Industry News
Assessing the Dutch market
It is a full year since the regulated online market opened in the Netherlands. In this round-table feature, we ask Matej Filipančič, Head of Turnkey Solutions at Bragg Gaming, for his view on how the market has performed to date and what lies around the corner.
Having opened up online gambling in October 2021, the Dutch regulator De Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) implemented a cooling-off period affecting many major operators. Has this affected the growth potential of the Dutch market?
It’s hard to say and with a year since the new legislation entered into force, it is now easier to focus on the positives and how the market has evolved in the last 12 months. First mover advantage has been crucial in the Netherlands and the initial 10 licensees have really carved out a big market share. It’s great to see that players have been channelled towards new operators rather than staying with incumbent ones as it means wider choice, exciting new products and better promotions through various acquisition channels. Consequently, this should attract more players, leading to healthy market growth. We think the Dutch lawmakers and regulators have done a great job with the new legislation benefiting both operators and players and we have great expectations for the potential in the country.
Will restrictions on advertising make it difficult for new entrants to the market to gain market share? If so, what part can suppliers play in attracting and retaining Dutch players?
It is very important to distinguish between online operators and those with a land-based presence here as there will be a relative advantage for the latter who will still be able to use some methods of advertising to retain players. All operators will need to be innovative and creative in coming up with ways to reach customers while also making sure their campaigns are fully compliant. For newcomers, it will become more difficult to gain a player base compared with those that were present at the time of market opening. The new restrictions are not at all in favour of newly licensed operators in that sense, but suppliers can make a big difference here. At ORYX, we offer a wide range of retention tools, which became even more important to operators after the marketing ban announcement. The new licensees on our platform have already come up with very exciting and successful strategies on how to utilise our state-of-the-art Fuze™ player engagement platform and other products to stay ahead of the competition.
What appetite have you seen among Dutch players for content types that are popular in other regulated European markets? Are they out-performing classic games that originate from the Dutch land-based heritage?
We have seen that top-performing content from world-leading providers such as Evolution, GAMOMAT and Pragmatic Play has outperformed the rest of the competition. This includes localised traditional studios like Greentube, Edict (Merkur) and Stakelogic, who still remain very popular with players. The result is a relatively healthy mix between the traditional games which have been present in the land-based machines for decades in the Netherlands and internationally recognised brands which perform well in all markets. Live casino has also been very strong and seems to have a great appeal to Dutch players.
What are your hopes for the Dutch market across the next 12 months?
Hopefully the restrictions will be applied equally on all operator websites, including the state-owned companies that were already in the market before the new regulation entered into force. There is of course potential for growth for all licensees, old or new, but it is crucial for recent entrants to be innovative to acquire and retain players. ORYX was the first external platform to launch in the Dutch market and we hope to maintain the position as a leading supplier there with the help of the exceptional track record of our operator partners.
We hope our platform partners can make use of all our tools to continue to grow and operate successfully in the Netherlands, gaining market share while making sure they are fully compliant and continue to excel in terms of Responsible Gaming and player protection. We are also in a great position to offer our proprietary products to new clients in the market and can guarantee a safe and exciting experience for the players, along with a profitable business for our partners.
Industry News
Play’n GO Honoured at Corporate Star Awards Ceremony
Play’n GO, the world’s leading casino entertainment provider, was honoured as a global leader in Environmental Social Governance (ESG) practices at the prestigious Corporate Star Awards held in Amsterdam. The company was the only iGaming company shortlisted at the ceremony, and was nominated for the Best ESG Report award, placing it among renowned organisations such as Globo, EVS and SONY Entertainment, who won the category overall.
The Corporate Star Awards are known for recognising excellence in corporate reporting and sustainability, and Play’n GO’s nomination for the Best ESG Report Award is testament to its commitment to transparency and responsible business practices.
Play’n GO’s ESG Report provides comprehensive insights into the company’s environmental initiatives, social impact and governance practices, and showcases Play’n GO’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint, promoting diversity and inclusion, and maintaining high ethical standards throughout its operations.
The Corporate Star Awards recognise organisations that go above and beyond in their commitment to ESG practices, setting a benchmark for corporate responsibility. Play’n GO’s inclusion among the shortlisted companies underscores its position as a global leader in the iGaming industry and its dedication to sustainable business practices.
Johan Törnqvist, CEO and co-founder of Play’n GO, said: “We are truly honoured to be recognized as a global ESG leader at the Corporate Star Awards. This nomination is a testament to our unwavering dedication to sustainability and responsible business practices. We believe that a strong ESG framework is essential for the long-term success of any organization, and we are proud to be at the forefront of this movement. We look forward to participating in next year’s awards, and to furthering our own ESG initiatives.”
Industry News
Amusnet Releases Speed Baccarat, a New Addition to its Live Casino Portfolio
Amusnet is presenting its newest Live Casino release – a fresh look and feel for a true casino classic that has become one of the most popular card games – Speed Baccarat.
The latest addition to the company’s portfolio mesmerises with Asian elegance and promises a lifelike gaming experience to anyone who wants to have a taste of this all-time casino favourite. Fast rounds are available, which adds to the excitement and thrill which the game brings.
