Any modern business is hard to imagine without software. The amount of data in the world has grown so much in the modern era of information technology that a contemporary person processes as much information in one day as an adult living in 1700 did in their entire life! And this flow of information needs to be managed. Of course, with the help of software. In this article, we will examine what software is necessary for the full and effective operation of a gambling venue today. It is worth noting that since the business activities of gambling establishments involve a wide range of activities, more than one kind of software is required.
Core Software Components for Online Casinos
What manages the operational activity of gaming clubs is back-office software, also known as a casino management system (CMS). This system records all operations performed by players. It is used by the staff of the establishment to carry out all routine work processes. It handles player control functions, monitors their activity, detects & prevents fraud. It also allows input of various operational data, such as bonuses, advertising campaigns, user access permissions, regulatory requirements, inventory, and other informational content. Here, staff generates reports, performs analytics, predictive analysis, and customizes offers for players and their segments. This system integrates with other systems, modules, and external software, allowing a range of other work processes: CRM, payment modules and gateways, game aggregator platforms, marketing tools, and more.
The payment module allows for receiving payments from players and paying out winnings. Good modules support 200+ payment methods, both international and country-specific, 150+ global fiat currencies, dozens of cryptocurrencies, currency exchange according to commercial rates, and such additional financial transactions:
- Fraud monitoring and prevention
- Processing refunds and payment investigations
- Conducting reconciliations
- Balancing accounts
- Reporting
- Setting and collecting fees for specific types of transactions
- Doing domestic and cross-border transactions
- Performing secure transactions according to PCI DSS rules and others.
In addition, the game aggregator platform, integrated with the CMS, enables connecting game providers and their games to the gambling establishment’s gaming website quickly and with minimal technological manipulation. Today, the market features over 100 game providers (with new ones appearing once in a while). Annually, these providers release 1,000+ new games, modify existing ones, remove old ones, and make various updates. Handling each provider individually and negotiating service agreements would be too labor-intensive for gambling establishments. Game aggregators are third-party companies that offer technological solutions for aggregating all this gaming info through a single gateway. Such a gateway can be integrated into a gaming club’s core software via API and customized to fit their business needs and preferences. When game updates and other gaming information are released, they are automatically delivered to gambling providers through this aggregation gateway, and updates will be automatically reflected on websites and mobile apps. Several dozen aggregator companies operate in the market, each with its own set of providers and gaming offerings. Therefore, it is important to work with leading aggregators who offer the widest selection, have been in the market for a long time, and already serve 1,000+ online houses of gambling, such as SoftSwiss, Pragmatic Solutions, Slotegrator, or iSoftBet.
Security and Compliance Software
Security systems, fraud monitoring, and anti-fraud software are crucial tools that help gambling venues combat fraud, financial losses, and revenue shortfalls due to deceitful activities of people. These systems also provide:
- Compliance with data encryption for secure operations and gaming on the website/mobile app
- Two-factor or three-factor user authentication
- Secure payments (as part of payment systems)
- Algorithms for monitoring and preventing fraudulent transactions and their attempts
- Compliance with AML and KYC procedures
- Monitoring user activity and sessions at all levels (players and gambling company employees, as well as external contractor users), and logging all their actions
- Self-exclusion functionality for players
- Firewall
- Intrusion detection to prevent hacker attacks and data breaches
- DDoS attack mitigation
- Tokenization and anonymization of transmitted data
- Session timeout management
- Detection of multiple accounts.
Any gambling game involves real people and their actual money, making it critically important to protect personal and financial data from theft, copying, interception, destruction, distortion, substitution, and other unauthorized actions. Consecutively, players will be confident that they are playing in a secure club, which will enhance its reputation.
Examples of anti-fraud and security software for online gambling clubs include:
- Featurespace: for real-time fraud detection using adaptive behavioral analytics to identify unusual patterns and suspicious behavior in betting or website interactions.
- SEON: provides fraud prevention through multi-account analysis, examining various user data to prevent abuse.
- ThreatMetrix: offers behavioral analysis and machine learning to detect real-time fraud attempts, personal data theft, and bot fraud.
- Accertify: a comprehensive fraud prevention solution that includes transaction monitoring, analysis of traffic from user devices, and management of chargebacks.
