Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | March 2009 40 Novomatic T he challenging trading conditions of 2009 could be the breakthrough momentthatmulti-gameslotmachines have been waiting for, says David Orrick, CommunicationsandBusinessDevelopment director of Austria’s Novomatic Group. “I really think this will be the year of the multi-game, for a lot of different reasons,” he states. “It’s not just for the value of the multi- game itself as a product, but because of its diverse operations on the floor. The operator can broaden his offer [to guests] without committing increased capital expenditure. You can have the games you want and also have the flexibility to be able to offer customers and guests a greater game diversity. What a casino marketing executive may decide to offer guests should in theory also coincide with what those guests want. Occasionally those predictions don’t work. A multi-game in a slots context gets you out of that situation whilst simultaneously offering the guest additional ‘new game’ stimulus,”says Mr Orrick.“In optimal business conditions you deal with operator and player demand by selling more slots and more variety of slots at US$12,000 or US$13,000 per unit. Now it’s harder to make that offer stick, so it’s better the operator pays slightly more for the [multi-game] box in return for an improved offer,” he states. The appeal of the multi-game system also applies to standalone, rather than banked, units, says Mr Orrick. “If you take one of our slot games such as Air Racer, for example, you can set the machine display for attract mode, sleep mode, etc to advertise that game. But because [casino] customers are smart and catch on pretty quickly, they also know they can go and play whatever else they want at the press of a finger.” “Just about every manufacturer dabbled in multi-game machine ranges in the past, but it’s never quite become the front line product. Novomatic is determined to make it so in terms of our offer,” he states. Novomatic also used the International Gaming Expo 2009 in London to unveil its Novo Unity™ II platform. This allows a huge range of games to be offered on one standalone slot cabinet or one multiplayer machine via a single network. The multiplayer offer covers: Novo TouchBet® Live-Roulette; Novo Multi-Roulette™; Novo Flying Roulette™; Novo TouchBet® Live- Baccarat; Novo TouchBet® Live-Black Jack and Novo TouchBet® Live-Sic Bo, as well as the new electronic live gaming table TX-01 featuring Novo Texas Hold’em Poker™ and the Novo Wheel of Cash™. Asian appeal It’s no surprise that Novomatic expects the baccarat configuration to have special appeal in the Asian market, while offering the flexibility to provide the other games at the touch of a screen. Novomatic Multi Live-Baccarat on the Nova Unity™ II platform is available as a live dealer operated set, or as fully automatic. The Novomatic Group achieved a record global turnover in 2008 of US$2.5 billion, but is not complacent about the challenges the whole casino equipment industry faces in 2009. Excellent platform “The Nova Unity I was a very successful product with products such as multi-table roulette where you could interconnect different roulette products and make them available on one terminal to the guests,”says Max Lindenberg, of Novomatic’s Marketing and Business Development team. “With Nova Unity II we introduce the first platform able to offer multi game functionality to the guests. This means the system can connect every Novomatic Multiple Choice The Year of the Ox could also be the year of the multi-game slot machine, says Novomatic