You might not have heard of Jackpot Digital, but perhaps you might want to pay attention to them as this Vancouver based company has a very unique niche in terms of having the high ground when it comes to electronic table games and mobile games for casinos, cruise ships, and online operators. I did a In Depth report of their Jackpot Blitz product not too long ago. I had the opportunity to speak to company CEO Jake Kalpakian last week who related to me the path that the company took to get to where they are today.
The company started out doing online poker games in the late 1990’s. But they were approached by a company named Pokertek to first do a wireless poker product for Carnival cruise lines, but later to do a next generation electronic poker table that was intended to offer a variety of poker games. The company ended up building the software part of this product and license it to Pokertek with the hopes of getting a piece of the licensing pie when they served it up to Carnival. Along the way, PokerTek was sold to Multimedia Games of Austin, Texas in 2014 who was then promptly bought by a company named Everi. Now Everi had other lines of business and electronic table games didn’t fit with their core business. Thus Jackpot Digital bought it and the table product developed into what is now Jackpot Blitz. One of the cool things about this product is that Kalpakian is not only targeting the casino industry with it, but he’s also targeting places like Newfoundland which is the home to video lottery terminals. The reason being is that this product requires no human interaction (read: you don’t need a dealer) and can be tailored to fit a variety of use cases. It also covers a wide demographic from baby boomers to millennials. The latter is a focus for Kalpakian.
One thing that Jackpot Digital has going for it is that they have a unique product that effectively makes them the only game in town. Thus, while some Canadian companies have a struggle breaking into the US market, Jackpot Digital doesn’t because those who are interested in what they have to offer chase them. That’s a unique position to be in and likely accounts for the fact that they’re growing. Another point, it’s not just US customers who are interested in their products, they’re seeing interest globally. The net result is that they’re number one in this market. But that’s not enough for Kalpakian as his goal is to extend their number one status so far that nobody can touch them. That’s a lofty goal, but given everything that I’ve seen, it’s reachable.
All of the above is are very good reasons to keep an eye on Jackpot Digital. That’s going to be very easy as they are a publicly traded company. They’ve clearly got technology that people want, and stand every chance of being Canada’s next great success story.
Poll: Does iOS 11’s Do Not Disturb While Driving Have A Bit Of A Problem With It?
Posted in Commentary with tags Apple on September 26, 2017 by itnerdFor the last couple of days, I’ve been driving a 2018 Mazda CX-3 so that I can write a review on it. But in the process of doing so, I have discovered a bit of an inconsistency with Apple’s new Do Not Disturb While Driving feature that showed up in iOS 11.
Now I have my iPhone connected to the infotainment system of the CX-3 via Bluetooth, and I have Do Not Disturb While Driving to only enable over Bluetooth. That works perfectly. But, I am also the owner of a Series 2 Apple Watch. I have found that while notifications other than VIP notifications appear to be suppressed on the Apple Watch, I can still use the Apple Watch to check my e-mail and read text messages. Not only that, I can use it to send text messages via dictation. That part is what got my attention when I thought about this because Siri doesn’t read back your text the way it does with Apple CarPlay. Thus you have to read what you dictated to ensure it picked everything up correctly. This means that if you do this while driving, you’re distracted (Though I will admit that while the Series 3 Apple Watch has Siri speaking to you, it doesn’t mean that this is any less distracting. If it is, it’s only marginally so). Yet you’re not touching your phone. I would think that Do Not Distrub While Driving should not only stop you from using your phone while driving, but it should stop you from using your Apple Watch while driving as well seeing as the watch is wirelessly tethered to the phone and many of the functions of the Apple Watch are driven by the phone. But perhaps I am looking at this wrong. Thus I am posting this to see what your thoughts are. Please take the poll below and let’s see what the wisdom of of the crowd is:
Continue reading →
Leave a comment »