Gaming America Nov/Dec 2020 by Gambling Insider

GamingAmerica.com

Nov/Dec 2020

Against the Odds New properties opening in Las Vegas signal a determination to up the ante

• SAFER GAMING WITH AGA'S CAIT DEBAUN

• 2020 IN REVIEW AND WHAT LIES AHEAD

• T&C: MAGNIFYING THE FINE PRINT

• STANDOUT PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET

COO, EDITOR IN CHIEF Julian Perry EDITOR Carl friedmann Carl.Friedmann@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 207 739 9908

eDitor’s letter

SENIOR STAFF WRITER Tim Poole Tim.Poole@gamblinginsider.com STAFF WRITERS Owain flanders Owain.Flanders@gamblinginsider.com Iqbal Johal Iqbal.Johal@gamblinginsider.com Ezra Amacher Ezra.Amacher@gamingamerica.com Peter lynch Peter.Lynch@gamblinginsider.com LEAD DESIGNER laura fogar DESIGNER Olesya Adamska DESIGN ASSISTANTS Radostina Mihaylova, Aimee Matthews, Aleksandra Cakikj, veronika fukita MARKETING & EVENTS MANAGER Mariya Savova FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT dalia Ambrazaite IT MANAGER Tom Powling COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR deepak Malkani Deepak.Malkani@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 6279 EVENTS SALES MANAGER Ryan horwood Ryan@globalgamingawards.com +44 (0) 208 638 7610 SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER william Aderele William.Aderele@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7739 2062 ACCOUNT MANAGERS Michael Juqula Michael.Juqula@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 3487 0498 Clive waite Clive.Waite@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 0643 Richard Carr Richard.Carr@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 203 435 5624 nitesh Patel Nitesh.Patel@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 207 739 5768 Martin dilleigh Martin.Dilleigh@gamblinginsider.com Tel: +44 (0) 203 435 5628 US BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Aaron harvey Aaron.Harvey@playerspublishing.com Tel: +1 702 425 7818 US ACCOUNT MANAGER Erica Clark Erica.Clark@playerspublishing.com Tel: +1 702 430 1912 CREDIT MANAGER Rachel Voit

JULIAN PERRY, COO, Editor in Chief

CARL FRIEDMANN, Editor

Getting back to normal and progressing are opponents pitted against each other as the pandemic makes guesswork out of any best-laid plans. While things seemed to have been put on hold for months, especially in the sporting world, technology and the means to adapt safely in a changing environment have forged ahead without pause. Online gambling has surged and casinos are replete with products borne out of a need to keep consumers safe and businesses humming along. But it’s not just the physical things that we should focus on. It’s the refusal to be beaten by circumstance. In this issue of Gaming America, we feature how two major new landmarks on the Las Vegas skyline are making a statement in terms of property scale and a determination to honor a deadline. To as much fanfare as was possible, the Circa had its soft launch in late October, and Resorts World is on track to open in the summer next year. Las Vegas has always been synonymous with regeneration, and as we learn in a feature by Oliver Lovat, who leads the Denstone Group, starting on page 28, crises, especially in the 1980s, have always befallen the city, whether they’re economic, natural disasters or regulatory. The resilience to come back stronger, spurred on by the demand to do so from fans all over the world, has always been a source of inspiration, no matter the test. So in 2020 when the pandemic brought on a whole new complexity to recovery, the city is doubling down on succeeding again, if history is any guide. “The key lesson of the 1980s is that even in the face of great uncertainty, if we have an understanding of our customers and have the ability to meet their needs, then there is a path for business success,” Lovat says. Plain and simple even if the hard work it requires isn’t. As he adds, the first steps were reactionary, dealing with a highly fluid situation, so the coming months will be telling when the front-foot response turns more proactive, focused and, naturally, highly competitive. After all, what would Las Vegas be without those trying to outdo their professional opponents, and do whatever it takes not to be outdone.

contributing this issue

WITH THANKS TO: Michael Pace, Dickinson Wright, Georg Washington, Max Meltzer, Anna Sainsbury, Darren Bishop Jason Ader, Cait DeBaun, Oliver Lovat, Derek Stevens, Scott Sibella, Christopher Justice, Pavol Krasnovsky, Chris Bevilacqua, Harrison Meyers, Amy Kramer and Bill Pascrell III Gaming America magazine ISSN 2632-766X Produced and published by Players Publishing Ltd All material is strictly copyrighted and all rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is forbidden. Every care is taken in compiling the contents of Gambling Insider but we assume no responsibility for the effects arising therefrom. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher.

GEORG WASHINGTON

CEO, Synergy Blue

CHRIS BEVILACQUA

Co-founder and CEO, Simplebet

READ EVERY EDITION ONLINE FOR FREE AT GAMINGAMERICA.COM 2 GAMINGAMERICA

contents

from the top

At the virtual G2E, a panel discussed the future of US sportsbetting. Ezra Amacher examines as major leagues return to a sense of normal.

Tim Poole discusses the first-ever virtual G2E and examines whether virtual events will become a permanent fixture in US gaming.

