GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 46 - February 2020

NEIL WALKER GPWA Member: nwalker, LiveCasinoComparer.com Online Live Dealer games will continue their impressive growth during 2020. 2020 will become the year of Live En- tertainment games, with more player interaction and partic- ipation being encouraged. In an attempt to attract players that like high payouts for small initial stakes, some traditional table games will be enhanced to offer win multipliers up to 1000x stake. Evolution Gaming and Playtech will continue to dominate innovation in the sector. NetEnt, once floundering in the live dealer wilderness, has reinvented itself for 2020. With the addition of some new games and a technology refresh, I expect to see NetEnt-branded tables become more common place and experience growth like they’ve not seen before. Authentic Gaming’s sale to Genting in November will almost certainly mean we’ll see more land-based roulette tables streamed from Genting Casinos, including, of course, from Genting’s Resorts World Las Vegas, which is being built on the Strip. However, it is unlikely to be operating before the end of 2020. To help retain players we will see the introduction of New Reward engines, which will enable players to be rewarded and comped while at the tables. This is so much better than the tired and rather ill-fitting bonus structure that players have traditionally been offered. Once considered a niche, Live Casino will continue its rise to a maturity level that far exceeds its land based heritage. LEE-ANN JOHNSTONE Founder, AffiliateINSIDER I’m often asked about what the future of affiliate marketing looks like and the truth is, nobody ever really knows. I like to think I’m a bit of a historian where affiliate marketing is concerned, mainly because I’ve been doing it since it almost nearly began. While I don’t claim to hold any crystal balls, i do have the advantage of understanding where we’ve come from and often that can help me see how affiliate marketing may change in years to come. They say history repeats itself and I do to some extent believe this is true. Affiliate marketing has always been cyclical It’s driven by innovation, by humans and let me tell you we are generally quite a creative lot. I’ve seen how affiliate marketing has evolved into a sophisticated channel that sits alongside mainstream media and technical acquisition and how it now corroborates influencer marketing alongside. As an acquisition channel, it’s not going to be slowing down anytime soon. While the strong mergers and acquisitions we saw in 2018 and 2019 slowed slightly in pace, I haven’t seen the number of new affiliates coming to meet me at events slowing down because of it. Data will lead affiliate perception changes With the onset of better data we’ll see deeper marketing per- sonalization of content and purposeful player segmentation. This is good for our industry especially as regulation becomes stricter and players resist simplistic mass advertising techniques. Affiliates who focus on content generation and offer personalized 2020 will become the year of Live Entertainment games , withmore player interaction and participation being encouraged . . . Once considered a niche, LiveCasino will continue its rise to amaturity level that far exceeds its land based heritage . 45 G P W A t i m e s . o r g