JT Groups clear vision on a rapidly changing eGaming industry
In an interview I recently had with Glyn Harris and Jon Stuckey of JT Group Ltd (JT), I had the pleasure of discussing JT’s strategy which has been developed by the company to stay on top of the trends in a dynamic and rapidly changing eGaming industry.
The evolving online gambling industry continues to create challenges for eGaming companies. In general, companies have to keep up with new technologies and innovations in order to stay ahead of the competition. In addition to that, companies are operating in an industry characterised by many diverse regulatory frameworks, while the pace of consolidation in the sector is accelerating.
Luckily for these eGaming companies, the industry, particularly operators, are blessed with service providers like JT that work around the clock to create strategies and solutions to simplify businesses within the industry, especially those new to the market.
Rapid changes in the global eGaming landscape.
What started out as an unregulated industry two decades ago, is now characterised by diverse regulatory frameworks. The majority of the operators have a strong desire to expand into the regulated markets; being challenged to meet the strict protocols of a range of international regulatory bodies.
The European market has been in the spotlight for a long time, but European eGaming companies are now looking for a way to push gaming content into Asia or further afield, just like Asian casino operators would like to see their content becoming available within the European online gambling industry.
Whilst complicated by multi-jurisdictional licensing, the market is also subject to a recent wave of consolidation, mergers and acquisitions, causing the market’s landscape to change often and drastically. During the past decade, many of the eGaming industry’s first arrivals have grown into global giants and in the past several years, these industry heavyweights have combined their operations in an attempt to effectively deal with the many challenges the industry has posed to them.
This trend looks to continue, and many of the smaller companies are being bought out by the industry heavyweights; helping them to strengthen their position in the iGaming market even more.
Gazing into the crystal ball.
Nobody needs a crystal ball to predict an increase in mergers and acquisitions in the eGaming industry. However, Glyn Harris and Jon Stuckey of JT expressed their concerns about the gambling industry and its future M&A activity. They are seeing a lot of new start-ups entering the market with some great products and services but, according to Harris and Stuckey, it’s likely that at some point, these start-ups will find themselves having difficulties with the many challenges the eGaming sector is throwing at them. Monitored by the global giants, they will be offered an easy way out, resulting in yet another merger or acquisition.
Risky developments indeed and they are predicting that the industry, in two or three years, could consist of a consortium of five or six bigger companies swallowing up the entire market. According to Harris, these ‘super online casinos’ will have superpowers thanks to the consolidation, although it’s hard to predict how this will truly affect the market.
Meanwhile, the global eGaming market expands continuously and the same goes for the ever-increasing number of re-regulated eGaming markets forcing companies to apply for licenses in multiple jurisdictions.
JT prepared for the future of eGaming.
The rapidly changing eGaming landscape has resulted in operators requesting global solutions; allowing them to shift their gaming content into new re-regulated markets globally. Historically, this would have required operators to move their server hardware and technology into the desired jurisdiction.
Being determined to simplify this particular process and serve their existing customers, as well as future customers, JT introduced their own Gaming Cloud technology allowing operators to distribute their gaming content globally without the need to move their servers into new jurisdictions.
JT learned early in the trend that customers prefer to deal with one partner for all their jurisdictional needs providing both simplicity and cost effective solutions. Through this global approach, JT can deliver extra value to the customer from both a cost and exceptional customer service standpoint, from a full team of industry experts. Thanks to the introduction of JT’s Cloud Platform, global operators can now deal with just one single partner for all of their needs.
When it comes to the eGaming industry’s consolidation efforts, JT takes pride in its support of start-ups allowing them to leverage our expertise in order to help them survive and prosper. They offer their flexible services to start-ups solely with the aim of keeping their costs and overheads down in order to get them off to a strong start. The start-ups rightly believe in their business and product, constantly resisting the temptation to sell up to the bigger companies and JT works with them to support their journey from a SME to perhaps one of the heavyweight companies of the future.
Also good to know is that amongst their long list of industry accreditations, JT’s Gaming Cloud Platform has been approved by both the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and the Jersey Gambling Commission.
The company has been building data centre alliance partnerships around the world, in order to offer customers data centre services in Malta, Gibraltar, Canada, Singapore, as well as the Channel Islands, with more jurisdictions due to be added throughout 2017.
For more information on how JT’s eGaming specialists can help your business grow, visit;
Linkedin: JT group Ltd Twitter: jt_business
