Inside Asian Gaming

March 2012 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 23 relationships here [in Macau] different to maintaining them in Singapore or New Zealand? Fundamentally, I think it’s the same. I do pridemyself onbuildingstrong relationships. Transparencyandmutualrespect—thatgoes without saying in any region. I don’t think that differs whether it’s a Macau customer or an Australian customer or a US customer. I think rather than looking at it as a selling operation, it’s about forming true business partnerships, long-term partnerships, and that’s very important for me and the Bally team. That’s very important in this day and age. We’re a provider of systems, games, and now mobile and online gaming business solutions through our new Bally Interactive division. We’re advisors to our partners in the interests of improving their operational efficiency or helping them increase their revenues. Your customers are dispersed throughout the region. So has that entailed a lot of travelling? Absolutely. Travelling was always a large part of the role. What I’m not sure a lot of people understand completely is that my role isn’t absolutely Cath’s former role—Cath’s role also encompassed Australia. I have all of Asia-Pacific and New Zealand, so that’s under me. And Michael McNee, who Cath had appointed as General Manager & Managing Director of Australia—he’s assumed the responsibility of Australian reporting straight into the US. So I don’t actually have any Australian responsibilities. Are your main markets Macau and Singapore? Yes, Macau and Singapore. New Zealand is a huge market for us at the moment—on the systems side only, not on games. We’re in the middle of implementing systems throughout the casinos in New Zealand. Whereas previously you were focused on slot games and Cath was in charge of systems, now your responsibilities extend to systems as well. How is dealing with systems different to dealing with games? It’s different in the sense that a system is a long-term decision. When you make a system decision, it’s much longer ideally for the operator and for the supplier. It’s a long term partnership. You make a system decision; you don’t want to be replacing that system in two or three years’ time. But with a game decision, the product’s life cycle is usually shorter. Also, a game is a revenue- earning device, whereas a system enhances other operational efficiencies. In addition, you’re involved in a lot more parts of the business with systems than you are with games. With games, predominantly we deal with theVP or director of slots, that particular division, while systems incorporate tables, slots, IT, so you’re dealing with a lot of other areas, like a holistic approach to the business if you will. So, it has been a steep learning curve for you? Definitely, but exciting. Bally is known as the systems leader, not just in this part of the world but globally, and we do pride ourselves on technological innovation, both in games and systems. We are very strong innovators and some of the products that we have on our systems at the moment are extremely exciting. Macau has become a huge flagship for us. We now have three out of six casino concessionaries in Macau running Bally systems, so that’s something we are also very proud of. Can you share with us what you’ve got in store to improve your systems offering in Asia in particular? We’re constantly working on improving the robustness of our systems solutions. We have over 1,300 employees across the globe dedicated to developing and enhancing our systems products. We’ve got a thousand staff in India, in Chennai and Bangalore. We continue to promote the advantages and explain the many benefits that operators can obtain with a few of our products like iView Display Manager, which we’re really promoting this year. The iVIEW DM™ essentially can make any gaming device—not just a Bally device—as long as it contains a touch-enabled screen into a kiosk and a player information device. The iVIEW DM can run in conjunction with our Elite Bonusing Suite™ (EBS) bonusing applications. We can run slot promotions and Bally’s Cash Spin Bally