John Chyriwsky, Head of Marketing at Fincore, says biometrics allow retail operators to identify retail players for the first time, marking a drastic improvement to responsible gambling and facilitating personalised experiences like never before.
Anonymity. This is one of the greatest challenges faced by retail sportsbook operators.
While self-service terminals deliver the ease, speed and convenience bettors are seeking, they can engage with these kiosks without going through the stringent ID verification process online bettors must undertake before they can place a bet.
This makes it incredibly tough for retail sportsbook operators to manage factors such as fraud prevention and responsible gambling but also to analyse player behaviour to deliver a more personalised bettor experience.
The responsible gambling and compliance aspect is of the greatest concern – operators find it hard to identify excluded players or those not permitted to bet under local laws and regulations.
But just as concern is the lack of available data on player behaviour. This data is crucial to online gambling operators and guides everything from bonusing and promotions to content recommendations and prompts around safe gaming.
Most retail operators do not have access to this data, leaving them very much in the dark. Personalisation is now a must for retail betting operators but without access to player data and insights, it’s almost impossible to tailor experiences.
The good news for retail sportsbook operators is that advanced facial recognition technologies are now available, allowing them to remove the cloak of anonymity worn by retail bettors so that they can carry out the necessary responsible gambling and compliance checks, and understand who their players are and what they like to bet on.
Biometrics helps operators come face-to-face with players:
Biometrics – biological measurements or physical characteristics that can be used to identify individuals – are now being harnessed by innovative technology providers and deployed across smart facial recognition platforms and systems.
Generally speaking, these solutions capture a retail bettor’s facial coding and tags the customer through their facial ID. Essentially, this makes them “known” to the retail operator.
Each time the player returns to the self-service kiosk, they can be identified by the operator through their facial coding. Ultimately, this allows for in-depth analysis of previously anonymous players and for a better understanding of who is using the kiosk.
If the facial code is on a database of players who have self-excluded, or those who are prohibited from betting because of their status (sports star, politically exposed person, etc) they can be prevented from placing a bet via the machine.
For those who are permitted to play, operators can start to gather valuable data from “anonymous” players in real-time. This combination of real-time data and in-depth analysis of anonymous player behaviours is pretty revolutionary stuff.
Armed with this unique insight, retail operators can look at ways of personalising the experience each player has at the self-service kiosk. This includes recommendations for markets and bets based on what the player has previously engaged with.
This is something that online sportsbook operators are still trying to get to grips with, with only a handful of pioneering brands actually offering tailored betting experiences at this level.
Truly personalised retail betting experiences:
Retail operators can also fine-tune their bonus and promotion strategies for each previously anonymous player. The player could be given the option of both a deposit match and a free bet, with their choice added to the bank of data gathered on that player.
The next time the player returns to the kiosk, the operator can offer whichever bonus the bettor has engaged with in the past. This really is next-level personalisation and not just in the content of the retail space.
The same can be applied to the sports the bettor wagers on, and even the teams and players they back. Bespoke pricing also becomes available to retail players, too. With the right data to hand, there really is no limit as to just how tailored and personalised the player experience can be made.
Retail is often seen as lagging behind online in terms of the experience offered to sports bettors, and also when it comes to protecting players. Ultimately, this comes down to it having been almost impossible for operators to identify the players walking into their betting shops.
But with biometrics and facial recognition solutions, these challenges can be overcome, and, for the first time, operators can really get to know their retail customers.
This allows them to more effectively prevent those who should not be gambling from placing bets while at the same time being able to drastically improve the experience offered to those who can bet through the power of personalisation.
For me, this makes facial recognition one of the biggest breakthroughs the sector has seen in recent times and at Fincore we are proud to be at the cutting edge of this revolutionary technology.
