Executive View Q & A
Executive View Q & A
Q & A with Gavin Isaacs, president, Aristocrat Technologies' Americas division
Gavin Isaacs, president of Aristocrat Technologies' Americas division has helped shepherd the company into a powerful player in the U.S. slot and slot systems market. Already strong in its native Australia, Isaacs has helped direct the company's ambitious branding and marketing campaign in the United States, while helping boost Aristocrat's profits and line of products. Isaacs joined Aristocrat Leisure Limited in 1998 as general manager of legal and compliance, where he played an integral role in securing Aristocrat's Nevada license. In 1999, he was named general manager of marketing and business development and helped oversee the acquisition of Casino Data Systems. In 2002, Isaacs was named managing director of Aristocrat's European business, where he led the strong growth of Aristocrat's profits and business in that region and the successful opening of significant new European markets. Isaacs was named president of Aristocrat Technologies Inc. in March 2003 to oversee the company's North and South American business. Before joining Aristocrat, Isaacs was a partner with the leading Australia law firm Phillips Fox, where he built their highly successful property services business unit. With the Global Gaming Expo rapidly approaching, Casino Journal contributing writer Regina Lafay recently spoke with Isaacs about his role with Aristocrat and where he sees the company headed.
Aristocrat has really placed itself on the map in the United States over the past few years, not only with its slot game titles and themes, but slot management and operation systems as well. How confident do you feel with Aristocrat's market share of the U.S. slot business going forward?
In games, we're about to launch our best range of games ever so we're confident we'll grow in that area. In relation to systems, we've done so much work stabilizing the system and implementing the new modules in the ones that are about to be released-we're confident that we'll take our share there.
What's your strategy for competing with other companies like Bally Gaming and IGT?
We are the second largest [slot company] in the world. We invest heavily in R&D and we've come out with, we think, the games that people like to play by virtue of the fact that our video games seem to stay on the floor a lot longer than our competitors. As the market moves more towards that, our games become more and more popular, and we seem to be setting the standard.
Outside of North America we really are the leading company, and those games that have been performing so well-particularly in the kind of markets like Australia-are now becoming the top performers in the American market. So we're feeling confident that our strategy of low denomination games in the video sector is assisting us to further penetrate the North American market.
When you sell yourself or your company to potential customers, what is the message that you most want them to understand about Aristocrat?
It's a combination of quality, service, ease of use and customization. We pride ourselves on our service, we pride ourselves in the quality of our games. I think we were the first ones to give a 90-day warranty on our game performance. If you're not happy, give it back and we'll give you a conversion. Our game performance is obviously a very key strength.
Our people always portray the right image, very customer focused. And we try to be a company that treats their customers with dignity and respect. We're a good company to do business with.
G2E is rapidly approaching. What can we expect from this year's offerings?
One of the features of our stand will be our downloadable technology, which we call Royal Slots. The big theme we focus on is optimizing the yield to the gaming operator, enabling them to measure game performance and modify their gaming in real time. Obviously it's not approved yet, but it's something that we're confident to show all our customers and potential customers as to what's coming down the track.
In addition to that, we're launching a whole new range of double stand-alone progressives, some new hyperlink themes, our first high denomination hyperlink theme-Scorchin' Fortune. We have a new slant top, we have our five reel stepper series, and we'll be showcasing and introducing our wide area of progressives. That's on top of all the new stand alone games in the Mark IV series, the Reel Power series, the Super Reel Power series, fifty-line games and we're bringing back a few classics from the Mark IV and Mark V range-the Mark VI. We've got a lot of new stuff coming out. That's just in the game side.
On the systems side, the focus is promotion technology. Our personal bank of AFT is an extension that enables promotional credit to be downloaded, cash to be downloaded and points to be redeemed for cash. We also have Marketing Manager, which enables coupons to be inserted directly into slot machines, for promotional or cashable credits. We'll be showing some more prime modules, including the Multi-Game Analyzer which enables for the first time the analysis of multi-game products. We'll also be showing a new player interface called the Sentinel III. We hope to have approved this month our Nevada-compliant Oasis 11.52 and we'll showcase that. It complies with all the mix regulations.
You've had a number of new slot titles themed after celebrities-Agassi, Jeff Foxworthy, Pele…and now George Lopez. But you've said that "themed" slots aren't really an area Aristocrat is focusing on at the moment. Do you see that changing in the near future?
It really is a niche. All of those things came along-some a few years ago that are just coming out-to fit a niche at the right time. We're trying different things and that's just one of the things we're trying. If they turn out to be greatly successful, obviously we'll continue to do it. We're not consciously out there hunting down celebrities. We believe our games stand alone and don't necessarily need a theme to make them perform. I think the proof's in the pudding with games like Millioni$er and Cash Express which really are our own generic titles.
The Agassi games are quite unique in that a percentage of the winnings go to his charity. Describe what it's like to see your company partnering with celebrities in capacities like that.
It's great for us, great for the company when we do things like that. Obviously there's the profile aspect of it. There's a certain amount of excitement when you're working with a real person and you have their input and then they see a bit of themselves in the game and a bit of their characteristics of themselves in the game. There's obviously a bit of excitement-our game designers love it.
That's the real key differentiator. Obviously we all feel good when money goes to a charity. I think everyone feels good about that. So, that part of it is also an added bonus but that's only that one game. Really it's dealing with a real person and seeing their personality come out in the slot machine. That's the key buzz part of it.
How much of a difference is there between operating in the U.S. and operating in Australia? Any key distinctions or lessons learned?
I suppose one of the major differences is the size of all the major corporates here. I think corporations control about 60 percent of slot machines, roughly, and there's more consolidation occurring all the time. It's a high concentration.
In Australia we have the corporates that own the casinos, but then each club is separate, each pub is fairly separate; there are some multiple-venued owners. There are lots more customers you have to deal with down there. It's 100 percent video in Australia, which is very different. It's also fair to say that the machines are more concentrated. The bulk of the Australian population lives in the southeast corner of the country, so (they) have about 190,000 slot machines and the majority of them are down in that corner.
What would you say is the biggest issue facing slot and systems manufacturers in the gaming industry today?
I think keeping up with the technological changes is a constant challenge that we deal with. Things like downloadable games that maybe aren't evolutionary from a pure technological perspective, but from the gaming perspective it is because we're all trying things and at the same time as the regulators are also looking at what they should do-what would be right and what would be wrong. So you're constantly trying to keep up with the standards and with the way you need to drive technology to give the customers the best solution. I really do believe that's the biggest challenge facing us as manufacturers.
Any advice for smaller manufacturers looking to make it big in a market dominated by a handful of companies?
It's a tough racket. Nothing happens quickly in gaming, yet when it does happen it's like a flood. We all work, get things improved, get changes made and as soon as they're out there I don't think any industry embraces them as quickly as gaming and everyone wants them yesterday. You've really got to be on your toes.
