Leaders from across the industry assessed the state of the live casino industry this week at the SBC Summit Lisbon panel Live Casino – Seeing Is Believing, panel where panelists discussed how live casino games have performed over the past couple of years, innovations to look out for in the future and the challenges facing live casino developers and operators that support these titles.
The panel was moderated by Joe Streeter, an editor at CasinoBeats, which is part of the SBC Global media portfolio. The CasinoBeats conference will take place in Malta in 2025.
He asked the panelists to assess the performance of live casino games in the past few years.
Oliver Bartlett, Vice President of Gaming Product & Content at BetMGM, gave live casino games “a good B- for the past few years.” He also particularly highlighted how live casino games “cross-sell fantastically with sports,” a sentiment that the Kwiff CEO Charles Lee mentioned. His online gambling platform is licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority and Isle of Man Gambling Supervision. It provides several live dealer options through games from developers such as Pragmatic Play and Evolution Gaming.
“It hasn’t extensively grown. Let’s say slots have grown faster,” Lee said, citing that for his online casino platform Kwiff, live casino games account for just more than 20 percent of gross gaming revenue, which may be high for the industry.
“It definitely needs to take the next step in terms of innovation in terms of the product,” Lee said before mentioning some avenues where live casino games can improve the user experience. He highlighted reducing times between rounds as an area with the potential to enhance performances, something Bartlett agreed with, saying, “speed up the game rounds to make players more engaged.”
However, Wolfgang Bilem, CEO of Grand Casino Luzern, which operates land-based and online casino gaming in Switzerland, suggested one of its most successful products was a live casino game showing a stream from the casino floor, and that this was one of the slower live casino games.
The Grand Casino Luzern was built in 1882 and lay on Europe’s largest lakeside promenade. Grand Casino Luzern partnered with business-to-business gaming supplier Push Gaming in December.
The conversation moved to whether localization or scalability is more important for live casino games. Armen Mnaskanian, Head of Sales at CreedRoomz, a live casino software services provider specializing in integrating advanced technologies across various aspects of the gaming industry, said, “both of them are important.”
Lee downplayed the importance of localization, saying, “they are still selling the same product,” no matter where you are releasing a live casino product. However, he conceded, “if you want to expand into different territories, that’s where it can make a difference.”
Bartlett agreed with Lee’s point about localization not mattering as much, saying, “I do wonder how many players still play live dealer still expecting interactivity while playing on the bus.” He went on to explain that many players enjoy casino games through mobile while on the move, so many play without sound, making localization through languages redundant. He also said, “because the interface is so small on a mobile,” again reducing the effect of localization.
Reflecting on how mobile play has affected live casino games, Bilem mentioned the new types of players his casino has encountered through this vertical.
“From our research, it’s also quite interesting, you know, that a certain type of customer that players online that have a social phobia that doesn’t want to meet with other people in the land-based casino, speed is imperative,” he said.
Going back to the point about speed, Bartlett said, “when you’re playing live dealer on a phone or any kind of mobile, it’s the only thing you can look at,” making speed even more important to the user experience.
Moderator Streeter asked about the benefits of blockchain technology and AI for future live casinos. The panelists were open to the possibilities of these technologies but didn’t see much use in the short term from an operator perspective, with Lee saying, “if it doesn’t deliver a better experience to the customer, what’s the point?”
