Newly-formed Gaming Concepts Group plans to use its Asia-Pacific gaming operations experience to supply best-fit casino products and services across the region
Silver Heritage Limited (SHL), a leading regional gaming company with operations in ten casinos across Asia-Pacific, announced the formation of its new division, Gaming Concepts Group Limited.
Gaming Concepts Group will supply table gaming products and casino management services, in addition to distributing electronic gaming machine products for SHL, which will remain focused on its core business of casino investment and participation revenue share operations.
SHL has appointed Mr Julian Wagner, currently Vice President Regional Operations at SHL, to the role of Vice President Business Development and Sales for Gaming Concepts Group.
Mr Wagner, a veteran in the Asian casino sector, will be working a dual role and continues to be supported in both by the SHL head office in Hong Kong, and the regional offices in Macau, Laos, Thailand, Philippines and Cambodia. Gaming Concepts Group will benefit from this support structure and an extensive team of sales and administrative staff from these regional offices.
Gaming Concepts Group will be officially launched at G2E Asia 2011 at The Venetian Macao from 8th to 9th June. Inside Asian Gaming spoke to Mr Wagner about what the company will offer.
IAG: What products will Gaming Concepts Group supply?
Julian Wagner: We have decided to offer the entire range of casino products covering every department’s needs from cash handling machines to surveillance, security systems and software, all of which we have had experience in historically. We also offer casino consulting and management services—another thing the people within our group have tremendous experience with. To be truly diversified we top out the range by offering project furniture with some extremely talented partners. This division offers all the high-end furniture a casino would ever need from gaming and restaurant fit-outs to nightclub and hotel furniture. Truly the complete package.
What will you be highlighting at G2E Asia?
The main highlight for us will of course be the launch of the company. Within the business we will be introducing the Concept Studio. The Concept Studio will be the vehicle for our in-house products. We’ve packaged up quite a range for our launch. These products come under our Ideal range inclusive of Ideal layouts, Ideal Playing Cards, Ideal Progressives, Ideal Displays and the Ideal Sic Bo.
Let me touch on two of my favourites within the Concept Studio range. Firstly, the Ideal Sic-Bo table. Well it’s actually not just a sic bo table. It can be converted into a Yu Ha Hi or money wheel table at any time. Traditionally, sic bo tables have been designed with the older light box design and come with either the Asian or Australian odds pay table. As recently shown in Macau, changing those would require the operator to purchase a new screen print and the light box. But, with today’s technology, the light box has been replaced with a new 60-inch high definition LCD screen. By using the functions of the tables’ management Touch-Screen, you can change and quickly convert the game type at no cost. Change out the dice shaker and you’re ready to go. This great product offers a fantastic player experience and some nice benefits to the operator, which will add to the bottom line.
The second product we’re exhibiting is our Ideal Progressive. It’s a dual bet progressive system whereby the player can bet on the dealer’s hand as well. From an operators perspective this sees incremental revenue, an increased player experience and greater efficiencies and security through the introduction of Touch-Screen and the Contactless TAG technology. From our research, we believe customers will feel comfortable with the way the Progressive is played as we’ve used the tried and tested sensor method of placing progressive wagers. We are convinced that we’ll see a great reaction from customers at the show and we’ll be displaying this product in our new Macau showroom soon along with the complete range of the Concept Studio Ideal products.
What is your main value proposition to casinos operators?
Gaming Concepts is a start up company yet benefits from the strategic alliance with SHL and all of its regional strengths. SHL has more than 100 staff in eight separate countries in Southeast Asia. All of the top managers and executives have been fully trained up in the Gaming Concepts business strategy and range of products and services. We are just a phone call away and we can have people at the location within a moment’s notice. Service levels are a key component. We keep hearing comments from regional casino operators that they rarely see their suppliers. We aim to change that perception. The new media such as Facebook and Twitter might be very valuable, but the age old face-to-face (on a frequent basis) really does give the casino operator the confidence to buy a product or sign that service contract. We have some exciting innovations coming up and everyone can find out more about these at G2E and as we move forward.
Can you work with casinos to produce custom products for them?
Yes we can, and I’m glad you asked this question. We spoke about the Concept Studio briefly as a home to our in-house products, but the Concept Studio also has another exciting and innovative arm to it. This is the product development side whereby we are going to be working with casino operators as partners whenever they are in need of a new product or service. Let me give you an example. Recently whilst visiting a customer and discussing their table layout requirements, the customer mentioned that they would welcome the opportunity to sit with a graphic designer, express their layout ideas to them and format a layout design there on the spot. Through the Concept Studio we are able to send our graphic designer to the casino site and make that idea a reality. We are very open to casino operators’ ideas and we’ll give more details soon about a website portal whereby these ideas can be incubated, developed and bought to fruition.
What sets you apart from other companies supplying casino products and services? What is your niche?
Relationships and partnership. We want to develop a relationship with our customers and be their partner in not only supplying and supporting their products and services needs, but as with the Concept Studio, try and make their ideas a reality. We also want to bring some operational expertise into the casino product and services side of the industry. By doing so the casino operator will see a sizeable decrease in lead times as we understand exactly what they need, and, more importantly, why they need it. We can make the process very clean, simple and uncomplicated.
Part of our sales strategy will be to offer great packaged deals with yearly rebates. Also, all-inclusive casino set-ups whereby we’ll bundle up the entire casinos’ equipment needs and have them ready for their opening. You’ll also see a tremendous amount of marketing through various mediums. We’ll not be overly involved but you’ll feel our full support and presence throughout the key milestones of an order or project.
We see our niche not so much as aiming at any one particular target market segment or any single product line, but more of having a great understanding of our customers through actual operational experience. All our staff in sales will have an average of 15 years Southeast Asian operational and sales experience. We’re sure casino operators that are perhaps new to the business will appreciate this. We can lead them through the entire process and make the overall experience painless; even fun.
RelatedPosts
Will you be expanding the Gaming Concepts Group team?
Our strategy is to add to our sales team several senior managers with similar levels of regional casino operations experience and, similarly to myself, lots of Asian experience. We will have some exciting announcements that we’ll be making during G2E Asia regarding these appointments.
