Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | June 2013 34 Michael Jackson II Stars Aligning A pantheon of new regionally themed games has Bally Technologies injecting fresh energy into its Asian markets B ally Technologies is riding high right now on a wave of new premium product and wide-area progressive launches, and the impact is being felt in a big way on the slot giant’s global markets. Sales to international customers accounted for a robust 17% of Bally’s new-unit shipments during a record fiscal third quarter that saw total revenues hit a record US$259 million on record year-on-year sales of systems ($71.3 million, +25%) and WAPs ($102 million, +40%). And if you’ve seen Michael Jackson King of Pop moon-walking in increasing numbers across Macau’s slot floors—and this powerful package of sights, sounds and feature-rich progressive game content is all but impossible to miss—you’ve got an idea of how serious Bally is about expanding its presence in Asia. In fact, the company now has studios on three continents designing and developing games tailored for the region, led by a development team in India dedicated entirely to creating content for Macau and greater Asia. “We’ve come a long way in the last 12 months,”says Kurt Gissane, who works out of Macau as the company’s senior director and managing director for Asia-Pacific.“We’ve got a lot more of a regional focus, an international focus, as a company.” Bally is going several steps further as well, soliciting feedback from casino operators into the R&D process and inviting groups of players from Macau to test drive some of the latest games prior to release. A first for Bally, the strategy was launched late last year and Zhi Nu is a five-reel, 50-line linked progressive.