Inside Asian Gaming

March 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING with customers are important everywhere, but especially so in Asia. It takes time to build trust. “You need to work well with the slot technicians in these markets as well as with the purchasing teams. Technicians make a lot of recommendations to managements, and they can make a supplier or break them on occasion,” suggests Mr Orrick. “When you get slot managers telling you what your [machines’] performance is over not 30 or 60 days, but over 90 or 120 days, then you realise that they want to keep the equipment.” The term ‘trial’ means different things to different people in various parts of the world, says Mr Orrick. “In many parts of the world a trial is a trial, and you’ll either pass it or you won’t,” he explains. “With other operators a trial is virtually a pre-order. It becomes more about the commercial terms on which they will place the order. For example if they’ve made significant revenue from the trial then that makes their purchase easier,”Mr Orrick adds. Local tastes He says he had what he describes as an “illuminating” conversation with a gaming executive on a recent visit to Manila regarding the tastes of Filipino slot players. “He said to me: ‘The way to succeed here is to bring us things that are real to us.’ He pointed out that dragons and animal characters and so forth, are mildly amusing, but they’re not part of life. Filipinos are very warm people, and if you have themes that at least touch their everyday experience, they tend to be more successful,” says Mr Orrick. Although Novomatic is a globally recognised brand it has not thus far had a major presence in Asia’s key market, Macau. “We have so far taken a fairly cautious approach toMacau, to the point that we have worked over the last couple of months with a couple of the operators there to redefine the games in the way they have suggested. We will launch a new test programme just before G2E 2009 Asia. We’ll see where we go from there,” says Mr Orrick. “Macau is a challenging market but we have the advantage of already having multiplayer roulette there [at the Grand Lisboa] which gives us the brand identity. And we now have a good opportunity to build on that.” Novomatic electronic multiplayer product and make it available on each connected terminal.” Novomatic Multi Live-Baccarat caused excitement in the Philippines before it was even launched at IGE 2009, says Mr Orrick. Pagcor, the gaming operator-cum-regulator in the Philippines, has expressed interest in fully electronic versions of the machine. “It’s nice when people actually come to you first and ask about products,” states Mr Orrick. “It gives us an opportunity to broaden our focus into the Philippines, which has been exclusively slots heretofore, in line with a request from Pagcor that we bring in multiplayers generally and baccarat specifically,” says Mr Orrick. “It’s no secret that Novomatic is more expensive than some, because it’s the best. It’s the originator; it’s the highest quality. And for Pagcor’s VIP operations, it’s something theywant.They say theywant theNovomatic name because it’s known everywhere. “There are lots of new things going on in the Philippines at the moment, including new VIP clubs opening up. Pagcor are currently very active in terms of changing the product offer,” he adds. Slot offer Novomatic says it is also looking to build on its presence in the Philippines slot market and in Asia Pacific generally. “In terms of slots, we’ve done extended trials, as everybody does, in order to get into the market place. That can initially be frustrating from a commercial point of view, but what it does do is establish a solid base for the product,” says Mr Orrick. “Personal, face-to-face relationships 41