Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | April 2014 24 SUPPLIER AWARDS A sia now stands in the forefront of gaming industry innovation, which pleases us more than ever to announce the winners of Inside Asian Gaming ’s Supplier Awards 2014 . We salute the developers and suppliers and the casino operators along with them who have made this happen through their commitment to providing a more entertaining and satisfying experience for the consumer and a more rewarding business for their stakeholders. As the technological bar continues to rise we’ve come to realize that revenue performance, while it may be the final word in assessing the ultimate value of innovation, is not the only one. Accordingly, our panel of experts, all senior casino executives, gave considerable weight to player feedback. The perspective their staffs brought to the process also factored in a big way. The extensive knowledge of our judges and their wealth of hands-on experience were our most valuable resources, and we wish to thank them for generously sharing both. The flow of new titles onto Asia’s slot floors slowed dramatically over much of the last year. This was mostly due to the internal dynamics of the Macau market. Part of it was the result of a new get-tough regulatory stance by the government’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, which crimped the development pipeline right where it opens out to the end users, the casinos. The other factor was the difficulty in finding space for new games in an environment where demand at the public tables has outstripped square footage to the point where average bet sizes are going through the roof and operators can do little but focus on the monster yields this is delivering them. The 12 months through December 2013 saw the number of slots on Macau’s floors decline by 21%. The fact that south China is generally recognized now as Asia’s proving ground for new product—this by virtue of the sizeable revenues Macau’s machines are throwing off, more than US$1.79 billion in 2013, and that’s not counting the boom in live-dealer ETGs—meant the impact on the rest of the region was profound as well. Not surprisingly, the cold hard facts of performance carried special weight in our Supplier Awards 2014 . But that’s been a good thing. Macau’s slots generated 8% more revenue in 2013 than they did in 2012 in a market that was lighter by more than 3,400 machines. Clearly, the manufacturers are rising to the challenges. In our view they’ve more than earned the recognition we hope to provide them in the pages that follow. Winner | Aristocrat – Five Dragons Legends Aristocrat so completely dominated the list of nominees our judges submitted for this year’s “Best Standalone Slot” that when the votes were tallied it was no surprise to find 5 Dragons Legends on top for the third straight year. Aristocrat knows how to play a hot hand. Its success across Asia—and in Macau in particular, where its market share is estimated at better than 60%—is built on games tailored like no others to the preferences of Asian players. Of the several that have proven so popular they’ve emerged as brands in their own right, 5 Dragons still comes foremost to mind. It was the title that established the slot machine as a contender for the spend of Macau’s growing mass market with that selectable volatility feature that delivered RTPs Chinese gamblers could relate to. The Legends series was introduced back in 2011 specifically to extend the popularity of this Reel Power classic, and it continues to win fans with its enhanced graphics package and potent mix of higher win multipliers and options in the free games feature that let players pick either six games with multipliers up to 40 times or a “Mystery Choice” in the form of a “Pink Dragon” that picks both the freebies and the multiplier at random. Honorable Mention | Aristocrat – Fortune King Few games are as synonymous with Macau’s slot market as Fortune King. The King has enjoyed a long life and won high marks from our judges again in 2014 thanks in no small part to its reissue in an enhanced Deluxe version featuring increased multipliers and more free games, with two additional ante bet options, and all of it displayed in an even more striking visual package. Supplier Awards inside asian gaming ELECTRONIC GAMES Aristocrat 5 Dragons Aristocrat 5 Dragons Legends Aristocrat 5 Dragons Deluxe Aristocrat 50 Dragons Deluxe Best Standalone Slot | Nominees Aristocrat Fortune King Aristocrat Fortune King Deluxe Weike Qin Shi Huang