The last Public Gambit Event focusing on

New Markets & New products

10 January 2007

It was a successful event, despite the second working week of year.

We had over 70+ people signedup, some of the selected companies are below:

The Royal Bank of Scotland, Dynamite Idea, Pentasia Recruitment, Betfair, PIMS-SCA Ltd, interactive investor, FX Player Limited, Cass Business School, UBJ Ltd, National Lottery Commission, Ukash, Marketforce, william hill, Guildford Heat Basketball Club Limited, Pitch, CMS Cameron McKenna LLP, Edgar Dunn & Company, ThinkTank Mathematics Ltd, Smithfield, Ladbrokes eGaming, Propel London, Cecure Gaming Limited, Talarius plc, Gambling Compliance, i-CD Publishing (UK) Ltd, Football DataCo Ltd, Micromarket Ltd, Red Interactive Ltd, City AM, World Bet Exchange Ltd, Probability PLC, JM FINN & CO, BetBrain, Goldman Sachs

The Gambit New Market & New Product, Panel of speakers.

From left to right: Tim Lambe (EasyBets), Foo Katan (Playwize), Francis Steiner (UBJ Ltd.), and Gareth Wong (Gambit founder).

Gambit New Markets and New Product report, by Lorien Pilling.

Out with the old, in with the new

by Lorien Pilling

The future was the main item on the agenda for Gambit's first event of 2007 in January. With many in the e-gaming industry glad to turn the calendar over on 2006, the attention was very much on new markets and new products.

Founder of online blackjack company UBJ, Francis Steiner had the honour of being the year's first speaker and used his previous experience as a strategy consultant to present some economic theory on how new markets grow and mature. He looked at the role played by different types of company in creating market growth and how innovation contributes to market development. Francis went on to compare various companies in the online gambling sector and assessed the difficulties they faced in areas such as management, business concept, and funding that might limit their success in the future.

The second part of his talk centred on innovation, which he split into two categories: game variation and business model variation. In discussing game variation, Francis stressed the difference between a game that is "interesting" and one that is "compelling". Interesting gets you noticed; compelling gets people playing (and depositing money). As to business model variation, he suggested that innovative and easier payment mechanisms were an area that had scope for improvement in the coming year.

Real business model innovation is more powerful than innovation in game play, he argued. But, whatever the innovation, it is crucial to match the new concept with its introduction into the market place at the right time.

CEO of Playwize, Foo Katan, will certainly be hoping that his company has timed the launch of its new poker software just right. By way of introduction, Foo played a video that showed off the features of Playwize's new 3-D poker software. He believes that the "rich experience" the software offers to players will be the innovation that sets his online tables apart from the competition. Players can customise their own character in the game and use various aids such as a poker hands calculator and pot odds determiner.

Foo admitted that developing 3-D graphics for online poker did pose some technical issues, particularly around maintaining the speed of the game and ensuring compatibility with all of the other operators on the Microgaming network. The usability of the product must not be sacrificed at the expense of trying to enhance the players' experience.

He also discussed the marketing campaign that Playwize had adopted for its new product. This has included the development of a non-gambling version of the software for use on the PS2 and PSP games consoles, which has been used to create interest amongst European gamers. Having launched just a few months ago, it is early days for Playwize's 3-D poker and time will tell if it is a compelling addition to the poker market.

Undoubtedly compelling would be Tim Lambe's account of the last decade he has spent in the remote gambling industry, should he choose to write it. The founder of Easybets opened his talk by regaling the Gambit audience with some startling anecdotes about his experiences in trying to set up an online sportsbook in Hong Kong in the late 1990s.

Tim shared his expertise in the Asian gambling market and stated that, although each market in Asia is unique and should not be treated en masse, there is a common view held by legislators in many of the countries in the region - gambling is a social problem to be dealt with, rather than a leisure pursuit to be regulated.

On sports betting, he said that wider television coverage of European football matches had driven interest in betting on football in China. Making a brave attempt at explaining Asian handicap betting without the use of visual aids, Tim made the point that Chinese punters want a definite result in their gambling. They don't want to waste time on a draw.

But there is one thing that they like better than a result and that is a fast result, especially in their card and casino games. Asked whether he thought Texas Hold'em would take off in China, Tim offered the tantalising response that, if presented to punters in the right way, "it might".

The goalposts may have been shifted for the e-gaming industry in 2007 but there still remains everything to play for. It is up to those in the industry to show once again they possess the ingenuity and creativity to stay in the game.

Speakers on the night:

1.) Tim Lambe, CEO, Easybet (owned by BetOnSports Plc.) - Asian market, key success factors. (confirmed)

2.) Foo Katan - CEO, Playwiz, new categories of poker (confirmed)

3.) Francis Steiner - CEO, UBJ. (confirmed)

Sponsored by:

To be hosted by:

Gambit-Special Event media partners:

promotional partner:

Thanks to Guildford Heat, tickets giveaway sponsor for Gambit on New markets:

Phil Hardy, Marketing manager of Guildford Heat with one of the winner, Rory.

Congratulations goes to: 1.) Teresa Tunstall, GamCare, 2.) Rory McNeil, Marketforce, 3.) Steve Crosswell, Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking

& the winner of the non-attendance is Farzin Yazdi, J. M. Finn & Co.

Speaker Profiles:

Francis Steiner

Francis has been working in the gaming space both as a strategy consultant and as an active participant for over 10 years. Francis cut his teeth in the gaming space at Braxton while working on the sale of William Hill and Coral and writing a gaming article for European Venture Capital Journal. Later when he joined PwC he became the gaming leader and he worked for Camelot, Rank, Gala Leisure Link and Paradise Poker on potential transactions. While he worked at PwC he came up with his own idea for internet gambling which he has been working on since. He still undertakes strategy and investment revues for investors and companies.

This site is organised by Gareth Wong, you can email him to propose topics, discuss any aspects relating to Gambit or this site.