MENTOR

38 APRIL 2013

Responsible gaming is always at theforefront of the gaming industry butmentor aims to put an extra level in toallow players to make their own choices;mentor basically acts as a wake-up call if

problem behaviour traits become apparent in play,asking the player if they want to carry on and usingimagery and information to help the playerunderstand their choices. mentor also providesoperators with a lot of useful insights into playerbehaviour which in turn can be used to improveplayer experience.

Michael Auer explains…

Casino International: What does neccton do?Michael Auer: We specialise in business

intelligence, customer relationship management andbig data analysis, you could say. So we supportcompanies when it comes to managing their data, toretrieving insights about customers from their data.One aspect of our business is gaming, so we supportgaming companies when it comes to improving theircustomer experience.

A couple of years ago we stumbled across the fieldof responsible gaming, and as a result developed asoftware called mentor, which can be used by eitheronline gaming companies or companies which makeuse of player cards. The software supports andencourages players to make healthy gaming decisionsand helps them to avoid risk or problem gambling.

CI: So it helps players to make a choice?MA: Yes, it does. Information is provided to the

player visually as well as numerically. Additionally thesystem analyses player behaviours and as soon as itdetects significant changes, like someone increasingtheir stakes, increasing playing time or switching to ariskier game, the software provides personalisedmessages to the players telling the this informationand asking, for example, “Are you sure you’re notplaying for longer than you originally intended to?”The player then has tools to investigate their

gambling behaviour. The system does not excludeplayers, it simply provides information; it does notidentify problem gamblers in a clinical way, it isentirely based on the concept of informed playerchoice. This means that providing information helpsplayers to stay healthy or make a change if they seethey might be on the way to becoming a risk gambler.We make use of the concept of MotivationalInterviewing which has proven to be successfulmodifying gambling behaviour.

CI: You did a study with Professor MarkGriffiths, Director of the International GamingResearch Unit at Nottingham Trent University inthe UK – tell us about that.

MA: The study started in 2008, and I met ProfessorMark Griffiths at a conference. We decided to explorean idea with an arrangement where we had theresources from a technical point of view, and he is theexpert in problem gambling and many other relatedbehavioural fields. He provided us with what weshould do in terms of a framework, and we providedthe technical expertise. I have been working on myPh.D with him and have published papers with Marktoo.

To us it’s very important that mentor is based on a

mentorchanging the way we play?Michael Auer, Business Unit Manager of Responsible Gaming atneccton, talks to Casino International about mentor, a system to helpplayers make their own informed choices concerning their gambling

p40-41 mentor:Layout 1 04/04/2013 09:06 Page 34

MENTOR

APRIL 2013 39

scientific foundation and is not just analysing data;the way it analyses, and presents information to theplayer numerically or visually, the message it sends tothe player, is all based on scientific knowledge.Previous studies and other tools were and are oftenimprecise. We work on publications that show ourapproach is working; one publication is about theeffect of voluntary limits on gambling behaviour. Wedid one analysis with the data from AustrianLotteries, who are the only internet gaming operatorin Austria. In return for using our software, we usedtheir data to publish scientific papers. We discoveredthat if players choose to set voluntary limits,regarding their cash in amounts, or their playingtime, it had a lot of positive long-term effects on theirgambling behaviour. If you’re a high-intensitygambler and you choose to limit yourself, of courseyou might choose to continue to play the same way asbefore, but we have found this is largely not the case,and it has had an effect on the kind of games thesepeople play as well. For example, poker players mightspend a longer time playing but not spend so muchmoney because their bets are quite low; but if thetime were to be a problem, and they decided to limittheir own time, it has a positive effect on their futuregambling behaviour.

In another paper we have just submitted for review,we have investigated the effects of a pop-up messagewhich appears after a player has been on a slotmachine for a certain time. The findings until nowhave been quite ambivalent; most of the findings thathave been published so far are based on experimentalstudies, so none of the researchers have had access tothe wealth of data that we have. What we found is the

pop-up message does have a significant effect so asignificant number of player do stop after receivingthe message, compared to the period of time whenthe pop-up message was not in use for that operator.

CI: So mentor could be used with a player-tracking system in a land-based casino or with anyonline casino?

MA: Any online casino could immediately make useof such a system because an online casino would haveto track player behaviour anyway; land-based casinoscan only use the system if they have player tracking inplace, otherwise the statistics for the individualplayer would not be available for the system toanalyse. Another important aspect is that mentor canand should be used by operators to gain moreinsights into their player’s behavior. This knowledgecan then be used to improve player experience. Fromthat point of view the system can also be viewed as aCustomer Relationship Management (CRM)framework. And many jurisdictions, e.g. Germany,clearly describe that operators have to activelyanalyze their players. With mentor all thatinformation is easily accessible. Casinos learn whichplayers tend to play riskier and also how to advicethose players appropriately and which actions to take.

www.neccton.com

www.neccton.com/en/home-mentor-en.html

Or contact: m.auer@neccton.com

p40-41 mentor:Layout 1 04/04/2013 09:06 Page 35