A FUN play on internet gambling

couldn't scan this ....typos are all mine


eGaming Mag Dec/Jan issue


Article "Art of Skill Games" by COO of Game Account



With the core technology in place, 2006 will see a technology-led revolution which will bring ARPU (avg. rev per user?) into line with other offerings. This will come from providing skills games for gamblers, proactive player managment and delivering info. Tools so partners can understand consumer behaviour and respond with customised tournaments and promotions.
The skill games industry started with the expectation of monetising the bored housewives playing Tetris. This is a large market, but the games and tourny models aimed at this demographic are not the same product portfolio to which gamblers will respond. A gamblers time is scare. They need to believe they can win a significant amount of cash in their session, or it is not worth playing. Likewise gaming operators need to know they can earn enough revenue an hour by sending their customers to a skill games product.
Games such as blackjack run in a knockout tournament format are wildly popular. When both players are dealt from an identical shoe they are no longer facing an uphill battle against the house. Multiplayer products like backgammon are made more attractive by offerring innovative betting models such as per point betting, where you make money by thrashing your opponent than by squeaking out a win.

2006 will see...Point summary:

Move towards much better understanding of customer behaviour (better lobby technology to assist players in finding each other)
More intelligent server technology & less reliance on trusting the client s'ware,. Will allow greater use of ubiquitos broswer technologies/fewer customers having to download a Java client before playing
Move to messanger technology (XMPP)…can proactively manage customer presence and suggest a match between idle players with similar betting profiles
Increase in poker style multi player tournaments