Review SHFL ENTERTAINMENT
STAR RISING AT THE ICE
SHFL entertainment demonstrated its diverse gaming strengths at ICE with key product launches and defined online gaming strategy
SHFL entertainment has always been a multi-faceted business, with a portfolio spanning multiple market sectors, from live gaming equipment, slots, multi- players and proprietary games. However, at the ICE show in February, the depth of each individual element within the company was more clearly defined than ever with strength across its slots products, the launch of a new ‘game- changing’ ChipStar chipper, a purpose- built online B2B gaming platform, plus a new range of proprietary tables games and a stunning multi-player line-up.
Speaking at ICE to SHFL entertainment's CSO, Louis Castle, he explained the current position of the company in regards to its recent licence acquisitions and product development. “Two years ago we formed our online strategy that would create an online delivery system, serving content through our platform to enable us to control the product and ultimately who it’s presented to,” explained Mr. Castle “We have since been licensed in Gibraltar with a full gaming supply licence; in Alderney with a Class II restricted licence and received certification from GLI for controlled territories in Europe. We are expecting approval in Italy soon and then will be rolling out 12 games in both Italy and Spain over the next couple of months. We are expanding our content delivery system, starting with aggregators such as Amaya Gaming to achieve the widest distribution possible.”
As an online provider, SHFL entertainment describes itself as ‘religiously B2B.’ The company is solely serving companies that supply its games to the public. “We don't do B2C,” underlined Mr. Castle. “However, anyone that wants to offer our games directly to a player can use our platform, while we remain agnostic. Our content is proven slot and table IP, in either Flash or HTML5, for the B2B social and money gambling sites located in legalised gaming territories.”
At the ICE show in February, SHFL entertainment were weeks away from a series of go-live announcements that were
March 2013 PAGE 56
LOUIS CASTLE, CSO SHFL entertainment.
“Our content is proven slot and table IP, in either
Flash or HTML5, for the B2B social and money gambling sites located in
legalised gaming territories."
tantalisingly still pending. Asked about the saturation of the online market in Europe, Mr. Castle was bullish that SHFL entertainment’s content presented a unique opportunity as the company’s table IP is in demand the world over. “The games we have to offer have proven they can double and even triple table gaming revenues,” said Mr. Castle. “Our casino partners know that these games can earn them more money and that their players will have more fun. They also know that we’ll protect those games too - you won’t play these games unless they’re from SHFL entertainment.”
SHFL featured its
suite of speciality table games
available for online play, which
includes Three
Card Poker,Ultimate Texas
Hold'em,Casino War, Fortune Pai Gow Poker,
Mississippi Stud,Let It Ride, Four Card Poker, Crazy 4
Poker, Raise It Up,
Six Card Poker and blackjack with Bet the Set, Royal
Match, and King's Bounty side bets. Using thin-client, elastic cloud
technology, SHFL's state-of-the-art
online platform and its iGaming products are designed to fit
seamlessly into a variety of online operations.
IP protection is at the heart of the SHFL entertainment online platform. As Mr. Castle spells out, before countries such as France and Italy switched to highly regulated and restricted market controls for online gaming, the company had no ambition to enter the sector. “The changes in Europe have been good for us,” confirmed Mr. Castle. “We saw an opportunity to invest in our content delivery system in a protected environment that enabled us to develop a platform for real-money, social and mobile gaming. Right now there’s no other company in this industry covering all those sectors with this level of content. Developing a social game with the right hooks and drivers is one thing, but making that game secure and attractive to real-money players is something else - that’s where elastic scale really matters. We can scale our architecture to meet the needs of the sector. We see social and mobile as a way to monetise the customer.”
SHFL entertainment's goal is to convert mobile/social players to real money play, which is part of the difficult balancing act that marries together both cost of acquisition and retention of the player. SHFL entertainment’s plan is to use social media for what it does best, exposing its games to millions of people and to the opportunities of real-money gaming. “It’s a bad idea to spend thousands acquiring players who will go to your site to play for pennies,” stated Mr. Castle. “We want to reach into the social space and find the qualified gambler. It’s the opposite view in terms of what many gaming companies are looking to achieve with social media right now, but as far as we are concerned, a casino offering with only virtual
currency is not a social offering. For social games to work you need a huge team monitoring and cultivating a live eco- system. There are a lot of companies in the gaming space thinking they can put something together like this, but it simply won’t scale. If people want to be serious about social then they’ll need to employ hundreds of people to manage those environments, otherwise it’s just not going to happen,” concluded Mr. Castle.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78