Doing things the right way

Silver Linings

The Thrill of Skill

G2E panel

a groundbreaking trend

a shared responsibility

History as a guide

GGA 2020: the results are in The winners of the 7th annual Global Gaming Awards were confirmed in October, celebrating tireless work under difficult conditions.

an Unlikely hero Harrison Meyers and Amy Kramer of law firm Greenberg Traurig discuss how table tennis became the unlikely first hero of Colorado sports betting.

Oliver Lovat, head of the Denstone Group, breaks down how the 1980s nearly finished Las Vegas, but the city’s survival was never in doubt.

Keeping it simple Chris Bevilacqua, co-founder & CEO of Simplebet discusses micro-markets and how to use them to transform US sports betting.

AGA's Cait DeBaun on the need for the US industry to promote responsible gaming and education with sports betting on the rise.

Lost in translation Owain Flanders looks into sometimes unclear or unfair terms and conditions, and how operators can avoid customer complaints.

Iqbal Johal speaks with gaming SpringOwl Asset Management CEO Jason Ader about SPAC deals and their rising popularity.

Resilient to crisis Pavol Krasnovsky, CEO of esports betting company RTSmunity, explains why the esports vertical has seen significant growth due to the pandemic.

Ezra Amacher reports on a panel from the virtual G2E, as executives and analysts from the sports betting industry gather to discuss consumer research and what it means for the sector.

global payments Ezra Amacher visits Global Payments’ Las Vegas headquarters to speak with president Christopher Justice, discussing how a cashless payments process can transform a patron’s experience of a casino.

Synergy Blue CEO Georg Washington speaks about moving operations to Las Vegas to be closer to the action.

How in the world Resorts World Las Vegas is staying the course to honor the summer 2021 grand opening. Property president Scott Sibella speaks with Carl Friedmann about persevering through current circumstances.

Jeff Silver at Dickinson Wright, PLLC explains that although this might be the worst of times, it could also bring out the best in us.

Full circa At the soft launch of Circa Resort & Casino, some say operator Derek Stevens is punching above his weight, but he thinks has what it takes to not just compete but dominate.

Pace-O-Matic CEO Michael Pace reveals key moments of his 50-year career and explains what lessons he has learned along the way.

A sure bet

A roller coaster of emotions 2020 has been a year like no other for US gambling. Industry veteran Bill Pascrell III looks back and what 2021 has in store.

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From the top

From the top:

Nice to e-meet you  Tim Poole discusses the first-ever virtual G2E and examines whether virtual events will become a permanent fixture in US gaming. From the top is an apt name for this section of Gaming America, as that is exactly where the American Gaming Association (AGA) and Reed Exhibitions started with this year’s virtual G2E. As selected media gathered for the event’s Pad & Pen session – a sort of pre-briefing – we were all reintroduced to the wonders of Zoom and what would lie ahead for attendees. Did you know you can message people privately within a group call? Did you also know Zoom can cut out quite easily when it’s your turn to ask a question? 6 GAMINGAMERICA

If you didn’t know that first point, you’re welcome. But we’re sure you all knew the second. It was very much a year of firsts for G2E, where new acquaintances were uttering the phrase ‘nice to e-meet you’ instead of the usual welcome handshake or hug. That phrase used to be a point of controversy in the Gaming America office but, during the pandemic, those who weren’t fans have had to accept it’s now part of everyday life. How successful virtual events have been or can become will always be a point of contention. But starting with the positives,

From the top

there are undoubtedly elements that can be incorporated into future trade shows – and namely future G2Es. During this session, when Gaming America asked how G2E will incorporate digital tools and whether this can lead to changes at future conferences, Cait DeBaun, AGA senior director, strategic communications, said: “We saw this as an opportunity to see how people can connect and conduct business in a virtual context. We can plan for G2E 2021 and we are already finding ways that [a virtual element] can happen, and we are already looking at ways to integrate it for the future.” An extended geographical reach is another undeniable benefit. When Gaming America also inquired into how the virtual G2E will include international participants, Korbi Carrison, G2E’s event director, responded: “This gives us the opportunity to reach worldwide as we haven’t in the past. While we have challenges with time zones, it’s now available on demand to people who haven’t been able to attend in the past. This means it’s truly available to a global audience.” Yet if we all had a choice between virtual events and safe, social land-based trade shows – right here, right now – we doubt anyone would realistically choose the former. The problem for the foreseeable future is that mass gatherings won’t be safe; indeed they aren’t even yet legal in the US. So the choice becomes virtual events or perhaps a plane ticket around the world for just a portion of the experience. That’s far less straightforward. Are business deals better agreed over a Zoom call where people are in the comfort of their offices or home offices, or at a meter’s distance where there are restrictions on how many people can attend a meeting? Do you need to be sitting in a room with vast amounts of empty space (and wearing a face mask) to watch an industry conference and pitch a question to the speaker, or are you better off at your desk, with your own coffee mug? In the above scenarios, a virtual alternative is arguably the preferred one. And that’s exactly where virtual events – or virtual elements to an event – can perhaps carve out a niche and become a permanent fixture in future trade shows. Indeed, at some European events in 2019, certain conference tracks were conducted virtually within a physical environment. Panels of speakers sat with microphones and audience members wore headphones – so all communication was carried out through technology anyway. With hindsight, considering the impact of what was at that time an unforeseen pandemic, this seems excessive, maybe even pointless. Running the same conference tracks virtually could reach a far wider audience, with the same exclusivity to paying attendees, while additionally allowing attendees to watch without leaving the hotel. As always, it’ll be down to people’s appetites for virtual content. However long the current global conditions continue, people may get sick of Zoom, having to click a button to raise your hand or having to type a question rather than ask it verbally. When the day comes that allows a full-blown G2E,

