Inside Asian Gaming

Features and Symbols Ms Burns points out that the mix of features and symbols is the key determinant to a product’s success both worldwide and in a particular market. “It’s got to have the right combination that they like because quite of- ten you’ll see a game that maybe has exactly the same features but different symbols and they don’t like it.” In Macau, “we’ve seen a very quick take- up in progressive product. People want to win the big prize. It is showing early to be a very strong progressive market.” Furthermore, “Chinese players loves to gamble,”so they prefer high-volatility games to “entertainment” games. They also “like games that give them free games. They like colourful games.” “Macau is a very consumer-driven mar- ket,” observes Ms. Burns,“because it’s small and also you have several operators start- ing pretty much around the same time and a player base that we’ve not seen before anywhere.” The competitive nature of the market makes it innovative. “We’re seeing this new player base, and we’re getting an early indi- cation on what they like. We’re giving them more, and also thinking what more we can do. Something different.” One of Bally’s top performers in Macau is Winning Times. “I think it’s the symbols but also the games. You have an opportu- nity to win a bonus feature to multiply your wins. The company also has high hopes for the Hot Shot Progressive,which it has just started rolling out in Macau.“This style of game will really launch us along here,” says Ms Burns. Another new game under approval for Ma- cau is Roulette. There is also a “tremendous communal feel” among gamblers in Macau, believes Ms Burns. “They like to be part of a community. They like people to know that they’re win- ning, and that they’re successful. And if you have games that foster that, they tend to be successful.” She points to Auction Fever as a game that caters to the desire for a commu- nal feel, with everybody playing on a bank able to trigger an auction.“It’s a bidding war. You bid for a prize,” she explains. Server-Based Gaming Server-based games, or downloadable games, consists of “a set of games that re- side on the server and download to a ma- chine. We’ve not seen that yet here, and we probably won’t until at least mid-2007,” says Ms Burns. “The discussion about server-based gam- ing is how does it apply? You want to have your good vendors providing the games. We’ve just announced a partnership with Aristocrat where we’ll deliver server-based gaming with Aristocrat so you’ll have Bally games and Aristocrat games—which is a re- ally powerful product.” It’s early days for server-based gaming, and Ms Burns points out the main questions operators will ask themselves before imple- menting it is “does it suit me, does it suit my business, does it suit my player? How do I manage it and what’s the cost to replace my network to do it? Is the cost justified? And is the benefit there?” Ms Burns believes there benefit is defi- nitely there.“Obviously the customer-loyalty aspect is probably the number one. When a player comes in, if that particular player likes a particular game,you can bring that game up on a screen.” The other major benefit is “the cost of removing your technicians from your floor. You can cut your costs down on who has to go change configuration on the floor. You can re-direct your work- force into other areas and basically have the configuration changes being done by computer. So basically it’s sav- ing you time, money and allowing you to optimize your workforce doing other things.” Bally is looking to set up a server- based gaming trial site in the US in 2007, and “we’d love to do an international trial in Macau.We’d love to try it and see if it works here.” Asia Focus Asia will be core to Bally’s future growth. “Given what we’ll see across Asia with Singapore com- ing on and whatever happens after that, potentially Japan, and other Asian countries are going to come online. You have to fo- cus on the region.” Bally is also doing business in South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia (at Genting), but chose to base its Asian operations in Macau “because of the growth that we see here”. Bally also wants “local people” running its Asian business. To grow in Asia, Bally will fo- cus on development, which is still carried out primarily in the US, but with engineers paying increasingly frequent visits to Asia in order to gather insights to develop games “with either an Asian theme, or an Asian feeling. Or even just games we think will do well in the market.” “Our philosophy is to deliver as much varied product as we can,”stresses Ms Burns. “Let’s give the player some fun, and some entertainment. Let’s give them everything, then work out what it is they want and refine down. Now you just develop. Put a game out there.You would like to think that every one is successful, but obviously they all can’t be.” 16