It's Time to Innovate around Customers, not Technologies

Virtual casino and poker experiences have been in flux since the late seventies when video games dedicated to blackjack, slots, and craps began appearing on the Atari 2600, NES, Master System, and several other platforms.

Source: Pexels [3]

However, as basic titles with basic graphics, these early games arguably served more as an introduction to the gambling industry than a like-for-like reproduction of the casino floor.

A Game for Almost Everybody

Time has been kind to gaming though. Mobile phones and the internet have changed just how interactive a pile of code can be, but within the casino niche, in particular, an appetite for innovation has kept the industry competitive. The benefits that come from such a changeable type of business usually end up with the customer too, a good example of which involves the casino games themselves.

There are thousands of different slots, poker tables, and blackjack tables out there. Alone, the developer Microgaming has 1,500 titles available on its platform. While this array can be overwhelming [4] for newcomers, it nevertheless means that there’s a game for almost everybody to play, whether their interests lie in horror movies, Norse mythology, or matching rows of lemons and limes.

Casinos such as Super Seven even allow non-spenders to play all their slots games here [5] for free to give beginners an idea of how titles like Mega Moolah, Fruit Party, and Buffalo King actually work. Real winnings and jackpots aren’t available but free-to-play experiences are a useful customer acquisition method, helping get curious gamblers onboard without requiring them to spend money first.

Then, there are progressive jackpots, virtual reality casinos, welcome and incidental bonuses, VIP schemes…

The list goes on.

Proactive Support

The question that needs to be asked is whether innovation is a finite resource or something that can continue indefinitely, redefining and upending everything its advocates come across. The answer is, of course, the latter. As technology progresses, brand new opportunities arise. For casino websites, though, innovating around the existing experience – or, more specifically, customers – could provide the greatest returns.

Source: Pexels [3]

Casinos are notable within the gaming world for their customer retention skills. Players return to the same sites time and time again. However, this does not mean that gaming companies are infallible, and there’s growing support for a proactive approach to customer service. This novel idea involves employing problem-seekers to pre-empt and fix player issues before they can cause problems.

Two very simple examples of the previous could be the early removal of a struggling payment provider or support for a defunct platform like Adobe Flash [6]. Choosing to then advertise these fixes to customers would demonstrate a commitment to player safety and security. A similar approach is employed by software developers, which add patch notes to regular updates. In our hypothetical case, though, the list of resolved issues never had the chance to bother anybody at all.

The need to create a customer-first environment within the casino industry will drive websites in new but increasingly subtle directions. The explosive yet fleeting impact of high technologies like VR may be a thing of the past for all but the most dedicated outlets yet greater support from customers could still give innovators the chance to experiment without taking quite as many risks.