Las Vegas won’t look back. In fact, similarly to the concept of pent-up sports betting demand, networking and social events will probably be excessively lavish upon the first post-pandemic land-based G2E – it’s just human nature. But what we can definitely take from the current experience, and our learnings from the inaugural virtual G2E, are the plus points of all things digital. The costs are significantly reduced, the reach is increased (you can have a much higher amount of people watching an event online than even the biggest room) and the comfort of the attendee is multiplied. If you’re in the front row of a conference hall, for example, and you’re not particularly enthralled by the current speaker – it can happen – getting up and leaving sends a negative message, and it’s plain awkward. Watching from home, the speaker won’t even know you’ve clicked off the track, which is better for their confidence and delivery, and provides a far smoother user experience. What about flicking between tracks, too? You can’t constantly hop between Conference Room A and Conference Room B, especially at a vast exhibition like G2E. You can, though, if you’re watching online. At the click of a button, you could choose between any number of conference tracks, and it’s much easier and far more practical to plan the talks you don’t want to miss, scheduling them around your meetings. Overall, these kinds of factors mirror the wider gaming industry – and wider society – in that they demonstrate the world’s increasing digitalization. Yes, walking from one end of G2E to another, racking up the steps and seeing all the latest gaming machines is good for your health – and your business. Yes, we’re certainly not saying video calling is better than actual socializing, let alone the ability to have a drink with a colleague. But the world is changing and no one should look at virtual events as some kind of blip we simply have to put up with for the time being. The investment made into these shows during the pandemic, as well as the expertise gained, will hopefully not be put to waste once we return to our beloved real-life G2E. Virtual conferences can most definitely play some part in our industry’s long-term future. GAMINGAMERICA 7

Pace-o-Matic

Doing things the right way Pace-O-Matic CEO Michael Pace reveals the proudest moments of his 50-year career and explains what lessons he has learned along the way.

first countertop game in 1980 when I created the board and operating system to build games on. Computers didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the capabilities to do that at that point. Before I could develop a game, I had to design a platform to build games on. It really illustrates just how much times have changed since then. And second, Pace-O-Matic itself. Working with my wife Karmin, we have built a successful company with an experienced team of professionals and helped to foster a family atmosphere. Since that point, Pace-O-Matic has successfully led efforts to regulate the skill game industry in multiple states. We are still continuing those efforts today.

Why did you choose to found your own company? What was the industry missing that you wanted to provide?

Michael Pace

Can we get a little bit of your background in the industry. What are your proudest achievements over your 50-year career? My proudest achievements in the industry center around two inventions. First, the Pot-of-Gold Game. I invented the 8 GAMINGAMERICA

In 1996, I sold US Games and Pot-of-Gold. As part of the deal, I signed a 10-year non-compete agreement. I was effectively retired and I was enjoying life. At that time, I met my wife Karmin and moved to a Colorado ranch. In 2000, I realized I needed to get back to work. I could see my buyout was going to end. Pot-of-Gold was going under as more jurisdictions made the games illegal so I began thinking about the ways I could get back to work in the industry. Pot-of-Gold was a great earning game. At the height of its popularity, there were 55,000 machines in markets across the nation. Unfortunately, there was an incredible number of knockoffs in the market. As it turned out, the demise of Pot-of-Gold was good for me. I knew most all terminals at that time were in places not operating legally. I knew I could make software that could make them legal and use that existing hardware. So I worked to write code to make a legal game that could replace the illegal software currently running on those terminals. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how Pace-O-Matic began as I committed to making the best-earning legal software for these devices placed

pace-o-matic

in bars, restaurants, fraternal clubs and small businesses. There’s no need to cut corners. Just do things the right way. That’s what we’ve done here.

What are the main lessons you have taken from your career in the industry that you now apply with Pace-O-Matic? The best lessons learned are the ones learned the hard way. Everyone’s goal should be to only learn the hard way once. The biggest lesson I learned is that you can’t do it all alone. I knew I needed to grow and empower a great team to support our growing business, and we have. It has given me the ability to focus less on the business side and more on game development. That’s what I am passionate about. The goal at Pace-O-Matic is to find people who are equally passionate about what they do. If they like what they’re doing and are empowered to take the ball and run with it, that’s a corporate culture that works.

How is your business model different from some of your competitors? Pace-O-Matic has built a business model that is predicated on a strong and active relationship with the coin-operator industry. That is an important distinction in how our business operates. We not only rely on the coin-operator industry in states to help us connect with small businesses, but we also include them in our business as they are active partners in the placement and maintenance of our game terminals. Many of the businesses in the coin-operator industry are multigenerational and have deep community ties. Much like our focus on hiring the right people in our headquarters, we’ve done the same with finding the right partners for our games. We look for stand-up people who are really active in their communities and give back to their communities. What kind of volunteer work do they do? What’s their reputation? If you partner with the right type of people, it puts you on a different level. If you make trust a priority, it really pays off. We’re proud to partner with these small businesses and happy that our products have helped propel them into a renaissance for the industry.

