Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | January 2013 32 “We’re being very careful not to over promise. There’s a process in place now to help us prioritize customer commitments. We do not offer any promises over and above what we know we can achieve.” But there will be a Baccarat version, a development of some relevance in this part of the world. In fact, the timetable is the first half of the year—prime time, as it turns out, for an unveiling at G2E Asia. “There will be some exciting products,” Ms Cohen promises. What’s also certain is that the TCS JOHHUXLEY we’ll see in Macau in May [at G2E Asia] will be fundamentally different from the one we’ve seen here before. “We are committed to Asia. We are investing in products and people for the region. We have invested significantly over the past year and will continue to do so. Our Executive Chairman is based in Singapore which further supports our commitment to the region,” according to Ms Burns. “I think it is metamorphosing,” Ms Cohen says. “It’s working on the strengths of our past and looking to the future, understanding the marketplace. In the past we were trying to do lots of things for all customers. So we’re now taking stock of what we’ve got, re- evaluating it and looking for products that add value to our customers’ business and have growth potential. Especially products that we develop in-house. That said, we will continue to forge strong relationships with our product partners through our distribution relationships. We have had great success with these relationships, and that combined with our focus on more internal product development means there’s great potential and a very strong road map to the future.” FEATURES Tablet Roulette Log onto www.asgam. com for the latest industry intelligence and a subscription to our digital edition—all absolutely free A Sure Bet Tracy Cohen well over the years. Ms Burns professed herself “delighted” with the return, saying, “We are looking forward to sharing our future plans for product development, innovation and growth.” On the games front, the show saw the unveiling of a new live blackjack hybrid designed with Asian players in mind and titled Dragon 21. Bettors may choose either “Tiger” or “Dragon”. Hands are played out around simple blackjack rules, and the hand closest to 21 wins. The homage to baccarat is obvious, as it is with BaccPo, which debuted at G2E Asia last May and was shown in Las Vegas in two new versions. Similar to Dragon 21 in its combination of blackjack’s speed with the betting simplicity of baccarat, the game is unique in that it’s spiced with a skill component derived from poker (hence, the name), and the company sees it as an entré into Asia’s VIP rooms. “That’s our next stage of development of this particular product,”says Ms Cohen. “Once the platform’s there, and it’s solid, then we can add anything to it. The opportunities are absolutely limitless.” Then there was Tablet Roulette, a child of TCS JOHNHUXLEY’s technological prowess, a server-based platform that brings live table action to players anywhere in the casino via their tablet computers. There’s no mobile app yet, but that would seem to be the next stage. “It’s a question of maximizing the R&D and product development time scales with the needs of our customers. So we can sit here and say we want to do this, this and that. The reality is we need to align our product development to business opportunity.” Ms Cohen adds,