Amusnet’s Speed Baccarat is played with eight standard decks of 52 cards, and it is available 24/7 with a live dealer hosting the game. It offers immersive real-time streaming with ultra-low latency. The objective of this Live Casino game is to predict the winning hand closest to 9, which could be the Player’s hand, the Dealer’s hand or there could be a Tie.
A variety of Main bets and Side bets is available, along with several in-game features to guarantee an engaging and thrilling gameplay, such as Re-bet, Double the Bet, Scoreboards and Game Statistics. A live Chat is also at players’ disposal, providing them with the chance to communicate with the dealer and the rest of the players.
Jackpot Cards
The Jackpot Cards bonus game is triggered at random during the gameplay to allow players to win impressive jackpots.
Industry News
A deep dive into generative AI
Nick McDonald, Account Director at Fujitsu, takes a closer look at the revolutionary technology and says it should not be feared if used in the right way.
The topic of AI is dominating conversations across the industry right now.
Businesses understand that it can have a seismic impact on all aspects of their operations, from internal processes and procedures to the solutions, tools and services they provide to customers.
Of course, that impact can be both positive and negative, and while there has been a lot of hype around the potential of AI concerns have been raised, too.
This has left many organisations – and, indeed, the global markets – a little nervous about AI and unsure how they should approach the technology.
It’s important to understand there are different types of artificial intelligence, with each type having its own use cases. This includes but is not limited to:
- Narrow AI
- General AI
- Super AI
- Reactive machines
- Limited memory
- Theory of mind
- Self aware
The category of AI that most are interested in is Narrow AI and in particular, the Generative AI that sits within this category of artificial intelligence.
But what do we actually mean by Generative AI?
Generative AI – a simple definition:
Generative AI can create new data including texts, images, videos and more. It does this by learning the structure and patterns of its training data to generate new ideas with similar characteristics.
It can be training to understand human language, programming languages, art, chemistry, biology, law and countless other complex subjects.
Large AI models power Generative AI. Often referred to as foundation models, they can perform a wide variety of tasks including summarization, classification and answering queries.
This makes it ideal for things like chatbots, creating media assets, design and product development.
ChatGPT catapulted Generative AI into the mainstream:
ChatGPT is the most well-known example of how Generative AI can be used.
Its rise has been nothing short of meteoric, reaching 100 million users in just two months (Facebook took 54 months to reach the same milestone).
ChatGPT is essentially a chatbot that runs on the foundation of large language models (LLMs), trained on vast amounts of data to produce texts that humans can understand.
Users ask a question and ChatGPT breaks down the query into smaller components to analyse their meaning and to determine what the user is really asking it to do.
It then returns words and sentences it predicts will base answer the query, based on the data it has been trained on.
Generative AI – the risks:
While ChatGPT may seem like a useful tool that, if nothing else, is great fun to use, it also highlights some of the concerns surrounding Generative AI.
This includes the accuracy of the outputs being generated, inconsistent output, bias, a lack of explainability and even threats to security, privacy and intellectual property.
There’s a growing number of examples of people using tools like ChatGPT and finding themselves in hot water but one of my favourites is that of a lawyer who used it to search for legal precedents in a case they were working on.
The lawyer typed their query into ChatGPT – thankfully being smart enough to not include specific information about the case – and it returned information showing that there were legal precedents.
They then instructed ChatGPT to compile the information in a document to submit to the court.
The issue was that the information ChatGPT returned was false, something the judge picked up on after reading the document submitted by the lawyer and undertaking their own research into the legal precedents presented.
When the judge was unable to find any such cases, they put this to the lawyer who came clean about using ChatGPT to search for legal precedents, but then not checking what it returned.
The lawyer was ultimately struck off – the best possible result because had they included information about the case in their ChatGPT search, they would have faced a lengthy prison sentence for breaching confidentially.
This is because ChatGPT is a public service that consumes information as well as shares it.
Don’t fear Generative AI:
But this shouldn’t stop organisations from embracing the power of Generative AI and the clear benefits it can bring to their operations.
From streamlining game development to improving customer support, there are many ways online gambling businesses can harness its potential to drive growth.
The way we have gone about this is to create a chatbot similar to ChatGPT that organisations can use with confidence. It works similarly to ChatGPT but instead of using publicly available data, it sits on top of the company’s data warehouse.
This allows teams and employees to ask questions and queries and have answers generated based on the proprietary data that foundation models have been fed on.
This data can be siloed within the warehouse, with individuals and teams given specific levels of access – the marketing team doesn’t need to be able to ask questions of the same data sets as the CFO and CEO, for example.
The use cases for a Private GPT are endless but include being able to ask any question, chat with company data, find new answers and insights, foster deeper collaboration, jointly generate insight and evaluate results and decision support systems.
Of course, this is just one way that Generative AI can be used but demonstrates how its capabilities can be harnessed safely and without any negative repercussions.
But as the industry gets to grips with the technology, many more will emerge and undoubtedly change the game for all stakeholders.
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