A warning to the wise. The future of off-shore sportsbooks = NO CLERKS

[SuperWimp]

NICK

I'm not stating that ticos make less than indians (hindus??), but rather that the position itslf is going to be phased out. In a relatively short time the clerks will be gone. This isn't about comparing per hour wages of different countries, but rather of getting rid of the per hour completely.

WAW has a valid point, problem resolution will have to be handled by humans. Customer Service will not be phazed out. This is one of the specialized positions that I mentioned earlier. I imagine the number of people in these jobs will actually increase by a little. The WAGERING FLOOR is the one that is on the way out, this implies that thousands of people in Costa Rica will be without a job.

WildBill speaks about the inefficiencies of existing software which, by the way, was already IMPLEMENTED AND WORKING. Does anyone here honestly think that software will not be improved?

My time-line was probably too conservative, darwinstheory has it right, a couple of years is looking more probable than five.

Let's just say that the line is at 3 1/2 -120 on the under.

qs185 (BART) speaks of the cost of developing a good voice recognition software. Of course it is very expensive. It would be unprofitable for most books to develop their own application. This is true of todays' gambling software, not just voice-recognition. Most books rent software, they don't make their own in-house stuff. SOFTECH, MERCEDES, IQL, INET, etc develop their own applications and offer them to the market. Soon a player in the field will come up with a decent option on voice recognition and move in on the others, then they will adapt and include the update. Remember, 10 years ago there wasn't internet betting, there wasn't even much of an internet. Things change at an alarming rate in the technology industry.

Of course there are problems to be resolved, the software isn't made yet. Any time you develop a major aplication you come against a miriad of problems you didn't even know existed along with the ones that you could foresee. This doesn't mean that the aplication doesn't get developed.

My central point is unchallenged and valid still, low-level clerking positions will be phazed out. The humungous wagering floor will dissapear and a lot of people will have to look for a job. The time to start preparing is now.

[This message was edited by SuperWimp on February 13, 2004 at 06:48 PM.]

 

[wilheim]

A major concern for any book that has very sharp or wise guy clintele, is that they still need to handle these players live. Unless software exsists that will allow only one maximum bet at a particualr number, then you need people to make instant line changes on the fly. When a move goes out a call center is liable to get 4 or more sharpshooters trying to bet all they can at the best number available. This is where the best clerks are invaluable, some are so good they can hear a call out by another clerk and go to the next number while on the phone without being told. As long as we have these super sharp players, books will need equally super sharp clerks.


wil.

 

[SuperWimp]

Willhelm, in medium sized book that has 50-90 clerks sitting down on a sunday how many of them are VIP?

What about a large book that carries over 150 stations? 10, 15 VIP's maybe?

In one of the monster San Pedro books with 200+ clerks how many are VIP?

I worked in a 130 clerk floor a few years ago, where there were 9 stations dedicated to specalized clientele. 2 for movers or steam players, 2 for VIPS and 7 for horses(2 stations did double duty as vip-horses).

The percentage of the population of clerks that works in these positions is neglegible. Again, specialized clerks are not affected by voice recognition. It's the thousands of low-level clerks that are on their way out.

 

[HerzvanRentle]

Ladbrokes have had a voice recognition automatic betting system up and running for a bit now, its called 'Elle'. Never tried it, so cant comment.
http://www.ladbrokes.com/elle/

 

[wilheim]

Super Wimp, I agree the B and C level clerks will soon become casualties of high tech sportsbetting software. My point is that some specialists beside CSD, horse, and trouble shooting stage managers are still very necessary.


wil.

 

[SuperWimp]

will, you are absolutely correct. A level people tend to find

This elle software has me rethinking the horses part as well.

... Such is life in the tropics.

 

[Horseshoe]

Eliminate clerks?..then there'll be only movers and runners to sneak the marks..definitely cuts down on the volume of followers!

 

[WINNINGHAND]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SuperWimp:
A wagering floor can easily be defined as an ineficient way of doing what the internet does. Anything that can be done by a clerk can be done by a computer at a fraction of the cost to the bookmaker. Off-shore bookies love players that are electronic. They wire the money in, set up accounts through email and bet online.

Think about it. No phone bills have to be paid, this alone runs in the millions of dollars a year for decent-sized operations. No rent is due on humungous office-space complexes. Anybody that has seen the instalations used by NASA, CRIS, JAZZ, etc in Costa Rica will tell you that this is no laughing matter. No extravagant payroll for hundreds of clerks has to be handed out. There goes another couple of million dollars. Human resources gets simplified, so the small armies of administrators, supervisors, accountants, lawyers, etc come off the payroll. NO CLAIMS. This alone is worth it. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars get handed back to the players every year due to clerk mistakes?

A lot of players call in their bets. Be it because they sit on the far side of the digital divide and are not comfortable with computers and the internet or because they just don't have acess at the time they want to place a wager (WAP-enabled websites take care of that one since thay can be accessed froma cell-phone, but that is another story). This forces bookies to literally hire small armies to answer the phones on an NFL sunday.

But, are the clerks really necesary? Aside from specialized phone stations such as customer service, claims, horses, linesmen or managers most clerking stations can be easily replaced by voice recognition software. A player calls in, the computer picks up the phone, he gives his account and password, asks for the lines and places wagers, all handled by a centralized server. Cost is reduced to a sufficiently powerful server, phone and software.

