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Betfair Poker Migration

Client: Betfair
Launch: September 2006
URL: no longer live

wizard_optionscreenWe pitched for and won this business with gambling superstar startup Betfair. The project was to work with them on a series of initiatives to help migrate existing Betfair poker players from their existing Cryptologic powered software to a new product wholly owned by Betfair. From a business perspective this move was an obvious and sensible one, however from a customer perspective the change risked upsetting a lot of their users – a problem in a market with so many attractive alternatives. Add to this a date and time when their whole system would switch from one software to another and you have the makings of a juicy communications problem to solve.

Our solution was to develop a series of tools and a website that would communicate the changes, the benefits of switching and reminders of when it was happening. This including the migration website, tutorials on how to use the new software and the ‘Intelligent Installer’ an application that could be installed on the user’s PC which would wait until the cutover date then would automatically un-install the old software and migrate to the new the next time the user wanted to play. The project also included developing exclusive video content to be delivered via the new software which entailed sending a film crew to LA to shoot Betfair Poker team take on the WSOP.

Although I don’t have numbers I do know that Betfair considered this strategy a success and they continued to work with us on a number of projects after this.

Yahoo Poker

Gaming opertor St. Minver approached Endemol Gaming to produce content to help Yahoo newcomers to the game of poker. I developed and produced a range of content pieces for their new Yahoo Poker site, including scripted video content tutorials and introductions, some new games to help learn the ropes: Texas Rank’em, Showdown, a Poker Video Quiz and a Starting Hands calculator.

Client: St. Minver / Yahoo
Launch: February 2007
URL: http://uk.poker.games.yahoo.net/yahoopoker/poker/home/index.html

Betfair Asian Poker Tour website

This was a website developed for a major new poker tournament organised by Betfair and the City of Singapore, the website provided information about the tour and tools for people to register and track their progress though the tournament.

Client: Betfair Poker
Launch: November 2006
URL: no longer live

Ladbrokes Poker School

This was my first project for Endemol Digital Media (or Victorial Real as it was known at the time), it was a showpiece website for Ladbrokespoker.com, at this point in 2006 poker was about to explode in terms of profile and so it was that this was to be Ladbrokes most high profile digital project of the year.

Our solution was to builld a highly interactive set of games, tools and videos that would take newcomers to the game and to playing online though all the basics. The site hinged around  a series of commissioned video pieces featuring Ladrokes resident pro player Roy ‘the Boy’ Brindley teaching page three ‘stunna’ Leilani the rules of the game and how pick games to play online.

The site was a big success and remained live for a couple of years while the numbers of online continued to boom.

Client: Ladbrokes
Launch: November 2006
URL: no longer live

Booty Bounce 2 website

Client: Sujro Productions
Launch: 1999
URL: No longer live

Booty Bounce 2

Booty Bounce 2

This cheeky website was commissioned by Sujiro Productions, an offshoot of Virgin Records, to promote their new compilation of R&B videos; Booty Bounce 2.

It was designed and built using Flash3 and the job involved digitising video for sample downloads and the creation of a downloadable screensaver.

and that was This Just In…

al_qaeda_xmas.512x512So the 12 week run of This Just In.. is over, it went pretty quickly, don’t you think? I’ve loved it, especially as most of my work on it was in the build up to the launch, which meant I’ve been able to enjoy the fruits of Phil Gilbert (@Sundaydefensive) and the Zeppotron team’s daily comedy pretty much as a regular punter.. I think they did a great job and overall the site has been well received, in particular the impressive range of videos created for it. Read More

Connected

youviewAn interesting seminar this afternoon hosted by Channel 4 on the subject of connected TV’s. David Abrahams, C4’s CEO headlined the discussion by outlining where the company stands in respect to the ongoing rise of connected and smart TV’s.

