Interview ERIC TOM - IGT
TURNING UP THE HEAT ON GAMING
Speaking at G2E to IGT’s Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Eric Tom, he described the journey operators are taking to bring multi-channel gaming to their customers
“If you take a frog,” begins IGT’s Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Eric Tom, “and place it in a pan of boiling water - it will leap right out. However, if you place a frog in a pan of cold water and bring it up to the boil, it will stay where it’s put until it’s cooked.” It’s an analogy that succinctly describes land-based gam- ing’s approach to social, online and interactive connec- tivity, and the challenge IGT faces as a complete end- to-end multi-channel developer.
“The current fragmentation of the player demographic means that operators are increasingly looking for ways to connect with their customers off-property,” explains Mr. Tom. “If you’re a land-based operator, your cus- tomers are only your customers when they’re physical- ly present in your casino. So how do you get a player’s attention when they’re not within your location and still take a share of incremental player spend elsewhere? If you take DoubleDown Casino’s average play time of 23 minutes of real engagement and attraction, that’s a great opportunity to use the periphery of the screen to pro- mote land-based gaming, slot tournaments, competi- tions and prizes, special events etc. We have an estab- lished platform that incentivises players to participate with your brand across multiple mediums. When a player leaves a location, they can continue to play with you on the device of their choice - the options and ideas are limitless.”
Returning to the temperature sensitive frog for a moment, one of the key aspects of connecting land- based operators to the wealth of multi-channel options available to them is integration. To make sure the pan- water isn’t too hot, it’s vital that IGT not only provide DoubleDown as a means for operators to connect to its players off-site, but interconnect this social platform into existing systems. “The integration of DoubleDown’s player management system with IGT Advantage has meant that operators can now create value in multiple mediums,” says Mr. Tom. “You can track points to measure the value of players across these different mediums, access what games are played online and
offline and manage all aspects of high value players wherever and on whatever device they are playing.”
What’s interesting is that IGT integrated the DoubleDown player management system with Advantage in response to a customer request. However, this was not, as you might expect, in response to an Advantage customer demanding integration with DoubleDown, but from a customer that didn’t want to sign-up to Advantage unless it had the DoubleDown platform already integrated into the system. It’s an illustration of the importance of integration, which runs through every decision both operators and IGT are cur- rently taking. As Mr. Tom states, IGT’s advantage is that it has the resources to operate a broad portfolio of cur- rently niche products that will have a future value. “We are creating a path for customers to move through tech- nology innovation at their own pace,” says Mr. Tom. “We were the first to launch Cloud services and define a path for customers to be ready to move only when they want to move.”
The ultimate goal is an oft used expression - conver- gence - but here Mr. Tom is clear that not only should players be engaged across multiple mediums, but that true integration is the creation of a single player ID and single wallet. And while he admits that there are chal- lenges, no least in that at present there are no system standards in place for this level of adoption, he consid- ers it to be crucial that IGT is ahead of the adoption curve with solutions ready and waiting for operators. “It’s not just about converging content on multiple mediums,” expands Mr. Tom. “It’s also about creating easy pathways to convergence. We establish relation- ships between players and games and apply that affini- ty across multiple channels. When we took Wheel of Fortune and pushed that brand across different medi- ums, the challenges of convergence fall away as the brand and maths transcends those issues.”
IGT recognises that no two operators are occupying the same pan of water - rather each is currently paddling in
If you take DoubleDown Casino’s average play time of 23 minutes of real engagement and attraction,
that’s a great opportunity to use the periphery of the screen to promote land- based gaming, slot tournaments, competitions and prizes, special events etc. We have an established platform that incentivises players to participate with your brand across multiple mediums. When a player leaves a location, they can continue to play with you on the device of their choice - the options and ideas are limitless.” Eric Tom, VP Global Sales, IGT
a variety of pans all bubbling away at different tempera- tures. The trick is to provide exactly the right solution at each point along the adoption curve. Mr. Tom gives an example of the Canadian provinces that have quickly understood the value proposition and adopted a com- plete, converged solution from the outset. “The British Columbia Lottery Corporation were completely sold on convergence,” states Mr. Tom. “Many customers are wor- ried that multi-channel gaming will have a dilutive effect on their revenues, but BCLC understood the synergies they actually present. When we launched Da Vinci Diamonds they saw an immediate increase not only online, but across the casino floor. One doesn’t take away from the other, they have a complementary effect.”
It’s the complementary nature of the coming together of IGT and GTECH/IGT that also excites Mr. Tom. “The abili- ty to add lotteries, online platforms and multi-channel content from GTECH to the portfolio, gives customers a complete range of solutions across every aspect of gam- ing. It’s a very exciting prospect.”
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