IAGA SUMMIT FOCUS: GAMING INNOVATIONS & TRENDS ACRES TECHNOLOGY
mechanism in the land-based casino industry. All these loyalty and bonuses have never been able to exist, especially the real-time nature of it, because it lacked the underlying plumbing. We have the plumbing and the data architecture to allow for new levels to be reached in incentivisation and personalisation tailored to the interests and wants of the customer.
Foundation can sit in-between any legacy management system and without disrupting any of the property’s operational aspects. We provide a real-time data feed that doesn’t exist elsewhere.
Whilst there are some other vendors with similar solutions, they aren’t capturing the amount of data we are, nor are they offering the cashless aspect (which allows Foundation to control credit meters and AFT transactions), nor the bonusing and loyalty aspects.
We are uniquely situated in the market. From a Foundation standpoint, we have the data plumbing that is non-invasive to the operating model of a casino.
A CLOUDY FUTURE
Unique to this industry is not having the luxury of providing a cloud-based SAAS delivery mechanism for our technology. We don’t own the data and work with operators to fix any potential bugs or issues because there is no real-time data feed into an Acres operating centre to be monitored.
However, this forms part of our future vision. Regulation is there for a reason, from protecting problem gamblers through to identifying correctly reported tax revenues, and this needs to be done correctly. Te level of regulation doesn’t surprise me, but as an outsider coming in, I’m just blown away that cloud is not a standard.
Tink of all the other retail industries where cloud is critical to how they scale and operate their business. Here we are, in a retail sector, and everything is operating from 30-year-old technology. No real-time access at all. I’ve lived in this world before and now it feels like I’ve gone back in time.
Regulatory bodies have previously had a propensity to not leverage cloud-based solutions, but that stance is changing following Covid. A few weeks ago, Nevada opened itself up to permitting SAAS cloud-based solution providers, enabling wagering accounts outside of the state.
We’re getting to an inflection point from a regulatory standpoint to allow for SAAS. I’d absolutely love it if all we had to do was plot the hardware into a customer site that is able to gather the data and ship it to us. Not only would that mean less bodies required to manage a tech
“If all properties in Northern California are using Northern
Virginia datacentres there is an inherent latency. If you want to provide a real-time, low latency and, ultimately, a
better customer experience, you want to have your cloud solution stacked in a region where most of your properties are operating from.”
“We’re getting to an inflection point from a regulatory
standpoint to allow for SAAS. I’d absolutely love it if all we had to do was plot the
hardware into a customer site that is able to gather the data and ship it to us. Not only would that mean less bodies required to manage a tech stack they aren’t familiar with, but we can also provide
proactive services to help with the floor, as well as a host of
other potential interesting use cases with the data at our fingertips.”
stack they aren’t familiar with, but we can also provide proactive services to help with the floor, as well as a host of other potential interesting use cases with the data at our fingertips.
As well as helping operators make better business decisions, we can use a real-time live data feed to improve the quality of our product and monitor the health of all our systems. I’d love to reach this hypothetical point, but there are regulatory changes required. We will one day for sure.
What’s funny is that the federal government here in the United States is further along its cloud adoption cycle than the gaming industry.
PRIVACY LAWS & ELASTIC SCALE
In Europe, there are much stricter data protection and privacy laws than in the US. I’m no expert in data privacy law, but I don’t think there is any state-specific data sovereignty just so long as it’s kept in the United States. A change in where data and servers are located requires a regulatory mind shift.
Te passing of the law in Las Vegas means those systems are no longer required to stay within the gaming authority of the state. If, from a regulatory standpoint, they are okay with it being in the US, especially when we’re talking about US-based operators, then it becomes more of a technical discussion than regulatory.
If all properties in Northern California are using Northern Virginia datacentres there is an inherent latency. If you want to provide a real- time, low latency and, ultimately, a better customer experience, you want to have your cloud solution stacked in a region where most of your properties are operating from.
Another thing to consider is the ability to elastically scale up and down without having to make substantial investments in hardware that could be under-utilised. Because operators are trying to plan several years ahead, they may spend tens of millions of dollars on a sports system that hits the maximum threshold of performance in two years. Don’t forget these are very data intensive applications coming through the pipeline.
As these systems are older, the I.T. staff hiring trend is also different. Operators aren’t looking for technologists and engineers who know modern streaming platforms or ETL pipelines that go into current data intensive applications, but someone who understands Oracle Database or SQL Server. It’s an interesting hiring gap.
A cloud solution leveraging modern technology, which provides a low latency, real-time customer experience, means we can manage the complexity. Te operator doesn’t have to lay a finger on it. We can make the connectivity happen.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P79
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