Las Vegas Sands and Mobile Security

Las Vegas Sands recently went under a cyber attack of  its online websites. The hacking attack of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) was restored after it spending close to one week offline. The hacker attack has not been identified. The compromised websites of Sands in Las Vegas and its casinos in the U.S., Singapore and Macau, China were victim of the attacks. Ron Reese, a spokesman for the Las Vegas-based company, stated “We continue to investigate what, if any, other systems may have been impacted.”

The total gaming industry is expected to reach $83 billion by 2015. Transactional volume dropped 27 percent, and average transaction size dropped 60 percent. Multiplayer online games made up the largest portion of gaming M&A activity at 38 percent, followed by mobile at 27 percent, social and casual games at 18 percent, trailed behind by middleware, console and advertising. Asia represents the greatest source of buyers, with 7 of the 10 largest gaming deals in 2012 made by Chinese, Japanese and South Korean buyers.

“The company continues to assist various law enforcement agencies in the investigation.” According to Bloomberg, the sites had been down since hackers defaced the home page of Sands’ Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, casino on Feb. 11. It was reported that  intruders posted employees’ personal information and criticized Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheldon Adelson, a staunch supporter of Israel, over his comments on Iran’s nuclear plans. Sands, the world’s largest casino operator, is working with state and federal law enforcement agencies investigating the attack.

The Las Vegas Sands became the first corporation to incorporate mobile gambling in Nevada. Since then, the company has made many efforts towards enhancing its mobile capabilities. Las Vegas Sands was also the first global developer to offer a SnapApp, a self-service enterprise technology. The technologies were deployed to create customer loyalty and engaging experiences for its meeting attendees.

Acquisitions for gaming companies revenues totaled $4 billion in 2012, an 18 percent increase from the $3.4 billion earned in 2011. Investments in this sector fell 57 percent to $853 million. Investment transaction value was led by middleware and gamification at 35 percent, mobile at 31 percent, MMO at 18 percent, followed by social, console and advertising. The $1 billion-plus decline in social game investment made up 94 percent of the decline from 2011, as VCs abandoned social gaming investments, with the exception of social gambling.

Market dynamics continue to shift at “an unprecedented rate.” It is anticipated to be 55 percent of mobile and tablet app revenue in 2016. The Free to Play model continues to grow its share of the gaming market, and is expected to be 93 percent of app downloads in 2016. The modern loyalty and gamification measures require an update to address the digital lives of our customers and employees. Competition continues to move towards free to play and communal games and business models, with gamification currently attracting a good deal of early-stage investment.