This is one article that anyone interested in learning the ins and outs of the Asian online gambling market should not miss. 

Gambling911:  U.S. online gaming operators have been struggling for years to reach the Asian market. Do you have any insight into why they have, for the most part, failed?  Is it just a software issue, or is it a combination of technological and cultural differences?

JC:  With no doubt to me, there are combinations of many issues.  Let me just pin point a few major ones to share my view:

1)     Cultural Difference – Asian players demand more customer attention and more efficient gaming process.  Most of the existing online gaming players were traditional land based casino players.  They are not very sophisticated and not familiar with either working or playing on computers.  They need lots of support to get familiar with online playing environment.  What I mean by “efficient gaming process” is that most of the Asian players take gaming more as gambling.  They want quick and direct result from every game which makes “Baccarat” always the most popular casino game in Asia.

2)     Software and Technology – It is a very important of the business.  Lots of games and playing behaviors are very different in Asia compare to the rest of the world.  In general, Asian players take gaming very seriously and they expect the websites or the software to be presented very seriously as well.  The requirement of the software goes beyond just the game itself.  They expect to have all the land based playing experience integrated to the software.  

3)     Localization (not translation) – Most of the operators who failed in the Asian markets usually made 2 obvious mistakes.  Mistake #1, they started to advertise or promote their websites as soon as the websites are translated to the local languages with no customization.  For example, how can operations expect to get business from offering American Football or slot machine games only?  Mistake #2, they don’t even equip with local payment mechanisms on both fund-in and fund-out. 

Gambling911:  Wow, these simple, yet key points really hammer home your expertise in this market.  Cultural differences are very difficult to understand and integrate into a website.  You have brought up several very interesting issues – all of which relate in some way to culture.  The payment mechanisms is probably the most intriguing.  In all likelihood, U.S. operators have not considered the importance of incorporating the payment processing methods native to other cultures.

Gambling911:  Many of the largest online casino operators have paid tens of thousands of dollars to have their existing websites translated into various Asian languages.  This clearly has not helped them increase their presence in Asia.  Can you explain why simply translating a website is not sufficient?

 JC:  A translated website makes the local people understand what the website is trying to offer.  If the offering products are not well presented or not even fit in to the local markets, it is creating a negative impression of telling the players this website is far from ready for business.  

Gambling911: Does an entity need to have Asian customer support representatives in order to provide service for an Asian casino?  How is the language barrier overcome?

JC:  Yes, local customer support is a MUST to have.  It helps a great deal in converting players and retains them as long term customers.  Operators should consider at least hire part time staff to offer customer support in assisting players to sign-up, make deposit, withdraw payment, and resolve gaming problems.

Gambling911:  You mention having local customer support as a "must have" to succeed in the Asian market.  How does an operator with their main offices in Costa Rica, England, Australia, etc. achieve this?  Is there a way to outsource the customer support from the "Asian-centric" portion of their sites?

JC:  Yes, Macom Communications works with several customer supporting service centers in Asia to provide total customer support outsourcing solution to operators.  This is a very common practice for operators do not have any in house local language support.

Gambling911:  Asian culture differs greatly from Western culture.  Many cite these cultural differences as the main reason U.S. casinos have failed in Asia.  Is this true?  Can you explain some of these cultural differences and what these operators have been doing wrong?

JC:  Yes, it is always true.  You simply can’t use the American business practice or gaming culture to apply to rest of the world.  It simply doesn’t work especially when players have many choices.

-         Translation not localization

-         No effective payment mechanism

-         No local language customer support

-         Not focus in offering local gaming products

-         Expect players will learn to play in a new website environment

-         Do not have a long term business development plan of 2 years plus

-         Lack of commitment

Gambling911:  The "Asian Market" seems to be lumped together as one market, when in reality it consists of numerous countries with widely varied cultures and different views on online gaming.  How does Entertasia's suite of products and services address these differences? 

 JC:  All the products we are offering from Entertasia are built to satisfy Asian players by retaining all the most important ingredients from the land based casino playing experience.  When we are talking about the Asian Market, it represents a market with lots of different cultures and languages which is very much like when we talk about European Market.  Even with lots of languages and cultures combined, the Asian Market as a region does share one general characteristic when it comes to online gaming.  Asian players demand for realistic gaming experience.  That is the reason all products offered by Entertasia are Real Live Dealer games.  

