The fourth annual ranking of the industry’s most influential people

Sponsored by: 

Welcome to the Asian Gaming 50 – 2011. The list takes a slightly different format from previous years. Such is the growth of land-based casino gaming in the region that we’re focusing exclusively this time on personalities from that sector, rather than on executives from other gaming product suppliers such as parimutuels and lotteries.

We’ve also attempted to add even more insight and analysis throughout the list. The aim is to make it a handy reference point not just about the individuals that lead the Asia Pacific industry, but also about trends and developments in their operations.

Competition among casino technology suppliers has been intensifying as the Macau market matures and other key markets including Singapore consider the next stage of development for their casino floors and back office functions. Our list reflects the amount of talent and degree of professionalism that is being applied by suppliers in pursuit of sales and recurring revenue success in the region.

Another trend in the past few years has been the increased public profile of some of the Macau junket operators. In the first two years of the Asian Gaming 50, many of them preferred to take the traditional approach—namely, that no publicity is good publicity. That was on the basis that the junket trade either gets wrongly reported or sensationally reported by the media. But with the increasingly high profile of the junkets—driven by the fact that the world is waking up to just how enormous and energetic the Macau casino market is, and how much of it is generated by high roller baccarat—they have been stepping into the spotlight to explain their work and their role. We welcome that trend. It will help a great deal in demystifying some of the hysteria surrounding the Macau industry and the Asian casino industry in general.

About the Sponsor

With a history dating back to 1932, Bally Technologies is the oldest slot manufacturer in the world. It was founded in Great Depression-era Chicago as a pinball machine manufacturer. Today, Las Vegas-based Bally Technologies is a diversified, worldwide gaming company that designs, manufactures, operates, and distributes advanced gaming devices and computerised monitoring, accounting, and player-tracking systems. Bally maintains more than 25 offices around the world and employs about 2,500 people. The company’s product line includes reel-spinning slot machines, video slots, wide-area progressives, mobile applications, and Class II, lottery and central determination games and platforms. As the world’s No. 1 gaming-systems company, Bally also offers an array of casino management, slot accounting, bonusing, cashless and table management solutions. More information about the company is available at www.ballytech.com.

Associate Sponsors

Core Ranking Methodology

An initial shortlist of 80 individuals was put through a scoring process to arrive at the final rankings. The panellists gave each of the nominated individuals a score of between 1 and 10 on the following criteria:

1. How well known is the individual within the gaming sector in Asia?

2. How successful has the individual been historically in the gaming sector?

3. How fast has their business grown over the last 5 years?

4. What is their potential for future growth in their current gaming sub-sector and other gaming sub-sectors in Asia?

5. How successful are they financially (individually and/or company, or individual together with company, where relevant)?

6. How influential are they with the government and regulators within their jurisdictions of operations?

7. How influential are they internationally within the gaming industry (individually and/or company, or individual together with company, where relevant)?

8. How much of an innovator are they within the gaming industry?

9. How well are their products and/or services marketed and promoted?

10. How much do they own of their principal business and/or how much control do they have over their company?

11. How well positioned are they to cope with competition within their existing jurisdictions of operation and from overseas competition?

12. How do you perceive their dominance/position in their current major markets of operation?

Feedback from the panellists led to each question being given a specific weighting—between 90% and 115%. Further weightings were applied relating to the company the nominated individual either works for or controls. These include the company’s status (public or private), financial performance and size (in terms of both operations and market capitalisation/value), as well as the size/importance of the markets it operates in. Finally, panellists applied a further weighting for each nominated individual with respect to his or her perceived personal integrity, effectiveness in management, overall track record and foresight.