G2E 2017
reception was tremendous. We were incredibly pleased with the results, and the consideration we received.
“One of the big factors for us was that our
work over the last four or five years now is aligning with the market; I think it’s fair to say we were a little bit ahead of the market previously, and I mean that in the context of the consideration and acceptance of skill gaming, e-sports, and video games. E-sports and skill games were probably the biggest topics at the show, and because we have been doing this for a while we had a breadth of games to show, we had new products, new platform features… the investment in time and effort we have made over the last few years really shone through. “We had many meetings set up, but we had a lot of drop-ins at the booth; the consistent response we got was ‘wow, you have come so far in a year!’
“Something I have been thinking about is the
difference between the technology industries and the casino industry as it relates to innovation. One of the things that makes the tech industry so strong is that people innovate in public in a constant iterative relationship with their customers. Examples are everywhere. People release versions of products that they know are not optimal, and they get feedback and release new versions and make improvements; I think we are very much following that tech model, but that’s not the typical one in the casino industry. People typically show products in public when they believe they are optimised and otherwise they do not show them at all, or just privately. But I believe in innovating in public, even if that means taking a couple of punches along the way. We have released games we knew were not perfect, but we also knew we wouldn’t get the feedback we needed unless we released them. “One of the most exciting things we had on the booth is Challenge Mode, which is a platform feature. That will roll out across most of our game library and you will be able to play those games in a multiplayer challenge. It addresses the main issue with multiplayer games in that it works on top of our single- player game; if you’re there by yourself you can still play, but some multiplayers out there you need two to actually play, and four players for it to be optimal.”
Gary Platt
The company’s name is a byword for casino seating quality, and that’s something that is not lost on president Skip Davis, as he sat in the company’s biggest-ever G2E booth and summed up the company’s ethos to Casino International: “It’s about unsurpassed comfort. Players are going to come to the casino and
42 OCTOBER 2017
bring their money to play, so you’re going to get them to gamble whether they are on a milk carton or a seat. But why not make that experience a good one? That’s really what the guys who understand the casino business are trying to do, they are creating a customer experience. That seat is really the only thing you’re constantly in contact with while you’re playing. We want people to sit down and say, ‘Wow!’
“It seems simple but it’s not; when I look at our competitors, who have been doing this a long time, you would think they would have it down to a science by now, but they can’t match what we are doing. It’s the pitch of the chair, the foam, lots of little things add up to the right chair. We hired the best guy in the world for seating comfort and he has designed some great looking chairs – but all of them sit really well. “You might find a good chair from a competitor $30 cheaper, but how many times will you get that $30 back over the life of the chair, when people sit in it and play for longer? We are worth a little more. “It’s all about comfort.”
VizExplorer
It’s been a big 12 months for VizExplorer, with the company’s upward growth surely going to continue with the unveiling of tableViz, which combines ARB Labs’ ChipVue technology with Viz Explorer’s data dissemination brilliance. Jeffrey Hoss, VP Business Development, told CI at the show: “ChipVue technology from ARB Labs uses a chip tray setup that can be added to any existing table layout; the tray incorporates them positions and the cameras, eight cameras with lights to help illuminate the table and help with the bet recognition. This setup allows operators to generate slot-style analytics about table players, something previously only done in an imprecise fashion.”
assign player ratings, measure game and dealer performance, and even optimize staffing of the pit based on actual occupancy. The solution also generates accurate trends in the amounts bet by a player, including side wagers, opening up new possibilities for incentivizing players. You can read more about tableViz on page 50 in this issue.
TransAct This company’s suite of products continues
to expand its footprint globally, from mega resorts to smaller casinos, there is a place for Epicentral. That’s the couponing software setup that allows the operator to market direct to the customer’s hand in real time, at the slot machine. Rob Denham, VP Sales and Product Management, Europe, told Casino International: “What a fantastic show. It was a great opportunity to meet all of our customers and work out where we are; we were also able to launch a new iteration of Epicentral and show customers what they were about to receive.” On that note, the TransAct stand featured demonstrations of Epicentral 3.8 and the unique Epicentral SE systems version, both of which continue to gain traction with casino operators who benefit from the solutions’ ability to drive increased play and grow revenue. The latest version of Epicentral offers new capabilities and features including the ability to run multiple promotions at the same time, create games within games, offer multi- user/multi-site promotions, run different promotions on different slot game banks, segment players by tier, promote to different levels of uncarded players and leverage its real- time capabilities to improve operator decision making through detailed activity reports. Furthermore, by allowing for the redemption, printing and re-printing of bonuses at multiple locations, Epicentral 3.8 dramatically improves the overall player experience. Printer Epic Edge was also prominent in its
latest iteration, with full working samples for customers to see and enjoy. Rob was also pleased with the quality of
visitors at the show, concluding: “The quality was there and I would say there were a lot of international visitors. Every year there seems to be fewer and fewer time-wasters, which can only be a good thing; these days, everyone you speak to seems to be a decision-maker.”
tableViz provides accurate player ratings to
help casino managers evaluate player worth and game performance by dealer and table, along with data about player behaviour and activity to inform marketing campaigns, player development initiatives, and gaming floor changes. Backed by ChipVue’s reliable optical data, tableViz insights can be used to properly
IGT IGT’s standout products were surely the
expanded 4D range of slots. They are simply a thing of great beauty, with smart game design that treats the 3D/4D elements like they are an essential part of the game, not just a quirky add-on. People simply love playing these titles,
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