mkodo strengthens position in North American mobile lottery and gaming

mkodo strengthens position in North American mobile lottery and gaming and delivers enhancements to Atlantic Lottery's Winning Numbers iOS App.

mkodo is delighted to announce the release of an enhancement to Atlantic Lottery's Mobile App into the Apple App Store (Canada). The App, initially released to a positive reaction at the end of last year, now includes push notifications or "alerts" that make access to two popular pieces of lottery information more convenient. Players can now receive a notification when new draw results are available, and when a local player has won a significant prize.

The Atlantic Lottery Mobile App, developed by mkodo, is available to lottery players in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In addition to the new push notifications, Atlantic Lottery's App enables users to view winning numbers, jackpot information and payout details for draw games, select draw information for the previous 12 months and access information on recent winners. The App also enables users to see where their nearest purchase point is through a Store Finder.

This latest release follows on from the recent launch of a bespoke iPad version of the App that took advantage of the massive importance and growth in the tablet sector.

Mark Gibson, mkodo's Business Development Director, comments: "At mkodo, we have created and operated successful mobile betting and gaming services for European Operators for the last 6 years. We are very excited to be introducing innovative products, and enhancing those products, in the North American mobile lottery and gaming market"

Apple's iOS 7: What it Means for Affiliates

On Tuesday September 10, 2013, Apple announced the release of two new products: the iPhone 5C, targeting a more budget-conscious audience, and the 5S, its 'high-end' hardware update. What occasionally gets lost in the welter of 'shipped device' numbers is that along with this has come the release of the iOS 7 operating system.

iOS 7 represents a major change in the operating system for Apple devices; possibly the biggest step in three years, since iOS 4 and the introduction of multitasking and FaceTime. iOS 7 will impact gaming developers in a number of ways, from the tools that they use to the style of user-interface that their apps will now need to adopt going forward.

As an affiliate, what might this mean to you? If you develop your own apps, or if you provide bespoke mobile versions of your content, then you will need to adopt some of the revised standards, such as the 'flatter' presentation style which moves away from Apple's previous skeuomorphic principles (designs mimicking real world objects e.g. the email symbol looks like a letter). Your developers will also, at some point, look to update to the iOS 7 development kit - something that may have an impact on the ability to easily support apps on early versions of iOS. Both the redesign of existing apps to match the new design standards and the update of your development environment can take time and, as with any change in framework, is no small matter.

Whether you develop your own affiliate apps or not, you will also need to think about the impact iOS 7 will have on the betting and gaming apps (especially native apps) of the operators with whom you affiliate. There are certain key changes to the way that some of the tracking software development kits (SDK) will operate within iOS 7. As an example, Apple has mandated that in iOS 7, use of the mobile device IMEI will no longer be allowed, thus the usual 'fingerprint' used by many tracking tools and developers will need to be amended.

The key point to be aware of is whether or not the Apple apps of the operators you affiliate with have updated their tracking SDKs. If not, it may well be that tracking is essentially lost on all those users with devices that have been upgraded to the iOS 7 operating system (returning a default value). This, essentially, is the major shortterm risk to affiliate models and revenues.

Opportunities

Aside from the operating system changes, the opportunities delivered by the hardware upgrades (e.g. iPhones 5C and 5S) should not be underestimated. An iPhone device release usually has a notable impact on volumes of Apple subscribers. An increasing Apple userbase should see increasing volumes of activity. Where this year's release is notably different from prior years is the iPhone 5C - coming in a variety of primary colours and being cheaper than the usual iPhone. In the US, the suggested figure has been $99 plus contract - in the UK it is much lower on the initial cost, e.g. ${html-pound}9.99 but with a 24-month term and fairly 'highend' monthly expense. The 5C is aimed at attracting a new audience into the Apple and iTunes ecosystem, the effect of this is expected to be significant, attracting a different demographic of users. It was thought that Apple would try to make a real in-road into the Chinese market with the 5C, however, the price of $733 in China (without contract) remains substantially over the rate for most Android devices and, perhaps, Apple's growth in China will be a long-burn as a consequence. The iPhone 5S may not draw new customers to Apple but its significant increase in processing power and capacity along with features like fingerprint recognition should cement its position as the device of choice for highspending Apple users.

In conclusion, the risk for affiliates, such as it is, will focus mainly on the changes in the way iOS 7 allows deployment of tracking-type SDKs and the access to the device-APIs of those SDKs. However, allin-all, iOS 7's release (in conjunction with the new devices), represents a significant opportunity for affiliates and games developers. The improvements in the development tools and the ability to render richer graphics, smoother transitions and better animation and motion must all have a positive impact on the user-experience and the the success of services on the new iOS.

App Messaging Vs SMS

The daily volume of in-app instant messaging has overtaken Peer-to-peer (P2P) SMS messaging for the first time, according to research firm Informa.

Informa refers to this in-app messaging as OTT messaging: "Over-the-top (OTT)-messaging applications are downloadable applications for smartphones that enable subscribers to send text (instant) messages for free to users of the same application, using their mobile data plan or Wi-Fi."*

Informa's figures show that an average of 19.1 billion OTT messages were sent per day in 2012 compared to 17.6 billion P2P SMS sent.

It is predicted that this number will grow, as the research firm estimated that, by the end of this year (2013), 41 billion OTT messages will be sent every day, compared with an average of 19.5 billion P2P SMS.

SMS will, however, remain an important communication method and according to Informa is "unlikely to die out anytime soon". It predicts global SMS traffic and revenues will continue to increase through 2016.

The Informa figures show that there were many more P2P SMS users (3.5bn) in 2012 than OTT users (586.3m).which suggests that, whilst in-app messaging users are more active, if you want to reach the broadest audience, SMS still wins. The universal appeal of SMS as a communication tool is backed up by the fact that, year on year, the SMS traffic through the mkodo platform continues to increase.

mkodo's Business Development Manager, Mark Gibson comments: "The popularity of in-app messaging has been exciting to watch. It is currently, however, largely used for Peer-to-peer communications. Our clients continue to see impressive results and successful ROI from strategic SMS marketing campaigns and we believe that SMS marketing still holds an important place in the overall marketing mix."

"http://www.informa.com/Media-centre/Press-releases--news/Latest-News/OTT-messaging-traffic-will-be-twice-volume-of-P2P-SMS-traffic-this-year/"

Google Play, not the only game in Town for Android.

Google has recently announced a stricter approach related to gambling with Google Play extending its restriction on gambling to include skill games offering prizes in money or money's worth

This does not come as a surprise to anybody in the UK; the Gambling Act 2005 contains exactly this principle. Gambling is considered as a form of gaming containing an element of chance even if it can be eliminated by superlative skills, where there is a stake and a prize. In the context of gambling a prize can mean money or money's worth.

The question for Android game developers and for gaming operators is: would any game paying out cash or cash equivalent be considered gambling under the new Google Play policy? And most importantly how should developers deal with the newly extended restrictions?

mkodo has developed many successful gaming apps for Android devices and continues to do so. What mkodo can say with a degree of certainty, is that our Android App development for gambling products uses alternate channels for distribution. The restriction of Google Play affects distribution and whilst that, undeniably, has an impact, it is important to remember that it is not a blocker to providing service and product to an audience or customer base - a large proportion of whom will use Android devices. If you would like to know what we are currently doing for our clients please get in contact with mkodo.

mkodo insight ahead of the Apple press conference later on today

Today is the big day - the day that Apple officially announce the details of its new OS (iOS7) and also two new iPhones, or so rumour has it.

The first, and probably the most impactful, change will be the prospective release of a cheaper iPhone (iPhone 5C). This will compete with the cheaper HTC, Windows/Nokia, Samsung devices. An interesting aside is that the 5C is expected to come in plastic and a variety of striking colours! The risk for Apple is that a 'budget' version may dilute the brand - the upside is that it can embed yet more people into it's Apple/iTunes ecosystem. On balance, I'd say that the Apple brand and product quality is strong enough to resist any dilution as a result of the anticipated cost-reduction.

There will also be an upgrade on the top-end device (expected to be the iPhone 5S). The main functional enhancement anticipated for this device has been the inclusion of fingerprint recognition on the home button. This may make password-unlock quicker for the user and be a nice feature - but it won't add much opportunity in itself for apps in the gaming sector.

The main opportunities may come from the release of iOS7 operating system. It will provide a substantial presentational change for end users and something that app designers will need to accommodate. There are also enhancements to the OS's ability to multi-task and use of 'dynamic motion'. The multi-tasking will improve the performance of apps yet further, including aspects such as sound synchronisation. Whereas dynamic motion will allow movement between screens within apps to be more fluid and controlled by movement of the device. This will have a positive effect on the usability of apps and the quality of visual engagement.

Apple's release today promises to be the most significant iOS upgrade and hardware release for some time and, in time, a real opportunity to provide high-quality apps and services for a whole new population of customers.

Android's reach to contribute to growth in mobile gaming

Respondents to a recent eGaming Review (Sep 2013) poll believe that Android "will be responsible for the most growth in the mobile gambling sector". This is perhaps unsurprising considering last quarter (Q2 2013) Android recorded 79.3% of the market share of global shipments and has a vast and popular array of mobile devices available, such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

This month saw Apple that there are 600 million devices out there so expect half a billion iOS7 devices to work with before the end of the year.

Yes, Apple has the advantages of being seen as the "sexiest" operating system in the market, of an upgrade strategy that discourages fragmentation, and of giving gaming developers the ability to market their gambling apps on the Apple App Store, but Android also has a very important upside - market share.

Android will be releasing their latest software upgrade in October, the 4.4 OS (named KitKat). Although Kitkat may not engender the near-hysteria of iOS7, it will provide Android customers with an improved UI plus smoother performance which will give users the platform to play casino on mobile with greater quality.

As noted in mkodo's last newsletter, it is also worth keeping an eye on Windows which, since August, has the 3rd highest market share in terms of global handsets shipped and a recent report by IDC ( Sept 2013), notes that the acquisition of Nokia could increase their market share up to 10% by 2017.

In short, although there may be a superior appeal to develop mobile gaming primarily for iOS, remember to consider Android development and do keep an eye on Windows!

Record-breaking launch for the new iPhones!

Apple announced that it sold a record-breaking 9 million new iPhones during the launch weekend of their brand-new handsets, the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.

Although Apple didn't release individual sales figures between the 5c and the 5s,Business Insider believes the introduction of the 5C (the colourful, plastic-cased iPhone) was the main driver behind the vast improvement in sales relative to previous launch weekend sales of the iPhone 5 and Apple's previous handsets.

Apple also released that over 200million iOS devices are now running the new iOS7, making it the fastest software upgrade in history.

Global App market shows no sign of slowing down

Gartner's latest forecasts (Sep 2013) predict that global app store revenues will reach $26bn in 2013, a 44.4% increase on 2012 ($18bn). Gartner forecast that 102bn apps will be downloaded in 2013, a 59.4% increase on last year.

Encouragingly for businesses, Gartner sees in-app-purchases (IAP) as a "promising and sustainable monetisation method". To be clear, IAP does not refer to purchases of physical goods but rather of digital goods. As Apple notes on its developer website: "In-App Purchase lets you sell a variety of items directly within your free or paid app, including premium content, virtual goods, and subscriptions" and within the App Store, developers receive 70% of the purchase price. The Android developer site calls this feature "In-app Billing" and notes it can be used "to sell digital goods: examples include "in-game currency, application feature upgrades - and new content for your application. Gartner predicts that IAPs will account for 48% of app store revenue by 2017 (11% in 2012).

Research Director Brian Blau (of Gartner) does say that although overall figures for IAP are expected to increase as a proportion of overall app revenues, Gartner expect to see a reduction in the number of apps being downloaded per device: "This relates back to the overall trend of users using the same apps more often rather than downloading new ones."

This reinforces, therefore, mkodo's view that it's important to make sure you have apps available for download across the mobile operating systems in which you expect to have an ongoing interest. It's very important that those apps are of sufficient quality to ensure customers choose to keep them on their phones and maintain their engagement with those apps on a regular basis.

