G3 Interview IGT
Hitting the target with fewer bullets
G3 discussed the new player landscape with IGT’s CEO International, Walter Bugno, at the G2E show in Vegas. He mapped out the focus of the company into 2016 and discussed the amazing products brought to G2E 2015 in super-quick turnaround times.
It’s a different business – that much was obvious from the IGT G2E booth in Vegas, whose sheer variety and spread of product innovation was overwhelming. While the name on the door is the same, the component parts of IGT have been rearranged to create an amalgam of GTECH and IGT that’s more customer focused than ever.
“No one is meeting us at the show to discuss corporate structure,” pointed out Walter Bugno, International CEO of IGT, in answer to yet another question from G3 about the merger of the two companies. “If you walk the floor of the booth it’s obvious that the companies have come together,” he continued. “You see the innovation and you see the technology taking advantage of the library of games from GTECH and IGT, while the business culture continues to put customers first.”
The products on display at G2E Vegas were testament to the immediacy of the collaboration between IGT and GTECH and the way in which the two companies, as one, have hit the ground running. “It’s amazing to think that the phenomenal products that we’re launching at G2E are the result of six months’ work between teams who had to mesh together immediately and despite the timescales involved, we have delivered,” said Mr. Bugno.
Mr. Bugno said that there is still work to be done, but the direction that IGT is heading is already clearly defined. “We have a new set of tools in place to complete the circle; we have all the pieces, and over the next 12-18 months we are leveraging all the components to deliver the best results for our customers. On the show floor in Vegas, you can see omni-channel in action – platforms that players can use to access content on any device of their choice. IGT OnPremise goes beyond on-site options for players, with mobile devices integrated into existing casino management solutions, while Trend Cloud is a way of sharing a sports-betting device, telling you which games others are betting upon, and displaying the top games in bold, big fonts. It’s a fabulous way of capturing trends and delivering those to the player.”
Skill-based gaming was the buzzword of the G2E show – 4 8
“We strive to understand where
and on what device players want to engage, and that’s our theme. We are concentrating on what
our customers want to achieve, and on giving the user the experience they want to play.”
that and ‘New Millennials,’ a topic we raised with Mr. Bugno. “We will not focus on one concept. Our aim is to provide relevant content across all channels as defined by the player,” he underlined. “We strive to understand where and on what device they want to engage, and that’s our theme right now. We are concentrating upon what our customers want to achieve, and on giving the end user the experience they want to play.”
The legacy of IGT as a North American company with a strong international distribution structure also continues, but it’s supplemented with the localised expertise of GTECH. “IGT was an organisation that exported its success in North America to international markets,” stated Mr. Bugno. “SPIELO, by contrast, was a small business, but it was localised and highly specific. We’ve brought these two elements together, creating both the scale to ‘go global’ and skills to ‘go local.’ I believe that’s a winning combination. Customer intimacy is where you play the game, which is about putting senior executives in front of the customer. It’s about senior level customer intimacy at the highest level.”
In a changing landscape with constraints on operator budgets still affecting the market, suppliers must also change the way in which they innovate in the future. “My personal view is that there’s been too much focus on the concept of the replacement cycle,” stated Mr. Bugno. “Every year you work with the pieces put on the table in
Walter Bugno, International CEO, IGT
“IGT was an organisation that exported its success in North America to international markets. SPIELO, by contrast, was a small business, but it was localised and highly specific. We’ve brought these two elements together, creating both the scale to ‘go global’ and skills to ‘go local.’ I believe that’s a winning combination. Customer intimacy is where you play the game, which is about putting senior executives in front of the customer. It’s about senior level customer intimacy at the highest level.”
front of you. Some of those are challenges, while others are opportunities. It’s not, however, about the volume of product in the market – it’s about adapting to local requirements.
“Coming from SPIELO and GTECH, where the gaming R&D budgets were smaller, meant that we had to hit the bullseye more often with fewer bullets. As IGT, we’re continuing that deep research into how products perform and how they involve the player. We are maintaining our belief in thorough testing and trialing, to the point of returning to the lab for consideration and reappraising if that’s what’s necessary,” said Mr. Bugno. “Our motivation is to completely understand all our players for the benefit of all our customers.”
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 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84