- Kount: uses AI to detect fraud by monitoring transactions and player behavior in real-time across multiple levels.
Examples of compliance software for online gaming parlors include:
- Jumio: identity verification using documents, facial recognition, and biometrics to assist with KYC and AML compliance.
- Veriff: identity verification through document checks against various databases in real-time.
- ComplyAdvantage: provides real-time AML risk management by screening user transactions against global watchlists.
- Thomson Reuters CLEAR: used for comprehensive background checks, risk management, and data verification, combining information from various sources.
- Actico Compliance Suite: for managing regulatory compliance in the financial sector through transaction monitoring, comprehensive customer checks, and sanctions list screening.
Player Engagement and Retention Software
An important internal system for working with and retaining players is the CRM system, which records all client data and information about interactions with clients. It stores all historical information about each client, including when and about what issues they contacted the company, what products they purchased, what services they used, which games they played, how much money and time they spent on games, how much they deposited, how much they withdrew, what they like and dislike… A high-quality modern CRM system can collect and store hundreds of types of information about clients, creating thousands of connections between them, and facilitating effective analysis and segmentation of clients. It also helps communicate with clients as productively as possible, providing real-time information about them for personalizing interactions. This not only helps to know the client but also, through this knowledge, to sell to them more frequently, effectively, quickly, and in larger quantities, increasing customer LTV and reducing the need for acquiring new clients.
CRM systems can provide excellent input data for bonus, reward, and VIP systems. The presence of these marketing tools helps maintain players’ interest in a particular gambling establishment, increasing the time they spend playing, and providing additional gaming benefits, which ultimately benefit the gaming venue as clients spend more money. Software that helps effectively implement bonuses and loyalty programs includes Optimove, Loyalty Gator, Comarch Loyalty Management, and RewardBet. Many software systems used by gambling establishments under white-label agreements already have built-in functionality for managing bonuses and loyalty, as do several off-the-shelf and proprietary solutions.
Analytics and Business Intelligence
To carry out dozens of daily tasks in the operation of online gaming parlors, various data must be used. Data is the foundation for analytics and business intelligence, based on which operational and long-term management decisions are made. In today’s highly competitive world of online gambling, it is crucial to make decisions based on real and accurate data rather than informed guesses. At least if you want to grow your business and successfully compete. Data analytics software includes Gaming Analytics, Playtech BI Tools, Optimove, BetConstruct CRM, NetRefer, Eilers & Krejcik software, Scaleo, EveryMatrix GamMatrix, Tableau, DataRobot, Cohesity, Bet Buddy, Klipfolio, and Adjust.
Using these and other high-quality pieces of software for online casinos will allow each gambling business owner to:
- Track key performance indicators for player activity and revenue generation for their establishment
- Obtain detailed analytics on player acquisition and retention
- Perform segmentation based on various criteria
- Develop marketing strategies and analyze their effectiveness
- Obtain predictive analytics
- Generate reports
- Manage the ROI for different player acquisition channels and other business activities.
Mobile Compatibility and Cross-Platform Integration
Approximately 60% of all Internet traffic today comes from mobile devices. Most of the world’s population that has at least one electronic device only owns a mobile phone, without any other device for Internet access. In developed countries, up to 90% of people use mobile phones to gamble (at least once a year), as mobile phone penetration in their lives is at the level of 98-99%. Therefore, it is super important for your gaming website to be optimized for mobile devices. Ideally, you should have a mobile app for Android and iOS, too. But if the Play Market or Apple Store in your region does not support the placement of gambling apps, then it is important to ensure mobile optimization for the website at the very least.
Technological compatibility is ensured during the website development phase. The vast majority, if not all, white-label and out-of-the-box solutions for gaming parlors today are mobile-optimized, and if a business owner orders the development of a new proprietary solution, this requirement is included in the standard specification as one of the first. If you forgo mobile optimization, you will be excluding yourself from 60%+ of users who globally generate at least 25% of all online gambling revenue. Ideally, every player in your gaming club should be provided with an optimal gaming experience on any device they use: mobile phone, tablet, desktop PC, laptop, smart TV, and non-standard platforms such as smart glasses with augmented reality.
Technologies and applications for ensuring mobile optimization and cross-platform compatibility today include HTML5, Unity, Apache Cordova, React Native, Flutter, PlayFab, Photon Engine, Firebase, Marmalade SDK, Xsolla, and Appsflyer software for casinos.