Research company forecasts for app growth from earlier in the year include those fromJuniper Research(July 2013) and ABI Research (June 2013).

Juniper Research had a more conservative estimate of 80bn apps to be downloaded globally this year. They predicted a further growth to 160bn apps downloaded globally in 2017. They anticipate that 40% of downloads will arise from the games category.

Research company, ABI, predicted a similar revenue figure to Gartner for apps in 2013 with a prediction of global app revenues of $27bn for this year.

Blackberry's Open Letter

Yesterday, BlackBerry posted an open letter to its customers in various media. The aim of the letter was to reassure the millions of BlackBerry users that the company is still strong and still going to be there offering service for the future. The most interesting aspect of this communication was a clear focus on what might be viewed as core BlackBerry values and returning to address their business-professional constituency.

Much of the content contained in the open letter (as below) is a fair reflection of the strengths of BlackBerry, from its heritage to its present position - this restatement of brand values and position has been somewhat overdue. For the last couple of years the impression of BlackBerry's strategy has been that it was trying to defend its market-position from Android and Apple by looking to compete on the same feature-sets and the same value propositions. This return to business and security offers far clearer differentiation in BlackBerry's positioning and also "makes sense" from a heritage and customer perception basis.

BlackBerry may not return to the heights that it once held but this tack, if adopted consistently, could prove the best way to arrest what has appeared, previously, to be an inexorable slide.

Blackberry's letter

What is 4G and is it worth the hype?

4G is the fourth generation of mobile network technology and follows on from 2G and 3G. Two candidate systems are commercially deployed: the Mobile WiMAX standard and the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard.

2G technology was suitable for making calls and sending text messages while 3G made it possible to access the internet more effectively through your mobile phone. 4G promises data speeds equivalent to standard broadband internet connections and is ideally suited for services which demand more capacity such as video streaming, and data downloads.

To be able to use 4G you need a compatible handset and 4G coverage from your network operator.

4G rollout

The US was one of the first markets to start rolling out 4G in 2010 and at the end of that year, 215,000 people were using high-speed mobile broadband. At the end of 2012, 18.9 percent of US mobile subscribers were on an 4G connection, while in Europe, only 1.7 percent were on 4G.

In the UK, EE was the first network to launch 4G last year and now has coverage in 131 UK towns. The other networks launched their services over the summer and coverage is gradually being rolled out. Ofcom, the UK Communication regulatory body has set targets that say that 4G must reach 98% of the UK population and 95% of the country by the end of 2017.

Overall Worldwide coverage is also now beginning to increase as the picture below shows although there is still some way to go until this is widely available on a global scale.

Compatible handset

iOS handsets 5th generation onwards are all 4G compatible as are the higher spec smartphones from the other main handset manufacturers, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Blackberry and LG.

Pricing implications for Customers

In the UK Three recently announced that they will be offering 4G to their customers that are within 4G range for no additional monthly costs. This sparked a reduction in the premium that EE charge customers for 4G although currently customers on all UK networks apart from Three will need to pay more to access this.

mkodo's view on 4G LTE UK

Last week Vodafone were fined for breaching the terms of their 3G spectrum licence to cover 90% of the UK. With many customers still not able to reliably use 3G it is not surprising that

many customers are sceptical of the benefits that 4G may offer. However within the next 12 - 18 months higher speed mobile data is likely to become the standard, this will result in faster more responsive mobile sites and Apps and live video streaming will be better outside of wifi coverage.

mkodo's Business Development Director Mark Gibson commented "The public's appetite for consuming services of all flavours on their phones and tablet devices seems to be insatiable at the moment. The roll out and adoption of 4G will only enhance this and further push mobile as the most significant of the digital media channels."

The challenges of mobile geo-location

Delaware and New Jersey went live with regulated egaming in October and November respectively. These states followed on from Nevada which was the first state to go live, albeit only with online poker.

These online gaming launches bring to the forefront the discussion about the key issue of "geo-location": the ability to locate where players are physically placed when they're interacting with egaming services. It is often proscribed in law that players must be physically located within the relevant jurisdiction when they interact with the services.

Get geo-location right on mobile and you give your egaming product a key market advantage. It will pass through the approvals processes more smoothly in the more stringently regulated jurisdictions, facilitating both speed-to-market and the acquisition of a broader client base. Accurate geo-location tools can also significantly support marketing and product development disciplines through the supply of sophisticated customer behaviour intelligence.

Getting mobile and location right also avoids the risks, both reputational and commercial, that would be incurred if local or jurisdictional requirements are transgressed. Where jurisdictions proscribe, in law, that players must be "in jurisdiction" in order to legally interact with the service, there is significant potential harm if gaming services are consumed by users outside of that jurisdiction.

Non-compliance can affect operators' current gaming licences and can go as far as criminal conviction for company executives. Getting geo-location right on mobile devices (as with any other distribution channel) is therefore critical for both operators and payment partners.

Geo-location through IP-checking and validation for the desktop channel is well-established. For mobile devices however, this (IP) method alone is insufficient due to the nature of IP-routing within mobile networks. A mobile network can , and will, route its web traffic through just a few (or even a single) data centre and IP-location, so all users could appear to be in the same area regardless of their actual location.

There are multiple options of location ascertainment on the mobile channel, from using a location provided by the mobile device itself (for example GPS), to the cellular mast location, to wifi network ID. The key challenge is configuring these options in an appropriate manner to enable the most accurate results for each mobile device. This is particularly important given mobile devices apply various location look-up processes, some in a non-standard manner.

After the location has been determined, there is a further challenge facing the gaming operators, their accreditation partners and the relevant regulatory bodies: the validation process.

Geo-location checking (on a very high-level view) goes through two steps: Step one: determine the location Step two: check that location is in a valid area.

Step two can be achieved by sending information off to a third party that performs an IP-location check. This, however, may return just a yes/no response as to whether the IP-location is an allowed location. Some accreditation bodies/regulators require more transparent, more auditable information such as latitude/longitude coordinates.

If you are offering online gaming, then a significant number of your players will access your services from a mobile device whether or not you have promoted a "mobile" specific service. It is important to your marketing efforts, your organisation as a whole, and potentially to the executives of your organisation personally, that the mobile channel is given specific consideration when it comes to the geo-location process.

Mark Gibson, mkodo Business Development Director

What makes a successful betting and gaming app?

To be successful an app must first and foremost appeal to, and continue to appeal to, its audience..

Looking at the customer reviews is a good way to get a picture for what makes people want to use and re-use an app.

Generally speaking, when a customer is happy with an app the reasons are couched in high level terms (e.g. 'easy to use'); when a player is less happy the feedback tends to much more specific (e.g. 'there is too much information on the betting history for an accumulator...I just want the results').

The following points and examples on the subject of 'what makes an app successful' are drawn from an assessment of customer reviews of some of the best known European-based mobile sportsbook apps.

The app must be 'easy to use'. This is the most frequently used term for endorsing a product. Translated, it means the app must: 1. do what you expect it to do; 2. present information and allow navigation in a logical, consistent manner; and 3. second guess the user when possible, but only if it is sure. Negative comments on navigation, for example, include: 1. "making me rescroll all the way down a coupon page after selecting a match", and 2. "not providing a traditional menu navigation option alongside a coupon format so that all markets are easy to find."
The app must, at least, have all the features a customer can reasonably expect based upon what is the norm in the marketplace, such as in-play betting. Examples from recent customer reviews of not meeting this requirement are: 1. not providing the ability to change payment card details, and 2. not having a cash-out option.
The app must have a level of performance that is acceptable to the market. Speed and availability feature very highly in both the positive and negative reviews of products. An example of a positive comment is: "it takes no more than a 2 second wait between pages", as opposed to a negative one: "it takes ages to update balances when you place a bet". "Crashing" and "freezing" feature highly in negative reviews. It is important for performance that the product infrastructure just sends data to the app that it really needs and not everything that it would send in a traditional online environment.
Visual display receives a reasonable amount of comment in the reviews. The importance of optimising apps for mobile device types is a given.
There are some important attributes that are very specific to the betting markets. These are 1. the amount of markets on offer and 2. the competitiveness of the prices. Whilst the latter is not mentioned as often as other points, it must be taken as a given by the operators - getting the best odds is the key reason why regular customers engage.
Having the best promotions available also drives the success of an app in this market. Good promotions feature highly in positive reviews. Notifications will become increasingly important to operators to enable targeted marketing messaging. The next step in this area will be for notifications to be triggered by customer betting patterns. For example, a player that consistently places HT/FT combos on live TV matches might be best ‘nurtured’ by offering similar bets by notification with a link to bet slip 30 minutes before a match starts.
Provision of pertinent associated content appears in the positive reviews and crops up as requests to operators in the ‘could improve’ reviews. Streaming events, for example, helps 'sell' an app; a request for Champions League tables, for example, helps improve it.

From an operators' perspective, the ability to attract new customers and the ability to engage all customers in a broad range of gaming activities will be crucial to their success. Good customer service is a given.

mkodo's Top 5 Take Away Thoughts from ICE 2014

There was no more talk about "mobile emerging this year" ; Mobile has emerged and it is centre stage for all products and all operators. Indeed, as we walked round ICE this year, all the products we saw at the iGaming stands were demonstrated on phones or, more often, on tablets.
It was more obvious that land-based operators are taking a holistic, cross-channel strategic approach. The production values and interactive techniques for the land-based titles continue to improve - we saw this with the 3D and high res graphics on show plus the layered screens adding depth to the customer experience. We also continued to hear talk about linking the customer experience across channels (land-based, through online and on into mobile) in terms of wallet and jackpots from these operators.
Geo-location, and mobile geo-location in particular, in regulated markets remained a hot topic... this is particularly relevant in the wake of the New Jersey go-live before Christmas. Geo-location checks and validation for "desktop" remote gaming services are well-established. Mobile, however, whilst treated as "remote gaming" by most regulators, is often approached differently by accreditation organisations and regulatory bodies when it comes to geo-location. The risk around crossing borders and mobile network IPs means that mobile must be treated with different routines to those that apply in the established desktop environment.
There was lots of talk about the expansion of iGaming in the USA...How quickly will it happen?... In which states will the fastest progress be made?... Will any but the largest market players be able to participate in the supply chain given the high cost of entry?... and many other questions, of course. The opportunity is huge which is why the conversations continue but there remain many many factors that will yet impact the growth of iGaming across the States.
And finally.. a note on the conference itself.
Hats off to Clarion Events - the change in the physical layout of the show (being on both sides of ExCel) greatly improved the experience, providing a better flow through the exhibition floor. As ever, the event was well attended and by the right audience. What was especially impressive was the fact that the "tube strike" didn't significantly impact turnout - a fact that highlights the importance and value of the ICE event for the global iGaming market.

Gambling Bill

4th March 2014

The Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill is set to receive its third reading in the House of Lords on 4th March 2014. With this in mind, Mark Gibson, mobile technology specialist mkodoâs Business Development Director, looks at the potential impact for UK players. Thereâs not much upside!

The Bill is set to introduce the requirement for operators to hold a UK Licence (Remote Operating Licence) in order to provide remote gaming services, and to advertise remote gaming services, to UK players. The Bill will also introduce the principle of a Point of Consumption tax on gambling revenues.

Point Of Consumption

Following discussions in the consultation process, this âPoint of Consumptionâ tax will, in fact be more of a âpoint of residenceâ tax. It has been decided that the challenges in ascertaining and maintaining customer location records across all bet/spin activity are too onerous and difficult. This is in contrast to regulation in the North American market which currently demands even greater rigour in terms of location-identification for remote gaming services. The recommended alternative to âPoint of Consumptionâ has been to apply a âpoint of residenceâ qualification. So, if through its reasonable efforts the gambling operator can determine the customerâs usual place of residence as the UK, then the tax will apply to all gambling revenues generated by that customer.

