MGM Resorts International could look to develop its own slot machines and produce its own live dealer broadcasts from the company’s Las Vegas resorts in order to blur the lines between its land-based and online channels, according to CEO and President Bill Hornbuckle.
The ambitious plans were outlined during a conference session at ICE VOX in London on Monday, where Hornbuckle was discussing how MGM views new markets and new technologies across its many verticals.
Pointing to the growth of the company’s online platforms BetMGM and LeoVegas, Hornbuckle noted that MGM had recently purchased online games developer Push Gaming to support both sites but that future use-cases could extend into the land-based space.
“We just purchased Push Gaming with the idea of making games and for now we are going to make games for ourselves, for BetMGM and LeoVegas, but over time I’d love to see those games migrate themselves to our casino floor and our brick-and mortar-environment,” he explained.
“You could then have the experience where a game you start to play at home, jackpot and otherwise, could carry over potentially to a stay in Las Vegas. It’s the idea of taking technology, taking that digital opportunity and the manufacturing of a game that we own and brand, and making it meaningful no matter where you are in our universe. That’s compelling and something I’m excited by.”
Hornbuckle also suggested MGM may look to take the live dealer and online game show concepts pioneered by Evolution Gaming and transform them into a new entertainment-style offering broadcast to online customers direct from MGM’s casino floors.
“I give Evolution a lot of credit for what they’ve been able to create in the context of live dealer, live gaming, game shows, whatever you want to call it, but if you think about Las Vegas and the brands we have the good fortune of operating around, we want to be a part of that,” he said.
“The idea of broadcasting a game from places like Bellagio, say a roulette game, and not only is it a live dealer broadcast but potentially has the opportunity to tie celebrity entertainment to it.
“Not only do we create a game that people can watch but we create something interesting whereby every Tuesday night at 8pm, for example, you can play blackjack with a celebrity. That’s something we think is interesting and meaningful. That’s the convergence where digital – a lot of technology – meets the brand, meets the notion of who and what we are. We are an entertainment brand and we think we can deliver something that no one else can deliver at that scale.”
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Hornbuckle was more circumspect when discussing expansion of MGM’s land-based operations, even as the company starts development of its US$10 billion integrated resort project in Osaka, Japan.
While Asia remains the main drawcard given potential opportunities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Thailand, there are “very few places of interest” remaining where such significant investments can generate the necessary returns.
“We’re obviously participating in the UAE and have been in the ground there since 2015 with our project in Dubai that is non-gaming today,” he said. “That has a Mirage, a Bellagio and an MGM [hotel] in it. It’s going to be an incredible property and someday we hope to have gaming in it, but we shall see. Abu Dhabi, which is the UAE’s capital, is focused on gaming and we’re going to take a look at that as well – I think that’s an interesting place and market for all of the obvious reasons.
“Then Thailand is a place that has emerged. It has come and gone several times but it seems like it wants to legitimately set up gaming and have four or five licenses throughout the country. If it’s regulated in the right way and has the right disciplines to it, hopefully we will find ourselves there, but again time will tell.”
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As for Macau, Hornbuckle said he expects the market to generate gross gaming revenues of between US$24 billion and US$26 billion in 2024, up from US$22.7 billion in 2023, but with MGM having stolen a more sizeable chunk of the market share due in part to receiving an additional 200 gaming tables under the new 10-year concessions granted in late 2022.
“We took the time during COVID to reposition our properties, reposition our casinos, and with the departure of junket operatives we ended up in a much better place,” he added.
“We have regional sales offices, marketing offices, throughout Asia and we’ve had them for 30 years, so without the need for junkets we have built-in infrastructure to understand who those direct customers are and we’re now able to take advantage of it.
“We’ve been getting 16%, 17%, 18% market share which, when you only have 3.5% of the suites in the market – we are actually the smallest player – we’re pretty excited about how we ended up coming back to where we are today.”
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