Playtech punts omni-channel approach

Speaking at a media conference following the release of his company’s results Thursday (see previous report), Playtech‘s CEO Mor Weizer said the future of gambling is the omni-channel approach, in which mobile, web and retail operations are all linked and integrated using sophisticated technology and organisation.

Certainly that is the route which his company is pioneering, claiming to have an advantage on rivals.

Although Playtech has been diversifying into the CFD and FX sector and has spent over a billion dollars this year on these and other acquisitions, it remains on the alert for further opportunities on which to spend its impressive cash pile, he revealed.

However, Weizer also noted that up to two-thirds of Playtech’s organic growth would come from helping bookmakers redesign their computer systems so that customers can switch quickly and easily from mobile phones to computers, and even to terminals inside betting shops.

The company announced earlier this year that it had hired an extra 600 staff to work on this new “omni-channel” strategy.

“We have an organic revenue growth target of 15 percent a year,” he said. “Between 5 and 10 percent of that will flow from omni-channel operations – it is very important.”

Giving his company’s work with Gala Coral as an example, Weizer said that the Coral Connect card, which allowed customers to bet online or on phones and collect their winnings in shops has proved popular, with more than 200,000 people signed up in the first year.

Similar, and other opportunities in the omni-channel field were being pursued, and Playtech has already had discussions with major retail and online groups including William Hill, Betfred, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes, Weizer said.

“I know from conversations I had with these operators that they noticed the success of Coral and they understand the opportunity,” he observed.

Weizer predicted that within six to twelve months following their merger, Ladbrokes and Coral will adopt the omni-channel approach, and said that it will likely become standard in the industry over the next two to four years, pointing out that integrating a company’s systems also offers the advantage of more access to customer information to aid targeted marketing.

He claimed that his company has few if any peers in this important new arena:

“It will be difficult for anyone to do it without us,” he claimed. “One company out there claims to have an omni-channel approach but you have not seen the numbers flowing through in the results.”

Weizer also revealed that Playtech will use the GBP 75 million it will receive on the completion of the Ladbrokes-Coral merger, along with some of its own cash, to acquire a 7 percent stake in the merged companies.

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