (for those operators that provide this service), and any loss of service will have a considerable negative impact. Traditional federated database structures are no longer a viable solution as the latency in the system is incompatible with the need for real time processing, so more advanced data management technologies (such as GemFire) are being used. Integrated system management is critical to understanding the system loads, identifying potential bottlenecks in advance, and predicting future trends. The introduction of new server-based gaming machines in LBOs and mobile gaming apps which rely on uninterrupted connection requires fail-safe data access across multiple interconnected systems, irrespective of network traffic. Mobility Mobile gaming is increasing in importance. The popularity of mobile gaming creates the need for egaming companies to develop and continually improve mobile gaming apps to deliver the same look, feel and functionality across a multitude of different platforms. Moreover, the customer s mobile activity must be fully integrated with their existing account to avoid the need to operate multiple accounts. Contributions from Ovum MEETING THE NEEDS OF e GAMING / 3

VMware Solutions VMware Delivers Comprehensive Solutions New Devices and Access Methods for Users App App App App New Cloud-ready Applications App App Existing Datacentres Existing Applications VMware weaves together these new and existing resources into a compliant, manageable, secure whole. End User Computing SaaS Applications Available Capacity From Cloud Computing VMware end-user computing solutions allow you to modernise the traditional desktop, move toward user-centric management and embrace cloud-ready services. Application development VMware delivers the proven VMware Cloud Application Platform and Cloud Foundry to build, run and manage applications for cloud deployment using technologies that are already familiar to development teams. GemFire provides advanced data management technology where databases live in the cloud. Infrastructure and Management The industry s most complete virtualization platform, VMware vsphere now forms the foundation for building cloud infrastructures for customers across all industries. VMware provides cloud infrastructure to organisations and service providers that enables secure interoperability between private, public and hybrid clouds. Our customer-proven solutions ensure: Efficiency Through Utilisation and Automation VMware solutions help you achieve lower total cost of ownership while minimising unnecessary IT infrastructure investments, management and maintenance resources, and system lock-in. You adopt a more cost-effective, self-managed, dynamically optimised environment for the most efficient delivery of IT services. You gain additional flexibility by developing and deploying applications that can run in your data centre or at an external service provider. You move toward an infrastructure that uses policy-driven management and automation to monitor itself; self-optimising for load and demand on the applications, based on usage. Agility with Control VMware solutions provide easy, self-service access to dramatically simplify IT services provisioning and deployment, so you can respond more quickly to business needs. At the same time, they allow you to put policies in place that implement business and governance requirements, including Business Continuity and DR, giving IT staff the control it needs to minimise business and regulatory risk. Increase Security, Reduce Risk VMware leads the way in security for virtualization, so your policies are always applied to a secure virtual container for your virtual machines, wherever they run. Applications running in a virtual environment can be more secure than in the physical. Freedom of Choice VMware solutions provide you with the flexibility to retain your existing operating system and application stack, yet deploy it internally or externally. You can continue to support traditional systems, while removing many of the headaches associated with them system porting, security patches and more. You also gain more predictable performance. You maintain full control over the availability, reliability, scalability, security and SLAs for all workloads, from enterprise to desktop applications, from the most basic to the most mission-critical. MEETING THE NEEDS OF e GAMING / 4

Leading with Professional Services The VMware transformation journey can help your organisation transition to IT as a Service in three distinct, evolutionary steps: starting by achieving higher degrees of IT production and cost savings, followed by increased reliability and quality of service for critical business applications, and eventually moving to an on-demand approach for consumption of IT as more and more automation capabilities are brought online. Cost Efficiency Quality of Service Business Agility Phase IT Production BusinessProduction IT as a Service Business Value Key Shared resource pools Capabilities Elastic capacity Availability Responsiveness Ze ro -to u ch infrastructure Increased control and service assurance Availability Responsiveness Compliance Service definition Self-service Chargeback Business-Value Approach While each customer s path will be unique, virtualization is essential for enabling this journey. With our solutions, you can begin to reduce IT complexity and enable IT as a Service without throwing away working infrastructure. A Prescriptive Roadmap for Virtualization and IT Transformation Realise the full potential of your virtualized IT infrastructures with a comprehensive transformation plan based on the VMware Professional Services Domain Model. VMware vcloud Accelerator Service Proof of Value Using industry best practices and in-depth experience in virtualization and cloud technologies, we will work with you to rapidly deliver a working, pre-production VMware vcloud computing environment running your applications to demonstrate the value of a VMware vcloud solution for your organisation. Accelerate Your Transition to the Cloud Moving beyond the Proof of Value service, VMware vcloud Professional Services help accelerate your journey to the cloud. Our complete range of services will help you adopt and expand a flexible cloud computing approach that matches infrastructure to demand. Based on our extensive experience helping organisations and service providers build cloud architectures, VMware vcloud Professional Services provide assessment, planning, design, and deployment services for IT infrastructure transformation. About VMware Professional Services VMware Professional Services offer end-to-end consulting services for Cloud Infrastructure and Management, End User Computing and Cloud Application Platform development based on in-depth virtualization expertise, proven best practices, and repeatable delivery methodologies. We help customers realise the full value of virtualization as the foundation for cloud computing faster, and with less risk. Based on best practices from working with thousands of customers and using reliable, repeatable methodologies, our services are designed to accelerate the benefit customers realise from VMware solutions. Regardless of the level of a customer s virtualization maturity or business need, VMware Consulting Services can accelerate the business value of IT transformation to cloud computing through virtualization, with less risk. Let s get going! Contact your VMware Account Manager to get started! To learn more about VMware services and solutions visit us online at www.vmware.co.uk Your Cloud Accelerate IT. Accelerate your Business. VMware UK Limited, Theta Building, Lyon Way, Frimley, Camberley, Surrey, UK GU16 7ER Tel: 08000 327 597 or 0800 882408 Fax: +44 1276 685018 www.vmware.com Copyright 2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. MEETING THE NEEDS OF e GAMING / 5