I have written several times about the opportunities for social game companies to use analytics beyond just game development, balancing and monetization. An article in the most recent issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review, “Innovating with Analytics,” shines more light on how analytics can help build competitive advantage. Given that all social and mobile game companies already use data extensively to improve their games, the only way a social game company could thus gain a competitive advantage with analytics is to innovate.
In yesterday’s post, I discussed how the Oakland A’s baseball team pioneered the use analytics to build an advantage, but then lost that advantage when other baseball teams copied their approach. This year, however, they won their division by apparently finding an innovative way to use analytics to again build competitive advantage.
The Business of Social Games and Casino 