The importance of being mobile
Matthew booth, commercial director of 32red, chats about the importance of the mobile channel to the gibraltar-based online casino
 
For the first time in 2013, in the month of November, we actually saw more people sign up via mobile devices than they did via desktop, which demonstrates the importance of mobile as part of our overall offering. Mobile activity levels are around 25% of our overall play.
The mobile offer is not a complete replica of the download or instant play products, so the game mix and way a player plays mobile is naturally different. There are certainly periods in the day when mobile play is more prevalent. A personâs working day means players play in shorter time periods and the yield per player is less than a desktop player. The improvement in Wi-Fi availability and all-inclusive tariff deals means players are happier to use their phones more frequently and use sites that require lots of data, which is extending the amount of times a player logs in to play. Itâs not now a case of just play on the go â a player is prepared to play on their mobile device even when they have the choice to play via their desktop.
We have a great partner in Microgaming, which means we have a regular stream of optimised content for all devices. Our big opportunity is to work with them on how we can continue to add value across every stage of the player life cycle. It is a matter of building experiences testing them and improving them.
We have worked extensively optimising our app presence in Appleâs App Store to understand how and when itâs best to push our rankings. The same applies with mobile advertising. The secret to increasing new mobile player numbers is developing analytics that allows you to increase spend efficiently â itâs impossible to do this without understanding the impact of increased advertising presence. The offline or total channel mix spend to mobile real-money player ratio is different to the desktop real-money player ratio, but understanding what drives visits is critical. You can burn money quickly if you get this mix wrong.
The key to providing an immersive experience on devices is taking the interruptions away from a playerâs experience. We work hard to make the journey from deciding to join to playing as seamless as possible. We also work hard on creating reasons to return to a players preferred experience. We have a range of models in place that predict this for us, and our player support team is very well trained in helping players overcome problems. Itâs also imperative to make sure the customer marketing team have the right tools to understand how players most like to receive marketing communications and that we have the ability to deliver communications at the right time via the right device. Our goal is to get our experience to match the levels of service we offer.
I wouldnât say that tablets were any more of an opportunity than mobile. Itâs a case of understanding the player journey and continually testing and learning to make the experience the best it possibly can be. The more personalised we can make that experience, the more we will be delivering upon our brand promise. Unless they make trousers with bigger pockets, the mobile product will always be an important part of the player experience.
The online casino experience has improved dramatically in the last 10 years. The future is very exciting, you only have to look at the games that are being produced now and their interactivity, sound and quality of game play to understand how far we have come. The addition of touch and how this has improved the experience can only mean further opportunity. I am very much looking forward to the next 10 years and who knows if and when devices will be the best performing revenue channel for online casino brands.