A sneak peek into the Bodog88 live dealer world

I had the opportunity to get a tour of  Bodog88’s live dealer studio in Manila yesterday.

It’s my first peek behind the ‘virtual curtain’ as it were; my first opportunity to get a look at what actually goes on behind the scenes to deliver the live games that we players see when playing at their Grand Bodog Casino on our PCs. I suspected there was a lot more to it than a camera,  a table, a dealer and a deck of cards.  How right I was.

The studio is located on one of the upper floors of an office tower in Manila’s Makati City business district. The office lobby is not unlike that of any large corporate office tenant – apart from the conspicuous and steady stream of overly attractive young women entering and leaving through the large glass doors. Once past the front desk it becomes very different to your typical corporate office, beginning from the point you’re asked to surrender you mobile phone (hence no studio pictures unfortunately) and then asked to follow the casino floor manager through a security door that she opens with a CIA-style finger scan lock!

The scale of the operation is impressive. A dealer team of around one hundred girls work shifts 24/7 to ensure the dozen or so live tables on the studio floor are constantly manned ( ‘womanned’ is probably the more appropriate term).  Apparently the recruiting process involves a talent search that would put most modelling agencies to shame, followed by a 3 week intensive training program that includes simulated live deal sessions. There were two dealers in the middle of simulation testing at the time of my visit and they didn’t avert their gazes from the camera and monitor they were focused on even for a second during their mock deal as we walked by. They did smile, but then they usually do and now I know why…a grumpy face brings smile penalties.

There’s a card room that is segregated from other areas of the studio and cards only remain in circulation for 2 weeks, after which they’re shredded and disposed of. The casino manager was explaining some of the details of the optical character recognition technology used to read cards as they’re dealt (no scanner/bar codes required) but unfortunately I was a little distracted by the 20 beautiful dealers gathered in the next room in their gold and black dresses waiting to take their place on the studio floor (shift change!)…so sorry but can’t tell you much more about OCR and live game capture!

There was a make-up room where a dozen or so make-up artists were waiting, ready to spend up to 2 hours on each dealer before they can take their place in front of the cameras, and of course a bunch of rooms housing the equipment needed capture and serve the action from the studio (not to mention the 50 or techies outside the secured area working on the various aspects of how the video stream and associated interface are delivered).

We hadn’t even reached the studio proper yet!

That was the next and final stop. Behind thick curtains were a bunch of tables with their respective dealers in full swing dealing to players from all over the world. Studio lights hung from the ceiling everywhere, as did cameras – 2 for each table; one focused on the table and dealer, the other more closely on the deal event (ie close up of cards, roulette wheel or sicbo dice).

It was kind of a surreal experience to be standing there watching the dealers and games that I am usually viewing on my PC.

Many thanks to the Will, Nancy and the rest of the team for taking time from their busy schedules to show me around. More posts on this to follow.