Shuffle Master’s innovations continue to define the look and play of today’s gaming floors
Few gaming manufacturers can boast a range of solution for the casino floor as varied as Shuffle Master’s. Its innovations have impacted nearly every facet of the gambling experience. In some cases—the automatic card shuffler, the proprietary table game, the progressive side bet are three that spring immediately to mind—they’ve revolutionized it. The company has played a seminal role in the evolution of electronic multi-station table games with its popular Vegas Star and Rapid Table Games lines and promises to do the same with the i-Table, a unique blending of the communal excitement of a traditional table with the ease and security of totally automated betting and play. With the 2007 acquisition of Stargames, the company moved aggressively into the slots sector, and last year’s launch of the Equinox cabinet saw three new game portfolios introduced into Asia’s markets. These included a new linked game and the eye-catching Random Magic, an extra-tall top box designed specifically with the Macau player in mind. With the acquisition earlier this year of Ongame, Shuffle Master stated its intention to play a leadership role in online gaming as well. Ken Jolly, vice president of Shuffle Master Asia, recently sat down with Inside Asian Gaming to talk about all this and more.
IAG: Obviously, we’d very much like to hear about what you’ll be showing at G2E Asia.
Ken Jolly: Probably the main point about Shuffle Master is that it’s a more diverse gaming supply company than most other gaming companies. We’re a 28-year-old company. We started off in shuffling machines and today we’re in five major product lines: what we call Utilities—shufflers, chippers, products to run and manage gaming tables. There’s our Proprietary Tables Games, like Caribbean Stud, Texas Hold’em and Casino War, etc. We have some 19 games which casinos can lease from us and put on their floors. There is also what we call Electronic Table Games, where you can bet on a table game with a live dealer (Rapid) or a virtual dealer (Vegas Star). These are our multi-terminal electronic tables and can be configured in many layouts for different installations. The slot machines, the EGMs, include the new Equinox. And now we’re starting an interactive division, business-to-business, with the purchase of Ongame.
The interactive, that’s a US play principally?
It’s going to be a global play, and at the G2E this year we will have a booth on our stand that will demonstrate this offering. So I encourage everyone to come to the stand and learn more about this exciting segment of our business.
Slot machines have not been an emphasis for Shuffle Master in the past. But the company is working very hard now to develop some really localized games for the Macau market. How is that effort progressing heading into the show?
Certainly, we have been working on what makes, or helps make, a better slot game for the Asian market. Typically, a lot of companies have rolled products out from other markets, and not everybody has had success. Following our initial launch range the company is now focusing on trying to get products tweaked to suit the market. One of the things we’ve done, we’ve signed up a software house in China producing graphic packages and story books suited culturally to the market. They’ve produced four games already for us, and we’ve just signed on for more to be delivered. This is a strategy that the company will continue to grow, developing Chinese games to put into Macau initially, then greater Asia. The strength of those graphics will translate into other markets. Graphics content and themes will cross borders when coupled with great features and maths. One of the things we also believe is that there’s strength in the Asian player across the world.
What are the challenges in introducing new slots in a market that is so dominated by a single company as this one is?
We’re obviously monitoring our products going into the casinos throughout Asia. We’re looking for what is working and what’s not working in the top 10%. And no manufacturer has 100% of their games working. That’s the nature of the slot business. I’ve seen this over 34 years, and all over the world it’s the same. It’s a matter of bringing out what you believe is right, then looking at how it performs, looking at how the players actually play the game, and where they’re betting, and then trying to understand how to tweak the maths or take that particular feature and enhance it to get a better performance. One thing about Shuffle Master, we’re very committed to getting to the top of the performance charts as a slot manufacturer. That is with human resources and the financial commitment by way of R&D.
How do you measure that performance?
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Stacking the Deck
Shuffle Master has taken another significant step in expanding its product line heading into G2E Asia with the unveiling of its Deck Checker card reading and verification solution.
The company has re-engineered the Deck Checker and brought it up to date with enhancements that include a user-friendly color touch screen interface and display and Shuffle Master’s proven optical card- recognition technology. The Deck Checker can check and verify up to eight decks of cards in less than two minutes, providing quick and reliable identification of missing, extra or unknown cards. It supplies a printed verification ticket for each job. And it automatically adjusts for bridge- and poker-sized cards. It also includes a special card vault for easy storage and transportation. With all this, Shuffle Master expects the new Deck Checker will serve as a fast and effective alternative for the industry’s card-verification needs. |
Performance is about giving a game to a player that they are entertained by and happy to continue to play, to the point where its net win is in the top echelons of what the casino operator in looking for on the gaming floor. Operators look for a ROI on each square meter of the gaming floor. It’s a happy medium between generating revenue so the operator is happy, but also entertaining the player. If the player is not comfortable or satisfied they won’t come back to the machine. Just about all games fall off in popularity over time, and some fall very quickly. A combination of good maths, good graphics and features that reward the player will keep them entertained so they’ll keep coming back. It’s a complex business. If you look at the last 10 years, you go around to all the companies, what they spend on R&D, and when you consider that in the marketplace there are maybe two handfuls of games that actually work at the top end, it’s not an easy job to get the highest performance. It’s about being committed, and it’s about continuing to work on refinement, direction, approach and the strategies to get to where you want to be. And I can assure you this company is very committed.
Certainly you’ve brought a lot of new slot product to market in the last year.
