Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | November 2013 38 third of three jurisdictions with legal online gaming in the US. The state’s three casinos are set to transition DoubleDown’s online games, currently being distributed through Facebook, from free to for-money in late October. An interesting question is what happens to the social gaming site when Delaware makes that transition. Robert Melendres, executive vice president, interactive group, IGT, notes that social and for-money gaming have co-existed elsewhere around the world and there’s no reason to assume it can’t happen in the US. “It’s going to be the operator’s decision in Delaware; we do think the markets can co-exist based on what’s happening around the world,” said Mr Melendres. “If you look at the top markets for social casino, there’s the US, Brazil and Australia, none of which have legal online gambling. But the UK is also in the top five and there’s gaming everywhere there; on every street corner, and you can even gamble on your mobile phone. Also, in the US, one of the hottest areas for DoubleDown is Nevada. Maybe people are practicing or it’s a combination of a number of things.” Delaware made the decision to open up its online market by going through DoubleDown first because it’s “very complimentary to a real gaming experience,” said Mr Melendres. “Players are able to get familiar with it and if they really enjoy it, try it for real.” He added that embedding DoubleDown into a casino website carries with it three value propositions: reach, retention and revenue. By reach, DoubleDown allows properties to engage with the customer with authentic casino-style games even when they’re not in the casino. By retention, it allows them to market to customers, provide incentives and give them reasons to come back into the casino. Revenue is realized both when they come back and with a revenue-share arrangement on the Web. “If you look at social gaming generally or Facebook, the US is the top market, there’s a huge appetite for our type of games,” said Mr Melendres. “Even though our games are offered for fun, they are authentic games. One of the successes for IGT and DoubleDown is we made the decision to offer the exact games that are offered on the casino floor in regulated markets. People love having the same game, something that “One of the successes for IGT and DoubleDown is we made the decision to offer the exact games that are offered on the casino floor in regulated markets. People love having the same game, something that they’ve played in a casino. The games have the same math, same volatility, and the same experience.” Robert Melendres, executive VP, interactive group, IGT they’ve played in a casino. The games have the same math, same volatility, and the same experience.” Mr Melendres is bullish on New Jersey from an IGT perspective, and for the potential of a combined Nevada/New Jersey market. “We expect New Jersey to be $300 million in size, quickly,” he said. “It’s a good, big market. IGT has the largest authentic- style online games. Half of the games on the floors in New Jersey are IGT machines. We are able to offer the same games to our players in New Jersey online on Day 1. We were always hopeful that there would be a federal solution but it just hasn’t come to fruition, so we’ll take state-by-state. This idea of Nevada and New Jersey entering into some sort of a compact is the right thing to do. From a business perspective, it’s an important move.” FEATURES