Technology Fest in the Online Gambling Industry

By Per Kristian Mengshoel, EVP Innovation and Development, Norsk Tipping

Per Kristian Mengshoel, EVP Innovation and Development, Norsk Tipping

As one of Europe’s most diversified operators in the online gambling industry, Norsk Tipping has a proud tradition dating back to 1948. In the beginning, football pools were the only game until the national Lotto was launched in the mid-80s, and the company has never looked back since. With a wide range of product launches, technology innovations in sales channels and services, Norsk Tipping is among the most innovative and forward-thinking companies in the industry today.

As today’s society moves forward with ever-increasing speed and relentlessness, new advances in technology are shaping society and how we all live our lives – whether we like it or not. If you see this as a threat or a wealth of opportunities is up to you, but in Norsk Tipping, we like to think that advances in technology and innovation is an opportunity to strengthen our position in the Norwegian society. In this article, we will comment briefly on some of the advances that we believe will be important for the industry over the coming years.

AI / Machine Learning

Being one of the most hyped buzzwords today, this is an obvious choice. All players in the industry know how important it is to base all decisions on relevant and data, and the traditional data warehouse is no longer the only playground for advanced algorithms and number-crunching activities.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have seen enormous growth over the last few years due to increases in computing power, and it is now being applied to ever more areas. Chatbots with advanced language processing abilities for customer service or new sales channels are based on messaging or voice. Machine learning algorithms to detect anomalies in gambling behavior, for AML / compliance issues or in CRM operations (combined with dynamic micro segments) are just a few areas where this technology will be extremely important for us.

Retail innovation is on everyone’s agenda now, and we are embracing this opportunity to renew and extend our offerings and services into both existing and new areas

Seamless Physical and Digital Experiences

With a large footprint in retail, it is important for us to leverage our existing physical presence, know-how, and partnerships while we develop new and seamless experiences for our customers. Retail innovation is on everyone’s agenda now, and we are embracing this opportunity to renew and extend our offerings and services into both existing and new areas. Proximity technology such as IoT, Beacons, NFC all provides a wealth of opportunities to eliminate friction in existing services and to develop new offerings in new areas – even more so when 5G will be rolled out over the coming years.

Fintech – From Laggard to Innovator

As payments and prices are extremely important in the online gambling industry (no kidding), the last year’s revolution in Fintech has been extremely interesting to follow. With PDS2 and a (seemingly) new and relentless focus on developing simple and powerful user experience, the financial industry has gone from being a laggard to being someone to look up to. Users have heavily adopted their new solutions and are now demanding ever more from companies like Norsk Tipping. We now need to follow suit and provide our users with all the new standards in this area – we need to go from a one-size-fits-all approach to a more servile approach where we supply a wide range of options that are available in the market. This is challenging enough for existing services, and we have only seen the start of this as new startups and services enter the PDS2 playing field.

Summary

The online gambling industry is indeed no exception when it comes to how technology is crucial for developing new and relevant offerings. With tech-savvy customers and an increasing digital focus in society, we need to invest heavily in new technology and innovative services to fulfill our mission.