Q&A: Stephen Downer, head of gaming, Sky - October 2006  

This month S&T talks to Stephen Downer, head of gaming at UK multichannel broadcaster BSkyB’s gaming division SkyBet

Please outline your roles and responsibilities at SkyBet

“I’m head of gaming products for the internet and television and that spans an internet casino, internet fixed odds games, interactive TV fixed odds games and interactive TV play-along formats. We have two live TV channels – showing Poker Keyno and Super Keyno and also live Roulette. With the latter you can play along with the live TV broadcast, and bet while the Roulette wheel is being spun.”

For those who are unfamiliar with the game, please can you explain what Keno is?

“Keno is a bit like Bingo and Poker Keno is just basically a more interesting version of Keno as it uses cards and is based on Texas Hold’em, albeit you don’t have to bluff or raise or do anything other than initiate the game. So we do it to give a bit of variety to our TV formats, but to also start the process of educating people on how hands are ranked and the whole concept of hole and community cards. It’s a good teaser for full-Poker and it has worked very well as it’s making us good money and it’s our own format that we developed in house as well.”

What else have you developed at Sky?

“We have another variant of Poker in development [at the time of writing] called ‘Hit it Poker’. It’s very similar to Keno except once you see the hole cards you have the chance to place another bet equal to your initial stake and then once you’ve seen the flop, you have another opportunity to increase your bet as well. In fact you get four opportunities to bet in total. It’s not live at the moment, but will be in a couple of months in terms of a play-along live on-demand format which will be available 24/7 on Sky Vegas, our TV games portal. All our games are multi-platform and will be available through the internet as well, as will the actual television signal if we are on air at the time. The TV-to-the-web channel streaming should be ready by 4Q 2006. We are quite far down the road in terms of having a cross platform interactive peer-to-peer Poker platform. Our customers will be able to play Poker Texas Hold’em through the TV and on the internet.”

Do you see your multi-platform Poker offerings giving you an edge over your competitors?

“I expect we will attract some people who have been reluctant to download an internet application onto their computers. I don’t think it is a massively compelling USP as far as a customer is concerned that we’ll be multi-platform, but it does make Poker more accessible to more people by having an interactive TV proposition that also works on the internet.”

Are there any demographic differences between your players of games on the internet or on the TV?

“There aren’t any significant differences but there may be a slightly higher percentage of female players on the TV versions of our games.”

What regulatory hurdles have you faced in setting up your new Poker product?

“We’re going to be regulated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and we’ve already had experience with them because all our online casino products are based over there. Obviously, we’ve also had to consider what has been going on in the UK as far as both the new Gambling Act and Commission are concerned. At the moment we are planning for an Alderney-based product, but in the future if we plan to bring that back on shore then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Why do you think Poker has become so popular?

“I think television has led the growth over in the UK. In the US, it’s more a part of people’s culture so having the chance to play it on the internet was enough to kick-start a massive industry there. It has taken a bit longer in the UK as people just aren’t as familiar with Poker here, so television has definitely had more of an impact here than in the US. The internet and TV have definitely been the real driving forces in the growth of Poker and at Sky we’re reasonably well-placed to capitalise on that because we have been able to mix the two together – being a TV company and a gaming company – and offering some compelling content.”

What’s Sky’s business model for charging for gaming products?

“For Poker, it’ll be a similar model to what happens on the internet – i.e. charging a rake for a ring [cash] game and a small amount to enter tournaments.”

Can you see any cross-promotional opportunities between your Poker gaming and the Poker programming that Sky shows on its sports channels?

“That is definitely why we’ll be different. The fact you can play through the TV or internet is of interest, but the key thing that will make us different is that we will be able to build on the type of game formats that we have done for our Sky Vegas products, our play-along games, and create a much more compelling Poker format. Most of the Poker on TV at the moment is recorded made-for-TV land-based Poker tournaments. There’s no interactivity and you basically just sit there and learn how to play Poker. There’s not much to differentiate between the products. There hasn’t been any real success in bringing internet Poker onto TV. Pokerzone do it to a certain degree, but we will take it one step further (although I can’t go into too much detail at the moment) and put out a hugely compelling TV programme built around a P2P product. It’ll be mixing the TV production with whatever we are doing on the internet site or interactive channel. You’’ll be watching a programme but you’’ll also be engaged in the tournament that’s being shown.”

So Sky will become its own creator of tournaments to a certain degree? Do you think though that Poker is in danger of over-exposure on the television?

“I do think there is a hell of a lot of it and everyone wants a piece of the action at the moment. The problem is, it’s not easy to differentiate from one Poker programme to another at the moment and therefore there’s a danger that people will get bored of it.”

Where do you think the Poker industry is headed?

“We’ll see more consolidation. In the UK, I envisage people eventually choosing from between three or four major Poker rooms. I’m sure there will also be innovations in the P2P formats of the games and new types of Poker that people play.”

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