Gaming

I have a friend Luke, who is a big gambler, big to me anyway as he’s happy to squander more than a month’s worth of wages over a weekend on horses, football and whatever else is happening at the time. He’s an alpha male, he’s loud, he can down a few pints and he enjoys life.

So when I think about my world of marketing, brand and user experience, I often look at him and consider that he is somewhat absolved from the matter, almost that he is not capable of being understood as an individual or won over as a customer on the grounds of such squandering. Read more…

The topic of whether to allow users to check bets before they place them has come up a few times and often the arguments spread to the wider e-commerce world. Checking the contents of your basket before you make an order is common practice, especially for complex orders. Recently, one of our clients decided to remove the confirmation step from the checkout process to make it shorter, under the premise that “shorter checkout processes are better”. Read more…

At the Annual Online Bingo Summit and Awards on 8-9 June 2010, Foviance took the stage with a rather unique panel that roused the audience and gave great insight into their customers.

The Summit, now in its fifth year, is the place where operators, game developers and providers come together to learn, debate and discuss all things bingo. It’s a great event with some fantastic speakers, panel debates and networking opportunities. Read more…

The biggest events on the sporting calendar always attract a new wave of punters who only have one bet in mind. Highly publicised events suit inexperienced punters who are keen to be part of the fun, even if just for the one occasion.

The standout example of this phenomenon is of course the Grand National, but world title boxing fights and the ubiquitous Football World Cup tournament are others. Punters will open an account, place one (in the case of the Grand National) or a few (in the case of the World Cup) bets and then disappear. The vast majority of these fly-by-night punters never log back into their accounts again in the two months after they join. Read more…

At Foviance we’re becoming increasingly involved with gaming clients who are capitalising on new growth technologies – such as mobile.

Some of our clients are still investigating what their users want from mobile games and how and when they will be played. Some have developed prototypes and others are a long way down the path, simply looking for assistance in improving what they have already. Read more…

Despite being one of the most robust and fastest growing markets for fixed-internet users, online gaming/gambling has been slow to be adopted by the mobile revolution.

There are many reasons for this; different screen sizes, platforms, functionality and overall complexity of delivering to different handsets, but one other reason for this neglect is the attitude to online gambling generally in the major US market. Although the industry is still worth many billions of dollars in the US and it is not technically illegal, there has been a stuttering history of acceptance to say the least. The most recent twist could soon make it illegal for financial institutions to knowingly accept payment in online gaming transactions, under a law that is set to take effect next month. Read more…

By Chris Holmes

Of all the idioms, my favourite is the Law of Unintended Consequences (LOUC) – which basically states that when solving a problem, no matter how thorough your thinking and planning, there will always be outcomes that cannot be anticipated or conceived. It is sometimes known as the Streisand Effect, where the attempt to prevent the publication of an article or photo of little or no interest suddenly makes it vastly more interesting and appealing than it ever would have been if no one had made a fuss. Read more…

By Chris Holmes

Alexander Dowling’s Budget speech on Wednesday night turned the mawkish “WTF” of my previous post on tax breaks for the UK gaming industry to a resounding “FTW!” as the Government accepted proposals put forward by the trade association for the UK gaming industry, TIGA, which will introduce support mechanisms similar to those in the film industry to the gaming industry. Read more…