Inside Asian Gaming

F utureLogic Inc.,—a leading global supplier of thermal gaming printers—is in the process of repositioning its international operation. The aim is to move the company from a supplier of gaming peripherals to a role as what it calls a gaming solutions provider.What that means in practice is that FutureLogic is integrating important new functions and player marketing tools with the core process of printing casino cash-out tickets. The key to that integration is PromoNet®. FutureLogic describes PromoNet as a valuable marketing tool for casino operators either as an addition to an existing Players Club or as a standalone rewards programme. The company says it is currently the only system in the world that can identify and reward anonymous players based on their play behaviour. The system offers an easy-to-use promotions design tool with which the marketing staff can design the promotional coupons, develop the triggers for the promotions, and set the start and finish date, redemption period and locations and other criteria relevant to special promotions. Once finished and authorised, the promotions are uploaded to the server and run fully automatically. No further intervention is required. Themost obviousbenefitsof PromoNet, according toFutureLogic, are its intelligence in identifying and rewarding anonymous players, ease-of-use and flexibility. FutureLogic describes it as bringing intelligent promotional couponing to the casino floor. PromoNet received approval from Gaming Laboratories International andBMMComplianceat theendof last year.Theproduct went live at South Point Casino in Las Vegas soon afterwards. Then in early January this year, PromoNet was installed at Casino MonteLago located on Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada. During ICE 2012 in London, Inside Asian Gaming spoke to Anette Jauch, Sales & Marketing Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa for FutureLogic International, and John Edmunds, VP FutureLogic International Markets and Managing Director for the Asia Pacific Region, about these milestones and the company’s repositioning. IAG : What’s the significance of the various approvals for PromoNet? John Edmunds : They show that the product has been tried, tested and approved. It means we’re able to roll PromoNet out internationally. So we’re really ramping up our different teams in Asia, Europe and in South America to sell PromoNet and install support. It’s an exciting time. We’re actually out there hiring people to grow the business. And it’s a nice position to be in after having spent years developing the product. How would you sum up the value proposition of PromoNet as far as Asian casino operators are concerned? PromoNet is very easy to run, very cost effective, offers a high level of security and allows operators to track the effectiveness of their promotions. It offers multiple sign-in levels of security with e-mail function, allowing a new promotion to be approved for execution by senior management via mails. This reduces and simplifies the approval process. If you’ve got casino hosts on the floor just giving away coupons based on a centrally-determined promotion, and doing it via a computer tablet interface, there’s nothing to stop the hosts giving coupons to their friends or using the tablet to surf the Net for personal purposes during work time. PromoNet prints tickets fully automatically without any intervention. If players don’t want to sign up for a player card or the operator has quite a high level of uncarded play in the venue, there’s no way of knowing who those anonymous players are. PromoNet allows you to reach those uncarded players and market to them. PromoNet also offers tracking of past and current promotions performance data providing casino marketers with valuable information. This information can help determine or improve future promotion/offer designs to cater to the multicultural gaming environment in Asia. How does PromoNet fit in to the repositioning of FutureLogic International’s business? Anette Jauch : In the past, FutureLogic was known for its printing business. Historically the company did a lot of roll printer business for kiosks, petrol stations, etc. The gaming printer business came out of that and FutureLogic developed into the market leader for gaming printers. Now the company has developed technologies supporting the core printer product. FutureLogic is now repositioning itself as a gaming solutions provider instead of purely a printer hardware supplier. What does ‘total solutions’ mean in this context? AJ : It’s really an add-on solution to the printer business. It’s to get more value out of the printer. Instead of just having a cash out ticket from your printer, you can also include added-value features such as promotional couponing. So PromoNet is part of the overall strategy? AJ : Very much so. In the past FutureLogic has concentrated its business on the casino market. But now it’s looking at the gaming market as a whole; for instance VLT [video lottery terminals] and also AWP [amusement with prizes] which is very strong in Europe. FutureLogic has developed a system, called Ticket2Go, to support ticket-out payments for the AWP market. The big picture marketing message for the casino gaming industry is that PromoNet is ready, it’s now available and it’s getting out into the market. The Future is Now FutureLogic’s PromoNet system for intelligent promotional slot coupon printing is coming to a casino near you Anette Jauch and Rob Denham, International Technical Director for FutureLogic