Gary Ellis’ journey to digitally transform the way players access their markers led to the creation of the omnichannel solution Moolah Play by Marker Trax.
That journey is far from over according to Charlie Skinner, President of Marker Trax, who is excited to introduce Moolah Play 3.0.
“Moolah Play 3.0 is the culmination of everything we have learned over the last several years about issuing digital credit,” Skinner said. “It is going to allow us to go into table games, sports betting, and igaming, as well as slot machines, which was our first vertical.
“Many unique feature sets have been added to the platform, including an AI based underwriting engine that allows for a more targeted underwriting approach. It supports our collaboration with casinos when they are structuring the underwriting for their digital credit program.”
An additional feature of Moolah Play 3.0 announced by Skinner is the elimination of player fees. He explained that there was an ongoing internal debate of how the product should be priced, which resulted in the development of a model that was “fee-free” for players.
Tests on the platform were run and the data revealed that when players were not charged fees, performance increased fifty percent.
“It is something we have learned over the years,” Skinner explained. “Performance of the credit is significantly increased when we do not charge player fees. We think this is going to have a substantial impact on the casinos. In addition, we have added new and enhanced underwriting partners as part of our platform.
“We are excited about the platform. It is in regulatory testing at GLI (Gaming Laboratories International) at the present time. We are hopeful of getting this product out early next year. It will launch at Ellis Island, our founder’s property, and then we will slowly roll it out to our additional casino partners.”
Being a data-driven company, much was learned from Moolah Play’s launch with slot machines, according to Skinner, who acknowledged that “the product has progressed over the years, which has resulted in more data as more players have come to the platform”.
“We help the operator underwrite the credit much differently than when we first launched,” he continued. “We rebuilt our data and business intelligence tools. Among the strongest components of our business is our data analytics around the performance of credit. It is something we provide our operators to help them better understand performance.”
Other factors learned during the initial launch of Moolah Play according to Skinner was the impact of the quality of the underlying vendors.
“Over the years, we have improved the player experience through vendor partnerships,” he explained. “Our goal is to help our casino partners drive more incremental visits and incremental play. Our product is doing just that. We have also learned how to better underwrite to minimize any bad debt.”
With Moolah Play 3.0 by Marker Trax, advancing into the frontiers of sports betting and igaming, in addition to table games, Skinner expounded upon factors that will be improved upon.
“There are a few things our product will prove helpful, including deposit churn,” he said. “In the digital world the players are not leaving their money on deposit. They are moving it back and forth to their bank, which creates added costs for digital operators. Marker Trax saves operators additional costs, and at the same time there are responsible gaming protocols built into the system.”
Skinner mentioned the impact of the illegal offshore sports betting market, which is a $100 billion per year industry driven by credit.
“A player is able to play offshore and not have to post any money,” he said. “That is a huge driver and one reason the offshore market is so big. We think Marker Trax is a great solution for the states where credit is allowed to offset that advantage. Safe for the player and safe for the operator.”
Skinner also emphasized the administrative and operational efficiency that Marker Trax brings to the table games side.
“Take for example a table games player with a $10,000 line,” he explained. “With Marker Trax, they sign for that marker one time. With traditional credit with a $10,000 line, the player may go to four different tables. If the player loses $2,500 at each of those tables, the casino is now managing four disparate markers.
“Moolah Play 3.0 by Marker Trax takes all of that away. It is a revolving line of credit, which is completely different from how credit has worked over the last 50 years.”
