iGaming Industry Reps - How is Covid-19 affecting your day-to-day work?

[pereblue]

Covid-19 affects us all in some way, both personally and professionally. It would be interesting to collect in this thread how workers in the iGaming sector are being affected.

• Are you working remotely?
• What difficulties are you encountering in your day to day?
• How do you think this pandemic will affect the sector?
• ....

Let's open a debate where day by day we can see how all this global situation is impacting the iGaming industry.

 

[L&L-Jan]

I'm working from the office, people get the option to work remote so it's pretty quiet here. It does give me the chance to get rid off tasks/requests/activities that otherwise would have been forgotten
The downside is collaboration, yes there are all kind of solutions available, but a 1 on 1 chat is sometimes more effective. Ongoing training for support by supervisors is also harder to de remotely. Basically a lot of simple stuff takes more time atm.

Casino, Bingo and lottery will see increase in activity. Sports will basically go to nearly 0. The longer the pandemic takes, the more it will have a negative effect on any industry.

 

[Oshi Casino]

hi, working from home office, a lot of issues and trouble in normal life but what does not destroy us makes us stronger. I try to make the best out of it but as your team @LadyJelena and @Casinomeister know I am more a real life person and I miss to meet people at a restaurant or bar for normal life chats. hope everyone of this community is doing good and is at good health, best regards lars

 

[Retired IncomeNetwork Rep]

Hi,
I'm currently working from home, well trying to work from home, as the whole family been put into isolation after my daughter developed a cough and fever on Monday. At the present moment all our staff have been told to work from home regardless, based on the latest UK government advice.

Obviously there are certain issues as working from home does have an impact on certain systems I can view etc. based on them only being accessible from the office IP.

The main issue is the practicality, trying to work, along with my wife who has also been told to work from home while entertaining an 11 and 3 year old who are now off nursery and school until further notice.

While the 11 year old can entertain herself with tik tok and other rubbish I have no idea about, our 3 year old doesn't really understand that "Daddy real needs to get this report done," and she really has no Skype etiquette whatsoever, anybody that has called me has had a rendition of a Frozen song in the background.

But at the end of the day it's for the greater good, though at the minute the light at the end of the tunnel could be weeks if not months away!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!

 

[Casinomeister]

For loads of people - working from home can be tough. It takes a lot of self discipline to manage time and resources. For folks that have been working in an office for a number of years - they may find this daunting. And especially those with young families - you have a three year old on your lap and need to make a conference call.

Then there is the stress of the unknown - those with jobs that are focused primarily on sports are going to have to be inventive to get through this - keeping in mind this is temporary.

At Casinomeister, our office is the Internet and we are spread out across the globe. It's the home life that may start to get a bit stressy with kids around.

 

[Andreasmegalotto]

I'm heading the Affiliate Department of megalotto.com and we are now enjoying the benefit of working from home.

What I realised is, that I end up working much more. So instead of doing my 40 hours per week I am doing currently about 60-70 hours. But not sure if this is CoVi related or the fact of our website being 2 weeks live and the massive workload

 

[Maja Branders Partners]

Hi Guys,

@Steven Dawson Keep on keeping on and Frozen song isn't that bad, your kid is great
I was all into opera when I was her age and I thought if I practice I will make it

Since this Monday we as well started working from home and I think we are doing great as a team.
I have to say that I've missed home office as I used to work from my apartment for years, but with a difference of grabbing a coffee or a beer after work in the bar next door...

In total I can't complain, no kids, no pets only a boyfriend (who sometimes counts for both )

 

[bonustreak]

I have always worked from home so no change here BUT I have started drinking at the office

 

[Mark_32Red (retired acct)]

We're all working from home too and I have seen quite a bit of uplift in productivity in some of the areas I'm involved with. At Kindred we're quite lucky as working from home as always been pretty much the norm for those who needed or wanted it, as a UK team we did "working from home tests" amid the Brexit uncertainty (remember that?) and pretty much every team successfully worked from home for 3 days just in case the Gibraltar border was affected,

For me, it's something I need to get used to. I've found I'm starting work earlier - I've always preferred a later start and finish, but with no late night in the pub (yep, thats what I like and miss) then it's been a big change. I'm also pretty much sat on the home "office" setup until later at night to compensate for the inevitable chores that happen while at home during the day with a family - not ignoring the forced effort to go for a walk often to get some fresh air.

I shared the photo below with some colleagues in a chat group the other day after our DPO rightfully communicated the risks of sharing "working from home" photos on social media and the risk of data breach. I hope you find it as funny as they did. It was entitled "I managed not to drink until 6pm". Keep data safe my fellow reps!



Mark

PS: I should edit and say the text wasnt so clear as I see it now on the laptop as it was reduced in size. Doesn't look quite as sinister, people would have to have zoomed in "being nosey" when I sent.

