INSIGHT LAND-BASED TO ONLINE ARUZE GAMING
Appointed last year, Kurt Hansen, Vice President of iGaming, leads the implementation and execution of bringing the company's titles online, overseeing all iGaming operations and efforts as the group aims to build its strategic vision.
Kurt most recently served as Head of Digital at GameCo, having also spent time at Aristocrat and Game Account Network, where he specialised in the management of online gaming platforms.
“Whilst Aruze has been involved with the interactive business for a few years, the whole organisation is even more fully committed to it,” says Kurt. “Te level of product integration has stepped up – the level of communication between our R&D teams and factories out in Japan and the Philippines with me and our iGaming partners has really strengthened.”
“We're all aligned. Tis isn't to say we weren’t before. I've not come in like the pied piper and got everyone lined up, but Aruze's organisational commitment to the online sector has improved and is improving. We're ramping up additional internal resources to bring more of the digital side in-house like what we do on the land-based side.
“Te level of focus we are committing to iGaming has the corresponding demand and deliverable requirement to it. But first we must be demonstrating an appreciable level of revenue. By 2023, iGaming needs to have a strong contributory factor in overall company performance, and as we move forwards ideally that percentage gets larger.”
DECISION TREE
When it comes to how closely Aruze shapes its respective development roadmaps for land- based and digital, Kurt admits they are playing a little bit of catch-up to a degree from an organisational and interactive perspective.
So far, everything Aruze has developed for the online sector originates from pre-existing land- based content library. For instance, in the New Year Aruze Gaming America penned a partnership with BetMGM in New Jersey that will see the entire online portfolio roll out across 2023. Kicking off the new relationship were four of Aruze’s classic video slot titles: Ultra Stack Showgirls, Ultra Stack Lion, 8 Wealthy Lions and Wolf 500g.
In the long term, the goal from a development roadmap perspective is 100 per cent alignment on a product level.
“Tis isn't just taking the best performing land- based products, but projecting based on themes, titles, features, and so forth,” explains Kurt. “In some instances, there are games we take that haven't performed particularly well in land- based but believe could be a strong digital title.
Kurt Hansen Vice President of iGaming Aruze Gaming
“This isn't just taking the best performing land-based
products, but projecting based on themes, titles, features, and so forth. In some instances, there are games we take that haven't performed particularly well in land-based but believe could be a strong digital title.
“To this point, this has been our objective. As we're
maturing as an interactive division and getting a bigger operational and organisational focus, we are starting to align a bit more on the product side. I'm starting to look at games in concept phases and as we bring more development in- house the goal is to start forking that earlier.
“We want a decision tree of 'is this going to land-based only, digital-only, or both?’ If it’s the latter, what are the differences and similarities going to be?
How do we save money in art development and do more stuff up front? We're currently a year or two away from
getting to that point, but it's the goal.”
“To this point, this has been our objective. As we're maturing as an interactive division and getting a bigger operational and organisational focus, we are starting to align a bit more on the product side. I'm starting to look at games in concept phases and as we bring more development in-house the goal is to start forking that earlier.
“We want a decision tree of 'is this going to land-based only, digital-only, or both?’ If it’s the latter, what are the differences and similarities going to be? How do we save money in art development and do more stuff up front? We're currently a year or two away from getting to that point, but it's the goal.”
In the short term, it’s therefore unlikely we will see digital-only Aruze titles moving across to land-based anytime soon. However, longer term there is a goal to get confirmation of new titles from the online side first - where games can easily be trialled en masse - with the bonus of being radically cheaper than the status quo.
“Te development cycle for these games isn’t short. We are starting to develop some original digital titles now which we anticipate to release in late 2023 - early 2024. I previously worked at companies who utilised the social gaming side to conduct quick and easy trials. Tere is no regulatory framework, so if you find a theme that hits you can bring it into the real money space.
“Of course, if we create a digital-only title that is absolutely killing it online we will consider potentially bringing it to the land-based sector. Te model we've been following thus far - bringing titles across from the land-based library - has also been very successful for several other companies too, especially in the US market where they have a recognition value.
“Compared to land-based, online trial and confirmation happens quickly. For instance, I can deploy all our iGaming titles and get access to the entire market of New Jersey on day one, as opposed to a bank of machines in one casino subject to foot traffic.”
THE HOUSE OF CARDS ALGORITHM
Despite the plethora of data available – albeit data that can be difficult to extract 1:1 from operators - Kurt speaks as though gut feeling still plays a big part in the decision process about the games that are translated to land- based.
“Absolutely there is a bit of an art and gut instinct to it. Everybody talks about the Netflix model. Take House of Cards that was literally spit out of the algorithm. Kevin Spacey plus political drama equals a massive audience. But it also spit out a load of rubbish television.
“At Aristocrat, Buffalo was the 12th or 13th version of that math model depending on who
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