Many businesses have taken notice of the growing popularity of social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. Millions of users around the world interact on these sites every day. The online casino industry is developing software to take advantage of the popularity of these social networking sites.
Bwin introduces Shoutbox
The prominent European online gambling company Bwin has introduced some technology that will enable players at their site to communicate with each other through Facebook and Twitter. The Shoutbox software introduced by Bwin enables players to comment on their wagers and interact with friends at the social networking sites. The software advances social interaction well beyond standard chat rooms. With Shoutbox, an online poker game could have quite a different feel. Players could make specific comments on their wagers while inviting others to join the game. The technology takes away some of the isolation of online casino play to provide a little bit of a Las Vegas-style casino experience to the customer. With a client base of over 20 million customers from 22 different countries, Bwin has the ability to reach millions of more new clients through social networking. The Shoutbox technology is part of a $45 million infusion that Bwin has invested in its poker platform.
Bwin Chief Technological Officer Thomas Kiessling feels that social networking is a vital part of the casino industry’s future growth heading into the next decade. “It’s really the customer experience that’s key. The customer churn is very important, anything around customer relationship management, customer intelligence, usability studies. That is a major priority for me. My challenge is not a couple of million euros I spend on data centers and server farms, not at all, that’s number 60 of my priorities. My core challenge is time to market, output, development, productivity and to crank out new products,” Kiessling said.
A shift in strategy
The move is a change in strategy for Bwin. A couple of years ago, Kiessling’s focus was primarily allocated to infrastructure issues. Now, Kiessling estimates that he spends about 80 percent of his time overseeing the development of new products, discovering the top talent for the company’s technology innovations, and improving enterprise foundations. Other European online gambling companies, such as William Hill and Ladbrokes, are also working on new ways for their online casinos to take advantage of the social networking explosion that has developed.
Facebook has emerged to become the most used social network in the world after being founded in 2004. The site has over 300 million users worldwide. While Facebook focuses on personal profiles, the social networking site Twitter is more oriented towards brief messages that are posted at the user’s account. The site has grown quickly since being formed three years ago. Twitter is currently the third-most popular social networking site on the web.
The Shoutbox technology is just the beginning of the online casino industry’s use of Facebook and Twitter to build its brand. There will be plenty of more innovations to come in the near future.
