Barney Frank the US Congressman got his bill passed last week which will start the journey of the opening of the US eGaming market.  eGaming is a market that doesn’t seem to suffer recession and is full of some of the best entrepreneurs you’re lucky enough to mix with.  There have been a number of markets that restrict the growth of this sector which purely from a business perspective is strange as ‘high growth, entrepreneurial sectors always drive growth in other sectors’ not noticeably aligned at first glance.

eGaming has driven higher security transactions for payments, shopping and networking over the web.  The industry is helping to build out the digital infrastructure which is providing employment and tax revenues to many countries.

There are of course morale issues around some of the eGames, however today’s technology can with high accuracy exclude gamers below the legal age restriction, prevent identify fraud and restrict access to ‘exclusion lists’ to prevent self harm.  This is where GB Group come in, we provide the highest accuracy of ID for gamers, worldwide via the most simplest to integrate and most sophisticated anti fraud and risk engine available.  The same technology can be used to provide accurate tax reporting by player and territory. 

At the end of August I am flying out to the US to start explaining why GB Group eGaming clients are best placed to serve the US market, how they use our technology and why GB Group clients are best of breed when it comes to exceeding expectations and requirements of the US authorities. I’m guessing I will need to visit a number of times over the next few months and I am happy to meet up with anyone out there.  But for now I need to go and fill in some on-line forms to get the right to travel this summer, although shouldn’t be a problem as ‘apparently they use the services of a well known IDV provider’ that I hold close to my heart.

John

Richard Law’s session at eGR Live on “How identity management can help e-gaming operators increase business value” proved to be one of the more popular at the event, with a second presentation scheduled again on 1^st December. Richard was looking at the whole issue of customer value - what is the real value to your business of having an accurate, up-to-date and fully verified customer database?

Delegates to the session discussed the impact of such an asset and how this can go far beyond simply ticking the compliance box. Richard revealed that there are over 100 core elements of customer identity that we see working with clients across all sectors; this means that simply focussing on name, address and date of birth as the means of identifying and understanding customer identity is really missing the point.  Using intelligence that taps into an entire framework of identity management will allow businesses to understand how to deal with individual customers most appropriately. If you would like to have a copy of Richard’s presentation please just send me a quick email. Or let us know if you would prefer us to arrange for someone to come and talk you through our ideas around identity management,

Stephen Bosarge is currently working with the gaming team to help understand how clients can reduce the cost of customer acquisition and, more importantly, increase the life time value of individual players. …  

Understanding the customer identity information that is available to your business is key when planning any retention strategy. Which customers are the most profitable, which are loss leaders and which are actually costing you more to serve than they bring into your business? With customer acquisition costs continuing to rise, our identity management tools help e-gaming clients maximise the value of their customer database, reducing the overall cost of managing each customer significantly.  In other sectors, Stephen and the identity-based marketing team have seen clients increase the ROI of marketing campaigns by huge multiples – one high street retailer has been able to recoup over £30 for every £1 spent on specific campaigns aimed at increasing customer loyalty. And one of our hotel chain clients enjoys a payback of £48 for every £1 spent….

If you’d like to have a chat about how identity-based marketing could help you maximise the value of your verified customer base, please do get in touch 

Our industry is facing some turbulent times. Previously illegal territories are opening up; others are closing down as regulators and lobbyists grapple with the debate as to whether online gaming does – or does not – contribute to a rise in underage activity, problem gambling and financial crime. In-country licensing is under scrutiny in several countries including major markets such as Germany and France.

Talking with my own team here at GB Group it is clear that many operators are holding back from making major decisions about where to go next with their international marketing and business development plans. Our advice, as always, is to make sure that you can move swiftly once any changes are announced – be that in terms of a new market opening up or an existing one closing down. With a strong focus now on the whole area of identity management processes, we strongly recommend that companies ensure their systems and processes are flexible enough to cope with any sudden changes. Technology infrastructures can be notoriously inflexible – yet with webservices there is little or no reason why operators cannot switch “off” or “on” to individual countries and players as requirements change. Germany, France, Poland and Scandinavian countries are all under scrutiny at present – not to mention the US.

Can your customer registration systems cope with the potential changes that may occur in 2010? Knowing exactly who your players are could become even more important in the next 12 months and we can help you stay on top of this as your markets - and processes - change. Contact the GB Marketing team or your own Account Manager.

We are continuing to run our successful programme of Gaming Sector Focus Groups on a quarterly basis. The next event is scheduled to take place in Gibraltar on 8^th December and will focus on some of the major legal and payment issues that the sector faces. This Focus Group will be chaired by Leon Thomas of PartyGaming.. These events are run by – and for - our user community. Feedback suggests that the opportunity to network informally within a closed, confidential environment is really welcomed by our clients – especially when trying to grapple with issues around protecting customers and combating fraud.

If you'd like to attend this, or one of our future Focus Groups, please contact Melanie Johnston

Earlier this year, PartyGaming reviewed all aspects of its ID verification, risk and customer management processes. Every supplier in this increasingly competitive market was carefully reviewed and all available solutions tested. We are delighted to announce that the operator has now confirmed that it has selected GB as its sole provider, thanks to its higher match rates, greater levels of innovation and real flexibility in all areas of the customer engagement process.

"If I were to start again from scratch, I'd use GB's technology. It is critical to the operation of PartyGaming and GB's verification solutions provide the best value on the market – with efficient and effective age and ID processes, transparent results and flexible risk management. We’re now looking at how we can go beyond age and ID, and integrate it more into our other work on reducing the cost of future risk management. GB is now very much a strategic partner for PartyGaming, helping us to manage our risk and customer engagement processes

You can read the full PartyGaming case study on the GB website here

The spread of the Virgin brand has been so dramatic in the past few years that protecting and nurturing it is always the number one issue when introducing new products or business propositions. This was of paramount concern when Virgin Games, established in 2004, took the decision earlier this year to move from being, essentially, a marketing company to a fully licensed gaming operator. By building its own platform, Virgin now handles every single aspect of the customer interaction. As a result, the business now has a single customer sign-on process and a single wallet across all its games.

Virgin Games’ customers expect the business to take active steps to protect them against ID and card fraud. Gambling regulation already requires the business to “Know Your Customer” (KYC) and this provides the assurance that stolen identities can not be misused on their sites. But from the wider customer engagement perspective, this is also great news for the other business departments that need to interact with customers Accurate, complete customer identity information is recorded up-front at the first point of engagement, allowing the business to really understand who its customers are, and how to market to them appropriately. Using GB’s identity verification solution at the heart of its customer management strategy, Virgin has seen a massive increase in new account opening - 15% more new customers than this time last year simply by having a flexible system over which they have full control.

“With GB’s solution, the majority of customers can be verified without the need to forward ID verification documents. This means there is no delay or barrier to customers playing with us and indeed, anecdotal evidence and customer feedback indicates that our customer verification experience is better than most – and that’s good enough for us!” confirmed Simon Burridge, CEO at, Virgin Games

GB is proud to sponsor the first eGR Live event on 30th November and 1 December. As part of this we’ll be sponsoring the diary system at the event which has been exclusively designed to ensure that all attendees get the maximum value out of the time spent in London. If you are intending to be at eGR Live, I’d love to meet up! I’ve already registered so perhaps we could fix up a meeting through the online dairy system now  - just click here. It would be a great opportunity to meet face to face and I’m keen to get your feedback on how things are going from your perspective.