Plenty of information at GIGSE 2005
14.06.2005Online gambling's biggst annual get-together opened in the Palais de Congres, Montreal yesterday on a note of continued growth and confidence in the future.
Organiser Sue Schneider from River City Group said in introducing the keynore speakers that attendances were significantly up again, with over 1200 delegates from 47 countries pre-registered and scores more arriving on opening day.
SDhe revealed that 96 top companies were sponsoring or exhibiting in the Expo section, which opens today (Tuesday) and promised that the speaker program would have wide appeal and interest with everything from current international issues to relatively new phenomena such as poker, skill games and developments in the burgeoning mobile market sector.
Keynote addresses at the opening were given by the American Gaming Association's Frank Fahrenkopf, and the CEO from Austrian land games equipment suppiler Novomatic AG, Franz Wohlfahrt - the first time that both introductory speakers are from the land gambling industry.
Fahrenkopf gave an expert history, background and current situation summary of the frustrating US legal situation, emphasising that Sen. Kyl was back with a new "no exceptions" anti-online gambling proposal on which the AGA was presently neutral. However, he left the large opening day audience in no doubt that the AGA position was subject to change if the "no exceptions" nature of the new proposal changed in any way - especially in the way of carveouts for vested interests.
Wohlfahrt gave a delivered a very professional presentation and said that in Europe there was a need for effective regulation rather than attempts to ban online gamblin, and he foresaw interesting collaborative land / online possibilities in a more liberal European environment.
He did not minimise the current "sovereignty" hassles with established state monopolies, however and said that the growing power of i-gaming with its cross border capability was clearly making a serious impact.
Turning to regulation, he used Alderney, IOM and Gibraltar as examples of real and effective government based regulation, and expressed optimism in the continued development of the UK Gambling Act and the good potential this has.
Possible synergies for the land and i-gaming industries were discussed, and he said that the two were not mutually exclusive and could embrace areas such as central server based download games and network partnerships.
He closed on a high note, saying that technology and massive consumer demand had made i-gaming "unstoppable", but that genuine regulation was critical.
With the conference formally opened, the familiar dual track presentations swung into action with the very topical areas of customer service and payment concepts taking centre stage.
Wagerlogic md A J Slivinski moderated lively presentations by Evan Hoff of London-based investigative agency Quest and Iovation's Greg Pierson , both dealing with ways in which good investigative risk management and new technologies could help to combat the menace of online fraud.
Although there was no silver bullet solution, verification technologies and public record checks could definitely reduce the risk in this important area was the message.
Pierson's expert review of what his and other tecnology companies could offer had many delegates furiously scribbling notes, whilst the astonishing array of public record checks available to specialists like Quest was impressive in making the "Know Your Customer" requirements and philosophies a reality.
Quoting from a NY Times headline "The Age of Privacy Is Over" Hoff identified the huge amount of electronic information publicly available to those who knew where and how to access it, particularly in deveoped countries like the USA.
The advantages and pitfalls of Customer Support centres have always been an area of keen interest for operators and players alike, and two excellent, if at times rather technical papers followed on the complexities of running a profitable and customer-friendly centre. Mridul Sharma of eGAIN in the USA gave an especially noteworthy guide to success focused strongly on customer satisfaction rather than number crunching. It was good to see an executive with a firm grasp of what customers need, and his points on proactively training, motivating, informing and updating service reps would have received appaluse from any player audience.
"Don't get too hung up on numbers at the expense of customer satisfaction," was a strong message to the audience that will resonate with the player community as well.
Ziv Chen from the uniquitous LiveChat service showcased the extraordinary statistic that support that relies too heavily on self service averages a 1 in 100 conversion rate in terms of player interest, whilst using the more personal and interactive technique of LiveChat improved that rate to 10 conversions per 100. "You only have a 30 second conversion window of opportunity to get the player on board," he opined in a presentation that emphasised the upselling potential of a good service centre.
"Online gaming marketing through affiliates is generally good at getting prospects to the gambling sites," he said. "But converting those prospects to players needs more work in the industry."
Payment concepts as always attracted the attention of delegates in seperate presentations moderated by respected legal expert and eCOGRA director Frank Catania.
Thoas Kenny of Techet in England examined new developments, and the active war against fraud was illustrated through highly competent papers from Chris Rickborn of Verid (USA) Gareth Wong of Gambond in Britain and a particularly informative delivery by Andrea Wilson of First Atlantic out of Bermuda.
Late afternoon presentations by Neteller CEO Gorg Herman and Accurate software's Peter Jameson were well received and showed that operators are directing more energy and resources into this area, where a great deal of very professional assistance and service was available.
GIGSE performs a valuable service in producing speakers who identify and describe this assistance in easily referenced format, and industry people not present at the conference are recommended to contact RCG to plug in to this stream of valuable operational information.
Perhaps one of the most lively sessions in the traditionally slow late afternoon, pre-party slot was a round table on bonusing.
Arguably the prime cause of casino-player friction, this session atracted a large and very participative audience and was chaired by Gone Gambling's Debbee Silbermann, herslef a successful mediator for GG clients with bonus problems.
It was encouraging to note that the well-eatablished companies represented on the panel were as one in agreeing that T&Cs must be honoured by both player and casino, and that what was due should be paid prior to any lockouts.
The importance of eswcalation procedures, clear T&Cs and expert promo construction was underlined and InfoPowa's Brian Cullingworth gave a player perspective and hints on how to deal with disputes.
Other speakers were Amrit Bhatta of SlickStreet and the erudite Peter Marcus of Adsdotcom, together with Brad Romano of Bodog and Marty Jensen of Main Street group, all giving good value in discussions on this key operational aspect and how to handle its high potential for conflict with the player community.
Party Poker's huge opening night bash was as usual a mega-networking affair with great hospitality and entertainment that included a 36 player poker tournament for a $10 000 prize - we'll be back with news on that later.
Then, it was the turn of Montreal's many great restaurants and clubs to receive an serious injection of capital from expense account wielding company people intent on getting the maximum from the event through priate dinners and functions with their clients and prospects.
Dat Two's looking good as InfoPowa goes to press this fine if hot and humid Montreal morning. With major affiliate panels and some heavy-weight solutions to industry problems like DDoS and Phishing attacks, together with executive papers on IPOs and a range of business and start-up strategies it's a day full of promise, heightened by the midday opening of the exhibition centre.
