A few weeks back, AI and ML personalization software provider Epoxy.ai made the announcement that it would debut its SmartPicks solution with betParx.
By using SmartPicks, betParx will draw upon both AI and MLA to analyze betting trends, user preferences and bet popularity to create “individualized” betting offers for players.
Following on from the partnership with betParx, Epoxy.ai Co-Founder and President Jason Angelides sat down with SBC Americas to highlight the increasingly important role that AI can play in bet personalization before sharing his views on why bespoke bet suggestions “are going to play a major part in creating meaningful differentiation over the next five years”.
SBC Americas: Congratulations on the launch of SmartPicks with betParx! Can you give our readers a quick overview of the industry’s first 1-to-1 AI-powered betting offering?
JA: Thank you! I think the best way to describe what we are doing is to use analogies from other verticals. In most other technology verticals, 1-to-1 AI-based personalization is commonplace – and we’re now bringing that to betting. Just think about how Netflix or Amazon Prime Video automatically create rows of recommendations around the programs they think you specifically would be interested in. This creates a much better user experience and keeps the customer from having to scroll through mountains of irrelevant content to get to what they are looking for.
So, we’re taking that same personalization, and making Epoxy.ai the first to do the same thing for the gaming and betting industry. Our AI helps understand what the users’ preferences are, and makes it far easier for them to instantly get the content and offers they want. This in turn creates a happier user who is less likely to go to another app, as well as greatly boosting engagement and revenue, as we’re the only technology company out there who can deliver bets directly tailored to each player.
Of course, personalization is a huge opportunity for global operators, as ease of use is one of the primary factors customers consider in deciding what betting application to use. The industry backing we’re seeing for what we offer has been absolutely fantastic, and we’ve got some very big-name brands to announce soon enough!
SBC Americas: Diving into the tech, SmartPicks’ recommendations platform creates individualized offers from a series of dynamically generated micro segments – what factors are these based on?
JA: We come from a long background of building personalized application experiences across a variety of industries. The majority of companies that are trying to bring personalization to the gaming industry are from the industry, which, as a result means they only consider a limited set of variables when analyzing a user base. I believe we have a real edge in that the insight and experience we bring is from the outside world, and thus – means we can offer a truly fresh perspective when it comes to what’s on offer.
In short, the Epoxy.ai system uses a very diverse set of data to help direct the user to the things they are most interested in. We actually use over 175 different variables to create literally a limitless set of what we call “micro segments”, which are essentially groups of content that can be assigned to individuals and then mapped to the things they are most interested in. We do all of this anonymously and therefore don’t retain one single piece of the end user’s personal information, we’ve got every base covered to make this a fantastic product, and the feedback we’ve seen so far, has been very impressive.
SBC Americas: How crucial do you see AI-based personalization being to stand out from the crowd in not just the US market, but also globally?
JA: I think the easiest way to look at this is when you consider what applications you prefer using, and why? It’s most likely ones that give a personalized experience, and this will be driven by AI.
A recent McKinsey study revealed that “seventy-one percent of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions. And seventy-six percent get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.” Organizations that use AI based personalization will grow faster and significantly differentiate themselves from their competitors – and that’s what we’re here to do.
Personalization drives performance and better customer outcomes, our pitch is that we can truly drive engagement and incremental revenue. The use-case is easy to see – in similar verticals, companies that grow faster drive 40 percent more of their revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts.
SBC Americas: Following on from that – do you see this as the future of betting and a real way to drive better operator margins?
JA: Absolutely. Driving better margins is the key metric for the gaming industry, but a lot of the effort around driving higher margins is non-scientific and, in many cases, a manual process. You are seeing it in the US now with the betting operators pushing parlays vs singles but, in most cases, there is a group of people behind the curtain manually creating those parlays.
With our AI technology we can automatically generate parlays specifically for the end user and tune the AI to drive the key metrics these businesses are looking for; CLV, profitability and retention. It’s this type of innovation that will drive profitability across the segment.
SBC Americas: Last but not least, given Epoxy.ai is at the forefront of AI and ML-based engagement in the US market – how quickly do you see this tech becoming truly widespread?
JA: AI and ML are hard to get properly right – and it is certainly not a core competency for the operator community. Of course, we’re here to change that. Although, that being said – we are seeing leading companies in this space already have personalization on their roadmaps and are actively looking for ways to bring the benefits to their customers.
I have no doubt that a large part of the answer is tied to companies like ours. Our mission is to make these advanced technologies available for gaming operators, dramatically accelerating their time to market.
The data speaks for itself, and from the results we have seen over and over in other industries and now are seeing in the gaming industry AI and ML driven personalization are going to play a major part in creating meaningful differentiation over the next five years.
