ANALYSIS: Gaming gets a female make-over

Last week, women's portal iVillage UK launched a games channel via a co-branding deal with gaming site Rank.com, and Littlewoods Leisure is spending £2 million in a bid to break into the wider entertainment market, while taking care not to alienate hardcore gamers.

Littlewoods Leisure's planned games portal will have lottery-style products and non-sports games. "We're not trying to split the market into male and female, but gamers and non-gamers,

says Littlewoods' football identity manager, Karen Hope.

"I like to gamble, but I don't like betting shops, and many women feel the same. But gambling sites must be careful they don't patronise women."

Damian Cope, managing director of Rank.com, believes his company has the knowledge of the female market needed to produce a targeted offering.

The Rank Group incorporates not only the Hard Rock Cafe chain, but also Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo.

"Women alone are not the future, but they will be as important online as they have been for years offline. We don't believe they've been offered the right products online yet,

he argues.

Both Rank.com and iVillage UK emphasise that, while casino games are planned, they will launch with softer games. "We will begin with bingo, lottery and fruit machine games. Moving forward, we will look further at casino-style gaming in a secure, safe environment,

says Cope.

According to Rank, three-quarters of Mecca's customers are women, compared with one-quarter of its Grosvenor Casino members. Familiar brands feel safe, and Rank has the benefit of its gong-bashing icon to help reassure users.

But most sites are faced with the issue of finding revenue-generating content, and gaming has traditionally been seen as one of the principal money-makers on the web.

Angus Glover Wilson, senior business development manager at iVillage UK, says: "It was something we wanted to look at, but with softer, low-stake games. Bingo already attracts women offline, whereas casinos can be seen as intimidating."

Promotions on iVillage parent Tesco's e-commerce site, will help push its games channel. "We've had some gaming advertising before, which has worked reasonably well. But we needed the integration of a site such as Rank.com to take it to the next level,

adds Glover Wilson.

Gaming is also winning a female audience on interactive TV. According to Adrian Pilkington, head of games at Sky digital, 46 per cent of the audience for its Gamestar interactive gaming channel is female, and 18- to 45-year-old women are one of its key target markets.

"It's a very definite audience, and one we are actively pursuing,

he says, singling out card and cerebral games. "Women are more likely to pay for the games, and they play for longer."

Entertainment company Gala is in a similar position to Rank when it comes to harnessing female bingo customers to its interactive services.

Nigel Willis, Gala's director of interactive, explains: "We have a strong offline female audience with bingo, but casinos are dominated by men.

Women are a very important part of online gaming, but we're not particularly targeting either group."

Bingo has been popular with women offline because of the community aspect, and some sites offer multi-player games and chat windows to recreate that feel online.

Phil Fraser, online gaming consultant at i-ludus, says: "The Rank.com deal with iVillage is spot on. It has the products, and it has partnered with one of the biggest women's portals."

But he admits there are barriers to persuading women to take the next step to online casinos. "You have to gamble against a random number, which is generated by the site's engine,

he explains. "It's all about taking small steps: from lottery games to multi-player bingo to harder games. With iVillage UK, if you have a baby channel, recipes and fashion, it might be a bit extreme to add an online casino straight away."

Women's site handbag.com, however, introduced an online casino and betting before softer games such as bingo. It has ties with interactive bookmaker Blue Square and SunOnline's Casino Atlantis, giving users the chance to bet on celebrity break-ups and soap storylines, as well as trying casino games such as roulette and blackjack.

"Handbag.com is personable, and our online casinos are created in a sophisticated environment,

says Alicen Stenner, brand director at handbag.com.

She believes the fact that accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers audits the casino is a key factor in winning users' trust - as is the chance to try games for free.

Mainstream portals are also keen to appeal to a broad audience through gaming. Tiscali UK is set to launch a dedicated gambling channel, and already has web casino The Spin Room as a partner in its games area.

Richard Ayers, portal director at Tiscali UK, says: "At the moment, between 10 and 15 per cent of casino users on Tiscali are women. Two or three of our top spenders are women."

Tiscali will offer a lottery game through Luckysurf.com as part of its gambling channel, but Ayers says it wasn't included as a softer option for women.

"We wanted to create a channel for any user. I don't think women would be deterred by a certain type of game. You don't need to give them bingo; they're quite happy to pay,

he states.