Shuffle Master is on the ascent after the successful spring launch of its Equinox slot range
It’s a truism of slot game development that creating a successful product is partly about science and partly about art. The science part is to develop a maths model and features likely to appeal to the target audience. The art part is in capturing the imagination of the players in a congested market and then holding it long enough to be able to refine the product and give it longevity in the market.
But if there’s an element of luck in both the science and the art of slot game launches, then the harder a supplier works the luckier he or she is likely to get. Ken Jolly, Vice President – Asia, for Shuffle Master, has built a reputation in the industry for getting the most out of his employer’s slot titles across Asia. He’s relied not on luck, but on careful observation of player behaviour and market reaction, and then getting the development and sales team to respond appropriately to boost the games’ appeal to those players.
In Shuffle Master’s case that process began with the launch in March of the company’s Asian slot offer on the Equinox platform via three ‘families’ of games—the Fortune family; the Pink Panther®Returns family and the Potion Power™ family. Shuffle Master had previously been best known for its high quality electronic shufflers and other live table peripherals. But its purchase in early 2007 of the Australian slot and electronic table games maker Stargames gave it the option of new product pipelines. It developed the multi-station electronic games line first, with particular success in Singapore’s casinos with the Rapid suite of live-dealer, multi-terminal games. That was followed by the momentous decision to go wholeheartedly after a share of the highly competitive casino slot machine market. Those products have now been successfully placed in venues across the region, including Macau, Singapore, the Philippines and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. And they’re being supported by Shuffle Master’s new top box, Random Magic—described as ‘super tall’ and therefore will be super visible on Asia’s crowded casino floors soon.
Inside Asian Gaming spoke to Ken Jolly for an update on the Equinox range of slot products and what the market can expect from Shuffle Master in 2012.
IAG: What has the company been doing in the slots segment since the Equinox launch in March?
Ken Jolly: We’ve had success with the initial three ‘families’ of games—the Fortune family; the Pink Panther Returns family and the Potion Power family. The Fortune family is being added to with a new game called Pearl Fortunes right now. That’s to complement the initial three Fortune games: 5 Fortunes, Kelly’s Fortune and Ocean Fortune. Pearl Fortunes has some new twists in the game. One is where the free game feature is similar to 5 Fortunes but has an added second feature where you get five symbols that open up to reveal a range of higher prizes which can be won many times. This feature also allows the jackpots to be won.
We’re now starting to get the new Pirates Revenge™—or Lucky Pirates as it’s known in Chinese—out into the market place. We’re getting good results on this product—the first link in the Equinox range. There are three games in that range currently and we’ll be adding further games. And we’re about to launch this month a new super tall top box game called Random Magic. That’s the first of the games that will come in the super tall top box.
Can you explain more about these top boxes?
It will be higher than other top boxes on the floor, with moulding around the sides that will relate to the theme and features of the game. The top box also has a number of features that relate between the top screen and the game. They are high impact and can be seen across the floor, with feature-rich games.
The company has embarked on a plan to bring more Chinese-themed games to the market by employing software houses in China and using Chinese graphics packages and story books. It’s all about bringing more localised product to the market while still using robust, consistent maths packages—adding to features to enhance what we think the Asian players will be looking for.
Are the new games volatile?
One thing we believe is that there should be a range of volatility across a range of denominations. Typically the Macau market likes a bit more volatility. Then we find in some of the locals [local players’] venues the performance of some games is different than it is in some of the large casinos. Macau is unique in terms of local play versus outside play from China visitors. The customers from China are more occasional and are likely to be looking for more instant gratification. When we go to markets like the Philippines and Singapore we are finding that the popular games are the less volatile ones that keep the players at the game for a longer time. I think the rest of Southeast Asia is also like that—with perhaps the exception of some of the border casinos in Cambodia or Laos. As the big new casinos open in the Philippines it will be interesting to see whether they will have the ability to attract players from China and other places or rely on the Philippine players.
VIP slot play is important as a proportion of total Macau slot play. Are you chasing down that segment of the market?
I think everyone would like more of that part of the market. It’s been dominated up to now by Aristocrat. We’re a company that relaunched in the slot machines segment only last March. With the investment we’re putting in now with the launch of Equinox and with the more than 20 games we’re bringing to the Asian markets this year, it shows our commitment. Bear in mind the biggest companies only do twice that [amount of releases]. It’s a lot of investment from Shuffle Master; a diverse product company which has previously been thought of as a ‘small’ player in the slots market. I’m here to say we are very serious about driving higher Shuffle Master slot penetration and market share by delivering game performance. It’s performance that sells product and we clearly understand our customers’ needs. This desire to get the best from our maths is the constant focus of our dedicated product development people. They have developed their careers within the Shuffle Master family and they believe in our future.
We’re in the process of learning what works and refining our offer in this area in the light of that experience. It’s about tweaking the games even further to get that real top end performance. Obviously one of the goals will be to get the products into the high-end market as well.
What can we expect from Shuffle Master slots in the New Year?
New cabinet configurations, and new link configurations. We’re looking at new link concepts coming next year. It’s about taking the success of those initial games and building on the success of those features in the games so we can improve the performance in each new game developed.
We work hard on the games. Getting the right maths and the features that you think will work in the market is the science. Once the games are in the market you find out if you’ve got winning concepts and solid game bases to build on.
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