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The current pandemic has impacted businesses all over the globe, many of which were unprepared to handle the radical shifts in consumer needs. Location-as-a-Service has been able to assist business owners, whether they’re just looking for a revenue boost to tide them over or potentially transitioning into permanent virtual services. We’ll look at how the benefits of LocationSmart, a key player in the Location-as-a-Service ecosystem, are filling a niche and the technology behind it all.
What Is LocationSmart?
LocationSmart is a technology company that provides location-based APIs through a cloud-based Location-as-a-Service platform. It offers secure access to real-time location for a variety of connected devices, including smartphones, desktop PCs and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This kind of location awareness has been critical for businesses that need to know where users or assets are.
Location as a Service Market
Even before the global pandemic hit, Location-as-a-Service was growing. This is largely driven by technology advancement, increased mobile activity and rising disposable income per capita. And since Location as a Service is built on cutting-edge tech, it favors highly internet-connected demographics. Now that more people are turning to the virtual world to avoid the illness to be found in the physical world, the demand for Location as a Service has increased substantially.
LocationSmart and the Gaming Industry
LocationSmart can help its customers locate nearly anything, which makes it applicable to a variety of businesses that need to know where people, cargo, and other assets are. But there are some industries that benefit more so than others. Due to intense and ever-changing restrictions, one of the largest sectors for LocationSmart has been casinos and gambling.
The scope of the pandemic has proved too large for industry moguls to ignore. In Macau China, one of the largest destinations for gamblers, the region had to close 41 casinos at the start of the pandemic, resulting in as much as an 88% loss of revenue.
And this is just one example. Las Vegas, Canada, Australia: people all over the globe are hesitant to go to these indoor spots with lots of action even if they may remain open under restricted capacity rules. While casinos have been opening back up to varying degrees all over the world, the impact has of the pandemic has been severe. Many are not able to operate profitably under restricted capacity limits.
To fill some of that void, casinos turn to online options. Yet, this poses its own set of unique problems because online gaming laws vary depending on the location of the players and operators. Gaming companies risk shut-down, fines, and reputation loss if their applications disregard the regulations.
This has attracted gambling site operators because it’s clear that the demand is there. Online casino and poker platforms have seen surges in new customers and the displacement that has impacted the market in various ways. To ensure geolocation compliance, casinos look to LocationSmart for its services.
What Other Industries Use LocationSmart?
It’s not just online casinos that are using LocationSmart during the pandemic. The Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) device tracking is another market segment that LocationSmart serves, thanks to its unique Global Site ID (GSID) solution. The company also offers IP geolocation services for devices connected over any type of public internet connection.
The company’s GSID datasets include location coordinates for close to 2 billion Wi-Fi access points and over 160 million cell towers across the world, enabling businesses to track devices in more than 200 countries. Business owners and supply chain service providers can monitor stock and keep track of vehicles and equipment — regardless of any detours that pop up along the way.
GPS is a great way to keep track of nearly anything, but it’s not infallible by any stretch of the imagination. Not only is it liable to loss of signal, but not every device is GPS-enabled. To fill the gaps where GPS isn’t viable, GSID works with any number of devices, without GPS on board or the need to install an app or download special software.
LocationSmart has helped a number of logistics and supply chain service providers track its devices more effectively, proving to be a reliable solution when more people than ever are having goods shipped instead of purchasing from a nearby store. LocationSmart services can also be used by its customers to reduce the odds of missing cargo or internal corruption as a result of the enhanced supply chain visibility.
Difficult Questions
There’s a lot to be said right now about just how far the effects of COVID-19 have spread. What seem like simple solutions for business owners turn out to be anything but. A casino operator who has long dealt with brick-and-mortar establishments cannot simply pivot to an online platform without the appropriate technologies to handle the end user demands and associated regulations to operate in each chosen market.
There’s also something to be said for the intricacies of gambling laws throughout the world. A professional in the gaming industry might be able to quote the regulations of their local area backwards and forwards, clarifying the clauses and providing insight into how they fully comply with them. However, that same professional may struggle when they’re confronted with the gambling restrictions that lie just outside their borders.
These valid concerns have left many casino owners unwilling to take a chance for fear of paying too high of a price. LocationSmart’s services are customizable by customers to deal with these varying needs and help them can cut down on individual fraud and provide general tools so business owners can follow the letter of the law.
Expansion During COVID-19
As difficult as it’s been to face up to the many negative effects of the pandemic, there are also opportunities for industries to find. LocationSmart cannot address all of the issues of a business, but it can give an owner confidence to expand their territory.
It gives owners the chance to extend their wagering options to mobile devices, so they don’t miss any revenue opportunities. If users are not in the proper location, gaming platform operators can alert them so they may move to allowed places. Communications can be personalized so users know when they’re in or out of a betting area. The location insights are provided in near real-time to allow for an array of transactions without delay, so owners can immediately verify location and platform users can easily access the gaming application without unnecessary hurdles.
LocationSmart has multiple protocols in place for customers to use to keep unauthorized users from accessing information and to protect end user privacy. Consumers and businesses alike can be provided with pure transparency about which data is being collected and why.
When location sharing has become so ubiquitous in the world today, LocationSmart offers business owners a way to scale their operations to fill the needs of their customers and clients. As we’ve seen the Location as a Service market has seen big changes, both before COVID-19 and after. Now is a great time to start implementing the tools to both improve your revenue and reduce the odds of a compliance violation.