In effect, this will not change many (if any) of the customer data collection processes applied by most remote gaming operators, currently. The payment providers and fraud/security checking platforms that are extensively utilised tend to provide mechanics for customer identification through a variety of channels. These methods deliver a degree of confidence in the identity of the customer - including a place of residence.

Will the Bill affect the services available?
Essentially, the Bill will not dictate any alteration to the range of services and products that will be available to UK players. It will also not dictate any change in terms of the locations from which the UK player can âconsumeâ the services. The change in tax liability and the point at which the tax is applied will have a critical impact on the commercial viability of the operations of some gaming operators and also specific products within a remote gaming portfolio.
Essentially operators currently supplying remote services from a base outside of the UK will still be able to do so. Customers will still be able to participate in those remote services. However, the questions will be whether the application of UK gaming duties kills the viability of the provision of the service, commercially.

How will the customer benefit with this change?
It may be suggested that requiring all operators to register in the UK and to be liable to UK tax and duties will make the supply of gambling services more âresponsibleâ. It may also be suggested that there will be a greater degree of player-confidence in the operators and platforms supplying those products and services.
However, this does beg the question as to whether there is currently a shortfall in player-confidence or a significant degree of player-harm as a result of the current industry architecture and supply. And whether the proposed changes would affect this?

In terms of customer impact, it is reasonable to assume that

there will be decreased competition (usually considered to be a bad thing for customers)

there may well be a change in the level of Return-To-Player rates as gaming operators look to ensure that their services are profitable within the ânewâ tax regime

there may, longer-term, be less innovation as fewer operators and new entrants are in the market and research and development offers less in the way of profit-opportunity

There is significant variation in the current typical Return-To-Player values between different types of products. The proposed legislation does not intend to accommodate variation based on that consideration. The same rules and the same duty will apply across products.

Summary
The value of this change in tax regulation would seem, likely, to have little positive impact on the UKâs current gaming players. The impact will be on operators who have notable numbers of players residing in the UK. There are examples of operators already stating a willingness to take a step back from the UK market. The proposed level of the UK âpoint of consumptionâ tax at 15% is expected to have a significant impact on operators and may even have a detrimental effect on the volume of business as the player may receive poorer odds or payout rates as operators look to mitigate the reduction in profit (to tax) by increasing their overround. As such the 300m GBP in tax revenue estimated by The Treasury may not be fulfilled as operators and player reduce their activity and touch with the UK's online gaming market.

What you need to know about Android Wear

18th March 2014

Google has announced 'Android Wear', a version of the Operating System (OS) designed specifically for wearable devices.

The first Android Wear project is extending the Android OS in to wristwatches, the âGoogle Watchâ.

The Google Watch, powered by Android Wear, will ârespond to spoken questions and commandsâ.

The Google Watch has both touchscreen and voice recognition, and has the ability to: control music, display texts and emails, reply to texts using voice, show directions on a map, display alerts, receive posts and updates from social apps and show normal app notifications.

Android Wear has been designed in a fashion that will bring a common experience to the user, as well as to the platform developers.

Despite competitors already launching their own range of âsmart watchesâ, such as the Sony SmartWatch SW2, the surprise announcement of the Google Watch will, to quote Esat Dedezade from www.stuff.tv, have âAppleâ¦ kicking itselfâ.

The first range of Google Watches is planned for release âmid-late 2014â, however Google is already in the process of releasing an early version of the Wear SDK to developers.

More information at:

http://android-developers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/android-wear-developer-preview.html/

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/what-is-android-wear-a-guide-to-google-s-smartwatch-os

http://www.stuff.tv/meet-android-wear-googles-new-android-platform-wearable-devices/news/

New PhonepayPlus regulations for Charity Subscription SMS campaigns

25 March 2014

Earlier this month PhonepayPlus the regulator for UK paid for phone services updated their Code of Practice to include new policies for Charities running premium rate SMS subscription services. The key updates are listed below:

Customers must be able to pause their donations for a 1 month period by texting in the word SKIP at any time.

The initial sign up confirmation sent to the customer should include details of the SKIP option alongside the unsubscribe details.

Any customer that texts in SKIP for 3 consecutive months should receive a free message reminding them of the ways in which they can unsubscribe from the service.

Previously charity subscription services that operated at price points above £4.50 per week needed to obtain prior permission from Phonepayplus and also required a double opt in. The new guidelines mean that services can operate at price points of up to £10 per week without prior permission or a double opt in.

Full details of the PhonepayPlus report can be found at :

http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/For-Business/Consultations-and-Invitations-to-Tender/Previous-consultations/~/media/Files/PhonepayPlus/Prior_permission/SKIP%20option%20%20charitable%20donation%20by%20text.pdf

mkodo teams with OpenBet to successfully deliver Danske Spilâs mobile launch

25 March 2014

mkodo, leading independent mobile solutions provider for gaming, are delighted to announce the successful launch of their mobile and smartphone sportsbook webapp delivered to Danske Spil, leading sportsbetting provider in Denmark, through OpenBetâs sportsbook platform.

mkodoâs mobile and smartphone sportsbook webapp for Danske Spilâs Oddset brand, is the first product launch in the agreed long-term roadmap that Danske Spil is signed-up to.

The Oddset product is an HTML5 webapp; it follows the key mobile responsive design principles. The webapp provides Danske Spilâs customers with the ability to view all Oddsetâs betting opportunities on their mobile or tablet device including, most importantly, supporting the full range of live-betting events and markets.

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Mark Gibson, mkodoâs Business Development Director, commented: âWe are very excited that mkodo is working with Danske Spil and OpenBet to help deliver their recently extended range of sportsbetting opportunities on mobile. The ease of integration coupled with the support and expertise provided bears testament to OpenBetâs open and flexible platform. The performance and customer uptake has already exceeded expectations and weâre really looking forward to continuing its development and innovation.â

Nikos Kryvossidis, OpenBetâs Senior VP of Technology, added: âDeveloping and deploying the Oddset mobile webapp from scratch in just a few months shows how much can be achieved with a collaborative effort between committed and specialist partners. It has been a pleasure working with the teams at mkodo and Danske Spil to deliver this high-quality and market-leading mobile sportsbook. The launch of this sportsbook webapp is validation of our platformâs abilities to offer Danske Spil, and all our other customers, a flexible, reliable and open platform.â

Mobile CRM for Insurance Sector

The following article was published by Insurance Day on 31 March 2014.

Tamara Dobson from mobile CRM solutions provider, mkodo, gives her top suggestions for how best to use mobile in your CRM, communications and acquisition strategies through 2014.

There is no doubt that having a mobile strategy in place is now something at the forefront of most customer-facing organisations and the relatively low cost of mobile marketing over traditional communication channels can lead to impressive ROIs. However, to maximise the effectiveness of using the mobile channel in the acquisition and retention of customers, there are a number of things that should be carefully considered.

â¢ Put in place a strategy for system-driven SMS communications to customers. Research shows that 91% of people have their mobile phones within armsâ reach 24 hours a day*. So, use mobile when you have time-sensitive or important information to communicate to your customers, e.g. an offer that is reaching its end-date or a policy thatâs about to come to an end.

â¢ Make sure your website is fully mobile-optimised and use SMS to drive customers to your mobile website and any apps you may have.

â¢ Mobile optimisation of a website should mean more than scaling for the latest iPhone - the spread of mobile devices, operating systems and versions of those OSs have a high degree of fragmentation (especially in the Android space) - this will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. A version of your web content designed and served specifically for mobile will help ensure you retain (and acquire) customers - customers who increasingly expect and demand an experience designed for mobile. A native mobile application or âappâ with a presence in an app store is also an effective way of acquiring customers and provides customers with a greater level of confidence and perception of security. Developing (and maintaining) an app is a greater commitment but there is substantial upside especially if the services provided through the app relate to functionality that customers would consider to be confidential in any way.

â¢ Do not bombard customers with mobile communications and make sure anything you send is âon-brandâ and sent at a sociable time of day. e.g. ensure that customers will not receive non-urgent communications after 11pm.

â¢ Customers are unlikely to unsubscribe from receiving mobile communications if the information they receive is relevant, informative and above all non-intrusive. Sending marketing messages to customers can produce impressive results and, if these are interspersed with informative service and account information that is useful to customers, any churn is likely to be reduced.

â¢ Make sure that your SMS provider is providing you with regular reports on the delivery rate of your SMS broadcasts. It is crucial to put in place a strategy for dealing with multiple failed messages to a mobile number so that your database is regularly cleansed. Our general rule-of-thumb is to remove customers from the mobile database if three consecutive SMS have failed to be delivered to that number. It is also very important to make sure that any marketing texts contain information on how the customer can unsubscribe from receiving marketing messages, an unsubscribe prompt, and that unsubscribers are automatically removed from further mobile marketing campaigns. Something else to consider is how to deal with unsolicited inbound messages from customers that may reply to your texts with general customer service enquiries. Our clients tend to either send back an automated SMS message with all the customer service contact details or get all to these messages sent on to customer services to follow up directly with the customer.

â¢ The costs of sending SMS messaging has decreased over the past few years and it is now possible to purchase bulk messages at a very low cost. Before sending any messages though it is worth being aware of the routes that your provider will be using to send the messages. Tier 1 UK routes are more expensive than Tier 2 messaging which is routed via other countries for a cheaper overall price. However, the route used can directly impact the percentage of delivery reports received by the networks - ultimately it is possible that by using a cheaper route you may be reaching less customers.

*Source â Morgan Stanley

This article as published by Insurance Day is available to subscribers at Insurance Day

Who won the Grand National?

The Answer? The bookies...

Saturday the 5th April 2014 saw the 167th annual running of the Grand National horse race at Aintree and it turned out to be a great day for all betting operators!

With the masses of punters betting on the favourites such as Double Seven and TeaforThree, the bookies would have been delighted that the 25/1 outsider winner, Pineau De Re, ridden by Leighton Aspell, who romped through by 5 lengths, beating off a late burst from Balthazar King.

The Grand National is always the biggest sports betting event in the annual calendar and this year over ${html-pound}500 million was wagered on the day alone for the big race inb the UK and ${html-pound}270million bet digitally (website or mobile).

OpenBet sportsbook platform accept more than 11million bets on Saturday and processed more than 43 million financial movements. At peak time, OpenBet were accepting 12,000 bets per minute, which was an increase on 30% from last year. It also gives operators confidence moving forward, especially with the FIFA World Cup around the corner.

The Grand National attracts punters who rarely bet and is often seen as a bit of 'pot luck'. A survey conducted by William Hill claims that 57% of the adult population would have placed a bet on Saturday for the Grand National, with 36% choosing their selected horse by name, 17% by the odds, 9% by random selection and 2% because the colours worn by the jockey

...so if you're a fan of Pineau de Re's white and green jersey, you would have been in luck!

http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/bookmakers_enjoy_unprecedented_grand_national_activity

mkodo shortlisted for the eGR Awards 2014

17th June 2014

We are delighted that mkodo has been shortlisted for the eGaming Review B2B Awards in the following three categories:

Innovation in Mobile
Mobile Supplier of the Year
Mobile Services Provider of the Year

The nominations reflect mkodo’s strong performance during the past 12 months, innovating for long-term clients, for example Rank Digital, and launching mobile products for new, high-profile clients, including Danske Spil and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC).

The prestigious eGR B2B Awards reward and celebrate the very best service providers in the online gaming industry, recognising the achievements of suppliers from across all the major egaming disciplines including betting and gaming software, networks, mobile, payments, recruitment, IT & infrastructure.

Excellence in Gaming - 2014

27th October 2014

'mkodo's Mark Gibson visited the annual Excellence in iGaming Show (EiG) in Berlin last week....here are his top 5 takeaway thoughts from the event....

1. There was a busy, vibrant atmosphere despite the location being a little way away from the city centre this year. The physical split between EiG and the Affiliate Conference (Berlin and Barcelona) did not seem to have had a visible impact on numbers.

