Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | November 2013 40 Ultimate Gaming About 11 years ago, Tom Breitling and his partner Tim Poster, the then-owner of the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas, and Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta of Station Casinos were operating separate businesses but thinking along very much the same lines. Both were in the brick-and-mortar business, and along with a number of other big names in the industry such as MGM, getting ready for the next wave of expansion, which was to surely come via the Internet. In 2001, the Nevada legislature adopted a law permitting the Nevada Gaming Commission to license Internet gamingbusinesses to operatewholly within the state, an initiative that was killed the following year when the Department of Justice wrote that such businesses would be in violation of federal law. “Our vision was to buy the Golden Nugget and I was going to run the online version and Tim was going to run the brick- and-mortar,” said Mr Breitling, whose first business venture with Mr Poster was an online travel service company they sold to Expedia. “And then, when that letter came out we said,‘OK, we’ll just focus on the bricks- and-mortar for now.’ Every intention we had was bricks-and-clicks and we thought we were going to be at the forefront.” Eleven years later, now chairman and co-founder of Ultimate Gaming, Messrs Breitling and Poster, along with the Fertittas, are all very much at the forefront of change. Fertitta Interactive, which is majority- owned by Station Casinos, owns both Ultimate Gaming and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts brand. Ultimate Poker launched as Station’s online poker brand tied to 16 Station, Wildfire and Fiesta casinos at the end of April. “In the first four months, we dealt over 14 million hands, proving there is pent-up demand for the activity,” said Mr Breitling. “We’ve just launched the second version of our product, with 60 new features and enhancements. We’re proving that players can be protected while generating revenue for the state; and even though it’s a state of 2.7 million people and poker is a small piece of it, there is pent-up demand for the activity and the timing is right.” Mr Breitling said that Ultimate Gaming, as a brand, has the same characteristics of the UFC, but it’s a complete standalone brand. “It was driven by the DNA of both companies; Station Casinos and the UFC,” he said. “UFC is the fastest growing sport in the world; it completely understands the 21-45 year-old ‘super-consumer’ who loves sports and games and embraces technology. It’s a demographic with $200 billion-plus in spending power. There’s a powerful marketing engine behind UFC that we think provides great synergy with Ultimate Gaming and our product offering. And of course you have Station Casinos, with its long history of leadership in gaming experiences in a regulated environment.” Ultimate’s customers are playing online and in the casino; nearly 50% are going into Station Casinos properties, depositing, withdrawing and playing games there, and land-based poker revenues were up 5% in June. In New Jersey, Ultimate has partnered with the Taj Mahal, which for the last several decades “has been the place to play poker up and down the East Coast,” said Mr Breitling. “It was also the site of the very first UFC card after Frank and Lorenzo bought the company in 2001. We are operating to meet the DGE deadline of 23rd November and we fully hope to be the first to launch. The northeast corridor is a much different gaming marketplace than Nevada. Our job is to bring our product to New Jersey.” If Nevada and New Jersey could form an agreement to work together, it would set the tone for the rest of the country, said Mr Breitling. “These are two leadership states. The other states are absolutely interested in the tax revenue that would be generated by Internet gaming and players want to be protected. It’s also critical for building “We’re proving that players can be protected while generating revenue for the state; and even though it’s a state of 2.7 million people and poker is a small piece of it, there is pent-up demand for the activity and the timing is right.” Tom Breitling, chairman and co-founder, Ultimate Gaming Ultimate Poker launched Station Casinos’ online poker brand in April. FEATURES