Data, data everywhere. And no time to stop and think!

Apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge for the title, but in my last article I alluded to looking at data in the eGaming world, so it seemed like a fitting phrase. Previously, I wrote about the various options when it comes to choosing a back office and the difficulties in using multiple platforms, making the point that regardless of what you use, the player experience is key.

So what is the player experience and how do you know whether you are on the right track? A healthy rate of new player registrations is a reliable indicator of good acquisition, but what you do after that to retain those players is key. To be fair the data story starts before this in terms of identifying your target customer, not just the market but the individual; but that’s outside of the scope of this article, it’s another industry, let alone another topic! So let us consider the player’s experience from acquisition onwards. You may well have an idea of what your players want, but are you basing those decisions on instinct or data analysis? In my experience, there is no doubt that the data route is a clear winner. There is a reason data is a multi-billion dollar global industry.

Everywhere you look there are discussions and articles about using data, in fact, ICE Totally Gaming 2016 has a daylong conference on the topic. All the buzzwords are thrown around freely: analytics, big data, algorithms and so on. It is hardly surprising considering that almost everything we do today leaves a data trail. In fact 90% of the world’s data was created in the last two years (Harvard Business Review, 2013) and that statistic is over two years old, so the percentage is likely much higher in today’s world. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a data junkie and I’ve spent my whole life looking into the detail of what makes things work. I was the kid who took his toys apart to see how they worked, and put them back together with varying degrees of success. My only failure was that darn wind up television from a well-known brand - it resisted every attempt! I digress: data is key. But just as I have learned (often the hard way), there is a risk of getting TOO involved in the detail. And with the amount of data today there is an even bigger risk of that happening.

It’s quite ironic that the tool I used to find the following statistics actually contributes towards it too. DOMO.com publishes a number of infographics showing how much data is generated on the internet every minute. The numbers are mind-boggling!

According to the Harvard Business Review, in 2012 we created 2.5 exabytes of data every day. That’s 1,000,000,000,000MB or roughly 50,000 years’ worth of DVD video. With that much data floating around it is all too easy to get distracted.

The above stat doesn’t mean that the typical gaming operator or provider generates that much data in 24 hours; they generate a lot but nowhere near that much! But regardless of how much data you have, the questions you should be asking do not change much in terms of, ‘how effectively are you using your data?’ Not just storing your data and reviewing it, but actively using it to drive key decisions relating to your player strategy and business objectives that are underpinned by a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how your data supports this. What holds true for Operator A might not hold true for Operator B, so your unique data set is crucial. Data and analytics are not new topics but maybe the hype is another indicator that our industry is maturing?

Whether you decide to analyse your data internally with your own data scientists or utilise the services of a third-party provider, the results should be aimed at providing the best player experience you can. And what does this mean? Quite simply, if a player has a poor time in your casino/poker/bingo room, they are unlikely to stick around. How you define a good or bad player experience is down to you, and again your data will point you in the right direction. Have you recently run a certain promotion and found that gross revenues are up? Did you send out an email campaign but got a very poor response? Am I pointing out the obvious maybe… but why didn’t players respond to your email? Maybe the bonus offering or free spins promotion was appealing, but your games are too restrictive in bet limits. Maybe the increase in activity is down to poor weather and nothing to do with your campaign! There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach, so segmenting your player database and marketing effectively to the segment that you want to target is critical. Not to beat the drum, but again these segments are based on data analysis be that simple or complex analysis.

Are complex algorithms the answer? I would lean towards yes, but that is countered by stating they need to be properly constructed in the first place. GIGO – garbage in, garbage out - still holds true. Some algorithms are great when there is a clear weighting - player A has performed actions A, B, C and D so it’s quite likely I may move onto E. Think of it like this, if I build a house online I start with plans, then I choose doors and windows and walls. It’s pretty safe to assume I will also need roof tiles, carpets and fixtures and fittings so I can easily make those recommendations. These recommendations become less clear when the human being comes into play. What colour paint? Carpets or tiles? What design? What style of fixtures? If Facebook and Google can get recommendations really wrong then you can appreciate the problem. I’m a rugby fan. Born in Scotland and raised in South Africa. I follow both national team pages on Facebook, so why suggest I may want to “Like” the English rugby team page? Maybe there are cultural or regional issues that the writers of the algorithm haven’t taken into account or the human factor that cannot be taken into account?

At least in the gaming world we don’t need to consume the masses of data that marketers and retailers do, but we can definitely learn lessons from those industries; in fact, this industry should be learning from them and getting better at analysing and making sense of our own data. There is a lot happening out there and many key figures in the industry are working behind closed doors to come up with tools and insights, to some people it’s all new, to others a lot less so. If like me you love the detail, then that is all good news.