Gambling911:  You offer a variety of packages that cater to every level of online gaming operator.  From someone just entering the market to a veteran operator, Entertasia's products cover everything from licensing and set-up to software installation and support.  Do you also offer marketing services that help a newbie break into the Asian market?

JC:  YES, under the same group of companies, Macom Communications are our marketing arm.  We helped many operators successfully built their online businesses in Asia, names like Bet365, Victor Chandler, Easybets, all are our happy customers.  And we expect more coming in recent months.  To be successful and gain a market place in Asia, operators must be committed in a long term business development plan.  It is normal to spend over US$1M on advertising in first year launching and the realistic business target is aiming to breakeven.  Profit usually comes after the 1^st year launch. 

Gambling911:  The Entertasia casino offers games tailored to the Asian customer.  Is it possible for an operator to integrate this casino with their existing software to provide a range of games that appeals to a worldwide market? 

JC:  YES, the casino games are built to attract Asian players but it can be used by worldwide operators.  We have work with many International operators in the past adding (integrating) Entertasia casino products on their existing product range or platform.  There are operators using our products just for the Asian business facing and others are offering Entertasia casino products to their worldwide customers as well.  Besides, offering live dealer Baccarat, we also have International Roulette, Sic-Bo, and Blackjack.   It is a complete suite of live dealer casino games.

Gambling911:  While you already have a very comprehensive product offering, you no doubt have a lot of new products in the pipeline.  Can you give us a sneak peak at any of these?

JC:  YES, we have an IT development team of one hundred full time staffs.  We launch 2-3 new games on every quarter.  Game we recently launched is web based (no download) version of Live Baccarat.  We will be launching the world’s 1st 14 seats interactive Baccarat Games with card peeking features, a new exciting creation of Blackjack, also some P2P games on 4^th quarter this year.

Gambling911:  You mention "live dealers" as a key factor of your software suite's success.  Can you explain this feature in more detail?  Are there actually real people interacting with people in a web-cam fashion?

JC:  Using “live dealers” to replace RNG casino solution is to increasing a more close to real casino table gaming experience.  All actions in the “live dealers” games are real time directly broadcast from our studio.  In order to easily convince all players the web casting is real time, we hanged a LCD TV on the wall showing live TV programs.  Between players, most of games we provided are multiple players.  Players can be seated and play on the same table and interact with each others.  The whole purpose is to make the gaming experience as real as possible.

Gambling911:  You clearly have a lot of experience in this area - how did you get this experience? 

JC:  We started very early in the industry as a marketing company specialized in serving the Asian online gaming markets back in 2000.  Between the years, we built the largest gaming information portal www.g-win.com back in 2002.  We were also the founder of an online payment gateway in Asia which later the company sold to Neteller in 2004.  Since 2005, we put our major focus in building the software platform to meet the demand of Asian gaming players.  All of those ingredients combined, we are now becoming the leading gaming hub in the Asian markets.   Over the past years, we helped many International blue chip gaming companies successfully penetrated into the Asian markets.

Gambling911:  Will you have a presence at any of the upcoming online gaming conferences?  Where can online operators get a chance to meet with you in person and experience your software firsthand?

JC:  I will be attending EIG in Barcelona in 1^st week of October 2007.  Operators interested meeting with me or like further information on our software platform or our marketing services can make direct contact with us with these emails:  info@entertasia.com   mkt@macom.com.mo.  I am very happy to arrange time for meetings in Barcelona or they are very welcome to be my guests in Macau (Alameda Dr. Carlos D' Assumpcao nos. 180, Edf. Tong Nam Ah Central Comercio, 9 Andar J, Macau).    Our company websites:  www.entertasia.com   www.macom.com.mo 

Gambling911 is thrilled to welcome this new sponsor to the site.  Entertasia offers an easily implemented, long awaited solution to all operators looking to successfully break into the Asian market.

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Kira Wissman, Gambling911.com

Originally published September 13, 2007 10:08 pm ET