As part of the latest Big Betting Balagan podcast, Future Anthem’s CEO Leigh Nissim detailed his company’s progression and how it sees the online gaming industry changing in the future.
Speaking with host Dan Phillips, Nissim revealed the innovative approach that Future Anthem took following its creation four years ago: “We have a very clear mission – we want to use AI to improve the player experience for everyone,” Nissim said.
“The way that we do it is that we invest billions of transactions from operators, from studios and we try and predict how players are gambling when they are in session. With those predictions we make recommendations, and those recommendations are designed to improve the entertaining experience.”
Asked by Phillips about the policies on sharing the findings from the transactions, Nissim explained that each customer’s data is safely stored in “their own container” and that the trends they’re experiencing are not shared with anyone.
He stated: “Your data is yours, it’s in your own container. But what everyone is benefiting from is the algorithms. The algorithms have been trained across billions of spins; they’ve gone against something like 28 billion transactions.
“You’re benefiting from the accuracy of these models that have been built and trained across all that dataset. But there’s no sharing of any kind of trends, they are specific to you as a client.”
Talking about the player experience when interacting with slots, Nissim pointed out that the majority of it results in a negative outcome due to failed customer expectations, with a high chance of the player leaving in the search for a better option.
“People don’t realise that 70% of slot sessions have an RTP less than 80%. Seven in every 10 players will have a poor experience and they’re highly likely to leave as a consequence,” Nissim said.
He also noted that by the time players find a suitable experience, they’ve already exhausted a hefty amount of their funds.
“And the games are built like that. It’s only the players that spin loads that are going to get into those 95% RTPs that the games are built for. Some are very aggressive, some are softer, so for a new consumer you absolutely need to present the right games for them to have a better experience.”
Phillips also asked his guest on the trends he sees as building up, and what can be done to bring more improvements into the industry.
Nissim explained: “Online and digital have a huge way to go in terms of creating opportunities. This whole retail-to-online piece is still underdeveloped. That journey still has a long way to go. I want to see more automation happening, more precision. A lot that we see is still very broad and very blanket.”