“We have tasted success here at Ainsworth, and it’s only the beginning as we see it,” says Ainsworth Game Technology Founder and Executive Chairman Len Ainsworth. He tells us he believes his company’s dedication to customers, long-term support for equipment and interest in the financial welfare of its clients is what will continue to set Ainsworth apart from its competition. Len Ainsworth knows what success is and has obviously had more than just a taste of it during his legendary gaming career. So it’s easy to just take his word for it. However, the company and its team’s performance speak just as highly, and optimistically, for themselves.
Len Ainsworth founded Aristocrat Leisure in 1953. He then founded Ainsworth in 1995. The company’s first slot product was launched in 2001, and in the last two years, Ainsworth Executive Director and CEO Danny Gladstone believes the company has earned the “tag of the premium Australian game supplier.”
This success can be credited to the establishment of the current executive team and execution of Ainsworth’s global product strategy. Gladstone points out that experienced leaders are running Ainsworth across all areas of the company, including product development, research and development, compliance and production, sales, operations, and finance.
Gladstone has held senior positions within the gaming industry over a career spanning 35 years so far. From 1996 to 2006, he was director of Konami Australia. Scott Clarebrough, group general manager of strategy and development, has a similarly long history in gaming, including the position of marketing director at IGT for the Australian and Asian markets before joining Ainsworth. CFO and company secretary Mark Ludski comes with more than 20 years of gaming experience, including senior financial roles at Aristocrat. And Vince Bruzzese, director of research and development, has been in the industry for 30 years, 20 of them as director of engineering with IGT in Australia.
Gladstone believes Len Ainsworth’s vision brought together the best gaming brains in the Australian business. “We are very well placed to further the company’s successes and maintain the legacy of the business for the future,” Gladstone says. “To complement the executive team, we have found an exciting group of young talent within our ranks, bringing a wealth of energy, technology and new ideas that are vital to our ongoing success. As such, the executive team has committed to use our experience in developing an exciting succession and staff development program to ensure the business will be in great hands after we move on."
Len Ainsworth is proud of his team and is confident they will lead his company to a successful future. “Altogether in the company we have something of the order of 200 years collective experience, and as our slogan says, ‘Experience Counts.’ We are accustomed to producing winners and have no doubt that will continue,” he says.
Clarebrough says he and other company leaders will continue to focus on long-term product performance and providing casinos with value as the company grows into the successful future its leaders are planning for. The company’s development strategy includes the use of the classical Australian math model as it moves into North American gaming markets. “Ainsworth is synonymous as the premium provider of Australian math models in our home market, and now we are bringing these products to the Americas,” Clarebrough says.
John Glaser, director of sales for North America, says the company’s growth strategy also makes it unique as it works to enter markets in the United States and Canada. “There is a vast array of product marketing strategies implemented across our customer base, and we spend a lot of time discussing the uniqueness of their property and the casino patrons’ preferences for game types,” he says. Glaser also stresses the importance of proving the worth of the games his team sells, especially since many still see Ainsworth as a new competitor in the market.
Products
The Ainsworth team will tell you it’s an exciting time for the company right now because of the recent launch of the A560™ family of cabinets. The cabinets feature dual widescreen LCD screens, a new Quadtronic™ processor and an ergonomic player interface that supports up to 18 standard or dynamic buttons. It’s also downloadable and server-based gaming ready. The widescreen A560 family launched with a range of cabinet configurations, including the 22-inch dual widescreen with topper option, a single-screen lowboy with 19-inch LCD, and the triple-screen super cabinet. Glaser says the flexibility provided by the A560 family of cabinets is important, as it creates options for casinos with low ceiling heights and allows casinos to mix and match technology elements to create the best tailored gaming solution for their floor.
The reliability of Ainsworth hardware is earning the company a good reputation among casino technicians. Gladstone says reviews from technicians often show how happy they are with the lack of mandatory software change notices. Glaser adds: “We have a very technically sound platform. Technicians love our platform because once it’s up and running, it is as solid as a rock.”
Gladstone notes that the new A560 technology also shows the company’s dedication to products. “Games and technology are the life-blood of Ainsworth’s success—it’s what we all live for here,” he says. “We now have an outstanding product range with games designed across all denominations, and our game library has grown to become the largest of the emerging manufacturers’.”
The new Ainsworth game that is capturing attention at trade shows across the world is the Las Vegas-themed Players Paradise™. According to Clarebrough, this linked progressive penny slot package is performing at two times house average across North America. “It is not only the originality of the Las Vegas theme that is a hit with players, but importantly the consistent long arrays of stacked wilds and rapid hit bonuses and jackpots during max-bet play and feature games,” he says.
The game theme reminds players of the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas billboard, with a signage package that completes the experience. The game requires players to wager max coin to win the fixed bonuses and linked jackpots.
Although players don’t have to play max bet to get into the free game feature, the max bet is really what Glaser says drives players, because it provides exciting awards at a very high frequency. “It’s a true gambler’s game,” he says, adding that he believes the success of Players Paradise will be key for Ainsworth establishing its reputation in North America.
Ainsworth also boasts a successful low-denomination library, including the Play 50Lines™ / Play 100Lines™ stand-alone progressive range. Clarebrough believes the reasons for the success of Ainsworth’s low-denomination products include extra-long stacked wild arrays, mystery progressive prizes and a variety of rapid-trigger free game features.
