Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2009 26 the necessary background to understand consumer demands and respond to them. He came to Aristocrat from Foster’s Group, the Australian drinks conglomerate, where he was managing director of its Australia, Asia & Pacific division. Mr Odell also has experience in consumer retailing in a wide range of international markets. In August, Mr Odell announced what the company called a ‘transformation programme’, to focus particularly on building the company’s business in Japan, Australia and North America. He said the aim was to reduce earnings volatility across the company’s operations and deliver sustainable growth. That included doubling Aristocrat’s share of the North American market for revenue share agreementsbetween slotmanufacturers and casinos over the next five years. To achieve that aim, Aristocrat planned to base more of its management team in North America, said Mr Odell. In an interview with Inside Asian Gaming published in July, Mr Odell also hinted at Aristocrat moving into the stepper market in Asia and other markets, where companies suchasWMSandBallyTechnologiescurrently have a strong presence. He also suggested Aristocrat may move to expand its video slot offer by releasing new products with strong all-round entertainment themes. 30 (-) Jamie Odell Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Aristocrat Leisure Ltd of Kolkata in May 2006. Playwin’s potential for profitability is hugely boosted by the fact that its products and services can be supported and cross-marketed by other parts of the Essel Group empire without (so far) any troublesome regulation imposed by national politicians. An example is that Playwin lottery products have nowexpanded into the offline entertainmentmarket usingpre-paid scratch cards produced by ItzCash, another Essel business. The services offered by myplaywin. com cards can also be accessed by mobile phones through SMS. The lottery results are in turn promoted on Play TV, an Essel Group operation and India’s first interactive gaming television channel. Mr Chandra’s Essel Group also owns Hindi TV broadcaster Zee Entertainment, with an estimated 500 million viewers in 167 countries. His son Punit was named Zee’s chief executive in August last year. The Essel business is still family run, with Mr Chandra’s brothers heading Zee News and Dish TV respectively. Other businesses include amusement parks. Subhash Chandra came 28th in FORBES’ ‘India’s 40 Richest’ list in December last year. As a result of the global credit crisis, however, he was relegated from FORBES’ global list of billionaires as his net worth was estimated at US$970 million. In 2007, Mr Chandra was ranked at 407 on the ‘World’s Billionaires’ list’ with a net worth of US$2.3 billion. Asian Gaming 50 – 2009 Jamie Odell was hired by Aristocrat Leisure Ltd to maintain and build thecompany’sstrong technical team while at the same time reinvigorating its focus on the ultimate VIPs—its consumers. The CEO, who recently completed a strategic review of company operations, has 29 (-) Greg Hawkins Chief Executive Officer, City of Dreams integrated resort in Macau. His challenge now is to turn CoD into the kind of VIP hotspot that Crown Macau used to be. That task got a little more challenging recently when the Macau operators’ newly formed trade body agreed to cap commissions to agents at 1.25% of rolling chip turnover. Mr Hawkins remains upbeat, however, that the quality and range of CoD’s VIP offer will earn the loyalty of newly arrived customers on both the agent and player sides, and bring in new business. The early indications are that it’s working. MPEL doubled its market share of Macau gross gaming revenue in July, the month after CoD opened, recording an 18% share, compared to 9% in June. Prior to joining MPEL, Mr Hawkins was general manager for gaming at SKYCITY Entertainment Group, a gaming and entertainment enterprise listed in Australia and New Zealand. At Skycity, he managed the gaming operations and strategies across multiple casino businesses in New Zealand. He also served as a director of Greg Hawkins earns a place in Asian gaming history as one of the executives who presided over Macau’s record-breaking 1.35% commission offer made to VIP betting agents to revive the fortunes of Crown Macau (now Altira). It certainly worked for a while. After the commission deal was struck with junket consolidator Amax in December 2007, Crown Macau went from single digits in terms of market share of Macau VIP gross to grab around one fifth of the entire high roller segment in a matter of months. The hangover from the party came later when the other operators responded with a price war, a global recession started and the effects of baccarat’s inherent volatility kicked in. In May 2008, Mr Hawkins moved from Crown Macau after just over two years as Chief Executive to take up the equivalent post at City of Dreams (CoD), Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd’s (Nasdaq: MPEL) first Skycity Australia during the period between 2001 and 2004, overseeing the operations of Skycity’s casino in Adelaide, Australia, as well as the gaming machine and food and beverage businesses of Skycity in Auckland, New Zealand from 1998 to 2001. Before joining Skycity, he was with Crown Melbourne Limited beginning in 1994 as an initial member of the executive team that launched the Crown Casino Melbourne. Mr Hawkins also has experience in both the mass market and high roller segments, serving as a senior manager with the Victoria TAB gaming division in Australia between 1990 and 1994.