Data in the betting and gaming industry plays a hugely important role, and numerous actors such as Optimove have entered the market to enhance the way operators leverage data.

Speaking to Lee Richardson and Dan Philips on the latest episode of the Big Betting Balagan (BBB) podcast, Pini Yakuel, CEO of Optimove, underlined the importance of combining AI and Machine Learning with the already established human approach.

“Machines are never going to be able to ask questions or design experiments, and at the same time, people are not able to optimise 5,000 variations of something. We’re not going to sit down with a pen, paper and calculator and do the same mundane tedious task 5,000 times and keep a record of all the numbers – that’s better for machines to do.

“Machines are here for optimisation, we are there to set the framework and define the laws of and format of the game – what’s the experiment? What am I trying to optimise? Which question am I trying to answer?”

For Yakuel, the main challenge for Optimove’s operator clients when utilising data – i particular real time data – is deciding and figuring out how to use the resource for marketing, how best to respond to real-time data and coordinate triggered campaigns whilst also successfully leveraging historical data.

As tech gets more and more advanced, there is greater engagement between ‘slow data’ and ‘fast data’,” the CEO explained, noting that the previously used method of consuming and processing data, ‘batch processing’ via a ‘data reservoir’, is now less relevant.

“Most of the value is not necessarily driven by machine learning – machine learning could be the icing on the cake. A lot of the value is driven by plain, good old-fashioned software platforms. To have the data in, to do the automations, to have great use of interface and have great UPI connectivity with other systems. 

“At the end of the day I think our customers get value from the richness of the data, and the strengthen of the platform in terms of being connected to other platforms and being able to automate CRM journeys at scale. Its all about automating this personalisation and personalised journey at scale. 

Delving into other topics before speaking to Yakuel, Richardson and Philips discussed Camelot’s positive trading results ahead of the fourth National Lottery licence contest.

Offering his view on the development, Richardson said “One of the issues they still suffer with is the amount of contribution they have to make to good causes. There’s a couple of angles there – one is because of a quirkbecausee of the licence you need to contribute less money if its not adraw-basedd game, of wich they have half a dozen. 

He continued: “The other aspect is, if you’re not selling that through a retail environment, you don’t have to pay commission. There’s a double advantage, and I think this is still an issue that Camelot are going to have to overcome to win for a fourth time the bid.

“It’s a good set of results, but still if you dig deeper a little bit, retail is still recovering and the contribution to good causes may be still under pressure.”