Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING DECEMBER 2017 78 INDUSTRY PROFILE IAG: Let’s start by talking about your background. Where did you grow up? Lloyd Robson: I was born in Sydney and spent my whole school life there. When I finished school, I moved to London and was playing soccer over there for Southend for a couple of years. Then I tore the ACL in my knee and returned to Sydney where I entered the real world, going to university and looking for a job. IAG: So the football career was over? LR: Career over … the soccer career over but professional career getting started. Inside Asian Gaming catches up with Lloyd Robson , Aristocrat’s new Sales Director – Asia Pacific. Lloyd Robson: New horizons My career goal was always to be a soccer player so it took me a good couple of years to get over it mentally and that was really going through the motions to begin with at Uni. I actually started in the pharmaceuticals industry so I had a spell there for five or six years with Elastoplast, who make strapping tape. But I eventually landed at Tabcorp in the gambling and entertainment sector and was there for six years before moving to Aristocrat in mid-2016. I’m a passionate person for the industry. I’ve always enjoyed a little flutter myself so it was a pretty easy decision to join Tabcorp eight years ago. I was always interested in gaming and we had a gaming services business at Tabcorp even though I wasn’t directly involved in it. Aristocrat provided that opportunity and I wanted to be a part of it. IAG: What was your role at Tabcorp? LR: The last role I held there was National Business Manager, managing the likes of ALH (Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group) with 12,000 machines across the country. That was my primary role but I also managed the stakeholders in the industry – the big bodies like the Australian Hotels Association – so it was a bit of an industry engagement and sales role. I guess the benefit of going from Tabcorp to Aristocrat is it’s the same sector, same customers and the only real thing that changed was the product. I went from selling a service to selling a service via a product. IAG: And the move to Macau came about quite quickly after joining Aristocrat? LR: Realistically it was only 10 or 11 months