Having late last year called time on his near 30 years with IGT, Michael Cheers reminisces about his career highlights and tells us what’s in store for the future.
“I must admit that I do think having a flutter is a healthy leisure pastime, be it a casino experience, on the horses or at a slot machine,” smiles Michael Cheers as he reflects on a career spanning 30 years in the gaming industry.
“And I can honestly say I’ve enjoyed my time.”
The genial Australian, who late last year stepped down as Sales Director – Asia for global gaming giant IGT, is chatting just 24 hours after landing back in Melbourne from his former home base in Singapore. And while he’s not ready to start thinking about retirement just yet, he is looking forward to spending more time back where it all began.
“My wife’s never been to Byron Bay, and I haven’t been back to Canberra since I was in sixth class in Broken Hill (in north-western NSW), so we’re going to jump in the car and do a bit of traveling – just go and have a look around.”
Last September, in a fitting finale to his IGT career, Cheers was one of three people to be awarded Industry Icon status at IAG’s Academy IR Awards, with recipients described as “Executives who have demonstrated consistent contribution to the overall growth and success of the industry with lasting results, through great leadership, innovation and/or other activities, and who have gained the respect of their industry peers.”
Cheers certainly fits the mold.
Working in training and development for the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) in South Australia during the early 1990s, he was in the right place at the right time when legislation was passed in 1993 allowing for the introduction of electronic gaming machines – or “poker machines” as they are known locally – into the Adelaide casino and to pubs and clubs across the state.
Cheers was tasked with training and educating AHA members on establishing and running gaming rooms at their venues, and met with major manufacturers such as Aristocrat, IGT and Olympic Amusements to help develop a training package. Olympic apparently liked what they saw and offered Cheers a position as State Manager to oversee the roll out of South Australia’s first machines.
“It was a great opportunity to be part of the most significant change that the hotel industry in South Australia had seen in years, because prior to that they were more worried about whether they could get an extra two or three cents per schooner of beer,” he recalls. “Here we were with the opportunity to have 40 poker machines in a dedicated room which could produce significant revenue and income for the business.
“Having kept an eye on what was happening in the NSW pub and club industry and the success gaming had created there. I definitely saw the benefit of it and liked playing a small role.”
It was 1998 when IGT acquired Olympic, appointing Cheers as Key Accounts Manager for South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, then State Manager for the same three states. But IGT also opened up fresh opportunities, and in 2008 he made the move to Sydney to take on the newly created role of Systems Sales Manager for ANZ. Reporting to then Managing Director Andrew Hely, Cheers was tasked with reinvigorating the company’s systems business and specifically to sell its new Advantage Club product – a modification of the IGT Advantage casino management system – designed for pubs and clubs.
“The club market was at that time becoming more focused on player loyalty, client management and the introduction of player tiering, all of which the Advantage Club system offered,” he recalls.
“That was really exciting and I still remember some of the very early days of walking into the office and telling Andrew that we had signed up Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club or Earlwood Bardwell Park RSL Club – very traditional clubs that were signed up to the IGT Advantage system.
“We also built a team because we needed to have additional engineers, we needed trainers and we had to have a proper support mechanism. When I started there were only four or five people in the [systems] business and by the time I left there would have been over 50 people employed in that division.
“We began with 3,500 slots under the system, and after four years we grew that number to over 10,000 machines connected.”
Cheers also credits this transition with driving the growth of Australia’s clubs into the expansive and diversified businesses many are today, not dissimilar to an integrated resort with their array of entertainment and non-gaming offerings.
“The system changed the way clubs presented their offering to the customer,” he explains. “They could say that if you come to this venue utilizing the IGT Advantage Club system, there will be a range of benefits for you: player tiering, rewards, members draws, and bonus points accrued that could be turned into free play.
“Gaming also became a vehicle to drive non-gaming activity such as additional food and beverage offerings, additional shows that were offered to attract the players who might want to expand their experience. Going to the club became less about drinking and more about a broader entertainment experience.”
It was 2012, four years after moving the family from Adelaide to Sydney, that Cheers was asked if he’d consider relocating again – this time further afield to Singapore.
He laughs when he recalls the “very interesting conversation with [wife] Bec” about calling the movers back in, but also knew it was an offer too good to refuse. Not only would he be responsible for the two Singapore casinos in Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa, he would hold a broader Asia role that would see him dealing with distributors, agents and with various customers directly.
It also introduced Cheers to the “nuances” of the Asian market, from the sheer scale of Macau – where he would later live for three years before returning to Singapore during COVID – to the birth of the Philippines and the unique charms of emerging Southeast Asian markets.
“I learnt very quickly that the decision-making process was quite different in a lot of Asian style businesses,” he says. “You needed to very clearly articulate the benefit of your product to the particular customer’s business because they did have quite a range to choose from.
“I think it’s fair to say there was a requirement to entertain a lot more – to have the dinners and to stay a little bit later and get that connection with the customer. That was expected.
“And the other thing that took on a new significance was trade shows in the region whereby customers would travel to Macau for G2E Asia and they wanted to invest significant time. They would often be back over two days to view your product. There were plenty of challenges too but ultimately it was a great experience from my perspective.”
For Cheers, there have been plenty of highlights over the years but a handful stand out as particularly noteworthy, among them the company’s first big Philippines deal – with City of Dreams Manila – to install its IGT Advantage system. That partnership endures to this day.
He also points to the day Macau’s Wynn Palace agreed to put IGT machines back on the floor after years of steering clear, then followed with three reorders soon after. While COVID paralyzed IGT’s Macau momentum, Cheers says he relished his first two years there “because the market was buoyant and we had some product alignment that we really started to penetrate into the casino.”
And on a personal note, Cheers says he was honored to receive Industry Icon status at last year’s IAG Academy Awards.
“As they say, only old blokes can win that one, but I was very pleased to win it,” he offers. “Thanks to IAG for that because it was a great acknowledgement of the things I had done over my career.”
It was, he adds, a fitting farewell but stresses it’s not goodbye.
“I’m definitely taking a break for a few months with the opportunity that’s been presented to me by IGT,” Cheers says.
“After that, if an opportunity came knocking further down the track and I could offer any of my knowledge from 30 years in the industry, then I’d certainly be open to a discussion.”