Is there anything the US gamer wants that perhaps players in other regions might not? Or what does the typical gamer look like? Our products are designed for those who are looking to enjoy games that are more similar to what you would see in an arcade. Today’s gamers have grown up on video gaming consoles and now play games on their phones. We are looking to deliver products that appeal to this new generation of gamers. They aren’t entertained by pressing a button and waiting to see if they win or lose. They want to play a game and use skill. That is the difference and how Pace-O-Matic is setting itself apart from the competition.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected Pace-O-Matic’s operations? The pandemic made us work harder and think smarter. This type of stuff happens and businesses have to adapt. It has highlighted the need for enhanced public safety, not only because our local governments are requiring it, but because our customers expect it. As a result, we are supplying hand sanitizer, spacing out terminals and adding dividers. We’re really doing everything necessary to support player safety. Plus, the teams we have in different states stay very close to the rules and regulations in their area. Our goal is to not only comply with, but go above and beyond to ensure our customers are safe. We also pride ourselves on having excellent relations and reputations with state and local governments. It’s important they know you can be counted on. People will remember how you acted and reacted in difficult times. This is a time to set an example and we’re doing that.

What is the long-term plan for the company? Our plan is to continue our positive growth and acquisitions. We are also in development of new exciting products. If you were to come to our headquarters, I think you would immediately see something unique. Right in the front of our building, we have a giant game room. It sets the tone for the whole attitude of the place. We have fun. We build games. We employ super smart people who enjoy creating games.

“I knew I needed to grow and empower a great team to support our growing business, and we have. It has given me the ability to focus less on the business side and more on game development. That is what I am passionate about.” GAMINGAMERICA 9

Dickinson Wright

The focus on silver Linings Jeff Silver, who practices gaming and administrative law as of counsel with Dickinson Wright, PLLC, explains that although this might be perceived as the worst of times, it could also bring out the best in us. As everyone knows, the gaming industry is terribly stressed right now. With lock-downs, occupancy limitations, loss of megaconventions and mandated closures of live entertainment and special events, these are challenges for even the most robust balance sheets and their crisis managers. Las Vegas has seen the disappearance of international customers due to travel restrictions, airline scheduling cutbacks and just plain fear, all of which have decimated the high-end gaming market. Overall occupancy levels for the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 150,000 hotel rooms, which was 88.9% in 2019, averaged only 42.7% through August of this year. More troubling is the 10 GAMINGAMERICA

fact that a markedly lower ADR has attracted more than its fair share of non-gamblers, a few of whom have been nothing more than troublemakers and disrupters. The traditional gaming and convention segment have fared no better. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) released its tourism survey for the year to date (ending August 2020) showing total visitors of 12.7 million, which statistics already included an extraordinarily fine first quarter. By comparison, visitation in 2019 was 42.5 million, not including the 6.6 million who came to the city as convention attendees. There has been no measurable convention attendance after

Dickinson Wright

March 2020 and total visitors, which had been averaging nearly 4 million per month, charted only 1.5 million total visitors in August 2020. A recent midweek partial closure of dining facilities and other amenities at the Encore, a part of the Wynn, underscores just how important the convention business is to Las Vegas, and the loss of special events is equally disconcerting. The new Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, was completed on schedule in August, yet as of October 15th, no fans have been allowed to view a game. Concerts have been cancelled and the National Finals Rodeo, a sold-out, ten-day event with its 170,000 visitors, which had been the mainstay for December occupancy, was relocated this year to Texas. While most resort properties have partially reopened in compliance with government restrictions, some, such as the Palms, which had completed a $690 million makeover and was closed by Station Casinos even prior to the pandemic, still remain shuttered as the company rethinks its marketing focus. Others, whose cash position has been materially impaired or whose facilities have not been competitive, are actively looking for purchasers. With recently completed mergers, acquisitions and consolidations, “superfluous assets” that might not reflect the new image of the acquirer, or can be disposed of to reduce overall leverage, are being shed. Twin Rivers Casinos, which has been on a recent acquisition binge, purchased the Bally’s name from Caesars and intends to use it for its sports wagering site and other gaming properties. During the last downturn several years ago, Boyd Corporation abruptly ended construction on its multi-billion dollar Echelon project and sold the property and partially completed structure to Resorts World. Most believed that for Boyd, it was the right decision and perhaps saved the company. There is still room for optimism even in this latest apocalypse. With an abiding confidence in the future of Las Vegas, Resorts World and several other entities that were committed to construction prior to the pandemic are progressing steadfastly with their grand opening plans. The LVCVA never stopped construction on its new convention expansion and the stateof-the-art Caesars conference center at the Link is nearing completion for an opening in early 2021. The Virgin Hotel & Casino, formerly the Hard Rock and Circa, the flashy and exciting downtown hotel owned by Derek Stevens, should be ready by the end of this year. And South Point owner, Michael Gaughan, just opened a new 40,000 square foot equestrian center. Other projects, such as the Madison Square Garden Sphere at Venetian-Palazzo, is still moving forward, albeit at a more measured pace. But contrarily, the Drew (formerly the Fontainebleau) still shows no visible signs of progress or a finite completion date. While I mentioned a few bright spots for those who measure success by the number of construction cranes, the snapshot is still mostly discouraging. It’s difficult for most executives to

