Sneak Peek into VIGE Seminars – Innovation Talks – Daily Fantasy Sports: The Social Revolution – Valéry Bollier

Valéry Bollier has over twelve years of experience in the iGaming industry. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and seminars, as well as a contributor to various B2B publications. Equipped with a passion for Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS), Bollier is the co-founder and CEO of Oulala.com, a revolutionary fantasy football game which was launched three years ago.

Valéry will be among the keynote speakers during VIGE Seminars and will give a presentation about iGaming and the Social Revolution during the Innovation Talks panel on Day 2(21.03.2017). More info here…

Valéry recently released a white paper about Daily Fantasy Sports, which we thought would be interesting to read as a warm up to what you are going to hear during his presentation at Vienna International Gaming Expo 2017. Below you can read the full white paper about how daily fantasy sports are bringing a social revolution.

Be sure to save the date and attend VIGE2017, which will be held between the 20th and 22nd of March 2017 at the Austria Vienna Center in order to hear the fresh information at the seminars which will be held within the Expo, highlight your brand for visiting delegates by booking a stand or attend and network with the leading and newcomer company representatives that are going to be present at the show.

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the organizers on +40 735 559 234 or by mail on [email protected].

You can choose your delegate status below:

Free Expo Visitors
(Definition, advantages and disadvantages)

Free Expo Visitors can register online prior to the event by using the following form or have the opportunity to register at the registration desk during conference days. The delegate status grants its holder the opportunity to visit the exhibition floor, discuss deals, pick up gaming related magazines and network with fellow peers. All registrants are granted this privilege during the 3 days of the expo and are advised to have their ID at hand during their visit to the venue.

Advantages: It’s free! 🙂

Disadvantages: Free Expo Visitors are not allowed to attend any of the seminars which will run during the 3 days of the show. The seminars have a special aim to deliver the newest and most vital information about the European gaming markets, Responsible Gambling, Innovations and of course exclusive insights coming from the region. Free Expo Visitors can upgrade their delegate status anytime during the registration period or at the registration desk situated in the venue.
The agenda and speaker list for the VIGE 2017 Seminars can be viewed here.

Power Delegates

Power Delegates can register online prior to the event by using the following form or have the opportunity to register at the registration desk during conference days. The delegate status grants its holder the opportunity to visit the exhibition floor, discuss deals, pick up gaming related magazines, attend the special seminars and network with fellow peers. All registrants are granted this privilege during the 3 days of the expo and are advised to have their ID at hand during their visit to the venue.

The main advantage of the Power Delegate is the opportunity to harvest the extra market information and discussions which can be accessed via the VIGE 2017 Seminars which are held during the 3 days of the show.

Each Power Delegate will receive a special report of the discussions, including the PowerPoint presentations that will be showed and discuss during the seminars.

The agenda and speaker list for the VIGE 2017 Seminars can be viewed here.

Daily Fantasy Sports: The Social Revolution

The iGaming market is now approaching a critical stage, where the majority of its customers were raised playing video games (anyone born after 1970, 46 years ago, grew playing on an Atari, Nintendo or Playstation…). This simple demographic fact should have led to a product revolution in the iGaming sector… but, for structural reasons, it still is not the case!

Many lessons can be learnt from the video gaming industry (always pushing the boundaries of quality, skill is everything…) but the most important one is that customers are expecting to play against each other.

Social is becoming the cornerstone of all successful games!
But iGaming operators (particularly sports betting and casino operators) are having difficulties embracing this.

The reason is simple: when you have been playing AGAINST your customers for years, you have a very complicated relationship with them. You think that they hate you for taking their money whenever they lose (and in many cases it’s true).  So when the “social” revolution kicked in, the iGaming sector quietly ignored it, much too afraid of the infinite consequences that this might have on its very optimised business models.

Accepting that evolution would also mean abandoning the short term profitable  “Excel Business Model” tailor-made by the sector:
>Buy unloyal customers (thanks to affiliation),
>get as much money as possible from them in a few months,
>loose them and start again.

They should then adopt a new business model:
>Gain/buy customers (thanks to the word of mouth, referral programs, affiliation)
>make less money per month per customer,
>keep them for years as customers  (9.51 years).[1]
Of course, this new “social” business model will not offer the same kind of return short term. But loyalty means that the profitability is much higher on the long term. The economic value of a loyal customer overtime is obvious![2]

Despite that fact, it is such a change of paradigm that many operators are still afraid of that change. They therefore prefer to say that social has nothing to offer to their sector and are using the “peer to peer” betting exchange semi failure to prove their point.

It is true that the Betfair business model was not the success that many people thought that it would be[3]. But using one example to make a generality is of course a major mistake. And their analysis is wrong because it is not about the product, it is about the market needs.

The new paradigm of our sector should rely on two simple facts:
– It is more stimulating and enjoyable for anyone to win their friend’s money than of the house or a stranger.
– Beating your friends is cool but taking their money at the same time is way better.

This is the real value offer that the iGaming market should focus on in the next few years: to become an extension of the video game industry by offering the same type of games, but monetized. The video gaming industry is targeting children and the young adult market. The iGaming sector could position itself as logical following and target all adults. Knowing that, for example, GTA V reached $1 Billion in sales after just 3 days[4], this positioning is not as bad as it could seems!

DFS is leading the social revolution in the iGaming sector

Daily Fantasy Sport is a game changer for the iGaming Industry, because for the first time, operators will have the opportunity to offer a game that is structurally a social game.
People are playing DFS to prove to their friends that they know the sports better than them. So it is not a coincidence that Oulala’s slogan is “Win cash, earn respect”. Customers are playing because they want to show off on Monday morning at the office, because they had the best team, because they beat all their colleagues (and took their money).

Companies like ours (Oulala.com), have positioned themselves as a network, so that iGaming operators interested in offering a DFS product do not have to severely invest. They will have access to our technology and will benefit from the customer mutualisation of our network (offering the critical mass that is needed).
Adopting DFS is therefore an easy process, but the biggest step is to change the mentality of the iGaming sector: they need to embrace the fact that the majority of the customers are now expecting real social games.  This is history unfolding and those who understand this Darwinist evolution in the early stages will most probably be the future winners of our sector.

[1]Fantasy Sports Trade Association, Industry Demographics, https://www.fsta.org/ (Sep. 2014).
[2]https://www.webmarketingpros.com/blog/how-customer-loyalty-drives-profitability/
[3]The betting exchange only represents 6.48% of the remote gambling activity generated under the Gambling Commission Licences between April 2011 and march 2015
[4]https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2013/10/confirmed-grand-theft-auto-breaks-six-sales-world-records-51900

Haven’t yet registered? You are invited to register at an Early Bird Rate (50% off) until the 10th of March, 2017.

THE ORGANIZERS LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN VIENNA!