Joe Arkley, MD, Melodimedia outlines how igaming has changed – before, during and after COVID-19 – and what that means for telemedia players.
The gambling landscape is transforming. It is always thought of as being based around live sports events – where you need teams of traders and analyst to determine the probabilities and manage risks.
We were already starting to see new growth coming from esports, lotteries, numbers and casinos as increasing betting has moved on-line. In many of these areas the odds are calculable. As such game design and marketing become predominant skills.
The other big influence has been the growth of mobile gambling which has become the medium of choice for certain areas such as casinos.
For example, in Sept 2019 – after a year of operation – New Jersey reported that 70% of all monies placed on bets was online or mobile.
That trend has been accelerated in recent weeks due to Covid-19 which has seen most of the world’s population under lockdown.
Christian McCrea, a media studies lecturer at Australia’s RMIT University, stated that: “gaming habits are likely to see a massive transformation in the months ahead, with the prospect of further economic ructions and long stretches of social isolation looming on the horizon”.
With that change telemedia players are starting to see the opportunities and enter the market. Attracted by a market that has become very mobile centric and where customer acquisition skills and market are key.
That is also evidenced by suppliers in the telemedia space. Melodimedia, which has been a leading mobile content supplier for 20 years, has seen and responded to the change.
Melodi started producing gambling formats for Africa initially. Africa is unique in that the predominant form of payment in 18 African countries is the mobile wallet. As a consequence mobile is the device for 90% plus of bets placed and mobile payments is the mechanic used.
Melodi saw the opportunity given that creating content that is created and rendered appropriately on any given mobile device is core to our DNA. Moreover we are experienced in creating content that we work even if bandwidth is limited as it is in Africa.
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As such this wasn’t a big shift for Melodi. The company built a compliant and certified Random Number Generator and we quickly created Casino, Numbers and Lottery Formats. http://tatuatatu.co.ke and http://mola24.co.mz quickly became the leading formats in Kenya and Mozambique respectively. From there it created more formats for Uganda and Tanzania and have a healthy pipeline of product rollout for an increasing large client base.
The other change that has been seen is how our telemedia customers are now viewing this as an opportunity.
Melodi’s strength has always been in creating content, apps and content sites that it manages, maintains and develops. That has allowed some customer to close their in-house content departments – but in all cases what Melodi does enables its customers focus on marketing and customer acquisition and retention. The games it develops allow them to do this. The products Melodi has built have calculable odds – so customers do not have to worry about margins – they are known.
Also Melodi’s costs are fixed – the company doesn’t operate and hasn’t operated on revenue shares – that’s the business model, which proves to be very attractive to customers and is why, increasingly, Melodi’s customers are using the company to enter the gambling sector.
Mobile payments are perfect for mobile gaming. The only reason it hasn’t been used more widely in some markets is the percentage taken by mobile networks, bad debt risk and an inability to transfer funds. Use of mobile wallets and a changing position of network operators will change that position. Mobile payments are unsurpassed it terms of conversion – and we are now starting to produce formats for the UK and European markets.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ROLE OF MOBILE PAYMENTS IN iGAMING DOWNLOAD OUR MYTHBUSTER WHITE PAPER HERE
