With voice-activation technology already revolutionising the way we shop, organise our lives and find our way around, it was only a matter of time before it came to the iGaming industry. Spotting the potential to break new ground, BetConstruct set about developing their own voice assistant, offering players a hands-free experience with a uniquely quirky personality.
Customers of BetConstruct partners will soon be treated to a fully handsfree betting experience that allows them to navigate through gaming sites with ease, discover betting markets, scan sporting stats and place wagers in seconds with a simple voice command.
With the release of Hoory, a fun, intuitive and AI-driven voice assistant, the gaming solutions supplier plans to revolutionise the online experience for bettors, bringing the innovation that has transformed user experience in countless other sectors to the iGaming industry.
Discussing the decision to dive headfirst into the world of voice recognition, Vigen Badalyan, founder and CEO of BetConstruct, said the success of the technology in other areas made it an obvious choice for the firm.
“Voice recognition technology has been around for a while,” he explained. “Our smartphones and portable virtual assistants take commands to remind us about the important meetings, search for information we need and set the mood for an evening with music and entertainment. Why not translate the same experience into iGaming and give players an alternative way of interacting with betting websites and online casinos?”
Moving into uncharted waters is nothing new for BetConstruct, a company that prides itself for looking for fresh solutions to the industry’s biggest questions. With Hoory, the firm has built a product that enables rapid browsing and betting on operator websites while also making the experience fun and sociable for players.
“Primarily, our virtual assistant delivers a hands-free betting experience – a simple command is enough to take you to our sportsbook and show the forthcoming matches of a chosen team, while switching between betting and gaming takes a split second,” said Badalyan.
“We essentially wanted to create a simple solution to enable players to spend far less time browsing through an operator’s website, but it also goes without saying that this futuristic type of interaction can be very entertaining, since our Hoory is still very young and keeps learning new things every day.”
Following in the footsteps of Microsoft’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, Hoory can recognise distinct voices and utilise information gained from previous interactions with users to predict the needs and preferences of players. Much like Siri and Alexa, Hoory comes with her own unique personality, too – although this time BetConstruct took inspiration directly from the firm’s local heritage, drawing the name from a popular Armenian folktale.
“From a small company in Armenia to a competitive iGaming giant, BetConstruct has come a long way to be able to compete on the global stage. Still, we never forget our roots,” said Badalyan. “Lazy Hoory is a famous Armenian folktale about a frivolous and lazy girl. However, unlike the fictional character, our Hoory is far from lazy – she’s always ready to assist players in placing bets, learning sports statistics and navigating through websites, and she’ll even pick up new tricks along the way.”
At present, Hoory is only available in English – the indisputable lingua franca of the gaming industry – but BetConstruct plans to develop further language options after rolling out the software in full. With smartphone usage spiking around the globe and more and more customers looking for an intuitive hands-free experience, Badalyan is convinced that intelligent voice-activated assistants can become the betting industry’s new status quo.
“Trends come and fade away as quickly as they arrive, but access to mobile is always on the up, making each year another year of mobile,” he said. “Smart software is taking over resolving day-to-day trivial issues like weather forecast or currency value in a split second with a single uttered word. The time has come to integrate such technology into the betting experience which, unlike gaming, lacks the social component.”
At present, Hoory is undergoing the finishing touches, but is set to be made available to BetConstruct partners in the coming weeks. With the launch of the new tool, Badalyan is confident that voice recognition will soon become an indispensable part of the gaming experience.
“We expect players to make the most of VRT,” he said. “Once we put forward a 1.0 version of Hoory where all the functionalities work perfectly, any sportsbook operator can become their players’ number one choice with our innovative Hoory solution.”