In Australia, Ainsworth mid-denomination games are an important part of the company’s strategy. Clarebrough says the range of Double Hit® stand-alone progressive games are responsible for growing the Australian 2-cent and 5-cent market dramatically over the last three years. “Ainsworth is now bringing these games to the North American markets, realizing a potential to attract regular gamblers back to mid-denomination games by offering rapid hit, medium- and high-range stand-alone jackpots,” he added.
Clarebrough says Ainsworth’s strong math models create games that perform well over a long period of time. “Here at Ainsworth, we do not design games that are 90-day wonders, where performance drops off rapidly after the honeymoon period expires,” he explains. “This homegrown style of slot design has proven key to Ainsworth’s success in developing game longevity and player loyalty across all international markets.”
One new Ainsworth product is bringing together many of the exciting products the company is currently offering. World of Jackpots™ is what Clarebrough calls “the first ever jackpot superstore for the gaming industry.”
World of Jackpots allows casino operators to offer players three or more jackpot themes with unique games and the ability to mix and match the best performing themes and all new themes. World of Jackpots is showcased on the new Super A560™ cabinet, which has three LCD screens. The third screen acts as a jackpot screen display, removing the need for signage changes when a new theme is added to the mix. This third screen is also surrounded by LED lighting that is linked to game play and jackpot triggers. The product was made with properties of 1,000 machines or more in mind, because they have the floor space required for the configuration that World of Jackpots requires.
“This innovative new technology provides extraordinary player entertainment while removing all the usual link progressive limitations to provide ultimate operator flexibility,” Clarebrough says. “By providing such value and de-risking the purchasing of a jackpot product, we consider World of Jackpots the future direction for our linked progressive offerings.”
World of Jackpots was initially launched with the themes Players Paradise, Lights Camera Action™, Rio Grande Rapids™, Jackpot Zone™ and Rapid Strike™, and development studio teams are already working on new link brands. Glaser expects to offer nine themes by the end of 2011.
Overall, Gladstone says the current product offering at Ainsworth is performing very well globally. “In Australia, our customers are very pleased with performance of A560, and we see this reflected by our slot sales rising to 20 percent of the industry ship share,” he explains. He’s also encouraged by recent international results showing that the new A560 platform is complementing historically strong game performance. Now, Gladstone says, it’s time to take all of this to North America.
North American Expansion
Of course, Ainsworth is a market leader in Australia, and company leaders say they’re ecstatic about it. However, their big-picture vision for the company includes being a leading global slot provider. “Hence,” Gladstone says, “we are out to prove ourselves on the biggest gaming stage in the world—that, of course, being North America.”
Ainsworth is already invested in North America, with more than 70 gaming licenses held and products installed in more than 20 markets. Ainsworth is licensed in Nevada and is in the process of seeking approval for the A560 platform there as well.
Now the company’s major investment in North America is taking shape: the new headquarters for the Americas in Las Vegas. This 30,000-square-foot building will house sales, finance, marketing, service, technical support, corporate compliance and product development teams. A showroom is coming next.
Len Ainsworth says there are significant advantages to manufacturing in Las Vegas. “It’s traditionally the source of new and forward technology, and Las Vegas has a reservoir of skilled and experienced people necessary for success,” he says. “When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or, in other words, by employing local people, in this case the Americans, we get the benefit of their know-how and experience.”
The Vegas plant will supply the Nevada market as well as other markets in North America. It will also provide machines to Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe.
“The Las Vegas North American facility is very important to the company. It’s a very large commitment on the company’s behalf,” Glaser says. “Our feeling is if you’re going to be a serious player in the business, you need to be in Las Vegas.”
Ainsworth is already significantly invested in Las Vegas, with an experienced game development team now producing games for both North America and international markets.
The Nevada sales team will be formed when the Nevada field trial begins, which Glaser hopes will be in three to six months. Service for the Americas will also eventually expand, as necessary, with branches opening throughout the United States.
Ainsworth is also working in Canada. The company is exploring Quebec now and is licensed and placing products in Alberta and Ontario already.
Len Ainsworth’s plans for Vegas clearly go beyond North America: “Las Vegas will soon become Ainsworth’s new international headquarters, and this is key to our plans for global success. We are dedicated to our client’s interests and traditionally provide superior earnings with our equipment. The industry can expect to see a lot more of us and our equipment as we become settled in Las Vegas.”
Looking Forward to G2E
Expanding its hardware range with innovative new cabinet types, further enhancing its product range to complement its leading game library in Australia, and adding new hardware technologies are just a taste of what we can expect from Ainsworth this year. Gladstone says, “We are dedicated to fulfilling the industry’s appetite for highly innovative technology, cabinet flexibility, product performance and a wide range of game options.”
Clarebrough further outlines some of the technology-plan executions we will see in the last half of 2011, noting that the A560 family of cabinets will continue to expand, with two new variants set to be released at G2E. A dynamic LCD programmable button panel will also debut this year. Clarebrough says, “This is just the beginning with new technology developments in the areas of multi-game, multi-denomination, keno, poker and jackpot systems coming in 2012.”
Gladstone, meanwhile, is looking forward to October, when he can show exactly why he’s excited for the future of Ainsworth and the gaming industry. “We can’t wait for G2E, when we unveil a host of first-class new technologies” he says. “We think the market will be very surprised by how broad, advanced and eye-catching our product range has really become.”
Sarah Klaphake Cords is the New Media Editor for Casino Enterprise Management. She can be reached at editor3[at]aceme.org.
Comments
Post new comment