maintain their game face when they have to furlough their biggest asset, loyal team members, and hear experts predict a possible resurgence of the virus, which could defer a full recovery until 2022, or as distant as 2024. I have experienced the cyclical nature of Las Vegas during my 65 years living here and working as an executive in the resort industry. However, I’m sure most agree that nothing compares with the depth of this disruption and its impact. Nor have I seen the displacement of so many jobs and the permanent closure of so many small businesses. This is unquestionably, the worst of times. Those who can survive the crisis, mentally and financially, do have some hope on the near horizon, which is a more lasting sign than stimulus checks and tax credits for convention attendees. When the government finally granted permission for a partial reopening of resorts and restaurants, diversiondeprived visitors and locals flooded the casinos and the local slot taverns. This was just an inkling of the pent-up demand that’s out there. The concern is whether the return customers would find the new environment to their liking. The social distancing and mask requirements met early resistance, but in an effort to assure safety, the gaming regulators reminded the casino licensees to obey the rules or face significant fines. Several locations have already received formal complaints, but the overall compliance and the commitment to safety have always been excellent. Proving safety to its invitees always begins with the business. The problem with these rules and pronouncements is they seem to lack consistent science to support them. Some customers conclude that the medical community doesn’t speak with one voice and has become rebellious about lockdowns and regulations, which are constantly subject to reinterpretation. While everyone wants a property to have visible cleaning and screening protocols, the heightened angst and fear by some, and the anger and disgust by others, are often imputed to the resort operator, who is trying its best to be both accommodating and compliant. Realizing that the required response to the pandemic has caused a good part of the excitement to be drained from resort experience, it has forced casino executives into their own version of Operation Fun Speed. The resort industry is flush with talent and the resolve to reinvent itself. Executive sessions, which always included an agenda item for a future retreat to consider the evolution of their marketing strategies in order to address the younger demographic, have stopped passively ruminating on the problem and are now jolted to immediate action to consider new concepts and fresh ideas. A prime example of innovative thinking is the announcement by Atari that it will open two new hotel properties, one in Las Vegas and the other in Phoenix. Designed by the GSD Group and the prestigious Gensler Architecture firm, the hotels will offer modernized, video game-centric nostalgia. As the press GAMINGAMERICA 11

Dickinson wright

release proclaimed, the properties will provide immersive entertainment, retro-style gaming arcades, themed nightclubs and eating areas. The exterior of the buildings will feature gigantic light and screen displays. Perhaps buffets will return as an eating option through the use of the automat concept of the 1950s where dishes of food were displayed for the taking behind glass doors. While the gaming industry will cast a watchful eye at the success of this non-gaming project and other substitutes for the more popular offerings that made Las Vegas famous, in short run there’s still an immediate need to supplement income lost during the closures. That new focus has been online sports wagering. New Jersey regulators took the lead, offering online casino-style games and welcoming applications from their existing casinos and racetracks to offer in-state sports wagering, both in-house and online. These licensed locations were allowed to sell skins to other sports wagering operators to conduct online betting. It was a gift for established betting shops such William Hill and Draft Kings, but also provided opportunities for others, some of whom were new entrants to the industry. Partnerships are being made with professional sports teams and the leagues themselves, which allowed them to receive a piece of the pie without the necessity for licensing. The success of New Jersey’s internet casino revenue is evident. Today, over 70% of the New Jersey sports wagering handle comes from online wagers. The Press of Atlantic City reported that through September, there has been a 113% increase in online gaming revenue to $87.6 million and the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement reported a sports betting handle of $748 million in September shattering all records. New Jersey is not alone. Pennsylvania’s online sports wagering also continues to set new records each month.

12 GAMINGAMERICA

To facilitate the convenience of online customers’ individual wagering accounts could be established that did not require a visit to the casino, which was always a Nevada requirement. The innovative technology employed by Barstool Sports, William Hill, Draft Kings and others, necessary for the maintenance of these customer accounts, and together with geo-fencing software to prevent wagers from being made beyond the state’s boundaries, have made the systems auditable and have assured the regulators that they were safe from tampering and abuse. The great variety of betting options and the ease of placing wagers, including in-game betting, are also evolving. Since the United States Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in May 2018, 25 states have laws authorizing sports wagering and four more states, South Dakota, Maryland, Louisiana and Virginia, are either voting whether to legalize or amend their state constitution to permit it, or have bills pending before their state legislatures. Native American casinos seem anxious to add sports wagering, but are unsure of the regulatory pathway allowing wagers off reservation property. Many tribes are concerned about the prospect of reopening their state compacts to add sports wagering for fear the state might seek a more extensive renegotiation. Nonetheless, there are many untapped markets in this sector. Sports wagering, which in Nevada was once considered to be an amenity to traditional casino offerings, has become a mainstream revenue center, especially in states with larger populations. More importantly, it doesn’t seem to detract from casino visitation. With these successes has come the consolidation within the sports wagering industry, with each major operator fighting for the betting handle within each state. On that basis, it’s likely we’ll see the market reduced to three or four betting behemoths. There are many aspects to the resort experience that cannot be replicated online. New products are being developed by slot machine manufacturers to provide electronic alternatives to live games. Stadium style betting stations, which allow patrons to wager on live games in a social setting, have become more acceptable, and new wagering concepts substituting for live game action are either available now or on the drawing board. Promoting the element of personal interaction with customers, the smaller regional casino operators are unafraid of the future. When the little guy also has the support of their financial partners on Wall Street to acquire their larger brethren, or take properties from the discard pile, all in the midst of a staggering downturn, I see that as a reliable indicator that the gaming industry is on the verge of recovery. As the medical community works to find vaccines and possible cures for COVID-19, I would conclude that while these are the worst of times, the anticipation of tomorrow’s innovation and reinvention can also make these the best of times.

