The next five years will see more innovation than the last twenty in every sphere of our lives, including in gaming and entertainment. In seeking to push the boundaries ever forward, in January we were pleased to launch Ennovate, our new global innovation hub. Ennovate will invest up to £100 million in innovation projects, start-up investments and collaborations with UK, European and global partners, with £40 million specifically earmarked for innovation investment in the UK.

Ennovate supports our ambition to be a global leader in interactive entertainment. As media, entertainment and gaming converge, players will expect richer experiences, with a greater variety of content, immersive experiences, personalisation and social interaction, all of which will increase their enjoyment and engagement. We are committed to delivering this for our customers and the research and work undertaken through Ennovate will be pivotal in doing so.

The best innovations can come from almost anywhere, but they all need one thing: opportunity to grow. Through Ennovate we will partner with leading technology companies – including Verizon, BT, and Theta Labs – to develop ground-breaking experiences for customers in gaming and interactive entertainment. And not-for-profit organisations will also collaborate with Ennovate, using technology for innovations which bring societal and environmental benefit. All external partners will collaborate with our own tech team and use the Ennovate Hub to conceive, develop, experiment, and bring their innovations to life.

The Ennovate Hub will be located in Charterhouse Square, Farringdon, at the heart of London’s entrepreneurial tech community, close to the UK headquarters of TikTok and Snapchat. It will host members of Entain’s innovation technology team, working alongside its commercial and not-for-profit partners.

Set to open this spring, the location is currently being fitted out with cutting-edge technology, to create a unique environment for building and trialling new entertainment experiences. These will include developing new products for the metaverse, a virtual reality space where people will be able to interact in a computer-generated environment. The centrepiece of this and future Ennovate labs will be an Experience Zone, enabling customers, investors, partners and employees to try out new immersive experiences in sport, gaming and interactive entertainment.

New consumer products and experiences that will initially be showcased by Ennovate include:

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

We are currently developing these unique digital collectible assets for brands across the Entain group and Partypoker is set to launch its first official non-fungible tokens (NFTs) shortly, powered by Theta Labs. NFTs are unique, non-fungible certificates of authenticity of digital files, which could include items such as artwork, music, videos or tweets. Partypoker’s NFTs will showcase some of the most iconic video moments and tournament hands in the history of partypoker and partypoker LIVE.

Immersive experiences in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

Immersive experiences in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will be shown and developed at the Ennovate lab. These will include a pioneering VR multi-sports club experience, which is expected to launch shortly.

VR (Arcades)

We are set to bring immersive experiences to customers on the high street, converting two of our locations – in Manchester and Shoreditch – into new VR retail experience zones. Customers will soon be able to try out ground-breaking new experiences in immersive sports and interactive entertainment for themselves. “Our goal is to bring the most exciting experiences in immersive sport, gaming and interactive entertainment to life as the metaverse takes shape. Working with partners we believe we can achieve great things faster, both for customers and to apply these technologies and skills to benefit wider society”

– Sandeep Tiku, Chief Operating Officer

Ennovate’s cutting-edge technology and innovations in development will also be directed to delivering environmental and societal benefit. Initial not-for-profit partnerships include:

Chance for Childhood, an award-winning charity which supports vulnerable children across Africa, will work with technologists at the Ennovate lab on an innovative mobile app that digitises and builds on Chance for Childhood’s ground-breaking approach to detect hidden disabilities and development delays amongst pre-school children in Africa. Our technology, using artificial intelligence, will drive personalised and play-based learning for children with disabilities and Special Education Needs (SEN), greatly helping to improve their life and learning prospects.

Climate Hack.AI, an international competition that includes some of the brightest students at 25 of the world’s best universities such as University College London, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge, seeks to utilise artificial intelligence to help address climate change. The first competition is currently underway and focuses on devising algorithms using satellite imagery of the earth to forecast the movement of weather fronts over the UK – an important step in the pipeline to predict solar energy production and subsequently, in reducing the amount of backup energy needing to be produced by carbon-based generators.

We are incredibly excited about Ennovate, the partnerships we are creating through it, and the cutting edge and disruptive technology we hope and expect it to deliver. Through it, we will continue to pioneer the best experiences for our customers, and deliver value for all our stakeholders.