INSIGHT ARISTOCRAT
I grew up at a place called Dapto, which is about 15 minutes from Wollongong and around one hour south of Sydney. For your North American readers, I'd say it's a lot like Delmar in San Diego. It's where the mountains meet the sea. And you're right, it’s an idyllic place. I'm not a surfer. I was born on the farm. But I've got three boys and there's definitely a surfer amongst them.
Matt Primmer Chief Product Officer Aristocrat
Matt, you’ve been appointed as Chief Product Officer," but you've held that title for quite some time - what's actually changed?
Yes, that's technically correct. I've been Chief Product Officer of the gaming division here at Aristocrat since January of 2020. However, this promotion is where I've been elevated to the Chief Product Officer role across the enterprise. I will continue to oversee gaming and work closely with those teams, but now I've added Anaxi, our real money gaming business and Pixel United, our social and mobile businesses, to my remit. It's an exciting time for me personally, but it’s also an exciting time for the organisation too.
You've spent 20+ years in the global gaming industry - can you fill in your backstory for the uninitiated? How did you start your gaming journey?
I think it’s 24 years this November, which makes me sound very old! My journey goes all the way back to my formative years in Australia. In the 1970s my dad had a service and sales organisation where he was an agent for Ainsworth, which would eventually change its name to Aristocrat in 1996 when the company listed on the Australia Stock Exchange.
We lived on a farm back then with stables. We had a few horses we trained and a workshop too, in which I would be forever pulling apart mechanical slots. And so when I finished school and came back home, I started working as an in-house slot technician at the local Dapto Leagues Club. Te club is still going strong and now has 204 machines. It was very different back then though. I would go every morning to maintain the slots. Te club used to be filled with cigarette smoke and lots of beer, which took their toll on the machines. So, I'd say that I've always been around gaming. I think it's in my blood. And I've always loved it: the industry, the people, everything about it. I consider myself to be very lucky for the fact that I was born into this industry and I'm still here 24 years later - loving it just as much now as I did back then.
You went to Wollongong University - is that where you hail from? It looks an idyllic place to earn a Bachelor of Commerce degree, the website is full of skydivers and surfers.
You’ve held marketing and sales roles in the past - how would you describe the evolution of your career? How do you make the move from sales and marketing into product roles?
Over the last 24 years I have held many different roles, which has really helped me to understand the business, especially in the latter part of my career. I started out in sales and spent a lot of time in venues - usually when they were closed doing overnight moves. I switched from there into operations and sales, sales management, marketing, and
Over the last 24 years I have held many different roles, which has really helped me to understand the business, especially in the latter part of
my career. I started out in sales and spent a lot of time in venues - usually when they were closed doing overnight moves. I switched from there
into operations and sales, sales management, marketing, and finally into product marketing and insights.
finally into product marketing and insights. So I think I've done most of the jobs that you can do in this industry. And that’s stood me in good stead because I think I do have a unique perspective when it comes to solving problems and understanding the challenges of our customers. As a result, I have an in- depth knowledge of the business and made strong relationships with our partners.
Tere's no part of the world where I can't pick up the phone and ask someone: “What's going on? What are the challenges you’re facing?” It’s something we do regularly at Aristocrat. I think that has really helped my transition from sales and marketing roles into my current product focused role. I joined Aristocrat 10 years ago. If you cast your mind back, we were in fourth or fifth spot at the time in terms of gaming operations. We just closed the VGT acquisition in the summer, without a footprint in Class II until that point.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P115
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