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Synergy Blue

The thrill of skill Gaming America speaks with Synergy Blue CEO Georg Washington about moving operations to Las Vegas, and how important it’s been for business to be closer to the action. Located inside the second floor of a glass building in suburban Las Vegas, Synergy Blue’s headquarters initially resemble many workplaces in America. A recently renovated open floor space borders the offices of the higher-ups. There’s an easily accessible, brightly colored break room with proper social distancing, while HR is tucked away from the casual visitor. A coffee machine satiates the company’s caffeine urges and as a back-up, there’s always the mini fridge stacked with Red Bull. But the true nerve center of Synergy Blue’s office is unique. In one room an audio engineer is set up with his own mini recording studio with the task of creating original sounds for the company’s slate of interactive casino games. Down the hallway, a team of artists create dazzling graphics that dance on screen. Nearby, a 3D printer churns out designs for SB’s in-house cabinets. Then there’s the showcase game room where all of the company’s inventions come together. When CEO Georg Washington is not conducting the more day-to-day work of running an entertainment gaming solutions provider, he’s likely to be here, racing through a Joyride Jackpot course. “It’s a favorite throughout the office,” Washington tells Gaming America. “We have a running leaderboard competition that’s been going on for a few months. While I can’t say I’ve held the top spot for long, we love seeing that even our team, who has spent countless hours working on the backend of this game, still enjoys playing it again and again.” Joyride Jackpot is the highlight of SB’s four new game titles released in October. Dubbed “Fun You Can Bet On,” the skillinfluenced games range from Joyride’s arcade drive style play to blast style defense and progress (Blizzard Blast), slot style play (Royal Dragon Saga), and tower defense style play (Zombie Heat). They were released in four US jurisdictions as well as Southeast Asia. “Skill-influenced games are the next logical step for casino games,” Washington says. “If you look at the rest of the gaming industry, they’ve been progressing and improving on their gameplay for years. The casino industry is a bit slower to evolve 14 GAMINGAMERICA

because of all the necessary regulations, but we’re heading in the right direction.” Last summer, Georg Washington and his wife Amy, Synergy’s chief marketing and strategy officer, made a significant investment in the future of skill-influenced games by moving the company from Palm Desert, California, to Las Vegas. Moving from one state to another is never easy for a business, but the coronavirus pandemic added another layer of difficulty. Many Synergy employees worked remotely from California for parts of 2020. The whole staff is finally settling down in their new home. For Georg Washington, greater proximity to gaming partners outweighed the logistical hurdles of the move. “Being in the heart of America’s casino industry, closer to our clients and the industry overall, has been a ton of fun,” he says. “It’s helped us build relationships and allowed us to get a better idea of the challenges casinos are facing, as well as the opportunities for growth. No one knows their establishment better than a casino’s own team, so being here has helped us understand the specific benefits of skill-influenced games and to secure mutually-beneficial relationships with our casino partners.” Synergy has a small but growing staff, allowing for “closer connections and a better sense of community,” according to Washington. The leadership team includes industry veterans Brian Dolan, senior VP of operations and Michael Low, VP president of technology & games. Pamela Matthews, formerly of IGT’s compliance department, serves as VP of compliance and licensing while former IGT senior product manager Andy Fisher is VP of product management. The company also employs a staff of artists whose job is to bring color and excitement back to casino games. “Casino games, just like the plethora of games all around us, are meant to create an experience,” Washington says. “We put a lot of thought into the atmosphere that we want people to experience while playing our games, so we tailor the art and music to reflect that. The soundtrack to Joyride Jackpot is