Customer Support Software
When players have questions or suggestions, they contact a support service representative. If a critical issue related to core functionality is not resolved, the player may leave the gambling venue of good and never return. Critical issues include payment or withdrawal problems, game malfunctions, game not loading, technological bugs or glitches that halt gameplay, incorrect bonus or win calculations, monetary transaction cancellation, missing funds from the account, documents not uploading in the interface, or entering personal/financial data into the interface is not performed. Other questions, suggestions, complaints, and comments are not considered critical. However, if a player’s feedback is ignored, they might also leave for good even if an issue is not critical.
In addition to resolving issues and recording suggestions, a good customer support service should include multilingual support, multiple communication channels, 24/7 operation, polite and genuinely helpful managers, and callbacks with solutions when resolving the issue on the spot is not possible.
In short, having a support service is crucial. The software solutions for online casinos for creating and operating it include LiveChat, Zendesk, Intercom, Freshdesk, Tawk.to, Olark, HelpCrunch, Kayako, Comm100, Bold360, Pure Chat, ClickDesk, JivoChat, LivePerson, Helpjuice, and Drift.
To ensure multilingual support, these software solutions often use integration with Google Translate API and Microsoft Translator.
Emerging Technologies in Online Casino Software
Those who successfully grow their gambling business do not forget to monitor the market for new technologies and trends. Currently, these include blockchain and cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, and augmented reality.
- Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are not only cryptocurrency payments in and out of gambling establishments. They also offer the possibility of implementing smart contracts for everything related to gambling interactions between parlors and players: game outcomes, automation of financial transactions, and information transfer (text, video, audio, scanned documents, screenshots, etc.). This is needed to increase business transparency and reduce the risk of fraud on both sides.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning are necessary for improving the processing of big data, reducing the impact of human error and biased opinions on data interpretation, increasing labor productivity while maintaining or reducing operational costs, personalizing player offers, real-time information assessment, effective and fast player support, and reducing fraud.
- Virtual reality and augmented reality are being integrated into games where the quality of experience highly depends on immersion. For example, in live dealer games, where you can immerse yourself in the environment of a real gaming club using VR/AR glasses. In other types of games, such immersion will be less effective unless the game provider makes the environment realistic and specifically designed for these devices. Today, you can play interactive virtual poker using PokerStars VR or try software solutions for casinos from companies like Entain, Scientific Games, Playtech, or Betsoft, which create VR-based games.
Choosing the Right Software Providers
How do you choose among a large number of providers? To do this, you need to conduct due diligence on the software in each area, evaluating both the solution provider and the solution itself. The provider is assessed based on the number of years in the market, pieces of feedback from previous clients, success stories, solution costs, and the quality of their integration into the core software of the gambling establishment. The products are evaluated based on functionality, flexibility, scalability, customizability, support quality and issue resolution, availability of pricing proposals for business users, and ease of use.
In this text, we provided the names of various companies and their solutions. You can start with this information and then look for similar options on the market, read expert reviews comparing specific solutions in terms of functionality, price, and pieces of feedback. Pay attention to the pros and cons. Also, discuss the range of technological solutions used by your competitors with some of those competitors. Ideally, you should have contacts with someone you can discuss this informally. To acquire them, people usually visit gatherings of gambling establishment representatives at different international venues where their meetings are organized, so they can chat with them and get contact information for further discussions. If you cannot obtain information through personal informal contacts, hire a professional consultant with enough experience in this field, such as those at our company, BoomAff. Consultants can provide you with a detailed breakdown of what you will need for your technological architecture. Additionally, consider hiring employees from competitors who are currently job-seeking to learn how the technological landscape is implemented by competitors.
Conclusion
Technologies are the core and heart of most modern businesses. This is especially true for highly technological companies like contemporary online gambling establishments. To operate successfully, you need to integrate dozens of different software systems, coordinated for a single purpose and connected into one network for the functioning of the gambling venue. Therefore, before launching your new gambling business, gather information on what you will need for operational functioning to determine your budget, technological infrastructure, and staffing requirements. And remember, the experts at BoomAff are always ready to consult you on casino technological infrastructure and answer any of your questions. Feel free to contact us!