Q&A: Richard Milner, Sky Poker

The head of Sky Poker talks mobile, tablets and the impact the platforms are having on the entire business

eGR Mobile Intelligence (eGR MI): What have been the main issues with the move to mobile for Sky Poker?

Richard Milner (RM): We haven’t had any significant issues and it’s all gone well for us. Catering for a smaller real estate and differing screen sizes is a challenge but that’s where our uniquely responsive product comes into its own. The big advantages have basically been that we can cater for an ever-growing market and for many players’ preferred devices.

eGR MI: What has the reception and feedback from the players been like to the mobile and tablet apps?

RM: It’s been genuinely very positive. It’s something that we’ve engaged a lot with customers on and designed it the way they wanted it. At the recent Sky Poker UKPC event, many customers came up to me and said they loved our mobile product and played it a lot. A key learning that immediately springs to mind is that people’s play on mobile hasn’t generally been substitutional to playing on desktop, it tends to be in addition to other play.

eGR MI: What were the key features and functionality you wanted to include on the tablet app that couldn’t be included on the mobile product?

RM: There’s not much that we’ve wanted to do on mobile that we haven’t been able to do. We do make some tweaks to it to optimise it for the smaller screen but feature parity is very similar.

eGR MI: To what extent do you view your mobile and tablet apps as separate products? 

RM: When we designed and developed our new Sky Poker product, mobile was front of mind. We deliberately used technology that was suitable for many devices. Effectively the mobile tables are the same product as desktop, not a stripped-down version. This means there’s a very similar experience on both platforms and when we release a new feature on one it’s available instantly on the other.

eGR MI: To what extent will future poker development be based around the mobile and tablet platforms? Are we going to see more Spin & Go style games on offer?

RM: We’ve seen no real decline in tournaments, and they remain a very popular game format. Cash games and Sit & Gos are generally more frequently played on a mobile or a tablet, but I think this is more because of the players’ own desire to play a quick game. We find that they play tournaments at other times when they want to play for longer. However, I’m certain we will be exploring how we can deliver innovative new tournament formats on all platforms to cater for this segment of the market and for players who have the time to play them.