Synergy Blue

fast-paced, exciting, and captures the thrill of the ride, while Mahjong is slower and more relaxing, like the game itself. “ For years skill-influenced games have faced scrutiny from operators and regulators, many of whom believe the games should be illegal. Proponents of these games argue that they modernize the casino floor and bring in new customers who are drawn to the skill-based aspects. “We’ve heard this from industry leaders and casino managers, and we’ve done some serious research to get anonymous insight both from the industry and the players themselves,” he adds. “Today’s players want more interaction, and more fun incorporated into their gambling experiences. Increasing the thought, strategy and skill required to play, increases player confidence in winning. And casino operators agree that these games help them diversify offerings, cater to new demographics and create new marketing opportunities.” The wide and evolving demographic of casino goers desires games that tap into nostalgia and offer greater interaction, Washington argues. From connect-three’s games targeted to Baby Boomers to arcade-style play designed for Gen Xers, Synergy wants to fill the demand for games that incorporate fun and risk. The arcade drive style game Joyride Jackpot exemplifies the direction the company is heading in. “Joyride Jackpot is truly our most impressive game,”Washington says. “You can race through the city, mountains, or speedway tracks, chasing jackpots and even competing with your friends. The competition aspect of racing with friends and trying to climb the leaderboard, along with the immersive experience created by the 2600XL arcade driving cabinet with steering wheel and foot pedals, set it apart from many other casino experiences.” A defining feature of the driving experience is Synergy’s 2600XL Modular Cabinet. The cabinet, inspired by the original Atari console, is geared toward digitally native players. It includes a touch screen, joystick, big buttons, trackball, poker buttons, arcade light gun and, of course, a driver. “A lot of today’s players either experienced the magical dawn of the video game era, or grew up playing video games on those first generation consoles,” Washington says. “This cabinet is designed with them in mind. It looks, feels and acts as an arcade cabinet, and the games are quite similar to the games they grew up playing on their phones and TVs. The 2600 invokes that sense of nostalgia and adds to the excitement of wagering, with games that reflect the interaction and quality that these players are accustomed to.” The 2600XL Modular Cabinet is one of two cabinets developed by Synergy engineers; the other is their 2600ST Slant Top Cabinet. “The 2600 series is designed to transport the arcade experience onto the casino floor and the look and feel of the cabinet is entirely nostalgic to that,” Washington says.“When the pandemic changed the nature of casinos, we decided to

create our Blue Safe Touch technology, with antimicrobial, germ inhibiting touch surfaces and UVC air filtration, and implement it into the 2600 series and all our cabinets going forward. The development of BST added a little time to our production, but we were able to stay on schedule. Now we have hardware ready for all those seeking a new, totally immersive gambling experience.” Between innovative hardware and software, Washington is confident Synergy will continue pushing the skill-influenced gaming sector forward while giving casino customers a memorable experience. Washington says, “These new games are highly interactive and reflect the quality of modern gaming experiences that exist outside of the casino. "Players can zap zombies in a style similar to the mobile games they play, or race against friends for a chance at winning in a true, arcade-style driving game. Instead of pressing a button and letting the game play for them, they’re truly immersed in this new, gaming-gambling experience. These games are the ultimate example of our signature fun you can bet on.”

Georg Washington

GAMINGAMERICA 15

G2E Panel

A sure bet At the virtual G2E, a panel looked at the state of US sports betting. Ezra Amacher reports on what was discussed as major leagues return to a sense of normal. The 2020 virtual Global Gaming Expo provided dozens of informative sessions that added up to a wealth of knowledge on what directions the industry is heading. G2E gave particular focus to the US sports betting market, which has exploded since the repeal of PASPA in 2018. Despite casino shutdowns and stoppage of sports leagues during the coronavirus pandemic, online sports betting has kept on humming. Sports betting reached a record handle of about $3bn in September. With new markets like the District of Columbia and Tennessee entering the playing field, the market will almost certainly continue its rapid growth through the final months of 2020. To give a breakdown of consumer trends, G2E hosted, “Evolving Sports Betting Research Trends: What is the Consumer Thinking,” featuring panel members from Kambi, GeoComply and Heart+Mind Strategies. Max Meltzer, Kambi CCO, led the discussion with a close look at how the pandemic lockdown affected betting behavior. Kambi compared sports betting handle figures from three periods: pre-lockdown (January to mid-March); during lockdown (mid-March to mid-July); and post lockdown (midJuly to end of September). Predictably, basketball and football accounted for the majority of pre- and post-lockdown, but the lockdown months saw a shuffle in wagering popularity. Table tennis, the one sport played continuously from start to end of lockdown, earned 39% of wagers, followed by soccer at 24%, and UFC/MMA at 10%. The interest in table tennis did not

