Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | September 2012 28 Asian Gaming 50 – 2012 25 David Punter General Manager Asia Pacific Aristocrat Technologies For the last four years, David Punter has held a front-row seat on the robust growth of Macau’s machine gaming market, a tale of which Aristocrat Technologies can justly claim much of the authorship. Since Mr Punter’s arrival in the territory in 2009, no manufacturer has done a better job at padding a lead like Aristocrat and none have been more successful at developing the themes, content and game mechanics that consistently attract and hold the interest of Chinese players. Not surprisingly, the New South Wales-based giant dominates the territory’s slot floors. Aristocrat closed the books on 2011 with an estimated 60% share of Macau’s installed base at the time of 16,000 or so machines, a market that generated US$1.43 billion in revenue and is likely to hit $2 billion in 2012. In some casinos, Aristocrat’s share runs as high as 70%. “The core thing,” says Mr Punter, “is really good maths, fundamentally good games.” It’s what he learned coming up with Aristocrat in the massive, intensely competitive club market in and around Sydney, a school unlike any other, as those who know it will tell you. It’s as pure a “locals” market as there is, consisting of some of the most sophisticated product to style casino model, Aristocrat, thanks largely to its Australian roots, was quick to grasp the potential for a mass market that could evolve into a sizable slots market. Mr Punter was named to fill the newly created role of regional marketing manager, working from Australia to build relationships with key operators and ensuring that the company’s products and marketing mentality were aligned with their needs. “We localized pretty quickly,”he recalls of the company’s early success in Macau. “We came up and we saw certain games we had that weren’t Chinese, so we made sure we had Chinese there. Some of our competitors came in with a more US-based approach, and we took a more Australian, a more tailored approach.” The result was critical first-mover advantage. Aristocrat hasn’t looked back since. In 2007, Mr Punter was promoted to marketing director Asia Pacific and to general manager two years later, the position he occupies today, directing business development across the region, managing strategic relationships with operators, regulators and government agencies and managing a staff of 28 in sales, marketing, service, operations and systems and finance. It’s been three years in which Aristocrat has not only maintained its edge in Macau but has expanded on it. It’s a growth story David Punter is still busily writing. be found anywhere in the world because it is so completely dependent on high- repeat play, with all that implies in terms of cultivating loyalty by identifying what resonates with gamblers, turning that into game brands that fulfill their expectations and continually refining and improving those brands. In essence, it’s what describes the arc of Aristocrat’s success in Macau— “working closely with our customers,” as Mr Punter puts it, “understanding their requirements and trying to drive that back into our product portfolio.” When Sands Macao opened in 2004 and gave theChinese their first tasteof aWestern- 26 Ken Jolly Vice President - Asia Shuffle Master Shuffle Master is deeply engaged in repositioning itself in Asia and globally as a provider of floor-wide “solutions” rather than as a niche supplier, generating not only one-off sales but also recurring revenues. Industry veteran Ken Jolly is an integral part of that mission. Mr Jolly is widely recognized as one of the most successful sales and marketing specialists in the sector. He has gained that reputation by listening carefully to customer needs and not only fulfilling them but also pointing out how they can make their purchases perform even more profitably. Mr Jolly was appointed Shuffle Master’s vice president for Asia at the beginning of 2011 at a time of dramatic expansion for the company, highlightedbyanaggressivemove into the electronic gaming machine sector. Following the 2006 acquisition of Stargames, the company has enjoyed considerable success with its slots, while the Rapid Table Games line proved an instant hit at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, signaling Shuffle’s rise as an important player in electronic multi-station table games across the region. The Stargames purchase also added to Shuffle’s portfolio the Vegas Star virtual- dealer product, long a staple at Australian casinos, which has recently made its way to Macau in its Grand Baccarat version. Few manufacturers can boast a range of solutions for the casino floor as varied as Shuffle Master’s. Its innovations have impacted nearly every facet of the gambling experience, and in some cases— the automatic card shuffler, the proprietary