Mr. Chris Sheffield has been Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Interactive Gaming at Penn National Gaming Inc. since January 2015. Mr. Sheffield is responsible for setting the Company’s strategy as it prepares for the launch of online gaming initiatives across its portfolio at Penn National Gaming.
1). What is your role at Penn National Gaming? What did you do prior to this position?
"My role is Managing Director / Senior Vice President
i-Gaming at Penn which is a new role created this year . Previously I was managing Director of digital
for Betfred in the UK who are a very large betting and gaming business which
generates over $ 15 Bn in revenue per year from retail and online
operations. Prior to Betfred, I had an
entrepreneurial career and most notably developed Million-2-1 into the largest
mobile gambling business in the UK which was eventually acquired by
International game Technology (IGT)."
2). Tell the readers the things in the I Gaming platform that you feel could be implemented here?
"The UK is the World’s most advanced online gambling
marketplace and every form of gaming and gambling online for real money is
legal and regulated. This creates a huge
amount of tax revenue for Government,
tens of thousands of jobs,
consumer protection for players and drives innovation as operators race
to deliver the next great product.
Sports betting is also legal via all channels, and nowadays in the UK mobile and betting “In
Play” as the action happens is the most popular betting activity with $
billions wagered every weekend on soccer, horse racing and other sports. I see no reason why a similar model could not
be implemented across North America and consumers here given the chance to
wager legally rather than off-shore with all of the protection and additional
tax revenues a regulated model would generate."
3). What would work best in the perfect I Gaming regulatory
format? A federal structure or the
current state by state initiative.
"From an operator’s standpoint, of course a federal position would work best
as would be one size fits all and a lot easier to support from a single
infrastructure. However, given land based gaming businesses are
regulated state by state, this is more likely the way things will happen with
each state being able to determine its own path and regulations."
4). In Europe, what games are the most popular in the I
Gaming environment? What are the
demographics of the players?
"In the UK, sports betting is huge but it is quite a
low margin and very competitive business.
The most commercial aspect of i-gaming is casino games (slots, roulette,
blackjack e.t.c.), live dealer casino
games, virtual sports, bingo and poker
which is currently in decline. The
customer demographic depends very much on the brand and product and typically a
sport-book operator would appeal more to the younger male whilst gaming / bingo
focused would appeal more to the older female type audience. However,
mobile gaming now has overtaken the PC and other devices and this is
skewing to a younger more tech savvy customer who is able to play games or
wager from anywhere."
5). Online Gaming does have fears associated with it. The two that immediately come to mind are cannibalization of brick and mortar casinos and an up surge of compulsive gambling. Are these concerns valid?
"As can be seen from Europe, there appears to be very little cannibalization from bricks and mortar to IGaming and the two channels can be used to help customers become more loyal to a single brand and increase lifetime value and wallet share. This is also being seen in New jersey with operators such as Golden Nugget being able to report a very positive impact on land based customers visitation and spend since the advent of IGaming in the State."
"I would also point to Europe regards compulsive gambling and again there is no evidence that there is a link between increased gambling problems and new technology. At the end of the day, technology allows the implementation of better controls to protect the customer than the land based environment."
6). Fantasy Sports Betting is the talk of the US. What would it take to bring Online Gaming to this level?
"The biggest challenge that igaming faces is that it is not currently legal in most states whilst fantasy sports for the time being is allowedin most states across the country. iGaming needs to prove volume and scale in New Jersey which is improving month by month and issues such as banking (high decline rates for transaction) need to be resolved. Once the model is proven I am sure other States will introduce bills to legalize igaming as a way to raise tax revenue, protect the consumer and bring illegal offshore business back to the US."
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