Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2012 12 IGT “W e’ve really revamped Asia,”says Mark Michalko, who took over as sales director of IGT-Asia in February.“I mean, it’s a complete overhaul in terms of the sales team, for sure, and some of the other things we’re doing.” Mainly, what he and the Macau-based division are doing is listening — a lot of listening, to operators, to players — not something IGT has done as well as it might have, according to some, with the result that the slot giant has yet to establish a presence on the peninsula’s casino floors that is anywhere near what it enjoys in other international jurisdictions. The problem dates back to the middle of the last decade, when massive foreign investment was beginning to transform the market, and US-based IGT sought a quick entry by leveraging games that served it well elsewhere, a tried-and- true formula but one that proved less than successful among the Chinese. As Michalko explains it, “We came here primarily with games from America or Australia. The good news is some of them worked, the bad news is others didn’t. They just weren’t as accepted as the products from some of our competitors. In fairness, we could’ve done things better perhaps. This is not a criticism of anything that happened. But I think we realize the market potential in Asia. I can tell you the shift right now has been pretty strong to very localized games.” The effort took a leap forward in December with the deployment of the first of a planned 140 Megabucks games in The Venetian Macao, Sands Macao and The Plaza Macao. The five-level wide-area progressive, the flagship of IGT’s popular MegaJackpot line, is being offered with a top prize of HK$50 million and a variety of engaging titles and line configurations, some available with advanced features like MultiPLAY, which allows up to three games to be played at once, and Step Up, where multipliers are kicked up from games one and two to the Megabucks MegaGame. Sands Cotai Central Mark Michalko In the Hunt International Game Technology is determined to gain ground in Macau with a new head of sales for the region and a renewed focus on developing games Chinese players want to play