TABLE GAMES
There are some very exciting table games emerging in gaming, with Score Gaming leading the way with a selection that are making a mark worldwide. We spoke with Bobby Jones, Chief Operating Officer, Score Gaming about the company’s growth
Score Gaming T
he casino tables game arena has long been dominated by one or two companies, but thanks to mergers, acquisitions and other diversions, it seems that now is
the time for smaller companies to come to the fore with creative table games and side bets that are making inroads into casinos worldwide. Score Gaming is one such company, and COO Bobby Jones spoke to Casino International about the company’s upward trajectory.
Casino International: Tell us a little about Score Gaming… Bobby Jones: We are a table games company; we invent our own games, similar to some of the bigger players out there. We take your standard casino games and put a twist on them. We have our own versions of different blackjack and poker games, craps and things like that. Most recently, with casinos trying to attract ‘Millennials’, we are really trying to come up with new games that are creative, that are more skill-based because it is a customer that doesn’t like to just sit down at a game, it’s too mundane for them, there is not enough activity. We have been focussing on creating new, interactive games and we have had some great success with that.
CI: Assuming a ‘Millennial’ doesn’t want a
passive gaming experience, how does what you do fill that gap? BJ: They’re looking for interaction as a player, something where you can sit down with a couple of buddies and laugh and joke, and compete within a game, rather than against a dealer. We wanted to come up with games that made them think a bit more. Back in 1978 I was one of the first 500 dealers in Atlantic City, and I dealt craps; to me it is still the best casino game out there, you can’t play the game passively, it is impossible – you are constantly thinking, ‘what are the best odds to take?’, it’s a thinking man’s game. We wanted games where the
80 SEPTEMBER 2016
player has to make decisions, rather than sit there saying hit, stand, double down and so on.
CI: All of your games are apparently created by one man, Dr Sparago who is a practising clinical psychologist who is also a table games enthusiast. Does one side of what he does fuel the other side? BJ: As a psychologist he has a very unique
perspective on gaming. He thinks about how a gambler is going to react to his games, he puts a lot of thought into the psychology of it, which is why we have been successful as a company. We don’t just do a typical spin-off of a traditional game, we go in-depth. Our secret sauce within the company is that I come from operations for almost 40 years, so I can tell him right away when he has an idea if it will work effectively in a real casino. You have to think about how the game is going to be played in a practical sense. If a dealer doesn’t support or understand your game, it’s not going to work – dealers are actually a very important component of the success of a game in the market.
CI: So how do your games work with the players then?
BJ: There is a huge difference between house edge and actual overall hold percentage at the end of the
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