2.The Launchpad zone provided an excellent space for learning about and engaging with the newer propositions - an essential element in unleashing innovation and stimulating ideas across the market.

3. 'Crowd' concepts came to the forefront - from acquiring capital and investment using crowdfunding techniques to organisations developing modes of player interaction with far greater focus on p2p and social interaction.

4. Lottery businesses and propositions are growing in digital gaming space. This applies not only to the main state lotteries themselves but also commercial operations that leverage the lottery space. Lottery is a long-term, relatively conservative market but one that is focussing more and more on mobile and digital.

5. There were many discussions and debates surrounding the topics of convergence and mergers within the iGaming space. The recent announcements of mergers between Scientific Games and Bally, along with GTech and IGT, and Amaya and Rational Group present both challenges and opportunities not only for those organisations but also for their competitors and their partners and distribution channels.

Apple Live announcements - Summary by mkodo

Yesterday Apple made a few announcements about the Apple Watch.

- Apple Watch will launch on the 24th of April.

- iOS 8.2 launched yesterday, this contains a new version of the iOS SDK (minor, but apps should still be smoke tested).

- The first version of the watch SDK merely uses the watch as a screen (code gets executed on the iPhone), this is good for developers as it means they can use all shared iOS code straight away if needed. For some developers the SDK can be very limited: No sensor access, no animations, as little customisation is possible.

- Apple push notifications work in the same way as the iPhone although both devices share the same push token. (Push messages specify they intend to go to Watch.)

- Push notifications can supposedly be shown on the watch without an app.

- Apple Watch requires at least an iPhone 5 to use it (iPads aren't compatible).

- Apple have put the iWatch app on almost 700 million devices with the iOS8.2 update.

- The watch will be priced between £299 (sports version) and £13,500 (solid gold version)

- Apple have officially released xcode 6.2 containing watchkit, this version can be used to submit watch apps.

Final thoughts: mkodo are not really sure if this product will take off. The design and execution is nice but it really needs a compelling reason for people to go out and buy one. For the time being it seems they are waiting to see what developers can do with it.

Once again, Apple has got everyone talking, let’s wait and see….

Many Clouds provides silver lining for bookies

Many Clouds provides silver lining for bookies

British bookmakers were saved from a £50million payout when Shutthefrontdoor, ridden by the soon-to-be-retired Champion jockey Tony McCoy, could only conjure up a fifth place in the 2015 Grand National. The 6/1 horse, trained by Jonjo O’Neil, was not only the experts’ favourite, but also the general public’s favourite, where people dreamed of the fairy-tale ending for McCoy, who was riding his 20th and final Grand National and retires later this year.

The winning horse, Many Clouds, ridden by the 2014 Grand National’s winning jockey, started the race at, surprising to some, long odds of 25-1, despite many not underestimating the combination of jockey Aspall, trainer Oliver Sherwood and owner Trevor Hemmings. Aspall rode the perfect race on Many Clouds and eventually passed the post a length and three quarters ahead of the runner-up Saint Are. Aspall became the first jockey to win the National 2 years in a row, on 2 different horses.

No doubt, many ‘part-time punters’ who stake their annual 50p bet on the Grand National will be delighted if they picked Many Clouds out of their office sweepstake or down the local bookies and will be jubilant with a 250% profit. The bookies, however, will be more than relieved that the eventual winner was a relatively ‘under the radar’ horse, leaving them on the right side of a £30million windfall.

Despite William Hill reporting that over 200,000 punters backed the eventual winner and face paying out over £13million to the Many Clouds punters, they took over £30million worth of bets on Shutthefrontdoor alone and with none of the top 10 in the betting placed in the first 3, Hills would have been delighted with the result. PaddyPower were quoted as saying ‘Many Clouds was a gift from God and he saved the industry up to £60million’.

A record number of bets was predicted for this year’s Grand National, with over £165million predicted before the big race, and with Ladbrokes claiming that the hour of 3pm-4pm was their busiest hour of the entire year. Ladbrokes were taking 7,500 bets-per-minute on their mobile channels within this hour, and 9,900 bpm within their retail outlets.

OpenBet reportedly handled a total of over 19million bets on Saturday alone, and at peak processed 45,000 bets per minute.

Perhaps the most staggering betting statistic of the day was the significant increase in mobile betting this year over the 2014 Grand National. 63% of all digital bets stakes on the Grand National were on a mobile device, this is a 9% increase from the 2014 race.

The 2015 Grand National, as ever, was a brilliant spectacle, and although the crowd’s favourite McCoy didn’t quite manage to retire in the style we wanted to see, the bookmakers would have been delighted with the overall result and Many Clouds did prove a silver lining for the bookies.

mkodo's April Newsletter

UKGC licence granted

We are proud to announce that mkodo has been granted a UKGC gambling software licence. The Act, that ensures any computer software used in connection with remote gambling meets the UKGC technical standards, came in effect from November 2014 ensures that all online gambling sites are licenced and registered with the UKGC. Please read our full press release here

Apple watch is launched!

It's been hard to miss the biggest launch in wearables to date, Apple release their first watch tomorrow (Friday 24th. April) in 9 countries. mkodo's watch is on its way and the team are excited about what this means for the mobile gaming market. Watch this space for more on this from our mkodo innovation team.

Mobile is the winner at the Grand National

At the 2015 Crabbies' Grand National although Many Clouds won the race mobile definitely came out on top! 63% of all bets placed on this year's race were via mobile and at the peak times mkodo's partner OpenBet reportedly processed 45,000 bets per minute. Please read our full article here

We are recruiting!

mkodo is always on the look-out for motivated people to join our team of dedicated professionals, and we’re currently looking for:

Project Manager

QA Engineer - Mobile Apps

Front End Developer - HTML5, TDD, Javascript

If you’re interested in working for mkodo, please send your CV into jobs@mkodo.com

mkodo Round Up of CGS2015

mkodo’s take-away from CGS15

Fantasy

The recent acquisition of the two major forces in the world of fantasy sports created a focus on the opportunities for fantasy and its role for gaming operators. Much conversation within this topic centred on the opportunities for growth, and participation by bettors, in the ‘daily fantasy’ segment. The faster settlement and turnover times of daily fantasy, where daily pools are settled within a day or weekend are expected to generate significant levels of activity and, potentially, opportunity to cross-over into the sportsbetting sector.

Convergence

As with other shows over the last year or so ‘omni-channel’ was a consistent thread through many of the sessions and is a recognition of how the player will, naturally, seek to engage with a product across desktop, mobile, retail, etc. To the player the channel distinction is, to a far greater degree, irrelevant - players experience the brand/product and do not explicitly adjust their expectation by channel.

The use of mobile in the convergence of land-based and digital was a key thread. As customers engage across product formats and location the ability to offer a consistent content experience is critical in acquiring and retaining players. Mobile can play a central role in this, especially if operators engage with the location-based aspects of the format’s functionality. Proximity and ‘beacon’ tools can be used in a land-based environment to drive activity, alert to bonus and flag-up concessions and offers. This can be related to direct-gaming content and also to the more general entertainment and concierge type services offered in land-based sector.

[The connection of a customer’s digital account with the land-based experience, redemption, top-up, ticket validation, etc. was a prominent topic for conversation. This is an area where mobile is especially relevant as it creates that access point, or bridge between, the retail and the digital experience. One need not replace the other - it is not solely about the management of migration but about creating a better, more rounded and consistent customer experience across channels.]

C290.

The stasis regarding C-290 and the Senate was, during the Show, anticipated to continue and come to a close soon after - which proved an accurate expectation. The termination of the Bill as the new parliament took session is a set-back to the sportsbetting product side and one that confounds even now. The change and growth that would accrue to the regulated sector in Canada if the tenets of C-290 are to be revisited and passed would be enormous - alongside a growth in tax revenues and community funding. It would also enable players to engage with organisation with whom they have a strong and familial affinity whilst placing bets the nature of which they would prefer (.i.e. single event betting).

Windsor.

This one’s purely a personal opinion. As a first visit to Caesars Windsor I was really impressed with the professionalism, helpfulness and general all-round friendliness of the staff. They are a credit to Caesars and to Windsor. One of the sessions described how Caesars engages, motivates and incentivate their staff to reach the best levels of customer service - and you can really see that working.

Thinking Mobile First for iLottery

Why is mobile critical enough to be 'first'?

Just a couple of years ago this question would have been framed very differently - it would have been much more about the 'if' not the 'why' of mobile.

The shift in player engagement patterns towards mobile devices continues at a 'breakneck pace' across all sectors. More customers now have mobile phone devices than desktops. People spend more time on mobile apps than browsing the internet on a desktop. For a technology that in its 'smartphone' form is, in reality, less than 10 years old, the customer appetite for, and adoption of, mobile is nothing short of astounding.

There is no reason to expect that the trend towards mobile across sectors will diminish. Within gaming, the verticals of Sportsbook and Bingo were earlier adopters and see massively significant levels of engagement on mobile - to the point where mobile is now the dominant channel ahead of desktop. Betfair earlier this year announced that 80% of its customer base uses its mobile products. It is now expected that within sportsbook, bingo and casino that mobile will approach or exceed 50% of digital activity. This trend towards mobile is one that will impact Lottery, as it impacts everything else.

Lottery customers - a challenge and an opportunity

There may be a variation in the speed of take-up of mobile in Lottery compared to other gaming product verticals. The Lottery player will be more established in his/her purchasing patterns (and with a greater tendency towards retail) than users of other types of gaming products. As such, change in behaviour for the Lottery population will tend to be slower.

The challenge is that mobile must seek to create an engagement that serves the generalist lottery audience and one that may not be especially au fait with newer technologies - whilst still leveraging those technologies. Design for mobile is key in this.

The opportunity is huge. Lottery's scale means that even small percentage increments can provide significant benefits. If mobile can replicate, for Lottery, even a proportion of the mobile behaviour-dynamic and success seen in other gaming verticals then the upside could be seismic.

Mobile Complementing Retail

Firstly, mobile should NOT be seen as being about migration away from retail or away from desktop.

Customers will not view it in this way, so why should an operator? It is another channel within the customer's overall cycle of engagement and interactivity.

Mobile provides Lottery operators with a huge opportunity to engage more proactively with its customers and to allow customers to buy tickets when it suits them. Mobile is uniquely suited to:

those customers who tend to purchase closer to the draw time, customers will have the chance to buy tickets on mobile and not worry about whether they can make it to the shops/queue in time
driving ticket sales in the period immediately pre-draw, through proactive est jackpot Push and SMS notifications
convergence with retail, offering customers maps and directions to their nearest purchase points.
using technology to unite channels - eg using the ability to scan tickets on mobile and store information on the ticket

Mobile is part of an omni-channel approach. The challenge is not to move the customer away from the retail experience but to ensure that the customer can adopt whichever method s/he wants at any particular time - dependent on their situation. Mobile should augment and complement the retail channel, as should desktop.

How to succeed

One of the first considerations Lottery operators will need to make is to decide on what it is you want to accomplish, as this will determine the development strategy. So, what are the targets? In the short-term is it to acquire customers, to generate revenues, to have a presence in a Store, or to provide a specific functionality?

Choose your platform strategy

The high-level choice that will be presented to many operators is that of webapp (i.e. a mobile-browser access service) or App (a downloadable App from an App store). The answer should not be 'either or' it should be both. Each option has its benefits in terms of customer-reach, distribution channel and discoverability, quality of graphics and animations, marketing functions, cost and time of development and maintenance, etc. The long-term solution should be both webapp and App, the question will be about the order - and these will vary by operator dependent on your aims.

Select a development partner. The key point is to start planning and developing now - enlist the aid of an expert mobile solutions provider and go mobile in whatever way best suits your audience and budget. The alternative is to develop this expertise in-house but it is important to note - that you will need a substantial team of mobile-focussed and multi-discipline team and that this team really should be a permanent fixture. Building once with a project team and then moving on to another non-mobile project should not be an option. Mobile is so dynamic and so important that it will need continuous attention, update and enhancements. Your players will expect it and so should you.