Voice recognition isn't quite ready for an off-the-shelf application for sportsbooks. It has to be trained to recognize the inflections of a particular voice. This is done now by having the person read some lines into a microphone so as to train the algorythm (neural networks?? sounds like it). Once this step is accomplished, voice recognition is remarkably accurate.

This learning curve hazzle is now being fazed out. If you call directory assitance within the US you get asked to state the category and location of your query by a computer, which recognizes what you say and shuttles you to the respective operator.

In a short time (5 years, maybe sooner) voice recognition engines will be powerful enough to substitute the clerks on a wagering floor. Let me repeat that: THERE WILL BE NO CLERKS ON THE WAGERING FLOOR. There will probably be no wagering floor either. Clerks are the first to go to the inevitable technical progress in our industry. They certainly won't be the last. Line movers (not line MAKERS) are another endangered species.

Thus my warning. A lot of my friends work at clerk level positions in the gambling industry. MAKE A 3-5 YEAR PLAN TO REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE WAGERING FLOOR AND ACT ON IT!! Start studying now, learn a skill, assure yourself portability to another field of employment. Take advantage of the flexibility of schedule that you have now and the economic resources to propell yourself to another career. Bookies directly employ around 7,000 people in CR during football season. In 4 years, when 5000 of those are fired they will all have similar work experience, similar training, similar skills and they will all be looking for the same jobs. How are YOU going to compete?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Good post

 

[Java]

Well, 5 years is a long time in technology, so hard to say where voice-recognition will be then. However, there are several big hurdles to voice recognition:

1) Takes lots of computing power. Computers getting faster, but you'd almost need a separate computer for each phone line to handle each caller.
2) Voice recognition works best with the smallest the vocabulary of commands. The names of the teams/pitchers covers quite a range.
3) Recognition is very bad over noisy lines, of if speaker is some place with a lot of background noise. These voice-over-ip satellite lines have gotten better, but if the book runs the compression to high, there is a lot of distortion. (Figure: if a human has ANY trouble, the computer has NO chance.)
4) Voice menus are very slow. A human being can handle 2-3 times as many calls as a computer program. So, you need more lines to handle the same number of players, since each call will take several times longer.
5) Even the computer that beat Gary Kasperov was tuned/rigged to beat only him. Any other grandmaster could have beaten it. General recognition to handle all the accents, etc. of anyone that may call is very tough.
6) A human being can get feedback if the player is paying attention or talking to someone else on his end and not the computer. The human being needs MORE intelligence to talk to the computer correctly and pick up the slack between human intelligence and artificial intelligence.
7) A computer will not be good at slowing down, speeding up, or repeating a misunderstood word (and saying "Colts, as in Colt-45." or "The Nets, not the Mets.")
8) You will see a lot of claims where the computer takes a bet on the wrong North Carolina team or wrong pitcher.

There are a lot of applications for voice-recognition, but a quality human operator will run circles around an automated system. My prediction is that premier books will get quality clerks to handle the best customers, particularly the whales.

 

[mvbski]

Where I work we have had a voice recognition system in place for more almost two years and it works flawlessly granted it is just for horse's but I am sure it would be able to handle sports wagers with some upgrades

 

[SuperWimp]

I find it incredibly amusing that immediately following a post explainig WHY voice recognition isn't a viable option another guy pops up saying that they have been using it without problems for over two years.

Life has a funy way of working out this way.

 

[stjgobraves39]

SUPERWIMP....You MUST wear glasses and have a ponytail dont ya??

 

[SuperWimp]

LongIsland Tico: you MUST be dating someone sitting right next to me , aren't ya?

 

[stjgobraves39]

 

[Tellitlikeitis]

The only proplem is, once you cut out 90% of the tico work force, pacheco won't have anything holding him back from bending the gringos over. And he won't be using any KY jelly.

 

[mvbski]

Super take a look this system is proven and licensed for use in Oregon for horses

 

[SuperWimp]

Run for the hills.

 

[RicoTorres]

I second "tell it like it is" on that one. Plus, "newbie666" is right about one thing, there will always be people not wanting to use a computer to place bets...

 

[5teamparlay]

Willhelm, in medium sized book that has 50-90 clerks sitting down on a sunday how many of them are VIP?

What about a large book that carries over 150 stations? 10, 15 VIP's maybe?

In one of the monster San Pedro books with 200+ clerks how many are VIP?

I worked in a 130 clerk floor a few years ago, where there were 9 stations dedicated to specalized clientele. 2 for movers or steam players, 2 for VIPS and 7 for horses(2 stations did double duty as vip-horses).

The percentage of the population of clerks that works in these positions is neglegible. Again, specialized clerks are not affected by voice recognition. It's the thousands of low-level clerks that are on their way out.

thats nuts


How many call in clerks left LOL.



land based sports-books will
soon be KIOSkS only
and everyone putting bets on phone APPS for the most part.

 

[barman]

thats nuts


How many call in clerks left LOL.



land based sports-books will
soon be KIOSkS only
and everyone putting bets on phone APPS for the most part.

As long as they retain the strappingly handsome blackjack dealers most casinos will still be a good night out for the ladies....and here in Florida, for quite a few men as well