Whenever there’s a lot of money in a business, there are going to be plenty of eyes watching, waiting for the slightest slip up. The sports and casino gaming business is no different, as it’s one of the most lucrative industries in the United States today: especially when you consider how easy it is for the average person to get involved.
With those large dollar amounts changing hands comes an increased need for financial security and a drive to always be at the front of the pack in adopting new and improved technologies, both to keep customers safe and to provide an excellent user experience. Here’s a look at the latest updates to hit the gaming industry, and how they’ll affect user experiences moving forward.
Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Gaming: Curating a Customer Experience
It’s hard to go anywhere without hearing discussions of AI these days, and the betting industry is just another example of that. Sportsbooks and casino game platforms alike use AI for a number of reasons, whether for customer satisfaction or security.
When it comes to customer satisfaction, sportsbooks use the technology to analyze how a player interacts with their platform: if they like to place parlays or single-ticket bets, what teams or sports they like to bet on or if there’s a specific time that people engage with the app most. This helps them to create an experience that is unique to each customer, offering promotions that will fit the user best. For instance, if you’re a big Lakers fan, you might get offered a bonus bet in the form of a Fanatics Sportsbook Promo Code if you place a parlay on the next game the team plays. It might seem like a random promotion, but it’s actually designed specifically for your own betting interests.
Rather than throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks by offering randomized promotions, betting platforms can use the technology to see what will create a returning customer.
AI and Mobile Gaming: Security
Artificial intelligence isn’t only used for marketing, of course. It’s also used to improve security, which is perhaps the most important outcome of all. AI algorithms can analyze the millions — if not billions — of transactions that users make on a daily basis, raising a red flag if something seems suspicious. Rather than undertaking the impossible task of having a team of people painstakingly pore through the ever-growing list of transactions, delegating the responsibility to computers helps those checks happen in real time.
That can prevent customers from getting their information hacked and stolen, and it can also protect the betting operators themselves from unknowingly helping users launder money. AI isn’t limited to the world of mobile gaming either, as most physical casinos use facial recognition technologies to make sure they aren’t allowing known cheaters into the location.
Casinos are also using AI technology to create ways to prevent problem gambling, looking into how they can use pattern predicting algorithms to identify users who are at risk of developing an addiction, and reach out to them before it’s too late.
Protecting Consumers: Third Party Auditors and Random Number Generators
This safety measure pertains specifically to the mobile casino industry. With sports gambling, for instance, the outcomes hinge on what happens on the field: the bookies don’t have any sway over if Patrick Mahomes throws for 300 passing yards or if the Steelers’ defense pitches a shutout.
Casino games are largely handled in-house, however, and the mobile-only component adds an unorthodox twist that can be confusing at first. If you’re at a physical casino, there are plenty of safeguards in place to prevent any sort of cheating: whether it’s the dealers’ watching out for any sort of fraud, machine-shuffled decks or the fact that you can watch the roulette wheel spin physically. When using an online platform where the game you play consists of pixels rather than physical objects, that safeguard is gone.
Instead, casinos rely on random number generators (RNGs) to ensure that the results one gets from a spin of the slot machine or a deal of cards are just as random as they’d be at a physical location. Betting platforms will hire third-party auditors to examine their RNGs and certify that they’re operating as advertised, giving customers an outside safety net to ensure that the games are what they seem.
Beyond all that, providing a product that customers feel comfortable engaging with is critical to a mobile casino’s success. It’s in the best interest of gambling platforms to do so, so that customers feel safe using their product and continue to return as customers.
