Mims discusses mobile gambling with Rob Picard from Rush Street Interactive
Rob Picard serves as Director of Business Development for Rush Street Interactive. In his role, Rob is integral in commercial negotiations, vendor relations, partnerships, new market development, strategy and execution. Prior to joining RSI, Rob spent over a decade in the iGaming industry, co-founded and exited two start-up businesses in the space, served as Commercial Director of B2B Platform/Casino services for an international consultancy, and lead regulatory licensing initiatives across a number of European markets. Rob holds a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Stetson University, and has held Series 3, 6, 7 and 63 licenses from the NASD.
I spoke with Rob during an invitation only event for gaming executives in Atlantic City. Rob and I talked about the Bet on Sports America Conference in New York and the ICE in Boston that is scheduled for May. Rob kindly answered the following questions for Bettors Insider.
Mobile wagering is what the public wants. If you had to pick one thing, what makes for an outstanding mobile experience?
“Great question, and a timely one as well, as Rush Street Interactive just received Mobile Operator of the Year honors at last week’s EGR North American Awards in Atlantic City. I had the privilege of presenting at the East Coast Briefing earlier that day, and one of the topics of the presentation was about our mobile product. If I had to identify one thing necessary to deliver an outstanding mobile offering, I would point to the user experience. That might sound cliché, but if you are winning the user experience, it means you have a strong user interface, and are adding value at every opportunity. Whether that is streamlining the registration process to reduce friction, offering seamless payments both deposits and hassle-free withdrawals, transparent bonusing giving the player more control, and vitally important is the customer care team. If my answer was not user experience, I would have pointed to these items as my next choices. On the product side, we took a mobile first approach with a commitment to ensuring all of the features and functionalities of our desktop product were also available on mobile, plus added some mobile specific ones. We feel our mobile first approach has been validated by the fact that our mobile user base vastly increased over the past year with mobile penetration ending 2018 at 82% across all gaming verticals, and a whopping 90% for Sportsbook since its inception. As the owners, operators and developers of our iGaming platform and front-ends, we strive to innovate, test and learn, and constantly improve the quality of our user experiences.”
Sports Betting is just a natural part of the landscape in Nevada and the UK with sports books and betting parlors. Do you see it transcending with the same look regionally?
“I think certainly you’re going to see a lot of similarities. Vegas has a lot to offer, and the Sportsbooks ranging from Cosmo, to Wynn, to the Venetian are all amazingly beautiful destinations. As you are well aware, in December, Rush Street launched retail sportsbooks at the SugarHouse in Philly and Rivers in Pittsburgh; and we’re gearing up for Rivers Schenectady (NY). While “temporary” in the sense that more grand/permanent amenities are in the works, these sportsbooks are vibrant, localized, and performing well. In fact, in March 2019, they are the #1 and #2 top revenue generating sportsbooks in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We’re always working on ways to improve the user experience, with the biggest differentiator that I see coming down the pike being a true omni-channel and integrated sportsbook experience that fully aligns cross-marketing between online and land-based properties and also between different game types & amenities within land-based casino. Omni-channel has been a buzzword for a long time, but we’re really going to see what it means in the near future when our partners’ land-based sportsbook players will earn loyalty and promotions based on rated play and use an account-based solution when visiting the land-based property. As a company that designs all of its products from the perspective of a land-based casino operator, Rush Street Interactive is working hand-in-hand with our land-based partners to enable the convergence of the online and land-based casino experiences. This is not a one-way street trying to funnel land-based customer, to an online brand. While separate entities, we’re on the same team, and aligned around the same goals. This is a philosophy of ours whether it is an arms-length supplier agreement with our sister casinos; or whether it is a B2B supplier opportunity in a State where we do not currently have market access.”
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