Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | Oct 2007 26 Analyst Extract I n a world where brands vie for attention in ever more crowded market places, ca- sino slot machine makers are compara- tively reticent in promoting their brands to their target audience. By contrast, manufac- turers of DVD players or washing machines are normally keen to proclaim the benefits of their proprietary content and to plaster their company logos as prominently as pos- sible on their products. Casual visitors to casinos would struggle in many cases to identify who actually made the machine they are playing. Most slots— even eye-catching ones carrying licensed images such Star Wars or the popular board game Monopoly —give few external clues as to the manufacturer. The machine’s prov- enance is often only revealed in small print at the very bottom or top of the machine or on the postage stamp-sizedmaker’s plate on the side. This is probably because, until now, the branding of the games’ platform—i.e., the casino—has been more important in driving slots’ sales and revenue growth than slots’ proprietary content. The game does the talking Ken Jolly, General Manager Asia Pacif- ic for Aristocrat (Macau) Pty Ltd, the city’s Platform for Growth Could exclusive server-based content deals between casinos and game manufacturers drive Asia’s gaming machine revolution?