Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2013 28 A ristocrat came to G2E Asia in May having just secured almost half the slot floor at Manila’s new Solaire Resort & Casino. It was a coup good for almost 600 machines, and it would prove instrumental in driving a solid first half for the Australia-based slot giant in which net profit after tax grew 11.2% year on year to A$52.6 million on $383.2 million in revenues. Aristocrat singled out “maintenance of our leading position in the Asia Pacific market” as a highlight of those results. Indeed, revenues outside the Western Hemisphere and Australia accounted for 18% of all the business the company did in the six months through 31st March and were up 4.5% over the same period in 2012. “The Asia Pacific business grew significantly,” Aristocrat said in its analysis of the results,“supported by a product portfolio tailored to the markets in the region.” This was clearly in evidence on the show floor at The Venetian Macao, where the company unveiled two new entries in its popular Legends series—50 Dragons Deluxe and Fortune King Deluxe—and treated the region to a first look at its innovativeWonder 4 multigame platform. “2013 is about reaffirming our commitment to Asia and supporting our customers with dedicated and best- performing content specifically developed for this region,” says General Manager Asia David Punter. The Legends Series has risen to the challenges implied by that commitment by extending the popularity of proven game brands with new features and notable enhancements to the mechanics and the quality of the graphical interface of classics like 5 Dragons, the Reel Power stalwart that arguably is still the best-known game in Macau. The Legends version, which debuted in 2011, offered higher win multiples and a compelling free games feature that lets players choose either a set number of spins with up to a 40-times multiplier or a“Mystery Choice”that randomly selects the number of games and the multiplier. The reception was enthusiastic, and 5 Koi Legends followed in 2012. This year, with 50 Dragons Deluxe, players will be enjoying an all-new graphics and sound package and a “choose your volatility” option that guarantees longer stacked wilds for an even spicier gamble— leveraging, as 5 Dragons Legends does to great effect, that vaunted approach to game math for which Aristocrat is famous. Fortune King Deluxe offers two new features plus bonus free games and a similarly enhanced visual package. As Mr Punter puts it, “We have to be changing. We have to mold ourselves to what’s happening in the region”—and the “2013 is about reaffirming our commitment to Asia and supporting our customers with dedicated and best-performing content specifically developed for this region.” – Aristocrat General Manager Asia David Punter The Commitment Renewed Robust growth in its Asian markets helped propel Aristocrat to a double-digit increase in profit in the first half—and if the innovations displayed at G2E Asia are any indication, that performance is set to continue FEATURES