Casino Enterprise Management

More people than ever before visited one of the casino industry’s largest events, the International Casino Exhibition (ICE), in late January to witness some of the sector’s latest and best innovations. The three-day show took place at London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre with organizer Clarion Gaming revealing that attendance hit an all-time high to continue ICE’s record of sustained growth for the eighth consecutive year. ICE-only visitors numbered 10,111, but this number was bolstered by an additional 2,861 attendees from for the collocated International Casino Exhibition Interactive (ICEi), and represented an annual increase of 7.9 percent. As if 12,972 visitors wasn’t enough, a further 6,960 buyers from the Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI) soft gaming trade fair being held next door wandered in to take the final tally to a staggering 19,932.

“ICE and ICEi continue to demonstrate their huge appeal to operators from every jurisdiction in the world, whether land, cruise or remotely-based,” said Karen Cooke, Clarion Gaming’s head of exhibitions. “Much of the credit for the attractive powers of the show must go to the exhibitors who year-on-year continue to surpass themselves in the depth and breadth of their innovative displays.”

Novomatic
Austrian gaming machine manufacturer Novomatic topped the exhibitor list as it once again had the largest stand and showcased its new Super-V + Gaminator casino cabinet featuring three monitors. The middle screen can be used for displaying the jackpot levels or to present the game’s e-Module, which is not connected to the jackpot system.

“For those two products we received a great response from our customers,” said Max Lindenberg, Novomatic’s marketing and business development director. “We also showed our multi-player range, which is steadily growing now with the new Novo-TouchBet Live-Blackjack, of which we have great expectations for international markets. Now it is possible to connect up to 250 individual player stations to a live game of Blackjack where the cards are drawn over an optical card reader that transmits the information of the card value directly to the game server and individual player stations. Everything is animated in three dimensions running on our new platform, Novo Unity II, which is also being introduced for the first time.”

IGT
Reno-based International Game Technology (IGT) took two stands at ICE under the theme “The Right Vision … Right Now, and for the Future” and exhibited its vision of the present and future of gaming as the company moves towards an “open” network based on protocols for product interoperability and flexibility. “At the same time, we want to acknowledge the increasing international success of IGT technology trends such as our multi-level progressives and EZ Pay,” said Steve Morro, IGT’s COO.

“The IGT theme of ‘The Right Vision … Right Now and for the Future,’ which we introduced at G2E, was a bold statement and we [followed] this theme through to ICE 2008 combined with a powerful line-up of products that will excite any operator,” said James Boje, IGT Europe’s managing director.

Taking center stage was its DigiDeal electronic table technology represented by a number of games such as Digital 21, DragonBacc and Texas Hold’Em. Indiana Jones Multi-Level Progressives were also shown featuring Well of Souls and Treasure of the Incas, which offer a community-gaming experience, alongside its AVP widescreen cabinet with the Wheel of Fortune MLP.

WMS
WMS Gaming was one of about 100 exhibitors that took larger stands at ICE, as it increased its footprint by 112 percent from last year’s show. The Waukegan, Wis.,-based manufacturer of lottery terminals and slot machines used its enhanced presence to showcase its “Casino Evolved” vision for the casino of the future, as well as to introduce 52 new game themes covering all major product categories.

“International sales now represent more than 30 percent of WMS’ product revenue, and our global footprint positions us to meet our customers’ demand for state-of-the-art gaming technology, including server-based gaming and downloadable gaming technologies worldwide,” said Brian Gamache, president and CEO of WMS. “We are poised to grow and expand internationally, building on our 36 percent increase in international unit shipments in fiscal 2007. We see significant opportunities and growth potential throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America.”

Bally
Bally Technologies has recently decided to invest internationally and showcased its complete array of developments for non-U.S. markets at ICE 2008, including its range of Alpha Elite platforms. “We have an aggressive plan to continue our global expansion, capitalizing on our industry-leading systems and games technology that are already performing extremely well in a number of international jurisdictions,” said Richard Haddrill, Bally CEO. “Our international business has tripled in revenues over the past three years, and we are increasing our infrastructure to ensure quality customer support and a continued strong growth trend.”

