I wrote about bingo back in the beginning of december, Why do all bingo clients look the same? Where are the innovations?, but there are a few companies doing some innovations.
We have seen Live Casinos (where you play online against a real dealer) for a while and now it is showing up in bingo clients as well. One company doing this is Atac Media.
I think having a real person calling out the numbers will be more fun. The problem is that I couldn’t try it out. The bingo opens at …

This year’s International Gaming Expo (IGE), incorporating ICEi, is over and I’m back home. My reflections from the expo are mixed.
Most positive: I was impressed by Net Entertainment and  Betsoft’s games. The quality in their games is really good. It is especially interesting to see that Betsoft incorporate their controls as a part of the game.
Most negative: The Innovative Showcase (it was a new addition addition to IGE 2010 that gave exhibitors the opportunity to present to IGE visitors) was a major dissapointment! Many of the presenters didn’t even show up for their presentations, …

It really doesn’t matter to which operator in online gaming you play with today. Gaming portals are very similar when it comes to everything from available games, user flows to registration and deposits. Bingo clients almost look identical from one provider to another. Why is that? Are software providers afraid to differentiate themselves by innovation?
I think that winners in the industry the next couple of years will be operators and software providers that put a lot of focus on the player experience. This is because you can have a really …

This year’s IGE is just a few weeks away and I’m starting to get excited about the event. It will be great to find out what will be the next big things in the igaming industry this year.
I believe the following topics (among others) will be very important for igaming companies this year:

personalisation
social media
retention
focus on the player
prototyping
innovation
development processes

I’ll be at the IGE all days so if you want to meet up and discuss igaming and user experience. I’m also working on a workshop covering many of the topics above that …

Do you develop gaming software?
Do you prototype?
If you do prototyping then great! If you don’t, then it is time to start doing it!
A prototype is a representative model of the final product.
Why should you build prototypes?
Prototyping is an interative and generative process. You’ll never get the best solution at your first try. Prototyping will give you many new ideas when you work through the prototyping process. It helps you get your ideas into something everyone can play around with. This will generate lots of feedback and ideas for new and …

It is just a little over a month left until the International Gaming Expo takes place in London between the 26th and 28th of January.
It will be very interesting to find out if there are any new innovations within the industry. Maybe some new mobile solutions? Or maybe a new poker game?
Will I see you there? I’ll be there for the whole three days this year. Wanna meet up and discuss user experience, social media and igaming?
Send me an e-mail, staffan.schroder@inuse.se, and let’s set up a meeting :)
/Staffan

When will we see new innovations when it comes to online bingo?
Today almost every bingo client have the same functionality:

Buy tickets/Play bingo
Play minigames
Chat

There are great opportunities to create an online bingo that is much more integrated with social media. Why not let players do stuff (besides chatting)?
And when will we see bingo sites where you don’t just open up a bingo client in a new window, insted have the bingo incorportated with other stuff?
There is so much that could be done!
So why don’t you get started? (need help? send me …

Cashcade and their Foxybingo.com won the Bingo Operator of The Year 2009 award at the EGR Awards yesterday.
This made me curious about their bingo portal and I went their to register an account to try it out.
But why do I have to give away my credit card details right away? I want to look at the site and bingo client before I do!
Operators need to work on their registration processes to optimize both the benefits for the players but also to get as many as possible to register. I for …

Why not sign up for the weekly UXiGaming newsletter?
The newsletter will be sent every tuesday starting December 1st.
Why should you sign up? You’ll get a newsletter containing:

Blog posts posted last weeks along with comments and relevant links.
Links to industry news concerning igaming, social media and user experience.
“UXiGaming’s weekly offer”
“Question of the week”

So sign up right now! You do it here!
/Staffan

Svenska Spel posted earlier this month their result for Jan - Jun 09. The result was 591 Million Swedish kronor in net profit. This is less than last year (648). Poker was down 16,4% and bingo was down 18,4%.
Playtech is another company in the gaming industry that have reported a result not as good as expected.
I am sure that Svenska Spel and Playtech are not the only companies in the gaming industry having a tough year.
Svenska Spel believes their result is because they have added the ability for players to set gaming …

This week I’ve looked at the Parlay5 bingo client by Parlay. I’ve played on the Rehab Bingo skin.
All bingo clients on the market today looks very similar and they all offer the same things, a bingo client where you can:

Play bingo
Play other games (minigames inside the client or games in new windows)
Chat with other bingo players

I don’t think the online bingo today is as good as it could be and I believe that the bingo software suppliers are afraid to be different from the others on the market. When will …

This weeks 20 minute redesign will be the Parlay Entertainment’s bingo client (Parlay5).
So make sure you check back on sunday for the redesign.
/Staffan

Maria Bingo is one of the few bingo portal having community features. On their portal players have their own personal page including blog, photos, friends and more.
I think this is a step i the right direction. Especially since bingo really is a social game with alot of chat in it.
On Maria Bingo they also have a cool feature called Maria’s world. It is an interactive map showing all players who are online at the moment and where they are from. You can also zoom in and click on a player …

Is there a reason why the largest gaming portals today use almost the identical top navigation?
In the picture above you can see the top navigation for the gaming companies below:

Sportingbet: Promos, Sports, Casino, Poker, Games, 1v1, Backgammon, Video Games, Mobile, Financials
bwin: Sports, Poker, Casino, Games
William Hill: Sports, Casino, Poker, Games, Vegas, Live Casino, Skill, Bingo, Lotteries
paddypower: Sports, Livebetting, Poker, Casino, Financial Trader, Games, Player, Lotteries, Bingo, Mobile
Bet365: Sport, Liveodds, Casino, Poker, Games, Bingo
Betsson: Sportsbook, Exchange, Scratch, Casino, Poker, Bingo, Trader, Games
Unibet: Sportsbook, Casino, Live Casino, Poker, Bingo, Games, Skill, Scratch …

I always get annoyed when something interupts what I am doing. Recently when I was at Svenska Spel and their bingo I got a pop up while trying to buy bingo tickets for the next round.
I was selecting tickets when a pop up alert saying “It is 30 seconds until the game starts. Don’t forget to buy tickets. Good luck!”. But WHY did I get the pop up when I was already on my way to buy tickets? On top of that I had to click on the little “OK” …

Virgin Games has announced that they will create a one-account solution for their bingo, casino and poker games.
This means that the players only need one login to play the different games and have one money wallet.
A one-account solution is great and I for one will look forward to try it out. Will the player transfer money into the games or will it be a direct-purchase solution?
I’m also pleased to see that a gaming company put focus on the user experience (or customer experience as they call it). CEO of Virgin …