Naturally the event was heavily geared toward YouView, the technology platform joint venture between C4, BBC, ITV, Channel 5, BT amongst others. This platform, we were told, will be reaching consumers towards the end of next year and clearly C4 are banking on it to deliver them the next generation of interactive entertainment experiences. But not content with just backing the technology C4 are proving how serious they are by restructuring their commissioning team to bring cross-platform into the very heart of what they do, they have also ring-fenced £2m to spend on YouView related formats in 2011.

Happily for us Abrahams mentioned The Million Pound Drop Live as a great example of the kind of connected TV experience C4 want to be doing more of, but what was more interesting was the realisation that these new TV experiences will be created not from the old, linear ways of making television, but from the new interactive starting points; TV should be taking its cues from video games not film.

Of course digital folk like me have bleating on about this kind of thing for years, but it’s still great to hear it echoed back from the people that can really influence things. What was less clear from the presentations this evening is just what YouView ‘is’ and what kind of interactivity toolbox we can start using to create these next-gen formats. It’s ‘open’ credentials as a platform are being billed as its killer feature, but we’re already seeing with platforms such as Google’s Android that it can be an Achilles heel also – fractured experiences across devices and often poor quality apps can sour the experience for users. If YouView can crack this and (crucially) make it simple for users to pay for TV apps then they could be onto something big; it will certainly be an interesting space over the next couple of years. There are a bunch of technical docs on the YouView website.. guess it’s time to take a look!

I Can Cook

BBC--CBeebies--I-Can-Cook-GOne of my favourite projects from the last couple of years is the game we made for the BBC Cbeebies show I Can Cook (produced by Endemol Initial ..by Chris Pilkington; who if you don’t know produced Take Hart back when I was a boy; what a hero!) . It’s one of the few recent projects that we have developed entirely in-house at EDM, and this fact on its own is enough to make me a happy chap (the truth is I much prefer hands on production to managing 3rd party agencies, which is increasingly what I get up to these days).

The game is designed to complement the I Can Cook show by providing a range of interactive recipes for our young (3-6 yr old) audience to engage with. Players are encouraged to mimic various actions and activities necessary to create the recipes on screen, for example we have stirring, chopping, breaking eggs.. etc.  All the recipes are taken from real ones used in the show and in this way kids are able, in some small way, to take part in learning about cooking and engage with the show, even if they can’t always get their hands messy in the kitchen.

We’ve just finished a set of 5 new recipes to complement the 5 from the first version launched last year – these have just gone live on the BBC website. We were lucky enough to get one of my favourite designers, Matt McFaul (@Jambamatt), back in to put together the visuals/animation and @TrevorBoyle returning to fiddle about with the code. I think they’ve done a great job on what is fast becoming one the Cbeebies best loved games.

Play-along returns for series two of The Million Pound Drop Live

ingame_01The Million Pound Drop was a huge success for us earlier this year, not only did the format work well on television but it was also a hit online with thousands of viewers playing along at home with virtual millions. We recently announced that the Million Pound Drop has been re-commissioned for a second series and with it a new improved version of the play-along game.I recently shared a panel with Channel 4’s head of Entertainment Justin Gorman where we discussed the Million Pound Drop and the different interactive elements that supported it. Justin explained that a strong interactive component was crucial for Channel 4 by ensuring the proposition as a whole was innovative enough for them and C4 viewers. We also discussed how Twitter and Facebook were important too, not only to build up hype around the show and recruit contestants, but also generating discussion and participation during the show – we regularly reached the top trending topic in the UK !

We’ve got some great new social features in development for the next version of the game (unfortunately I can’t talk about them just yet) and an upgraded contestant applications website that makes the process of the applying to be on the show quicker and easier than before. The auditions process has already begun with applications using the same ‘Drop Code’ system as before – if you want to be on the show then follow @millionpounddrop on twitter for the latest details.

The Million Pound Drop Live is coming back in October with 9 new episodes and Davina McCall back at the helm. Check out the official press release here.

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