 

[BitStarz]

Hi guys

Don't have a lot to contribute with here as everyone at BitStarz is already working remotely. So in regards to the daily business, it's business as usual. The only difference is that I've spent time preparing my Max Max outfit for the pending apocalypse.

To the other point regarding how it will affect the sector. I mean, companies who are big on sportsbook will, of course, feel the impact of canceled sporting events, at least in the short term. With that said, I think that the markets overreacted (looking at the share price for giants such as Kindred and Betsson). But hey, everyone is taking a hit on the stock market right now.

Olle

 

[lewisnadasurf]

Am I allowed to post on this?

for those who don’t know I work for GVC and am manager of Retail Service Desk for Retail shops for Ladbrokes and Coral. So it does effect me.

we have been working in full BCP mode since Tuesday. I have 9 analysts and 4 team leaders all working shifts on a reduced capacity to support the shops (which remain open!). Contacts have reduced A LOT. as they would around 70%.

our top boss Kenny has said his number one main is to get through this without losing any jobs. I think we’re in a strong position compared to competitors. Ok. Obviously Retail is going to take a huge hit when in the UK it’s inevitable they close shops. However if you read Kennys press release to shareholders on Monday you can see 55% of our trade is from non sportsbook

don’t get me wrong, from my perspective I’m a little worried - my job is purely Retail so this maybe the beginning of the end for it and also worried I’m gonna get paid (just a natural reaction I guess)

please delete if I wasn’t allowed to post here...

just my two cents

 

[Red Rake Gaming]

Hi all,

At Red Rake we are all working remotely from Monday 16th, both the Valencia's office people and the Malta's office people.

Fortunately it's being a hassle-free process, as we started preparing for this since Tuesday 10th, so all has worked perfectly fine this week.

Of course, in such unusual circumstances, some people might be having it harder to work as before i.e. those that have a couple of very young kids, but to be honest our productivity level hasn't suffered one bit so far.

About how this will affect the sector, well, sports betting is the bread and butter of many operators. I guess the big ones will have just a cut in their profits while this lasts, and some other might be forced to close.

It will be also interesting to see how they fight against the sports betting loss, we have already seen an increase in the demand of the virtual sports product (in the sector, not from us as we don't provide this) and I guess they will put their efforts in the remaining unaffected products (bingo, poker, and casino. Not sure how live casino will go, I guess it'll vary in the actions taken in the countries where the live casino studios are located).

Anyway, some uncertainities going on as a industry, but we are certainly in a much better position that many many others.

Hope we win this battle fast and that everyone can be back to their normal life as soon as possible!

Best regards.

 

[Conor@Trada]

We've been WFH since last Thursday.
Like others have said, staying focused can be difficult - but we all have our ways of ensuring our work gets done properly!

One thing I found really useful was to mimic a daily commute. Get up at the usual time, do some exercise for an hour, then get to work. It really helps keep the mood up too!

As my partner is a teacher she too is working from home for the foreseeable future, so it's quite the busy household!

The Gambling Industry overall will see quite a bit of change I imagine. Sports betting will hit 0 soon if it hasn't already.
Short-term, casinos will see an increase. Slightly. Long term this will return to normal.
Sports in the long term, however, I imagine that e-sports will start to gain a lot more attention, and from that, wider adoption of e-sports betting.

If necessity is the mother of invention then adversity must surely be the father of re-invention.

Conor

 

[Twin]

Almost all our departments have been working from home for a while now and we will continue our operations from home until further notice.

Myself and @Alex@Twin have barricaded us at his place for smooth operations.

I hope you are all staying safe and in good health.

Kasper,
Twin

 

[Casinomeister]

I've been working from home since around 1998 pretty much and then by 2001 100%. One thing that is crucial is self discipline. Normal working hours with the evening off - and most importantly - no working on weekends.

Time to peruse the inner muse and start dusting off those creative projects I've been putting off.

Gotta clean out the cellar as well. LOL

 

[L&L-Jan]

and most importantly - no working on weekends.

I'm failing that every weekend

 

[Rs.Kingbilly]

I am running an Affiliate Department at King Billy Casino, and we started to work remotely a week ago.

We face some difficulties with communication as it needs extra time for additional calls instead pinging someone for a minute in one of the office rooms.
However, in overall, I see a very good tendency with all Team for a self-discipline and I am happy with my guys. It's a good time to take a look at everyone from different angle.
I noticed for myself to work longer hours and finishing more task within a daytime as I used to. So, I find these times a good challenge for everyone to see our potential and maximize our efforts.

 

[slotmaster]

Before all this virus nonsense, What is it like to have a normal life? All of you are so lucky, sigh.