A new player is entering the binary options trading market, as gaming software giant Playtech will be debuting a new platform at the ICE conference in London this week. The ICE is known as the world’s largest gaming exhibition. In London, Playtech will be demoing the platform which is currently in its Alpha version development stage with an expected launch during Q2 2013.
According to FortuneZ’s sources the entry into the binary options space is part of new corporate focus from Playtech after seeing that many online gaming operators and affiliates were interested in the product. The launch will expand Playtech’s business from gaming products into financial based offerings.
Arriving later than a slew of other platform providers, Playtech will target several areas where they believe their new platform will provide advantages such scalability, reliability, and risk management as to existing products. Playtech additional advantage is it being a publicly listed company.
Playtech recently acquired Geneity, a leading sports betting software developer with deep involvement in risk management, whose new platform will provide the risk management solution. Since binary options are a fixed odds gamble which is similar to existing sports betting products Playtech feels it can provide customers the best risk management solution on the market for binary options. We have already seen a similar transition when betfair’s sports matching engine was adopted by its FX trading subsidiary LMAX.
Leveraging its existing technology infrastructure, Playtech is expected to price the platform aggressively. If we are allowed to forecast then we would say that Playtech may easily take over the gaming market where it already has a massive presence and is comfortable operating in. Forex market however may present it with a challenge being a new and unfamiliar turf with already existing dominant players who will not give up on their market share easily.
Going forward binary brokers whether of gaming or forex background are set to benefit from increased technology competition as all binary tech providers will have to improve their offerings substantially or they will quickly fall behind. As seen below from the platform screenshots, on first glance the product appears similar to existing solutions in the market. Therefore, it will be interesting to see what existing firms do to differentiate themselves from the new large competitor.