We are attending the EGR Breakfast Briefing

Event Date: 20th September 2016

Click here to register

We are delighted to be attending and sponsoring the upcoming EGR Breakfast Briefing, taking place at The Hippodrome Casino, London on 20th September 2016.

Why attend the Breakfast Briefing?

While casino and sportsbook hog the spotlight, gaming products such as lottery and instants continue to grow in popularity.

During this Briefing, panelists will explore the immediate and indirect benefits soft gaming products can have on an operator's business, as well as examine their potential as a cost-effective customer acquisition tool.

AGENDA

08:00 Registration and refreshments
08:40 Introduction: Gerard Starkey, group head of content, EGR
08:45 Panel Discussion
09:30 Q&A
09:45 Close

The panel will be announced shortly.

Come along and join us. Click here to register for the event

Apple's Ear Buds

September 2016

EGR Breakfast Briefing - Food For Thought

September 2016 - Sue Yoxall, Co-Founder and Director, mkodo

I thoroughly enjoyed the EGR breakfast briefing last week at the Hippodrome. Surprising really as I usually prefer casinos as late evening entertainment and, to be honest, the coffee was average. The quality of the debate on the place and rise of 'soft gaming' products was, however, not.

The engaging discussion between our Managing Director, Stuart Godfree, and fellow panellists Rowan Jacobson - Director of Spacebar Media, Helen Walton - Founder of Gamevy, and Nektan's CMO - Matt Sunderland, well directed by EGR's Group Head of Content, Gerard Starkey, provided both education on the topic and food for thought.

'Soft Gaming' products, or as the panel started to describe them 'Bridging Gaming' products, currently comprises 'Scratchcards' and 'Instant Wins' - the former being seen a direct replication of a physical scratchcard (and not of that much interest to the egaming user, 70% of whom select 'reveal all' in that scenario), the latter being games containing higher degrees of interactivity from the player who employs 'pseudo skill' to complete the games. The panel was in firm agreement that the more interactive games, which use the features available on the playing device (such as touch screen), are the way to go.

What I found particularly interesting was the nascent debate about what we are all really trying to achieve with these products. The 'bridging' tag I think accurately represents what Operators are hoping for from this genre i.e. they offer an entry level on a journey to other casino games content for players of softer gaming products, such as lottery players. But, it is clear there are other ways to use this content; for example, to maintain engagement during downtime in other forms of gaming (such as waiting for a bingo game to play out) or as another tool in the 'rewards' portfolio (offering a number of free game instant win plays when bonus levels are hit).

There is nothing to stop this content forming a genre in its own right. People play these softer gaming products to amuse themselves i.e. for fun. The real money winning offers an added 'bonus' but is not the be all and end all. This attitude to real money gaming fits well with the aspirations for the industry as came across in a speech I attended by the outgoing UKGC chair Philip Graf at the Royal Society of Arts back in July. As an industry segment we perhaps need to think about the experience we offer around these games to make it synch with this player attitude – whether this is by providing an environment of social interaction or perhaps even one of charitable giving.

Whichever way it is used, the panel seemed in agreement that instant wins merit their own tab, will enjoy more success the more personalised and interactive the proposition offered (especially if used in a bridging context - offer horse racing punters a horse racing game was Helen's example) and that they are, as Stuart eloquently pointed out, ideal for mobile.

The Great 4G Divide?

October 2016

OpenSignal partnered with Which? to examine 3G & 4G mobile performance in the UK. They conducted over 500,000,000 measurements on the networks of 3, EE, 02 and Vodafone and analysed the local and national results.

The ‘State of Mobile Networks’ report reinforced that the availability of 4G is higher in the capital – almost twice as high in London in comparison with the other 11 regions of the UK.

The study, which looked at large regions of the UK, showed that London can access the high speed data service 69.7% of the time, whereas Wales, just 35.4%. The North East and Yorkshire were the top end of the scale, and the East and South West as the least-connected areas.

However, fast and accessible can be very different as the report concluded that of those using capable devices in London, it performed at the lowest speed in tests, averaging 18.8mbps, the worst of any region in the UK, with Northern Ireland being the fastest at 23.3mbps.

With the swell of people in the capital, the demand for data remains high and continues to challenge the large mobile companies. 5G is expected to arrive in 2020. View the report, follow the link. goo.gl/TxNKt6

EGR Operator Awards 2016 - Mon 28th Nov. The Oscars of the egaming sector. We'll be there!

November 2016

Redirecting you too the Event information page

Sweet like Android 7.1.1?

7th December

Google has started rolling out its update to Nougat, Android 7.1.1, bringing some cool features of the Pixel to everyone.

Coolly, they're promoting ethnic and gender diversity in their emoji, adding 'pivotal' roles women in the world play, to the graphics. Nexus and Pixel users can also send GIFs via supported Google apps, Allo, Messenger and Hangouts. There are more shortcuts from the home screen straight into your best loved apps for continuity, and these little gems will be rolled out to Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G (Android One).

The Beta version will also receive this version, later. Nice one Google.

Bluetooth® is coming back into fashion...

9th December

Hello Bluetooth 5! The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has officially adopted the latest spec of the Bluetooth Core. Having not had a major release since 2009, the latest version means longer range (up to 4X), larger broadcast message capacity (8X) as well as improved interoperability and coexistence with other wireless technology amongst other things. It hasn't been designed with specific applications in mind, that's up to others, but it clears the way for device makers to use the much-improved technology in everything from phones to wearables to smart home equipment, and you should expect to see the technology in use within the next 2-6 months.

"Bluetooth is revolutionizing how people experience the IoT. Bluetooth 5 continues to drive this revolution by delivering reliable IoT connections and mobilizing the adoption of beacons, which in turn will decrease connection barriers and enable a seamless IoT experience."

Mark Powell, Executive Director of the Bluetooth SIG

Read more here: https://www.bluetooth.com

Free mkodo Sports Calendar

We’ve 20 FREE annual sporting highlights desk calendars to give away!

Click here to send us an email and claim your free calendar

We're attending ICE 7th- 9th Feb, ExCeL, London. Arrange to see us there, or at "London Baby"!

Jan 2017

Arrange to see us there, or at "London Baby"!

Our Senior Account Manager, Will Whitehead, speaks to IGaming Business about Instant Wins

27th January

Google’s launched Android Wear 2.0 - a rival to the Apple Watch.

On the 8 February 2017, Google unveiled the new wrist-based OS alongside new smartwatches from LG - the LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style, giving Apple a real run for its money competing with the watchOS-running Apple Watch.

Google’s Wearable overhauled platform has a customisable watch face, embedded Play Store and Google Assistant and will cost zero, as long as you have a phone running Android 4.3+ or iOS 9+.

Android Wear makes accessing some of your phone's handiest features as simple as looking down at your wrist. It's designed with hands-free use in mind and primarily acts as a companion to amplify your phone's notifications so that you don't need to dig around to find it, just to see that someone liked one of your updates.

Android Wear is easy to navigate and visually better. It is slick and has a lot of cool features like understanding context to questions you ask, swiping, voice recognition and personalised notifications based on your preferences. You can type or dictate messages to respond on the move, and feels more than just a supplement to the phone.

It’s compatible with thousands of watch faces, whatever your style and can be personalised for your usage preferences, diary, fitness, business, contacts, apps….

You can access stand-alone apps from the Play Store directly from your watch so adding apps becomes easier, and you don’t need to carry them on your phone.

If apps are what you're after, Android Wear offers an ever-growing list, stripping out functionality incompatible with your wrist, some offering more functionality than others.

Check out some reviews: https://goo.gl/STm9vx

Courtyard Arts launches What’s On app

Local tech business woman links with gallery to bring app to market

9 March 2017, Courtyard Arts is delighted to announce today’s launch on App Store of its free to download, What’s On app.

For art fans near Hertford, the calendar app intelligently finds and displays events that are being organised by Courtyard Arts and its partners. It uses innovative beacon technology to enable proximity notifications about current events to people visiting the town.

The app has been developed for Courtyard Arts, by mkodo, a global apps and mobile engagement company.

Since inception in 2001, mkodo has grown into a multi-million pound, award-winning, technology business with a global client base.

Courtyard Arts is excited by the potential

Users can see a full range of local Courtyard Arts events, such as, exhibitions, workshops, open studios and social events. They can ‘favourite’ events and receive reminder alerts, tap to add an event to their calendar and socially share events via Twitter, Facebook, email, iMessage and text. The app can be personalised so users can choose to see only event types in which they have an interest, for example members’ events or exhibitions.

Users can choose to receive notifications about key events and important news from Courtyard Arts. They can also choose to receive proximity notifications triggered by beacons placed around the town about current events.

Michael Smith, Centre Director, Courtyard Arts, said “This is a fascinating development which we see as having great potential in our mission to make art accessible to all - and to encourage more people to join what is a very friendly family here at the Courtyard. I particularly like the flexibility of what is on offer and the way it integrates with social media. I also see What’s On as playing a key part not just in our marketing but also in terms of how people choose to interact with us on a day-to-day basis. I am really looking forward to seeing its impact!”

Apple prohibits iOS app updates outside of the App Store

March 2017

Apple had begun re-enforcing a restriction they placed on developers back in the early days of the App Store, preventing modifications to apps that can alter or update app behaviour outside of the App Store.

A limited number of developers are receiving notifications that they are violating Apple’s rules by using ‘hot patching frameworks’. Apple take issue with this because they can change behaviour of an app’s functionality AFTER Apple’s approval review and could potentially be mis-used.

Apple claim that is it for security purposes as unapproved frameworks can be hijacked. “Even if the remote resource is not intentionally malicious, it could easily be hijacked via a Man In The Middle (MiTM) attack, which can pose a serious security vulnerability to users of your apps”.

Approval in the App Store can be a time-consuming process, so hot patching enables updates to bypass this process and change an app’s behaviour. Although this restriction has always existed, it is only now that Apple are being proactive in addressing the issues.

A Business Analyst's review of the Betting on Football 2017 conference

mkodo recently attended the Betting on Football 2017 conference at Stamford Bridge. The event offered over 145 industry speakers, and an excess of 1000 delegates attended. The event promised to be an interesting and informative networking event. mkodo Business Analyst, and sportsbook expert, Barry McCann, writes about the themes he took away from the conference.

Personalisation and innovation:

Sportsbooks in general suffer from a real lack of innovation and personalisation. Concepts like “Bookee” (the so-called ‘Tinder for Betting’) have tried to break the mould and, while I like it as a concept, I don’t think it works as a basis of navigation. However, I do applaud the attempt to do something different as by and large, sportsbooks are pretty much the same. One of the reasons people don’t innovate is that the current format, with traditional 1-X-2 style coupons and hierarchical structures of navigation, works. It’s an industry with billions of pounds of revenue and competitors don’t really need to do anything innovative to acquire and retain customers.

In terms of personalisation, no one is really yet to crack it properly. It’s hard to remember when Amazon didn’t have “you bought this, why not by this?”, but the same concept doesn’t really exist in sports betting. One of the reasons for this is that you can over personalise. People may get scared off as, for many punters, anonymity is important. I won’t be surprised to see this really kick off before next year’s conference, however.

eSports:

eSports is no longer a secret – it’s a big deal and only getting bigger. Although people are betting on it, the operators really aren’t winning. The conference spoke of the difficulties of narrowing the gap between playing eSports and betting on it, including the lack of regulation around some of the competitions. It’s getting more and more integrated with football, with more teams signing professional Fifa players, and I do see this trend growing. In terms of betting, I suspect we’ll see a completely eSports betting app soon – and I don’t expect it to look anything like a traditional sportsbook.

