GPWA Times - Issue 20 - March 2012

start to get to know the person dealing the game, so they can get their favorite croupier every day.” And make no mistake, the atmosphere makes a difference. Whether a game is streamed from a studio environment, like the feed Guru Play utilizes from London, or from a brick-and-mortar ca- sino, like Lucky Live Casino’s feed from the Fitzwilliam Card Club and Casino in Dublin, players notice and care about the look and feel of the games. “Some players love the interaction and hate brick-and-mortar live games,” says Carli, who notes that the proper- ties he promotes offer both alternatives, as Celtic Casino uses Visionary iGam- ing software, which is broadcast from a studio in Costa Rica. “Others just want a more voyeuristic experience. They don’t want to [chat] with dealers and they don’t want to be called out. They just want to play their games in peace.” High rollers worth the hassle For years, gambling industry experts be- lieved that online casinos had a huge edge over their brick-and-mortar counterparts because they could deliver games to play- ers so quickly without paying dealers. The number of decisions per hour at a virtual blackjack table could be 10 times higher than it would be at its brick-and- mortar counterpart. “There will always be a lag time, and that is always going to be a problem for live dealer casinos,” says Pilling. “You have to employ the dealers, and you have to have a studio set up with all the cameras and security features that go with it.” With fewer decisions per hour and the added costs of paying a dealer and streaming video, the concept of an on- line casino making a business decision to provide a slower, more costly version of games that already exist in an RNG envi- ronment seems counterintuitive. Unless, of course, you think about the types of players that are likely to participate in live dealer games. “It’s not about the speed as much as it is about appealing to a specific demograph- ic,” says Zever. “Live dealer games tend to attract a certain type of player that we like to cater to at a high level.” If you can’t read between the lines here, Zever’s talking about high rollers. And he’s not the only one who believes that players who participate in live dealer games have a higher long-term value to both the op- erator and the affiliate. “We’ve had players that have been playing for two to three years consistently, every single month,” said Carli. “About 50 per- cent of our players have been playing for more than six months, and 25 percent of those have been playing for more than a year. Player retention and conversions are really high in live dealer games.” Educating gamblers Perhaps the biggest hurdle that live dealer casinos games have to overcome is player perceptions. Players are worried that the quality of the live dealer experience won’t match up with the experience of playing at a brick-and-mortar casino, or playing an RNG game online. David Short (aka “shortow” on the GPWA forums) uses his affiliate website, livedeal- er.org, to give players a chance to preview the games via YouTube videos embedded on his site before taking the leap to sign up at a live dealer casino. “Players want to be able to see that they can clearly see the cards, that they can talk to the dealers in real time,” says Short. “It is an interactive experience and it is quite a compelling experience, and video is im- portant because the games are delivered via video.” Short predicts that live dealer games will continue to grow as Internet connection speeds continue to increase across the world. And why wouldn’t they? Online casinos will continue to deploy the latest technology to compete for the high rollers that live games attract. But don’t expect those trusty old RNG games that date back to the 1990s to go away anytime soon. “Live dealer games tend to be lower mar- gin ones,” says Pilling. “Some of the high- er margin games like slot games are actu- ally more profitable for operators. Do they want to switch all their players over to live dealer gaming? I suspect not.” .................................................................... Aaron Todd is the senior editor at the GPWA. He has more than five years of editorial experience in the online gambling industry, covering major industry conferences, innovations and trends. You can reach him at aaron@casinocity.com , and follow him on Twitter @CasinoCityAT. About 50 percent of our players have been playing for more than six months, and 25 percent of those have been playing for more than a year. Player retention and conversions are really high in live dealer games.” – Adrian Carli, Live Casino Partners “ Photo courtesy of Euro Partners. 44 Lower margins ? Maybe. Higher rollers ? Definitely.