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If you follow the performance of iGaming companies on the stock market, you’ll know that Evolution Gaming has had a few ups and downs recently. There are plenty of bright spots, not least the continued growth of the US market, but there are some challenges too, with unregulated and unlicensed platforms a particular concern.
Artificial intelligence, too, is both an opportunity and a threat. The opportunity comes from being able to streamline the business, doing less with more, so to speak, whereas the threat comes from other companies using AI to compete with Evolution in its core business – live dealer casino games.
Evolution, as we know, is the global leader in that market, supplying major brands like DraftKings Casino, as well as many more around the world. Some estimates suggest it operates around two-thirds of all live dealer tables online. It didn’t invent the concept of live dealer gaming on its own, but it certainly pioneered it.
Evolution has no plans for AI croupiers
Could we soon see an era where Evolution replaces its 1000s of croupiers with AI avatars? According to Evolution, that’s a firm no. The company's Chief Product Officer was recently asked about it in an interview and claimed that the brand has no plans to do so. Moreover, he also claimed that he envisaged anyone trying to reinvent live dealer casino with AI would fail.
That is commendable. It’s not a case of being against AI for the sake of it; rather, it’s about what live dealer gaming is supposed to represent – authenticity and realism. The whole point of this style of gaming is to provide the player with an authentic casino experience from their own home. The whole point of the exercise is that you are playing with another human, interacting while they are drawing the cards, spinning the roulette wheel, and so on.
iGaming sector strives for realism
Indeed, it all goes back to the foundations of the iGaming industry in the 1990s. Back then, the idea was that they could build an online sector that offers everything you would find in a “real” casino, and that goal was arguably met when Evolution and others started building the live dealer studios and technology to allow players to play with real croupiers. Bringing AI in would feel like a step back.
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Yes, some will argue that AI will soon be so adept at mimicking humans that we won’t mind, yet that also misses the point. The human aspect remains the attraction in and of itself. Perhaps some players would be happy playing with a non-human croupier, but we suspect that they are in the minority. And we would be fairly certain that Evolution has done its research on this too.
Of course, we can’t completely dismiss the role of AI, and it would be foolish to rule out some sort of AI revolution at the casino. Global stock markets have made a huge bet that AI is going to permeate every industry. But for now, the biggest name in live dealer gaming is saying that live dealer games are something akin to chatting to customer service agents online – sometimes you just want a human on the other end.
