they do bigger and exporting those processes from Las Vegas to new locations without any real thought as to how we improve casino systems.
If you take the inaction of vendors, maintaining the status quo means that everyone has to buy their product. Layer on top the fact that this is a highly regulated industry, the cost of entry is so prohibitive, plus it takes a high level of expertise to create something like Foundation for the gaming industry. If we were to create this technology for the retail sector the bar would be much, much lower, but because we’re involved in the deeply, highly regulated casino industry, it becomes very difficult. A lot of companies that could have entered this sector and solved this problem have simply been scared away.
My father, John Acres, is one of the pioneers of the industry in terms of understanding SAS and he’s kept himself up to speed in terms of modern technology. His expertise helped us to understand the value of Foundation and he helped us to make a product that we feel is badly needed.
Foundation works with all the legacy systems on the market - but does Foundation need these systems to operate? If I’m a new casino - is Foundation all I need?
Foundation doesn’t need a legacy system to operate. We can offer cashless, bonusing and operational data independently, but we knew that if the deployment of Foundation came with the caveat that the operator had to remove their existing system, we’d have a problem. Tere are too many critical applications connected to the CMS solution for this to be practical. So we invented a process called SAS-sharing, which allows the legacy system to use Foundation as a pass-thru device.
Foundation collects a thousand time more the data than legacy systems, which means that operates can consider this as a long runway to kicking their dependency on their legacy system. Eventually, once they start flipping over different functionalities from the legacy system over to Foundation, they’ll reach a critical point at which they can just remove it altogether - if they want to. However, if you have a brand new casino - you can plug into Foundation and you don’t need anything else.
Do you expect the legacy systems providers to pivot at this point and embrace the added functionality of Foundation? And what does Foundation mean for new market entrants in the system space?
I think Foundation will provoke both outcomes. Right now legacy systems suppliers consider us to be competition, but I think there will come a point at which they see us as an opportunity. Te four providers know that the least attractive part of their business is the systems hardware. If we can take that off their plate - they don’t have to support hardware any more, they don’t need to create and maintain it - and that’s a benefit.
We can give legacy suppliers all the data they never had before so that they can concentrate on creating whatever applications they want. I think that’s a really attractive proposition.
P54 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
“Right now legacy systems suppliers consider us to be
competition, but I think there will come a point at which they see us as an opportunity. The four providers know that the least attractive part of their business is the systems
hardware. If we can take that off their plate - they don’t have to support hardware any more, they don’t need to create and maintain it - and that’s a benefit.”
Noah Acres
However, I don’t think they realise that just yet - but I think they will soon.
Foundation enables the legacy suppliers to move away from a hardware model to an a’la carte software model. And the opportunities are huge. For example, Penn National uses Scientific Games’ system solution, which means that Aristocrat, Konami and IGT can’t sell their system Apps to Penn. Te installation of Foundation changes that. Open environments increase market potential. In time, we open that market potential not only to the four legacy providers, we open it open to everybody.
At G2E we saw dozens of data analytics and AI companies that specialise in consuming casino data. Before Foundation they were basically shut out of the market consuming poor quality data that isn’t generated in real-time. Now they have everything they need. So they’ll become competition for the legacy providers and it’s the casinos and the players that really benefit because there’s more entrants, new ideas and greater implementation than ever before.
“The operator has complete control. They can repurpose their existing Apps to operate using Foundation, which gives them all this additional data in real-time, making the App more accurate and efficient. They can create something totally new or they can approach a third-party to
create a solution designed for multiple environments - it is totally up to the operator.” Noah Acres
Foundation doesn’t store player data, but does the collection of the data require permission and regulatory approvals?
Te casino and the App provider can tailor the solution to fulfil all regulatory requirements. Te great thing about Foundation is that it provides the data necessary to accomplish that. It also means that Acres doesn’t get involved in that part, which is a benefit to us and the operator. We aren’t stuck providing a one-size-fits-all solution. It can be customised for any jurisdiction.
Why is Foundation open technology?
I don’t think it benefits any operator to think that they’d be the only ones able to utilise Foundation. Tink about the App Store for Apple. If you were the only one able to use the App Store there wouldn’t be any Apps. Casinos are going to rely on companies that design Apps dedicated to the open environment. If we limit the number of operators utilising Foundation, we limit its ability to scale by providers. We don’t view IGT or Konami as our competitors. Our competition is Facebook, Netflix and Google. Te gaming industry is competing for discretionary entertainment dollars. We think of Foundation as a rising tide that lifts all boats, instead of something that just lifts our section of the water.
Does Foundation make an operator’s existing Apps redundant?
Te operator has complete control. Tey can repurpose their existing Apps to operate using Foundation, which gives them all this additional data in real-time, making the App more accurate and efficient. Tey can create something totally new or they can approach a third-party to create a solution designed for multiple environments - it is totally up to the operator.
Te great thing is that because we’re not trying to ‘own the relationship,’ Foundation opens up everything up to competition, new ideas and price. Acres can’t make the only bonusing App that works with Foundation and make it insanely expensive, because the operator can create its own solution or hire a third-party to create it for them. Foundation creates competition of ideas and price and that’s beneficial for the casino and the player.
Acres is installing Foundation on 25,000 machines in 2021 and 115,000 machines in 2022. How simple is the roll-out and installation of Foundation?
It’s incredibly easy to install. We designed Foundation in such a way that slot technicians can conduct the installation themselves. Foundation installs in around two minutes per game and the DMI installs into the bridge and that’s it. Tere’s no wiring that goes under the floor - there’s no prolonged down-time of the machines. It’s a couple of minutes per game and everything’s good to go.
Tere are 900,000 machines in the US and everybody wants to make the switch to cashless, so I think in the next three years or sooner we’ll see 80+ per cent of the machines in the US cashless compatible. Going cashless requires
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