Gioco Digitale. Pureplay. La Française des Jeux. Zest Networks.

Card Player M
edia. All market leaders, and all using CyberArts Foundation platform to create
today s most profitable gaming companies. Here s why each of these cutting-edge com
panies has chosen to partner with CyberArts.
Unparalleled Profit
Consider Gioco Digitale(GD), which led the Italian market with an outstanding 29
5.3 [Cm] turnover for the period from January to June, 2009 (source: Gambling Co
mpliance). Their decision to use CyberArts Foundation platform eliminated the ne
ed to pay network operators on the order of 12 to 30 percent of top-line revenue
s as well as up to 25 percent to affiliates to recruit new players. If GD had b
een built upon a White Label Network more than 30 Cm would have been paid out to
a network operator and on the order of 75 Cm to affiliates.
Traditional networks also restrict how operators manage and brand their poker ro
om leaving price the only way to differentiate. Operators typically use sign-up b
onuses, promotions, rake back, and other incentives to attract new players, a st
rategy that prompts even the most loyal players to jump rooms. Such cannibalism o
f the aggregate player base between operators invariably leads to spiraling eros
ion of profits that leave operators working hard to make everyone else money.
Market Share Leadership
Flexibility is essential to being able to capitalize upon market opportu
nities, and those operators who can both quickly bring up a site and make the ch
anges that offer an exceptional playing experience will dominate in their market
s. Rather than require a year and a half to launch as is common with traditiona
l gaming networks, CyberArts was able to establish Gioco Digitale s leading online
presence in a matter of months and help them to maintain it against fierce compet
ition.
CyberArts helped Gioco Digitale win the race to become the first legal poker room
in Italy, said Carlo D'Acunto, CTO at Gioco Digitale. The Foundation platform ha
s proven to be scalable and flexible, allowing us to rapidly add features and ne
twork partners, and giving us the stability to run the largest online poker tour
naments in Italy. Through every stage, CyberArts has been a friendly and respon
sive partner, meeting and anticipating our needs. Gioco Digitale has built shar
eholder value very rapidly; our collaboration with CyberArts has been instrument
al to this success.
Unsurpassed Regulatory Compliance
Part of the challenge early leaders like French lottery giant La Française des
Jeux face is that government regulations may quickly change in ways that signifi
cantly impact how gaming must be implemented. With the expected further liberal
ization of gaming regulations internationally, operators need a platform that ca
n quickly evolve to meet even the most stringent laws.Those who cannot prove tha
t their platform is compliant will experience down-time leading to irreparable l
osses in both revenue and long-term market share. To help La Francaise des Jeux
meet expected requirements of the upcoming French laws regulating online poker,
CyberArts added many special features, such as support for sanctions and the ab
ility to prohibit particular players from playing together. The flexible nature
of Foundation made it possible to fulfill every one of their requirements.
Regulations, however, go far beyond simply guaranteeing legal play and m
ay require operators to be able to maintain virtual international borders or pro
vide consistent revenue reporting. Foundation, with its modular architecture, o
ffers a powerful platform that can meet any combination of regulations, giving o
perators the options and control they need to continue to adapt to any set of re
gulations with confidence.
Another key regulatory issue involves tax revenues. When the activities from ma
ny operators are pooled together as they are in a traditional network, it become
s difficult to accurately assign revenues. Governments around the world includi
ng those of Canada, Italy, France, Sweden, Ireland, and the United States see on
line gaming as a significant source of new tax revenue prone to manipulation.
For both tax accountability and a host of other reasons, governments are requiri
ng servers to be locally based. Operators of traditional gaming networks face t
he problem that the servers hosting their players may be located anywhere in the
world. As such, they could find themselves out of business overnight if a loca
l server regulation is put in place.
Creating a poker site within the restrictions set out by the Italian government a
nd our own particular requirements could have been a nightmare! said Carlo Gualan
dri, CEO of Gioco Digitale. By choosing CyberArts, the process was extraordinari
ly smooth.
Operators who are going to be responsible for these regulations need to be in co
ntrol of their site, their brand, reporting, and their players, something they c
an t do when someone else manages their servers. Gaming sites built on Foundation
completely avoid this problem since operators are in control of their own serve
rs, making issues such as mitigating player identity questions, managing collusi
on, and accurately tracking revenue as required by regulations much easier to ad
dress.
Complete Customization
CyberArts enables operators to go beyond the traditional trappings of th
e online poker room. Operators are the ones who determine tournament schedules
and payouts, how loyalty programs are tiered, and when new games are rolled out
to maintain player interest. To achieve this level of customization requires mo
re control than is possible with a traditional gaming network.
We require a platform that is flexible, and allows for a lot of HTML within the r
oom so we can show different messaging to different types of users, said Jason Ke
llerman, CEO of Pureplay. On most rake sites a user is a user, whereas on our si
te, there are different levels of subscriptions and different classes of users t
o whom we want to show different messaging.
Operators also have unprecedented control of their brand with the abilit
y to customize the entire player experience from offering avatars to individual
coloring signature tournaments to supporting unique community features. The fle
xibility of Foundation also allows operators to introduce unique features such a
s rabbit hunting where players who have folded can see what cards would have been
dealt to them or Friend Finder which allows players to click on their friends nam
es and open any tournaments in which they are participating.
We wanted extensive customization for SpadeClub that only CyberArts could supply,
said Barry Shulman, CEO of Card Player Media. We needed a flexible, stable platf
orm backed by a world-class custom software development team.
Rapid Deployment
The ability to quickly recognize and capitalize upon the needs of a particular d
emographic is essential to gaining trust and loyalty across a wider range of pla
yers. The CyberArts software engineering staff is professional and responsive an
d they stay on top of issues, Marc Cousineau, CTO, Pureplay. They work alongside u
s to solve problems and improve the capabilities and features of our poker site.
Their knowledgeable services staff is available around the clock to assist wit
h deployment. We have several exciting new feature additions we are about to ro
ll out and the flexibility of the Foundation platform has allowed us to complete
these quickly.
Using the Foundation APIs, operators can add their own customizations or call up
on the talents of the CyberArts team. In the past, we were afraid to touch our c
ode, and we also didn t have as responsive a team as we have with the CyberArts en
gineers, said Pureplay s Kellerman. Over the course of two years, we made fewer cha
nges on the prior platform than we made in the first two month after switching t
o CyberArts. As Kellerman sums up Pureplay s relationship with CyberArts, When one
picks a software developer, there are some minimum requirements: 1) the software
has to work, be scalable, and be flexible. But at the end of the day you re inve
sting in a team of developers, and these guys are very good, very knowledgeable,
and when they make changes, they work.
Growing Markets
Poker, however, is by no means limited to personal computers. Operators can lev
erage the Foundation platform to offer a variety of server-based games, from pub
lic kiosks to networked slot video lottery terminals (VLT) to Facebook applicati
ons. Zest Networks, for example, has partnered with CyberArts to implement serv
er-based gaming. Not only will this eliminate onsite visits to update machines,
it allows Zest s partners to maximize revenue by dynamically changing games to ma
tch player demographics, serving up real-time player marketing, and easily imple
menting themed products and promotions for holidays and conventions.
We are pleased to be able to leverage CyberArts proven platform as they have a gr
eat track record in the Italian market. With their advanced Foundation platform
and Zest s innovative gaming hardware and games, I believe we will have the best
server-based gaming product on the market. Henrik Sandin, President of Zest Netwo
rks.
For more information, you can check on <a href="http://www.cyberarts.com" target
="blank"> games developer</a>.