The Las Vegas firm capitalized on its distinction as a leading gaming systems company to display and demonstrate an array of advanced products for the global casino industry developed by its team based in France. In addition, it showed off the new members of its international management, sales and support teams working to enhance Bally’s global reach and provide increased customer support.

Aristocrat & PokerTek
Distributor Aristocrat Technologies showcased the PokerPro range of electronic Poker tables from North Carolina’s PokerTek, featuring software enhancements and news of further installations. Upgraded formats of both the 10-seat and peer-to-peer heads-up models now allow players to make side bets during play on a range of possibilities, such as the color or suit of the next upturned card. This follows an autumn release of an Omaha High-Low game for PokerPro along with multi-table tournament functionality and new player facilities to display showdown odds, offer quick accounts, kill pots and stored value cards, as well as multiple language and currency configurations.

“PokerPro sets the benchmark by which other electronic Poker products are judged, and the last 12 months have seen a tremendous effort working with regulators across Europe to ensure PokerPro meets the rigorous standards set,” said Daniel Lindsay, business development manager for Aristocrat Technologies Europe. “This work, we believe, will pay dividends over the course of the next six months, and the new software developments implemented by PokerTek will further enhance the product.”

TCSJOHNHUXLEY
TCSJOHNHUXLEY used ICE to exhibit the Bling server-supported gaming machine for the first time. Manufactured by Estonian firm Videobet, Bling consists of modular products offering traditional slot, multi-game and cross-platform opportunities letting operators choose from a wide variety of content, ranging from table games such as Roulette, Blackjack and Video Poker to slots and Bingo.

Available in the new Midas cabinet manufactured by Unicum Gaming as a single or multi-game package, Videobet can also convert existing cabinets into fully operational Bling machines using its Reload facility. Bling comes complete with Videobet’s Server-Supported Ready technology, allowing for easy switching from a standalone unit to the full server-supported configuration with no additional software installation.
“We are very pleased to announce our cooperation with Videobet and to introduce at ICE 2008 [its] latest innovation to the industry,” said David Heap, TCSJOHNHUXLEY CEO. “We are confident that Bling will attract interest from gaming operators across all markets and territories. The combination of TCSJOHNHUXLEY with its worldwide distribution and support network and the advanced technology offered by Videobet will lead to the deployment of many server-supported and server-based systems.”

Unicum
For its part, Moscow’s Unicum Gaming presented six new games from its Alps series. “The games from the Alps series and a broadened range for the Crazy Squirrel jackpot system are only a small part of our unique and innovative products, which we are going to present in 2008 in different parts of the world,” said Lubov Loginova, Unicum Gaming’s commercial director. “We have great plans for this year. We are preparing numerous premiers at the biggest, specialized events, and our clients will be delighted by the company’s new products.”

Major Announcements
Possibly the biggest news of the show happened not on the exhibition floor itself but in one of the numerous suites that line the upper perimeter of Earls Court. It was in one of these rooms that senior management figures from Lottomatica, GTECH, Gauselmann Group and Atronic Group held a press conference during the show’s first day to announce GTECH’s purchase of half of Atronic for just over $29 million. Providence, R.I.,-based GTECH is a leading gaming technology and services provider owned by Italy’s Lottomatica commercial lottery operator. GTECH went further by stating that it intends to purchase the remainder of the German casino games manufacturer for $46.4 million by the end of the year.

Atronic, previously owned by the Gauselmann Group, is the only European company licensed as a slot manufacturer in Nevada, and it is expected that the overall transaction will come in at approximately $249.7 million, which should include about $174.2 million of debt.

Following the conclusion of ICE on Jan. 24, Clarion announced a deal with the European Casino Association for a “programme of collaborative marketing, promotion and development initiatives.” Next year’s ICE will take place at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London from Jan. 27 – 29, and it is thought that the agreement will apply to the development of existing casino events, including ICE, as well as the creation of new projects relating to the industry in Europe.

Alan Campbell is a U.K.-based journalist with more than a decade of experience covering the global casino, Bingo and coin-op amusements markets for some of the world’s most well-known and respected publications. He may be reached at yankeecampbell@yahoo.co.uk.