Macau-based electronic gaming machine supplier LT Game is looking to take Asia by storm with a brand-new catalog of products in the pipeline and its first Philippines office set to open this year.
After more than a decade in the market, Macau-based electronic gaming machine supplier LT Game is looking to reinvent its popular Live Multi-Game (LMG) product with the addition of a brand-new user interface and improved side bet functionality.
The company’s LMG terminals, named Best ETG Solution at the recent IAG Academy IR Awards at Newport World Resorts in Manila, have long provided Macau operators with a more flexible alternative to the traditional table game, not to mention a means of installing more product under the SAR’s strict table cap.
But in an era where smart gaming table technology is providing greater opportunity for those traditional table games to incorporate high margin side bets, LT Game has recognized the need to provide similar alternatives on its electronic table games.
“Our LMG has been around for over 10 years – the core product – but throughout this year we have been adding new features,” explained LT Game’s Chief Operating Officer, Eddie Au.
“What we are doing is completely building a new product from the server side, from the user interface, because through these 10 years everyone has gotten used to using mobile phones and tablets, so the way players interact with this kind of device, the way they interact with screens, has changed. We expect the new product will match with those experiences.
“Game-wise we are adding AI features and flexibility, and there are so many new side bets out there now, especially in this second half of the year, that we thought we should allow operators to add side bets more easily.”
The company’s new LMG product, due for release either late 2024 or early 2025, will include a popular side bet recently approved by Macau’s DICJ called “Small 6/Big 6” or in some instances “Small Tiger/Big Tiger”, however Au says the greater benefit will be the ability to add new side bet iterations as they emerge.
“It’s not just the current side bets; we are preparing for new side bets in the future,” he explains. “Rather than having to go through all the development and the approval every time there is a new side bet, we will allow operators to add their new side bets to the existing product.
“It will still be subject to regulator approval but it will be much faster. Right now, it is three to four months, but in the future we are talking two to three weeks.”
According to Au, one of the notable features of the new LMG will be the user interface and more specifically the hand gestures players use to place bets. Unlike the old “point and click” style that typifies the traditional product, the new version will take into account the one finger and two finger gestures people typically use on their mobile devices these days, allowing them to better navigate the screen.
This, Au explains, will be particularly important given the company’s plans to expand outside of its traditional base of Macau and into other regional markets like Singapore, Malaysia and, perhaps most significantly, the Philippines.
With the Philippine market’s renowned affinity for slots, LT Game believes there is an opportunity to introduce its LMGs to a more tech-savvy market and as such is currently preparing its first Manila office, due to open this October.
“ETGs are a bridge between table games and slots, so we are trying to push that in the Philippines – which is still mainly a slots market, but who knows? We will try to bring our LMG experience over there and see if we can make some impact on that market,” Au offers.
“The Philippines is such a big and booming market that we cannot ignore it, especially being just two hours away from Macau.”
To increase its visibility in the Philippines, LT Game is also introducing one of its recently developed slot machine titles, “Street Steel”, which debuted at MGS Entertainment Show in 2023 but has since undergone some upgrades of its own.
“We have completely revamped the game with new features – a patent feature, which we call Advantage Spin – and that’s the slot game we are looking to push and promote to the Philippines and US this year,” Au says. “If the result is good on the Advantage Spin we will add it to our other games as well.
“We are always trying to diversify our products. We’ve been doing slots for quite some years without ever having a big hit product, but we are putting more focus on that, not just developing but also going into the US market. The US and the Philippines are the two big slots markets, plus on the technical side we have 50% of the technology overlapping between slots and ETG, so it’s an obvious area to expand into.”
According to Au, LT Game is in the midst of an evolution, combining new or revamped products for Asia’s electronic gaming market with a greater customer focus that allows the company to listen to the needs of operators and tweak its products accordingly.
“This is how we are trying to bring LT Game closer to the market, to operators,” he says.
“Right now, everyone associates LT Game with LMG but I think in 10 years’ time I want people to associate us with entertainment in general – all sorts of entertainment. That means casino games obviously but also all types of games, all types of entertainment. I think LT Game will head in that direction in the future.”
