Live casino games have been a big revolutionary arm of the progress of online gambling. With live dealers controlling the action, the interactive streams moved players away from the more static slots games and set up a virtual experience of being in a casino, without actually being in a casino.
Having real dealers run the authentic table games, produces a far more immersive experience for the player. The success of the best UK online casinos or any casino in the world for that matter depends on players coming back time and time again to use live tables, and what can drive that repeat custom is innovation.
Why Innovation Is Necessary
The online casino market is very crowded and competitive, and there is a need to stand out. Because many platforms tend to look the same and operate many of the same games from leading game developers, any small innovative angle that can be manipulated can make a big difference.
There is also a need to keep up with the expectations of modern players. Life is fast-paced and from smartphones to wearables, customers constantly expect updates. Simply remaining stagnant and believing the interests of players won’t change, can be problematic for an online casino.
Game Variety
Casinos rely on third-party software developers to supply them with games, and if new features can be integrated into a new title, then it’s naturally going to make quite the splash in a title’s popularity.
Innovative games have come along at online casino sites in the form of game-show-style options featuring prize boards, lucky spin wheels and more. Live, interactive crash games hosted by live dealers have also cropped up to offer something new. Incorporating features like leaderboards, achievements and innovative in-game rewards can help to keep things fresh and players captivated.
The more that new game concepts can be churned out, whether that’s a never-before-seen game itself, added features like chat reactions in live blackjack or banking on new technology to take things forward, innovation is key.
The Race to AR and VR
Live dealer games were a massive innovation in and of itself. But that is something which has been around for a while now and therefore it has become a feature that everyone expects to see.
It’s where that live dealer experience goes next is the big challenge for casinos. Augmented or Virtual Reality, for example, would be a massive game changer. The first casino to really lean heavily on this idea would get a massive advantage in the industry.
The idea that you could sit at home, pull on a headset and be immersed in a virtual casino environment, would have a phenomenal amount of appeal. It would allow players to sit at a virtual roulette table and play their hands, taking online casino play into the future.
The appeal of live dealer games as they are is to allow players to stay home and feel like they are getting something close to an authentic casino experience, and VR could take that to the next level.
However, augmented reality could have even more mass appeal because it would strip away the need for extra hardware like a headset. Being able to play a live game of blackjack that is projected into your living room on your phone, with interactive pop-up information like a strategy chart, would enhance player engagement tremendously.
Personalising the Live Dealer Experience Further
As things stand currently with live dealer games at online casinos, interactions with the dealer are somewhat limited, as is contact with other players in the game. That’s simply because the operator does not want to deal with rowdy players who text-bomb other players, causing distractions.
Developing a way where players can interact with each other in more meaningful and safe ways would add a new layer to the live dealer casino game experiences, as could integrating things like social media and the rating of dealers.
Small Changes Are Big
The great thing about innovation is that it only needs small changes that can make a big difference. It could be something as simple as coming up with a new type of welcome bonus offer that shakes up the status quo of matched deposit offers a brand-new prize format for live game show tables, or maybe even AI-driven automated closed captioning or auto language translation to make games more accessible for everyone.
In Summary
Online casinos have to embrace innovations to stay relevant. Imagine a casino platform now that didn’t offer live dealer games, for example. They probably wouldn’t last too long in such a competitive market. Instead, pushing boundaries is always the way forward.