The Games Ecosphere

As regulation progresses, our industry is experiencing the rise of new business models that shape its future. On the one hand, we see demand for localising production processes and adapting to the regulatory conditions of the taxation system, responsible gaming controls and the geolocation methods that confine game play within national and state borders.   
  On the other hand, we need to seek diverse business models that focus on the customer and offer an omni-channel user experience. Products and services combine to support new offerings and are dependent on technology, process optimisation, creative gaming design, and innovative branding, marketing and customer life cycle optimisation best practices.

Product perspective

When deciding our market positioning, it is essential to ask ourselves whether our offer to the end customer is a product, a service, or both. The way each operator approaches this to a large extent defines their success. The product perspective (‘better games’, ‘best odds’, ‘highest jackpot’) is certainly important for an online operator or game supplier, yet the most successful operators aren’t necessarily the ones with the better games, best odds or highest jackpots.
  Equally important are service aspects like security, customer support and VIP management. As different gaming segments converge, operators and suppliers realise the importance of combining product and service aspects so that games which are made available to the players are packaged with a value proposition that defines the user experience and creates a long-lasting relationship.
  We define all aspects that surround the game and its mechanics as the ‘Games Ecosphere’, focusing on player behaviour and preferences. The primary consumption product is the game itself but differentiation comes to a large extent through the design, mechanics, and delivery method of the surrounding Games Ecosphere, which targets customer loyalty as a key strategic business goal. In effect, emphasis is placed on creating a Universal Gaming Experience (UGE) for customers; this is what ultimately defines successful online gaming operations.
   The Games Ecosphere is strongly manifested in established land-based operations, such as the lotteries and casino operators that are now faced with an ever-increasing demand to extend their game play into the virtual and digital world. Lottery games have been around for centuries in some cases, but they were not built to be offered across multiple channels. However, reality has changed and consumers live in a world of ‘blended reality’ where the virtual is physical and the physical is virtual, thus creating several moments in which they continuously experience the service offered by an operator.

User perspective

Given this extreme mobility and connectivity, consumers are constantly creating and managing information streams and they expect us to remember how they have been connecting with us across various channels. They expect a holistic and consistent experience to be provided to them, not to a device. This is where our Games Ecosphere comes into play; enabled by our technology, it is built to suit federal and central requirements to support a UGE with the player across all channels relevant to them and to enable service personalisation at all stages.


GEORGE ZENZEFILIS, general director of INTRALOT Interactive, leads the exciting developments in interactive gaming of the INTRALOT Group that arise for lotteries and large scale operators. Prior to joining INTRALOT in 2008, he held senior management positions in information technology & telecommunications, oil & gas and transport & logistics industries.