Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2008 26 40 Sonny Yeung Hoi Sing Chairman, Macau Success 39 Arthur Wang CEO, GigaMedia operations in Taiwan. GigaMedia’s cash cow is the successful Everest poker network. Ranked sixth largest in the world, it has seen impressive growth. Further growth is expected following the recent developments of newer casino side games. The company’s 2005 acquisition and build-out of FunTown and its onlinemahjong empire is aimed mainly at the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets and has further boosted its presence in Asia,helping GigaMedia triple its revenues in the sector in the last year. Mr Wang has a strong financial and technology background and was previously the Managing Partner of 698 Capital Limited, a co-founder and Executive Director of KGI Mr Yeung cut his gaming teeth at Stanley Ho’s Casino Lisboa as the operator of the Golden Palace VIP room,placing him in good stead to successfully broker a partnership between Mr Ho’s SJM and Macau Success on the Ponte 16 casino resort project. Ponte 16 opened in February and stands apart frommany of the foreign casino resorts that have opened in Macau in recent years. The resort is situated in the city’s culturally rich but economically disadvantaged Inner Harbor area, far from the artificial canals of The Cotai Strip and away from the glitzy new properties along Friendship Avenue— including Sands Macao, Grand Lisboa, Wynn Macau and StarWorld. Mr Yeung’s insight into the needs and wants of Chinese gamblers putss Ponte 16 in a strong position as mainland Chinese visitor numbers to the city continue to swell. The casino is also in a unique position opposite the Wanchai area of the neighbouring mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. A nearby ferry terminal provides visitors from Zhuhai easy access to the resort via a two-minute ferry ride. Mr Yeung’s business savvy extends to other industries beyond gaming, including cruises, travel, finance, and property development. His foresight is evident in his tie-up with Maruhan Corporation, Japan’s leading pachinko operator. Not only could Maruhan drive Japanese and Korean customers to Ponte 16, but the partnership could also open the way for Macau Success to pursue gaming opportunities in Japan should the Japanese government legalise casinos. During his four-year term as CEO, Mr Wang has turned NASDAQ-listed GigaMedia into a leading international supplier of online poker and casino software, targeting the Continental European markets and driving a dramatic growth in the company’s market capitalization of over twenty times. In addition, GigaMedia’s Asian online games division operates a suite of play-for-fun online games, targeted mainly at players in Greater China. A third, smaller division operates GigaMedia’s legacy broadband ISP Asia Limited (the investment banking arm of the Koos Group of Taiwan) and serves on the boards of several corporations. 41 David Friedman Co-Chairman and co-CEO, Macao Studio City David Friedman played a critical role in securing Las Vegas Sands Corp’s gaming license in Macau. He was also a key figure in the opening of the The Venetian in Las Vegas. One might say he has thus already had a major impact on both the Asian and US gaming scenes. But Mr Friedman’s most powerful legacy may be yet to come. Macao Studio City (MSC) is Mr Friedman’s latest venture and he described it to Inside Asian Gaming as“an opportunity to take everything I’ve done in the past and everything I’ve learned in the past, and do it better.” The US$2 billion property is scheduled to open in mid-2009 and is billed as Asia’s first leisure resort property that combines centre of entertainment and excitement in Macau,”Mr Friedman told IAG late last year. theatre, television and film production facilities and retail, with gaming, entertainment and hotels. As co-chairman and co-CEO of MSC, Mr Friedman is overseeing what he believes is a “revolutionary” project that will “help reposition Macau”. And he has placed his money where his mouth is as part of New Cotai, a consortium of US-based investors that owns 40% of the venture. Another 40% is held by Hong Kong-based eSun Holdings and the rest by Singapore’s CapitaLand. Although Mr Friedman, who was notably the first person hired by Sheldon Adelson at LVS, is firmly stepping out from his former employer’s shadow, the Macao Studio City project will help achieve Mr Adelson’s vision of turning Macau’s Cotai Strip into a complete Vegas-style leisure and business tourism destination. “We’re trying to create something that is complementary to what TheVenetian is doing on the convention side by becoming what we believe will be the