Player acquisition and retention:

The conference spoke of different techniques being offered to acquire new customers. There was a few main themes spoke of in relation to player acquisition and retention:

Price sensitivity.. Not a new thing, and has been around for a long time, but operators do try and compete by offering the best price, even if it does increase their liability risk. The best price is an attraction to punters as they, very typically, have multiple accounts.
Loyalty.The likes of Sky Bet’s ‘Bet Club’ where you get £5 free bet for spending £20 a week is now very common, with operators wanting to reward customer loyalty.
Promotions.They’ve taken a slightly different route in the past year or so. Operators were trying to outdo each other with ‘deposit X, get Y’ offers that had difficult to understand wagering requirements that put a lot of customers off. Now, a lot of sign up offers will often involve big odds at something likely to happen in a game (33/1 Chelsea to take a corner, max bet £1.) By offering this type of sign up offer, you can know your customer profile right away. Then, their activity over the first two weeks helps you know 80% of that customer’s profile.

Betting profile

This ties in with personalisation, but ‘getting to know’ the customer was talked about as one of the key ambitions of operators. It’s not just about personalised pushes, but if you know what device I’m on, when do I bet, what type of thing I bet on, you can build a profile and have the app behave differently based on that.

Marketing:

One of the things that was heavily talked about during the conference was the increasing importance on marketing for betting and gaming. Half the Premier League Football clubs are now sponsored by betting companies and, if I said ‘Ray Winstone’, chances are you know what company he advertises even if you have no interest in betting whatsoever. Yet actually, betting still does have a stigma attached to it (it’s pretty likely that advertising betting will be banned before the watershed soon) that is difficult to get away from. I do think it is being seen more and more as a social and leisure activity but the stigma attached to it that might just not ever go away. One point raised, which I thought was extremely interesting, was the infuriation within the gaming market about social games on social media platforms. These games are completely unregulated, available to under 18s, and use the same mechanisms that casino games do to keep a player engaged. The top games can make absolutely millions because you have to pay to get to the next level, or pay to get more lives. Is that really so different from casino games, even if you are not attempting to ‘win’? They are both just forms of entertainment.

“Millennials”:

This lot popped up pretty frequently, and it was general consensus that they have a short attention span, so how do you engage them? The opinion was that ‘fast markets’ were the best way both to engage millennials and transition casino players to sportsbook. They are bets on ‘What will happen in the next 60 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 minutes etc.’. These markets are typically bet on by 18-35 year olds, average 5-7 bets a match each and have an 11% margin. eSports is another way to engage as it’s getting bigger and bigger and more popular with teenagers. Virtual sports also have an attraction as they are short and you can start a new game immediately without having to wait around.

Betting in North America:

It was thought that Trump, with his history in the casino industry, would oversee the introduction of regulated sports betting in North America. However, his #2 is very anti-gambling so there’s mixed signals coming from his administration. The reality is that it has never been closer, with 6 current Bills trying to get passed, but it’s very likely that it’s far away from a digital sphere. If/when it goes through, it’ll probably be all of the retail arm of casinos that get a sports betting section first.

Our iOS team discusses the WWDC17 announcements

Our iOS team's thoughts on Apple’s announcements Monday.

Initially we felt that a lot of the announcements were to catch up with the industry (VR, NFC, HomePod). However with the already established platforms and some really interesting new frameworks!! We think Apple are in a good position for the next year. Of course in September we will see the new hardware optimised for the new OS.

Top announcements

ARKit: Apple have now provided developers with the tools to make development of augmented reality app’s easier. This framework allows us to create and add 3D assets with animation, scale and lighting to real world scene’s. This works without QR markers, using the sensors of the device to provide more realism (like microsoft hololens). This will also be used within the new version of Pokemon Go.

Demos:

Demo 1
Demo 2

Core ML framework: Last year Apple started adding machine learning features to iOS, you may have seen this in terms of text suggestions, auto tagging photos etc. This year Apple have opened up these tools to other developers.

Redesigned App Store: The App Store has been redesigned to be focused on content rather than charts. Apple have also moved games to a separate section.

NFC: We now have the ability to detect NFC tags and read messages that contain NDEF data. (iPhone7+)
Phased releases coming later this year we can rollout app updates to % of customers.
Person to person mobile payments using Apple Pay via Messages app.
No support for 32Bit devices and apps means that the iPhone 5 and 5c and iPad 4 will be dropped. As we have seen with iOS 10 (87%) dropping hardware has affected adoption rate. We expect this will cause iOS 11 to get stuck at 75-80%.
Redesigned iPad multitasking to resemble Mac dock with multi touch gestures to switch between apps and the redesign.
Safari 11: WebRTC, WebAssembly, Intelligent Tracking Prevention, Auto-Play blocking
Apple will now show all reviews and allow us to reset existing ratings on badly rated apps.
File manager for iOS for collating data saved by other apps.
New iPad (10.5”) has a different resolution.
iOS will now encourage and supports automatic deletion of unused apps.
Do not disturb now enhanced to detect when you're driving and shame you into putting your phone away,

SDK’s

DeviceCheck API for generating unique ID’s for devices.
Password Autofill, Likely caused by the removal of system integration of Facebook & Twitter.
MusicKit allowing us to provide music playback from the users local libraries in our own apps.
Native access to bluetooth on Apple watch so we can create beacons and talk to local bluetooth peripherals.

Xcode 9

Refactoring tools for Swift.
Main thread checker (Reporting of calls made incorrectly on background threads / foreground threads).
Apple devices can now be debugged over network
View debugger allows us to see view controller stacks and hierarchy. This is especially useful for complex navigation.
Concurrent simulator testing will help with automation testing.
Significant improvements to underlying UI Testing frameworks, hopefully these will trickle down to Appium.

MythCatchAR® now available in the Apple App Store

Redirecting to MythCatchAR® information apge

New Cultural Dimensions – Augmented Reality

Written by Sue Yoxall, Director, June 2017

We have reached a point in the Digital Revolution in which an extraordinary shift in how humans ‘see’ the world is happening. It’s a shift akin to that which took place between the Middle Ages and Renaissance in European history.

Back in the Middle Ages the world was flat (you could fall off the edge), paintings were flat (religious iconography) and drama was flat (medieval mystery plays with their one-dimensional characters standing in a row to deliver their lines). Then BOOM, the Renaissance came along and now the world is round, paintings have perspective and depth (Uccello’s Battle of San Romano), and drama moves towards Shakespeare’s complex characters and performance staging. The way humans saw their world had changed. Mind blowing!

With the advent of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), we’ve reached that point again. We’ve been edging towards this with the concept of immersive experiences but we now have the tools in our hands (literally) that will tip the balance. Moving forward we will start to see the world in new dimensions as we incorporate new layers of ‘reality’ into our everyday worlds.

Augmented Reality (AR) places digital artefacts into the real world landscape. These artefacts, be they images, animations, 3D models, video, audio or text, can be viewed through an everyday device such as mobile phone or tablet, and, in the future, through a smart contact lens perhaps.

Virtual Reality (VR) places real people into a digital environment through use of specialist immersive technology such as a VR headset.

The distinctions between these realities will blur into ‘Mixed Reality’ as time goes on (a player in the real world, seeing an AR door, going through it to a VR room).

Focusing on AR for the moment, it opens up a myriad of possibilities that are available to us now and, with the advent of the ARKit in iOS 11, will be available a little later this year (2017). It can entertain (think Pokemon Go, SnapChat, MythCatchAR^®), inform and, if you are a brand, help your customers with buying decisions (such as placement of furniture for interior design, plants for landscape gardening, paint colours for walls etc.).

In the cultural world, AR can bring works to new audiences through augmentation, adaptation and explanation. It will help old audiences to see things afresh. iOS 11 brings the potential for 3D digital artefacts to become commonplace in AR; this really starts to make things interesting (imagine being able to walk up to and then round Mona Lisa – What is behind her back? How does da Vinci look from her angle?). It allows our creativity to soar.

Not all parties will agree with this adaption. Controversy abounds when an artist’s work is put into a new context (look at the reaction from some quarters, not least the sculptor himself, to placing Fearless Girl in front of Charging Bull on Wall Street). On the other hand, that’s how cultural works have evolved through history – Shakespeare adapts Plutarch, Disney adapts Shakespeare; cultural re-use is an important part of its evolution.

Re-use, re-invention, new ways to see the world. The opportunities AR opens up in the cultural world are exciting at minimum and, as history may show, mind-blowing at best.

For more information about these technologies and mkodo GeoChasAR^® products click below

GeoChasAR^®

EGR Breakfast Briefing Take Aways – Push, Organic Search and Toasters

Tuesday’s EGR Breakfast Briefing saw mkodo’s Stuart Godfree team up with Helen Walton (Gamevy) and Matthew Balch (Sound Bet Media) in an interesting discussion on boosting player acquisition and ROI through apps.

Some key points I took out of this (in no particular order) are:

• ARPU numbers are higher on native apps than mobile sites (between 30%-70% dependent).
• Push Notifications give a key opportunity for customer engagement – in particular through informational, service, social and content messaging.
• On Apple push notification signups are c. 40-45% and on Android devices 85%. A key reason for the higher number on Android is that notifications need to be turned ‘off’ rather than ‘on’.
• Native apps give the opportunity for organic search. Companies should not miss the fact that app stores are a marketplace to gain new customers by just focussing on apps as a further channel for existing customers.
• The demographics used to put iPhone users as the higher spenders; this demographic has shifted with the recent launch of Android devices that have higher aspirational value and design.
• Use of analytics will help your app develop to give the best possible customer experience. It is useful on Google Play that uninstall figures are available alongside install figures as this is crucial information in the understanding of retention.
• ‘Careful curation’ (nice phrase from Helen) is required to ensure the app presents what really interests your customers, both existing and potential.
• Companies addressed the recent opening up of Google Play to real money gaming apps with either placeholder apps (native wraps of responsive webviews) and/or ‘proper’ apps that were previously available to download offstore. Going forward there may be a combination of using placeholder versions to test new concepts alongside fully native apps designed to make the best use of the opportunity and render the best possible customer experience.
• Stuart has a great line in toaster analogies, particularly when discussing the need to set your stall out well in an app store: online buyers prefer the shiny, well pictured toaster with the good write up rather than the badly marketed one!

Sue Yoxall
Director of Sales and Partnerships

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museum launches Virtual Treasure Hunt App

Fort remains are brought to life for visitors using AR digital artefacts

13th September 2017. Mobile tech company mkodo, and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM), are excited to announce the launch of a free to download Augmented Reality (AR) app for Segedunum Roman Fort.

Augmented Reality adds a virtual layer onto an existing reality. Segedunum’s treasure hunt app provides a virtual trail of ‘digital artefacts’ that have been positioned around the Roman fort in Wallsend.

The app makes use of a visitor’s mobile phone camera to enable them to find the digital artefacts around the site. It brings the history within the current Hadrian’s Cavalry exhibition to life and enhances the visitor experience by adding an extra dimension to the exhibition.

When a digital artefact has been located and caught, more information about the object is revealed. This adds an educational layer to the game. When the virtual hunt is complete, visitors are encouraged to find the associated real-life objects within the museum; thereby connecting the outdoor and indoor spaces.

The app has been created for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums by mkodo. Established in 2001, mkodo is an award-winning, mobile engagement and apps business with a global client base.

mkodo’s white-label GeoChasAR® product has been utilised to create the Segedunum Roman Fort app. The GeoChasAR ® product makes the offering of interesting, engaging AR experiences to visitors a commercially viable proposition for organisations in the visitor attraction market.

Alex Croom, Keeper of Archaeology at Segedunum Roman Fort said:

“We are always looking for new ways to engage with visitors and the Segedunum AR App will really help bring the exhibition to life. One thing that attracted us to using an AR App was being able to offer an innovative and interactive visitor experience without the installation of any physical objects which would have been an issue for our historical site. The App is great fun for all ages and we are excited for our visitors to try it!"

Tamara Dobson, Business Manager - New Products at mkodo comments:

“Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums has made excellent use of our white-label GeoChasAR ® product as a base for the Segedunum Roman Fort app. It is a great example of how Augmented Reality can be used successfully to enhance visitor experience, in particular for families.“

Betting on Sports Conference 2017 - 12 - 15 September 2017

12th - 15th September 2017

12 - 15 September 2017

Olympia

Tech for Marketing 2017 - Come and visit us at stand T660!

