Inside Asian Gaming

September 2011 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 51 Asian Gaming 50 – 2011 39 (38) Tristan Sjöberg Managing Director Asia TCS JOHNHUXLEY 40 (40) David Kinsman Non-Executive Director, Weike Gaming Technology Independent Gaming Consultant on gaming, both as an operator and supplier of gaming equipment. TCS JOHNHUXLEY prides itself on being a one-stop shop for casino gaming products as well as one of the world’s largest suppliers of table games and equipment. Its range covers everything from multi-station, multi- game electronic table games, live tables and layouts, table displays, chippers and gaming accounting and security systems. It was one of the first suppliers to develop the concept of modular marketing—i.e., competing for business across a whole casino floor or section of floor rather than simply supplying products on a one-off basis. Once it has achieved a floor-wide success, its aim is to leverage that to supply all kinds of add-on services and products. The company scored an important success last year when it won major orders for electronic table games at the newly opened Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands casino resorts in Singapore. It included a deal for 100 Novo Unity™ II TouchBet® Roulette terminals at RWS. Mr Sjöberg relocated to Singapore from London at the start of 2009. The move coincided with the group’s expansion programme in the Asia Pacific region. That involved the long-term development of manufacturing, sales, service and support capability in Asia’s rapidly expanding and increasingly important casino gaming markets. The opening of TCS JOHNHUXLEY’s Singapore office—its regional headquarters—means the company now has 11 centres, all located in major gaming jurisdictions around the globe. TCS JOHNHUXLEY is also an active and major player in Macau’s gaming scene. The company has had major product launches over the past few years at Sands Macao, Galaxy’s StarWorld, MGM Macau, City of Dreams and, most recently, at Galaxy Macau. TCS JOHNHUXLEY has also completed other large-scale projects across the Asia Pacific region, including at the Savan Vegas casino in Laos, NagaWorld in Cambodia, and Kangwon Land, currently the only casino in South Korea catering for Korean nationals. Under Mr Sjöberg’s leadership, TCS JOHHUXLEY has developed its policy of sourcing materials regionally where possible, and has assembled a talented pool of technical development staff. It has also developed a plan for working cooperatively with other suppliers to help market new products. TCS JOHNHUXLEY recently signed a deal with SASIAN Gaming to distribute two new no-commission baccarat games. The games—BaccaraX and BetterBAC—were launched at G2E Asia in Macau in June. All these policies should mean TCS JOHNHUXLEY is well placed to produce a pipeline of innovative products in the highly competitive regional markets for electronic table games, live table games and systems and peripherals for years to come. Tristan Sjöberg was born in Sweden and educated in the United Kingdom. He started his career as a Scientific Officer at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK, but after five years joined the family business, Knutsson Holdings, the parent company of TCS JOHNHUXLEY. The family conglomerate spans the entertainment sector with a focus In the first half of 2011, David Kinsman stood down as CEO of Weike and became a Non-Executive Director of the company. Under his leadership, Singapore-based gaming machine maker Weike positioned itself to move to a new level in terms of slot ship share in Asian markets and win per unit per day. In 2008, Mr Kinsman hired Andrew Masen, former game design manager for Australian supplier Stargames (now part of Shuffle Master) as head of game development. Under Mr Masen’s guidance, Weike ramped up its game maths and graphics. Chinese-focused and Chinese-themed games such as The Brotherhood, Phoenix Dance and Dragon Legend proved that Weike was able to offer strong performance in the highly-competitive Macau market. Under Mr Kinsman, the company alsobuilt up recurring revenue fromelectronic game management systems and value-added services such as slot venue management—via a subsidiary, Weike (G) Management Macau Ltd—in Macau. In December last year, Weike (G) Management took over the operation of the slot machines and electronic table game (ETG) terminals at a major Macau casino—which had previously used a different third-party slot operator. The new operation added to