Inside Asian Gaming

November 2013 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 liquidity. If you have a guy in rural Nevada who just worked the night shift and doesn’t want to drive 45 minutes to go to a casino, there probably aren’t a lot of games going on online in just Nevada at that time. At 8 a.m. in New Jersey, there may be more online poker games going on at that time so he can get the game that he wants if the two states work together to pool liquidity. The same holds true for the player in New Jersey at 3 a.m. It’s a win for the states and for the players.” Williams Interactive Williams Interactive will bring a wealth of online gaming experience and operator relationships to New Jersey, where it has applied for a master supplier license. In addition to online operations and managed services, which includes its own online casino in the UK ( jackpotparty.com ); Williams has a depth of experience in game servers and distributing content to suppliers, and a strong level of knowledge around the social casino through its jackpotpartycasino.com on Facebook. “We have a depth of knowledge that other suppliers don’t given that we’ve operated our own casino in the UK for four years,” said Bob Hays, vice president and managing director of B2B at Williams Interactive. “Whether that’s at the top end relative to marketing requirements; player acquisition, retention, CRM and business intelligence… we’ve done that all ourselves and been successful doing it. We’ve continued seeing that success extended to our first b-to-b opportunity with Groupe Partouche in Belgium.” Groupe Partouche has given Williams Interactive some insights which will be very valuable in the US, said Mr Hays. Nearly 75% of the online players there are also playing in the brick-and-mortar casino. Half of those folks are visiting the casino at least quarterly and many of those on a monthly basis. “Even more interesting to us as a content provider is that the majority of the players are looking to play the same games online that they play offline in the brick-and-mortar casino,” said Mr Hays. “For the brick-and- mortar operators, it’s going to be important that they have a single view of the player across these channels, given that a high percentage is moving back-and-forth. Brick- and-mortar knowledge of what games are working will translate to the online space.” New Jersey is a great opportunity for Williams Interactive, enabling it to develop its core strategy of distributing content across multiple markets, channels and platforms. “It also allows us to grow and expand our existing relationships, not only with our land-based operators that have a presence in Atlantic City, but also our Europe-based customers that will be entering the US market for the first time in the form of supplier relationships and platform providers,” said Mr Hays. “Lastly, it is a chance to develop our online capabilities, but specifically to the US, which is likely to grow to be a large market with different characteristics and requirements than the European market, which didn’t rise from land-based operators extending their operations into the online space. It really started with sports book, and then moved to poker, casino and bingo. Many of the operators there don’t consider land-based operations and player relationships with respect to their operations. We believe we’re very well-positioned to work within the US environment given that WMS has for many years had deep and strong relationships with the land-based operators as a supplier of game content.” Reprinted with permission from Casino Journal. Williams Interactive has gained valuable insight about online gaming through its Jackpot Party gaming sites in the UK and Belgium. Zeus II as featured on Jackpot Party Casino, a Williams Interactive property. FEATURES