When you look at it, it’s just been over a year now since we launched Equinox in the market. Previously, Stargames were in the market; however for the three years prior to Equinox being launched very little was installed. Shuffle Master acquired Stargames then invested considerable time and money into R&D to give us the right platform to relaunch the slot business in March last year throughout Asia. Since then, we have put a lot of new titles into the market. Not all as successful as we would like, I’m happy to admit that; but we learned a heck of a lot about what is good, average and better. Now, we are really in the stages of refining how to deliver performance. It’s a commitment, again, which the company is serious about. Whilst the slot machine business only came to us through the acquisition of Stargames, and today it’s a very strong segment for us particularly in Australia with the market share growing there, we have expanded our focus to Latin America and Asia.
What’s doing especially well for Shuffle Master right now in Macau, among the different “families” of slot games, as the company refers to them?
The Pink Panther range of games and Potion Power are two families. Then we followed with a Pirate-themed link and more Chinese-themed standalone games. For the show we are excited about a strongly branded Chinese theme link “Duo Fu Duo Cai” and another super top box game called “Legend of the Lamp”. These will be must-see products at the show this year.
The appeal of links for Macau being the big top prize?
It’s the bigger top prize but it’s also not forgetting the player who knows it’s not going to go off that often and wants an entertaining package in what we call the mid-range of the game. It’s about giving entertainment value in the mid-range. Going back to the commitment this year, we will have 34 slot machines on the stand at G2E Asia. That’s more than this company has ever demonstrated before in this market and it shows how committed we are to Asia.
What will be some of the highlights?
Obviously, the new link “Duo Fu Duo Cai” Link—large visual Chinese theme with high-impact signage—Random Magic and our next super top box with its’ high frequency five feature game package “Legend of the Lamp”. It’s got the visual impact because of the 32-inch top box, and you’re seeing a lot of that now in the Macau market.
Moving to table games, a perennial strength for Shuffle Master: What will you be showing?
Our ETS range will feature something new from Rapid, being our VIP-room version called “Signature”. It’s a new product for us that enables VIP players to play in a much more comfortable, personalized position on the terminal. Then there’s our Vegas Star virtual-dealer product which will be featuring craps with a new side bet and a separate configuration of Grand Baccarat. Actually MGM was the first to get this Grand Baccarat version in the market and now we’ve got it at a couple of other venues in Macau. The Grand Baccarat features a side bet progressive jackpot on a Grand Tie. We’ll also have Roulette Live, which is basically a 10-station circular configuration with a slingshot roulette wheel in the center. That’s a product that we haven’t shown before. The other very exciting thing you will see at the stand is our i-Table, our electronic versions of tables. There are touch screen monitors in each betting position and all player transactions are done electronically. This is in conjunction with a live dealer and our graphic presentation interacts well with the players. This certainly allow players who are uncomfortable in a current live table game environment to play easily, it virtually tells you what to do. It is even easier for the dealer, the way it’s been set up, to the point where the dealer can’t false deal or draw a card down unless the game is ready for it. A lot of technology has gone into this product. Ultimate Texas Hold’em and Three Card Poker will be on the i-Tables. Plus, we’ll be having i-Table Roulette. … A lot of new product … Additionally we’ll have two proprietary table games, one running Fortune San Lo Poker Progressive and the other table running Mississippi Stud and Four Card Poker on a common progressive jackpot. And new hardware on Progressive Tables with state-of-the-art touch screen dealer interface and highly customizable double-sided graphics screens.
On the Utilities side, some new things there as well?
We’ll have the new Deck Checker that’s been launched in the last couple of months. And the MD3 with printer, the follow-up to the MD2. The new version has a touch screen display on top built in. Fits into the table and is faster, quieter and equipped with a lot of new security features. It’s going into a number of casinos throughout Asia as we speak. We now have lockable covers for our shufflers. It locks down to the table, and the shuffler is secure. We’ll i-Table have the new Easy Chipper D with bigger capacity, and it’s faster. We’re getting quite a bit of interest in that as well.
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Quite a lot to be excited about going forward then?
Yes, this is a very vibrant company with money being spent on product development in all categories. I came to Shuffle Master just around two years ago, and the growth and progress has been amazing. You look at what is coming from R&D, the innovative products being developed and the range of the products and this company really has it.
In terms of Asian markets specifically, where do you see the best opportunities?
The Philippines is certainly a growing focus with the casinos that are going into the Manila Bay projects opening up that market there. We’re getting good growth over there already with the utility products and slots. We’re actually growing in that market to the point where we’re looking to open a branch office in the Philippines by year-end. Our Rapid product in Cambodia at NagaWorld, originally 91 terminals, is about to double. For shufflers we’re getting regular calls now from small markets that previously had hand-shuffled cards, places on the Cambodian border that shufflers have never been before. That’s growing. … We’re looking obviously at the i-Table which very much suits markets such as Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines. Those are going to be the target markets for this product initially. We have the i-Table already in the market in Goa, India, which was our first installation in Asia. But we’re ready to roll it out elsewhere from G2E. Customers are already talking about i-Table.
On the slots side, plenty of room for growth there as well?
Slot machines, obviously, is a big push. We have put Equinox into NagaWorld in Phnom Penh and three other sites in Cambodia. It is also installed in Lao, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau, the Philippines. In my opinion, for the first year of a new slot product we have achieved good market penetration. At Shuffle Master we’ve developed a strong team, the innovations through R&D have helped us make good inroads into new markets, and we’re certainly looking forward to seeing everyone at G2E Asia.