Come and visit us at stand T660!

iOS 11: New Features Review

With tomorrow’s release of iOS 11, we thought it would be useful to highlight some of the new innovations and notable features that have been announced. We would be happy to discuss with you in more detail the impact that these changes might have on your mobile development strategy over the coming months.

Top Announcements

ARKit: Apple will now provide developers with the tools to allow for easier development of augmented reality apps. This framework allows the creation and addition of 3D assets with animation, scale and lighting to real world scenes. This works without QR markers, using the sensors of the device to provide more realism (like Microsoft Hololens). This will also be used within the new version of Pokemon Go. This framework can also be used with Unity / Unreal engine.

Demos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S14AVwaBF-Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I_WPDcEVz8

Core ML framework: Last year, Apple started adding machine learning features to iOS, you may be aware of this in terms of text suggestions and auto tagging photos etc. This year Apple have opened up these tools to other developers. This means any developer can utilise off the shelf models and use them in their apps. For example you can detect what the player will do next based on past behaviour or pick faces out of photos, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

Redesigned App Store: The App Store has been redesigned to be focused on content rather than charts. This has resulted in Apple moving all games to a separate section. This will make it potentially more difficult to discover any apps that aren’t featured by Apple, so more effort will be needed in meta data and search keywords.

Other Notable Features

NFC: We now have the ability to detect NFC tags and read messages that contain NDEF data. (IPhone7+).
Phased releases coming later this year mean we can roll-out app updates to a percentage of customers rather than the entire install base.
Person to person mobile payments using Apple Pay via the Messages app are now available.
No support for 32Bit devices and apps, means that the iPhone 5 and 5c and iPad 4 will now be dropped. As we have seen with iOS 10, (87%) dropping hardware has affected adoption rate. We expect this will cause iOS 11 to stabilise at 75-80%, meaning that we will still need to support 3 versions of iOS for apps.
Redesigned iPad multitasking to resemble Mac Dock with multi touch gestures to switch between apps.
Safari 11: WebRTC, WebAssembly, Auto-Play blocking and Intelligent Tracking Prevention (We expect this will cause issues with affiliate tracking sites / SDK’s).
Apple will show all reviews and allow us to reset existing ratings on badly rated apps.
File manager for iOS for collating data saved by other apps.
New iPad (10.5”) has a different resolution which may cause issues with app stability.
IOS will now encourage and supports automatic deletion of unused apps.
Do not disturb has been enhanced to detect when you’re driving and ‘shame’ you into putting your phone away.

SDKs

DeviceCheck API for generating unique ID’s for devices.
Password Autofill (We are still waiting for more details on this). Likely caused by the removal of system integration of Facebook & Twitter.
MusicKit allowing us to provide music playback from the users local libraries.
Native access to Bluetooth on Apple watch so we can create beacons and talk to local Bluetooth peripherals.

Xcode 9

Refactoring tools for Swift.
Main thread checker (Reporting of calls made incorrectly on background threads / foreground threads).
Apple devices can now be debugged over the network.
View debugger allows us to see view controller stacks and hierarchy. This is especially useful for the complex navigation in apps.
Concurrent simulator testing, which will help with automation testing.
Significant improvements to underlying UI Testing frameworks, hopefully these will trickle down to Appium.
Migrate specific portions of Swift to new versions without having to migrate all code.

Rank Group’s first real-money gaming apps now in Google Play

Delivered in partnership with mobile tech innovator, mkodo

London, August 2017; Mobile specialist mkodo is delighted to announce its successful work delivering Rank Group’s first real-money Android gaming apps to store on Google Play.

Google Play opened its doors to real money gaming apps from selected operators earlier this month, with blue chip gaming brand Rank chosen to be in the first tranche of admitted apps.

Rank’s cross-brand range of apps, made available by mkodo within the first week of the new policy, includes Grosvenor Live Casino, Grosvenor Casino and Mecca Bingo.

The apps are already proving popular amongst the Google Play user base with Rank enjoying a 40%+ increase in active Android users within the first two weeks.

“The Android user base massively outweighs other operating systems on mobile devices* and has now become the world’s most popular OS**. There is a comprehensive range of Android devices on the market with different specs and screen sizes. With Android it is, therefore, particularly important to build responsively to enable an excellent user experience across devices; with the Google Play apps, we have successfully delivered that”, comments Khoovi Seewoonauth, Head of Android Development, mkodo.

“Rank Group and mkodo have enjoyed a successful partnership for delivering high quality apps since their first iOS app went live in the App Store in January 2011. The iOS app has won a number of prestigious awards, including the EGR Innovation in Bingo 2016 and Best Native App 2016, and continues to deliver real business benefit to our client. We are looking to emulate this success with the apps now available in the Google Play”, says Sam Hill-Wood, Senior Account Manager, mkodo.

*Android 85%, iOS 14.7% (May 2017); http://www.idc.com/promo/smartphone-market-share/os

** https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/3/15159320/android-windows-internet-usage-statistics-competition

Campus North - October 25th @ 18:00

October 25th 2017

Campus North - October 25th @ 18:00

5 quick-fire questions with mkodo’s Creative Director, Tom Atfield.

What does your role at mkodo entail?

I head up User Experience, User Interface and Content Management on our mCloud platform. Our clients need to connect with their customers via their mobile devices in an appealing, consistent and relevant fashion; mCloud enables all their mobile channel activities to be set-up, executed and monitored in one place. From App content and messaging to beacon set up and geo-fencing, mCloud is a powerful tool!

What is mkodo working on right now?

Right now, we are helping our clients embrace the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) in their customer interactions. We are delivering engaging AR projects using 3 different implementations – Geolocation (latitude, longitude), real world placement (ARKit and ARCore) and scan placement (object recognition). The implications of AR for user experience are gigantic. This will revolutionize the way many users interact with their devices and environment. Very exciting and very challenging too!

How has mkodo settled into Newcastle?

We’ve seen our people growth increase by 500% in our Newcastle office since we arrive in January 2015. The calibre of digital talent in the region validates our decision to expand here. We’ve also had some key people relocate from London to the region and they love it. The partnerships, community and the spirit, are unique.

You were shortlisted for Skills Developer at the Dynamites17. Congratulations!

Yes, our new Evolve Scheme has proved very popular. We’ve recruited several graduates to the team in the last 12 months, so it was great to be recognised for the contribution we’re making. However, we’re always looking for more talent #teammkodo #EvolveScheme jobs@mkodo.com

You’ve been with mkodo 8 years. What keeps you working at mkodo?

Exciting things are happening at mkodo. Our new brand will be launching soon; we’re doing very cool stuff with new technology and devices, and I love helping our clients engage their customers with our innovative ideas. Every day is diverse. mkodo has an energy about it that’s hard to define or replicate. We employ talented people from all over the world, so we benefit from different perspectives on ideas and strategy.

Stuart Godfree, Managing Director, reflects on 2017

At the end of a year, it is usual to reflect and see what’s been accomplished over the last 12 months, then use that to predict and plan for the upcoming year.

Nearly two years ago, mkodo opened its first office in Newcastle; we doubled our headcount within that first year. 2017 saw us move into a new office, 5 times larger, on Dean Street, and we’ve doubled our headcount again since April 2017. We expect to add a further 30% to this team headcount in 2018.

The creation of our Evolve Scheme (www.mkodo.com/s/evolve), to build and develop the talent we recruit from the superb North-East Universities, is a demonstration of our long-term commitment both to the region, and to the young people of the UK. Due to demand, we have now opened the Scheme to apprentices and, in the new year, we’ll be looking for talent to join us in IT Operations, Quality Assurance and Project Management. As a business person, it is easy to look at the spreadsheet and determine how you can reduce cost. Offshoring your development teams is a predictable example of this, but we believe that investing in our own talent is vital: creating great quality jobs and career opportunities, as well as inspiring and nurturing the younger generations.

2018 will bring new opportunities to mkodo as we continue to lay foundations here. We expect company revenues to increase by over 30%, as well as headcount. As we go into the latter part of 2018 and into the uncertainties of 2019, we have to realise that whatever the final outcome of our position within Europe, it brings change, and like the birth of a new year, change creates opportunity.

So, with this in mind, I want to thank every single person within the NE community who has helped, contributed to and assisted mkodo in the last two years.

I reserve a special thanks to the team at Newcastle and Gateshead Initiative who do an amazing job building the inward investment, and recognition of this region, both within the UK and internationally.

Caitlin Fogell, Trainee Developer, My experience at mkodo

I’m a Computer Science student who has been doing an internship at mkodo for about three months now, and I’m enjoying my time here. I first discovered mkodo at a careers fair at my university, and the immediate impression I got from them was a friendly one. That impression has not changed during my time here, as everyone has been very welcoming. So far, my time has been spent on Quality Assurance, which is interesting as I’m learning a lot about testing processes that haven’t been covered on my course. I’m also learning about professional software development in general, which feels like the sort of thing that’s easier to learn in practice. One surprising thing I’ve learnt about working life while here, is the amount of time that’s dedicated to learning new things and improving your skills. I have enjoyed the work so far (despite the shock of having to wake up early every day!), and it’s easier when you can tell the people around you enjoy what they do. I’m learning a lot here and I feel like an important part of the team. I look forward to completing the rest of my placement here.

ICE Totally Gaming 2019
ExCEL 5-7 February

COME MEET THE TEAM!
Stand no. S9 - 156

ICE Totally Gaming 2019 - ExCEL 5-7 February

Operator Acquisition vs Retention

Will Whitehead - Senior Account Manager

Acquisition vs Retention

The UK sportsbook market is as competitive as ever. Each operator is fighting the constant question of whether they invest their efforts and budgets in customer acquisition, or customer retention. UK sportsbook operators incentivise new customers to register with their company by offering very appealing sign-up promotional deals, offering free bets or bonuses to join. The nature and trend of these offers has evolved over the years, however the general consensus is that the sign-up offers are now too complex for the average punter to grasp and discourages potential customers.

I recently attended the informative SBC ‘Betting on Football’ conference at Stamford Bridge, and a panel discussed that the Terms and Conditions surrounding promotional registration offers has got far too convoluted and are discouraging new customers. Some offers look great on paper, such as ‘Brazil to wear yellow shirts in a World Cup match 50/1’ or ‘Will a goal be scored in the Premier League this weekend 40/1’, however once you look into the small print, the customer will see it’s a £1 max stake and the winnings can only be accessed once they have placed 10x £5 equivalent bets with their own money. The reality is, customers can’t be bothered with the hassle!

Whilst the T&Cs for registration bonuses complexity ever increases, key aspects of core customer acquisition is being overlooked, such as the operators focussing on a simple, appealing and intuitive registration process. First impressions are absolutely everything, particularly on mobile. If the customer doesn’t like the registration flow of a sportsbook App, there is a high-chance they will delete the App before depositing any funds. Operators must focus on a smooth and pain free registration process, always focusing on intuitive design, minimal clicks and input.

This is particularly true for the smaller operators who will not be able to compete with the huge bonus offers and free bet promises that the big players in the industry offer. The smaller operators want more regulation around the bonus sign-up offers, however I believe, the small operators need to be more innovative to ensure they are acquiring their own customer base without the large promotional offers. The 2018 Cheltenham festival, which is historically one of the biggest customer acquiring weeks of the sporting calendar for operators, showed a real lack of innovation in customer acquisition. There were no outstanding or memorable sign-up offers from either the big players or the small players and in several cases, large scale duplication and copying promotional offers from each other.

One key customer acquisition tool that is widely used in the eCommerce world is a ‘referral scheme’. Uber have been a key exponent of ‘refer a friend’, offering a £10 free taxi ride if you use your friends voucher code. Why don’t operators offer this? Why don’t operators offer promos such as ‘place a £10 bet using your friend’s code and you will both receive a £10 free bet’. Why not use your current customers as a marketing and customer acquisition tool? To most companies outside of the betting and gaming industry, this won’t seem great innovation, but as the eGaming world does not widely use referrals for registration promotions, it could become a new acquiring method.

