Scalability and delivering a ‘personal touch’ to your applications are among the key challenges for betting and gaming companies. But according to Rami Avital, VP of R&D at Delasport, developers must get these two components right if they want to remain competitive.

In an interview with SBC, discussions began by looking at Avital’s previous experience in research and development, where he worked across numerous different sectors before joining the iGaming industry in 2009.

He said: “So I started out as a developer with a few startup companies in Israel, before then moving onto bigger companies like Comverse, etc. But my first introduction to online gaming was with a company called Mansion.

“I worked there for approximately 11 years where I became the Director of R&D, and then the Managing Director of the Bulgarian branch. And then, about two years ago, I joined Delasport and took on the challenge to grow with this company and take it to the next level.”

One of the key focus points for the interview was the top trends for R&D as a whole, and for Avital, scalability was one of the core trends which he believes companies must get right if they want to remain competitive.

“Scalability is something that is incredibly important,” he added. As the market continues to grow, new channels begin to emerge. That then creates more traffic, more data, especially for the big players in the industry who are trying to penetrate new markets.

“But from a technology point of view, it’s a big challenge. How can we handle more data, more traffic and keep the high performance and good service to the players? To solve this, we have migrated to microservices and utilised cloud-based applications because player demands are not decreasing, but increasing, and players are becoming more demanding for high performance.

Avital continued: “If you’re not fast enough, or the user experience isn’t top notch, players will quickly go elsewhere. So you need to be able to meet the demands of traffic, and always look at creating a better experience. But this is a challenge.”

The second trend which was highlighted is personalisation, something which Avital highlighted as being a fundamental aspect of delivering a stand-out experience for players.

“This industry is one which can no longer apply a one-size-fits-all approach. You need to tailor the user experience for each of your players. You need to learn their habits, get to know them, and adapt the application for each user.

“At Delasport, for example, we’re dealing with sports. So we look at what sports each player likes, what leagues they enjoy, what team is their favourite. We also consider what time of day each specific player likes to log in, their preferred channel of communications too.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about creating something which is tailored to each individual user so that they can feel special. It’s about giving that personal touch.”

Watch the full interview HERE