Internet Gambling Taxonomy - 2009 Update

Introduction

A taxonomy provides a way to organize a number of items into groups to make them easier to talk about and compare. A taxonomy is driven by efficiency, item affinities, and logical cohesion.

A UI/IA navigational structure is a taxonomy, but focused more on customer ease-of-use. They typically make simplifications and tailor an abstract taxonomy to specific user segments.

This post is an update to the taxonomy I created a few years ago.

PvH: Player versus House betting

- Fixed odds betting
- House sets/takes risk

Purely mathematical

- with a normal distribution, sufficient volume, house actually takes no risk, no player skill required

• Table games
• Examples: Roulette,Craps
• Absolutely no player skill involved, completely deterministic (unlike e.g., Blackjack)
  
• Slots (pooled aspects with progressives, mentioned below)
• Number of reels
• Number of lines
• Bonus rounds
• Fixed odds lottery and other numbers games (keno)
• Scratch cards
  

Skill based - mathematical

- players who understand the underlying game design and mathematics/odds can maximize their chance to win and drive down the house edge - players may quickly converge on optimal play if these factors are simple and well-known

• Table games
• Backjack
• Baccarat
• Virtual sports (e.g., some implementations of Virtual racing)
• "Skill" games (simple games of chance with variable payout based on skill demonstrated in game)
• Hi-lo games
• Video poker
  

Skill based – environmental and variable information affect outcome; event based

• Traditional (sports) betting
• Format (fixed odds, american handicap, asian handicap; multi-bets, accumulator, exotic)
• Racing vs. all other sports (racing, due to betting complexity, often treated separately)
• In-play or before event start
• Spread betting
  

PvP: Player versus Player betting

- house takes a percentage of play (a "rake")
- house takes no risk

• Poker
• Betting exchange
• Spread betting exchange
• Backgammon
• Mahjong
• Tournament blackjack (p2p variation)
• Aspects of “Be the dealer” (but more like an affiliate scheme the way it was done)
  
• First person shooters inside a tournament/p2p engine
  

PvH: Aggregate Player versus House Betting

- aka Parimutual; house takes a percentage of collective play with no risk

• Pools betting
• Lottery
• Bingo
• Progressives (typically slots, but could be applied to other types of games)
  

Miscellaneous

The above games can be distributed various ways. For example, Blackjack appears in:

• Download rich client
• Web/Flash based ("Instant" games)
• Live casino (rich client or flash based video stream)
• Mobile (typically a downloadable rich client)
  

Pending categorization

• Deal or No Deal
• Top trumps
• Slot tournaments, multi-player casino tournaments
• Who wants to be a millionaire
• Ladbrokes' Balls
  

Validation / Examples

- Other organizational views as taken from well-known on-line betting sites website navigation structure

Example #1

• Sports
• In-play
• Casino
• Card games
• Table games
• Slot games
• Video poker
• Progressives
• Games and Kino
• Live Dealer
• Poker
• Games
• Hi-lo
• Table
• Slots
• Numbers and keno
• Fixed odds
• Deal or No Deal
• Scratch cards
• Top trumps
• Sports & skill
• Bingo
  

Example #2

• Sports betting
• Poker
• Casino
• Blackjack
• Roulette
• Table Games
• 3 reel online slots
• 5 reel online slots
• Progressive jackpots
• Video poker
• Scratchcards
• UK Pub slots
• Other
• Games
• Multi-player
• Numbers and keno
• Table games
• Virtual sports
• Slots
• Hi-lo and scratchcards
• Jackpots and Quiz
• Bingo
• Financial bets
• Lottos
• Backgammon
  

Example #3

• Sports
• Games
• Dice and numbers
• Slot Machines
• Table games
• Card games (mis-labeled as "Slot Machines")
• Virtual Sports
• Dice Arena
• Casino
• Blackjack
• Euro Roulette
• Card games
• Table games
• Video poker
• 3 reel slots
• 5 reel slots
• Hilo + Instant
• Virtual Sports
• Poker
• Lotto
• Live Casino
• Bingo
• Dice Arena