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B 2 B
Essential Guide to ... Category C Comment
OPERATORS Much to consider
As an industry veteran with 30 years’ industry experience under his belt, Young’s commercial manager Bill Epsley gave B2B his Category C ‘state of the nation’ update.
improvements in the overall cashbox performance of our Category C machines, but how much of that is the result of improved product is open to question. I am not sure that there is any one partic- ularly outstanding product on the market
“I have certainly seen some recent
right now - I think it is more likely that a combination of good refill disciplines and the increased availability and spread of note payout machines has contributed to the recent improved performance. Hopper starvation remains an issue, although good refill disciplines and the
increased availability of note payout machines have certainly improved things within our managed estate. Getting tenants to refill their machines has been, and I think will always be, a chal- lenge and the best solution for addressing hopper starvation within our tenancies has been the increased use of note payout machines. However, as these are generally only available on relatively new Category C machines, it will take some time to fully reap the benefit. The Young’s estate as a whole has evolved in recent years with much more emphasis on food, style and ambience and, although we see value and in having AWPs and cannot ignore the profit contri- bution they make to our business, gaming machines do not always fit comfortably with what we are seeking to achieve at a particular venue
This, together with the general decline in gaming machine popularity, has resulted in the overall numbers of Cate- gory C machines in both our managed and tenanted estates continuing to fall. I think the triennial review has worked well and we all remember what happened when it was put on hold several years ago: we saw a sharp decline in player interest as games became less engaging and stale as ideas and formats became exhausted, resulting in further declines in machine numbers as players sought a “better” gaming experience elsewhere, such as with the FOBTs found in high street bookmaker Whilst the triennial review has worked well historically, today we live in a world that moves much faster with products and technology constantly evolving, being improved and/or updated.
Looking at machine players as con- sumers, they have an expectation that Category C machines should advance at the same rate, but actually what they see is essentially the same thing for several years or more and thus boredom quickly sets in. I think we need to recognise this and be able to approach the government in a lesser period than three years, if the time and circumstances are deemed appropriate.
I believe players will always want to play engaging and exciting machines, but in today’s economic climate more than ever, value for money has also to be a key element. If they lose their money very quickly, obviously players are going to feel much less inclined to want to repeat the experience.
As for the new features and innovations that will help attract new players to Cate- gory C games, well, that really is the $64m question.
Deal Or No Deal has given players a machine that they can identify with, albeit due to the success of the television game show on which it is based, and it has been a very popular and seemingly unending franchise, but what comes next is any- body’s guess.”
Coinslot MAY 20 - MAY 26, 2011 CATGEGORY C SUPPLIERS
Cat C man the bar of
The stake and prize uplift two years ago to bring the most innovative new produ turning for the Category C sector in arc Glanville, sales director for RLMS.
C
oinslot: What are currently the most popular Category C games you supply?
Tony Glanville: The most consistently pur- chased genre is high-tech and the most popular range and has been for nearly five years now is the Deal or No Deal range from Bell-Fruit Games.
High-tech
machines have been predominantly suc- cessful in pubs, however, this does cross over into the AGC and FEC sectors who have high-tech AWP players. AGCs and FECs need to keep their product offering refreshed to compete with the pubs. In the arcade and bingo markets, the Cate- gory C genre has struggled against legacy product, but we are seeing the tide turn- ing and in the last 18 months we have seen company’s such as Project Coin and Empire Games having success with Cat C product and for those sectors the bar has been raised in the product presentation which is assisting in creating the all impor- tant ‘walk-up factor’.
CS: What are your experiences ‘on the ground’ with pub operators? Is trading in 2011 faring better than previous years? TG: It is well reported that the pub clo- sure rate has reduced and the emphasis on the remaining pubs has been to change and broaden their offering. The pub retailers who have the right offering and are in tune with the market will ben- efit. For the machine market, we have the products. If the pub has the right offering this should drive footfall and will allow us the opportunity to demonstrate that the carpet space a Category C machine stands on is still the most profitable for the pub operator.
CS: In what ways has the stake and prize uplift affected the Category C gaming sector? TG: Increases in stake and prize are vitally important. The introduction of £1 and £70 allowed the games teams the ability to offer more multi-stake offerings, and this allows players to play at a price point they can afford. If players wished to play at higher stakes the increase to £1 has allowed designers the opportunity to offer a myriad of enhancements for play- ers and make available a far more active
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