Being innovative is crucial in this ultra-competitive market, however the smaller operators must also ensure that their CRM procedure is fully prepared for acquiring and developing relationships with new customers. Priming your CRM could be a much more crucial process and tool than spending a budget on registration bonus offers. New customers often take advantage of registration offers then disappear into the ether. Having a structured CRM in place, such as follow-up emails, push notifications, offering price boosts, rewarding activity, encourage and maintains customer loyalty.

With the World Cup now just 80 days away, operators will be planning their acquisition and retention strategies for what will no doubt the most competitive sports betting tournament in history. Just the fact it’s the ‘World Cup’ will draw new customers to sign-up without loss-leader registration bonuses. With this in mind, operators need to focus on retaining the new customers and focus on their CRM strategies to ensure the longevity of each new customer. If operators focus on loyalty, rather than abusing acquisition, then they may see a much larger return from the customer in the long term.

Remember, a customer is for life, not just for the World Cup.

PASPA repealed! What does this mean?

Will Whitehead - Senior Account Manager

The 14th May 2018 is a day that will change the landscape of the global sports betting industry forever.

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court landmark decision to repeal the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), facilitating American states the ability to regulate and legalise sports betting. The 1992 law had previously prohibited states from ‘sponsoring, operating, advertising, promoting, licensing, or authorizing sports gambling’. The PASPA repeal will pave the way for sports betting across the United States of America.

The general consensus in the betting and gaming industry has been ‘when will it happen?’ rather than ‘if it happens’ and the rumours of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) striking down the PASPA have been circulating for several years but have picked up speed significantly in the past twelve months. New Jersey has been pressurising the SCOTUS to remove the act, arguing their point that the PASPA ‘violated states rights’ and was ‘unconstitutional’. Yesterday’s overruling can be directly attributed to New Jersey’s challenges.

It will of course take time for States to take action on this and some states may not want to change their existing laws, however the likes of New Jersey, West Virginia, Mississippi and Pennsylvania have already made their intentions clear, they are prepared to move forward and legalise gambling in their states as soon as possible.

The European sports betting market is very mature, with the leading operators possessing sophisticated products, marketing strategies and business models. Meanwhile, the US sports betting is obviously in its infancy. The US States will be looking to Europe and North America for delivery of a successful sports betting strategy and, in particular, look across the pond for expertise in risk-management in trading. This ensures that the State operators are not burned by experienced punters who could potentially take operators to the cleaners.

Nevertheless, most sports betting operators and platform providers in America, and around the globe, have been preparing for this day to arrive, without any guarantee the PASPA would be passed. Operators have had to gamble and commit resources in planning and preparing to tap into the US market, so that when that day arrives, they are ready to do business.

The European Operators’ strategies have been heavily influenced by the evolvement in technology over the years, none more so than the introduction of online betting and of course nowadays, the dominance of activity taking place on mobile devices.

It will take Operators time to get up to speed with their sports betting strategies for each individual state, but in my opinion, the Operators will be focusing on a mobile first strategy. This may be impossible in some States, due to restrictions being implemented on retail betting only. However, if the States that do allow mobile betting can ensure they provide a performant, entertaining, trustworthy and unique mobile experience, they will appeal to the masses.

It’s not a particularly controversial statement to say that on the whole, the average US citizen is not overly experienced in sports betting and to the plenty who are inexperienced, it can be seen as a confusing and daunting behemoth. Therefore, it is crucial to provide a friendly and simplified mobile experience, not deterring potential punters before they get started.

I believe Operators should avoid products solely focusing on sports betting and should be looking at incorporating content, blogs, videos, gamification to their sports betting products, to focus on entertainment to widen the scope of the customer-base and educate and attract the next generation of sports betters.

mkodo boasts over 17 years of experience and expertise in providing high quality mobile sports betting products around the world, including North America and we are very excited about the opportunities that the PASPA repeal may bring.

mkodo - We made the Best Places to Work list!

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mkodo in the best place to work list

Where Next For Betting Shops?

Where next for betting shops?

Betting shops have always been slightly intimidating places. My early memories of them are of dark, dingy rooms with bar stools, dodgy characters, cigarette butts and scrunched up slips all over the floor. It was always quite tricky to get in the door which seemed to stick halfway in a jarring sort of way.

The shops improved in appearance and smell but not really in welcome, especially to the novice, broadly social punter of my ilk. The information available on the walls was somewhat opaque, the ‘rules of the road’ not easy to understand, and the idea of the venue as a place of social interaction for a broad, mixed gender base, non-existent.

We are all aware that much of betting, as much of life, has moved online in developed economies; 34% of the total British market by GGY, for example, is now online and this is set to increase to 50% in the next few years*. How do operators reinvigorate the at-venue experience in a way that makes commercial sense and is sustainable?

For me, there is a market for the venues to rethink from a social perspective. A venue that replicates a café environment but offers live stream viewing of bettable events – sports, reality TV shows, and of course, the nirvana that is the Eurovision Song Contest. The idea is that you are welcomed to, or can pre-book, a table. Your table includes the technology to enable you to place bets on the events on display via an account you hold with the venue. It’s simple to go through the registration process if you are a first-time visitor with the help of a bot on the app, or via the real-life servers at the venue. If you prefer to bet via a person and not set up an account, no problem, the servers are equipped to take real money bets.

I am aware that, in this suggestion, I may be encouraging operators to create a place for my own amusement! I used to love studying the data in the Racing Post on the train to the races with friends then selecting my betting choices; I enjoyed our games of ‘tips’ where we all put some money in and selected our horses for each race – the one with the most places winning the pot at the end of the day. These days, I don’t have the expanse of time to carry out these trips, so it would be good to replicate this closer to home. As would spending time with family and friends watching the sports we all love and being offered the betting opportunities as an added excitement to this activity. I’m not one for the reality TV shows,but I can see many people around me get excited by these and it seems likely they would create opportunities for social betting activities.

Between the live activities there could of course be opportunities for visitors to play instant win or casino games on the technology platform offered.

Can this sort of environment stack up commercially if you have people staying for several hours and focussing on a particular event rather than the swifter turnover of punters in today’s environment? Can you make this work without alcohol? Can you get the balance right between ensuring this remains in the realm of entertainment and social interaction but creates sufficient profit for the operator?

I think so, but perhaps there are operators out there that have done their research and can share an empirical view on this rather than an instinct that this is worth investigating. Perhaps, at the very least, it is worth exploring as part of the ‘customer acquisition’ budget as it brings a whole new bunch of customers to you. Thoughts anyone?

To be clear, however, I am not suggesting the environment described above is the only one that gets taken forward into the future, it is one diversification possibility that would engage a broader audience.

In terms of improving the retail experience for the more traditional style punter I turn to my colleague Barry McCann, mkodo business analyst and sportsbook specialist, to offer you his view:

“With the Fixed Odds Betting Terminal (FOBT) restrictions on the brink of implementation, bookies are suddenly having to try and think of ways to improve the whole retail experience for a customer. There is an argument to be made that bookies became lazy because of the guaranteed success of FOBTs. Any punter looking to place a medium-to-large bet would be met with restrictions, lower odds, or even refused altogether. However, now that FOBT laws are changing, how can bookmakers improve the whole retail experience for customers?

Perhaps the answer lies in taking all the benefits of a retail shop and making the environment as comfortable as possible. Retail shops will always have optional anonymity, no need to sign up, pay (and win) in cash, no lengthy withdrawal processes, no silly wagering requirements and ability to watch many different sports with commentary. In Belfast, some of the biggest retail shops in Europe exist, despite this fact they can still only have 4 FOBTs as with a small venue. Why is this? The aim of the likes of Toals bookmakers (who have a 7,600 square foot shop) is not to promote FOBTs, but to make the whole experience comfortable, welcoming, even homely. I think this is as important as innovation within the retail sphere, although the two are not mutually exclusive.

The linking of retail and online continues to grow, and this has benefits to both punter and retailer. The customer still has the option to remain anonymous, but if they do have an online account, it’s very beneficial to be able to withdraw hard cash from an online balance (see the likes of Coral Connect and PPCash cards). These cards also give special offers to the customer, almost as if they are VIP users. For the operator, they get the obvious benefit of acquisition and have a method to try and retain.”

Whichever view you take, both encourage a welcoming environment that puts the customer first and is underpinned by a crucial technology layer that enables fluidity between the online and retail betting experience.

Sue Yoxall, Executive Director, mkodo

Sept 2018

Sue is attending the Betting on Sports (BOS) event at London Olympia next week and would love to meet up if you are interested to discuss this, or any other elements of your user experience strategy, further. mkodo is co-sponsoring the official BOS party on Wednesday 19th Sept at Skyloft and we look forward to seeing you there. #bosweek

* ‘It is highly likely that the online gambling industry will continue to grow. It appears set to increase from the current 34% to 50% of the total British market by GGY over the next few years.’ https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/PDF/Online-review-March-2018.pdf

About mkodo

mkodo designs and develops brilliant end-user experiences for betting, gaming, lottery and leisure operators. Founded in 2001, mkodo has created proven, award-winning gaming experiences for the customers of such premium brands as Mecca Bingo, Grosvenor Live Casino, Oddset (Danske Spil) PlayNow (British Columbia Lottery Corporation), and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation.

My work experience with mkodo...

Hannah Campbell talks about work experience at mkodo

I have been lucky enough to have had secured a short-term placement at mkodo, which has been a fun and productive experience, and one which I am extremely grateful for.

My initial expectation of being an intern was to do the daily coffee runs and run to the printer, however, working at mkodo was a pleasant surprise as I have been busy since my first day. Having the opportunity to undergo working at such an amazing and award-winning company, has made my involvement with mkodo personally worthwhile.

My time at mkodo has consisted of several different tasks, many of which I have learnt new and useful skills that will benefit me throughout the rest of my studies, and once I go into work after university. I have greatly developed my Photoshop skills, as well as learning how to use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Premiere Pro. I have helped the design team working on logos, as well as designing for Instagram on Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop posts for their prospecting events such as Betting on Sports and Technology for Marketing 2018. Helping mkodo work on their social media strategies has been one of my favourite tasks as I have thoroughly enjoyed creating the content that has been posted.

I have also been working close with the sales and marketing team, working on Salesforce CRM system, gathering data and arranging prospect meetings for Technology for Marketing 2018, in conjunction with amalgamating this data on Excel spreadsheets. Before starting my internship, my perception of sales and marketing was that they were essentially the same thing, but with the help from the mkodo team, I am now able to differentiate the two! I have gone from knowing the bare minimum, to now having boosted my knowledge about the industry; thank you to the lovely mkodo team.

Another favourite task of mine was testing out the Mecca Bingo app, giving feedback to the design team about what I enjoyed and what I felt didn’t work, which was very entertaining.

Attending this year's Technology for Marketing conference has been an eye-opening experience as I was able to learn more about martech and digital marketing; meeting dedicated individuals to the martech industry. I was able to attend talks about content marketing and experience, customer engagement and marketing automation. Having the opportunity to talk to possible new clients has boosted my confidence and I now feel as if I am capable of talking to new people in a professional manner.

Working with mkodo has definitely been worthwhile. It has given me more knowledge about the industry and it has given me the chance to experience the day-to-day office life. I have learnt office amenities, professional ways to communicate with others; both team members and clients. All of this has been achievable due to the great support from the mkodo team! I would like to say a massive thank you for everyone who has helped me throughout my time here at mkodo, a strong and thriving company.

“At the end of your placement you will know, understand and be able to do more than you could before you started.”

Mindwinteret al, 2011

Hannah Campbell.

Citation : Midwinter, D and Whatmore. T (2011) Positive Placements, Making the Most of Your Educational Placement pp123-148

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