max meltzer

16 GAMINGAMERICA

extend much beyond lockdown, however. By post lockdown the sport accounted for just 3% of wagers. “Out of nowhere came table tennis as the most phenomenally interested sport and we evolved quickly as a trading organization to how we deal with it,” Meltzer said. “With this level of turnover, you really have to have all the algorithms in ways of working that can make a lot of sense.” Though post-lockdown provided a return to a more traditional hierarchy of handle, there was some unexpected jostling among the mid-tier wagered sports. Soccer doubled its share from pre- to post-lockdown to 8% and leap-frogged ice hockey and tennis. The earlier return of European soccer leagues helped the sport’s standing, as did the sudden popularity for an eSports league on FIFA. Kambi saw a greater percentage of in-play betting during lockdown. In-game wagering grew 12% during that period, amounting to 38% of all sports. After lockdown, in-game fell to 30% which was still 4% higher than pre-lockdown. “What we’ve seen that actually became a point was that people were educated a little bit more about in-play betting than perhaps they were before,” Meltzer said. In-game wagering has seen its greatest growth in instant markets for NFL live bets. About 30% of NFL live bets come as a result of instant markets, according to Kambi, a 20% year-on-year increase. Money line, spread and total points still dominate ingame wagering, but bets like First Play – Road or Home Team Drive X, have surpassed first or second half spreads. The way sports bettors wager at land-based casinos has adapted to Kambi’s latest technology. Bettors prefer to wager at kiosks over tellers by an 80% to 20% margin. “The reality is, as long as cleanliness comes first in land-based casinos and people are feeling assured that the kiosks are being effectively monitored, people want to use kiosks more than they want to interact with people,” Meltzer said. Kambi, which works with retail sportsbooks in all 11 states it operates in, reports higher average wagers on-property ($66) than online ($31). Parlays are up 5% from a year ago, including a 19% increase in multi-sport parlays. Plus, 53% of basketball parlays featured baseball, an indication that bettors were seeking higher risk for higher reward post-lockdown. The panel then transitioned to Anna Sainsbury, chairman and co-founder of Geocomply, who presented geolocation data on consumer behavior. Geocomply looked at user movements

G2E Panel

around northeastern markets and found one quarter of New Jersey wagering comes from New York residents, while 82% of New Jersey traffic is within 10 miles of the border. In Pennsylvania, a quarter of wagering takes place within two miles of the border. With so much interstate movement near borders, Geocomply invests its resources to promote clear consumer messaging and offers operators concise data. “What we want to do is make sure that anybody out of state who might have seen some advertising for online gaming, is that we give them the right messages to tell them where they can play and what legal operators there are,” she said. “We also make sure that users that are in a state haven’t done anything to tamper with their data. So we’re looking for any kind of data modification, someone using a VPN, proxy or anonymizer.” Geocomply’s PlayPause tool seeks to offer better responsible gaming solutions by gathering data on self-exclusion among traveling consumers. A bettor self-excluded in New Jersey could still access gaming in New York. Similarity, someone self-excluded from one brand in Pennsylvania could still play on another brand in New Jersey. “To offer a solution, we’ll need a nationwide solution that allows a user at the time of recognition that they would like to implement some controls,” she says. “Maybe a month, a year, five years or a lifetime that we’re going to be able to distribute that to as many states, operators and gaming verticals as possible.” Geocomply found that high wager volume events like the Super Bowl led to increased travel of New York sports bettors to New Jersey. During Super Bowl 2020, New Yorkers wagered an estimated $837m at legal New Jersey sportsbooks. One way for operators and regulators to collect better data is by requiring customers to enter the last four digits of their SSN when registering at a legal brand. According to Sainsbury, “This allows us to collect enough data to create a de-indentified user

darren bishop

anna sainsbury

ID, allowing us to more effectively and uniquely identify a user without concerns of a potentially vulnerable data base.” The panel wrapped up with Darren Bishop, senior solutions consultant for Heart+Mind Strategies, who presented insight into education and communication on legalized betting. Heart+Mind conducted a pre-pandemic interview with thousands of US adults who wagered both legally and illegally in legal and non-legal states and found 74% of people said it’s important to wager only using regulated methods. Over half illegal bettors believed they were mostly wagering legally. When these bettors were told they were participating in unregulated forms of sports betting, 84% said they were surprised. While Heart+Mind found more bets are still being placed illegally than legally, the growth in legal sports betting is outpacing illegal betting spent. Of consumers who participate in illegal sports betting, 61% were millennials and 46% multicultural according to the survey. Unregulated bettors also outspent regulated bettors by a $2,815 to $669 margin. “This highlights the opportunity for the industry,” Bishop said. “If they're able to reduce the confusion and help those folks migrate into legal betting markets, that’ll be a tremendous benefit to the overall spent.” Heart+Mind found that among legal methods, US online sportsbook wagering had grown 12% while casino sportsbook betting fell 10%. That margin only accelerated amid the pandemic. For illegal methods, bookie betting was down 25% while offshore online sportsbooks grew 3%. Though there’s a long way to go in educating the US betting public on legal versus illegal betting, Heart+Mind discovered encouraging trends. In legal markets, illegal sports betting decreased 17% YOY. As more states legalize sports wagering, the research indicates fewer bettors will resort to illegal methods. GAMINGAMERICA 17

Jason Ader

A groundbreaking trend Since DraftKings entered a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) agreement to purchase SBTech through Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp last December to go public, SPAC deals have been all the rage in the US gaming market. Iqbal Johal caught up with gaming industry analysts and SpringOwl Asset Management CEO Jason Ader to discuss the rising popularity of SPAC deals and the benefits behind them. There have been several SPAC deals recently in the gaming industry. What are their biggest advantages and why have we seen many of these deals take place within a similar timeframe? SPACs have been around a long time. Believe it or not, they were popular 15 years ago too. They got really popular in the gaming industry because DraftKings became public through a SPAC last year and it’s really been one of the biggest success stories of it. After DraftKings, GNOG and Rush Street also became public through the SPAC structure, and both have performed well and have traded above their IPO price. The reason for this is two-fold. It’s faster to become public through a SPAC than a traditional IPO process, so from the prospective of an issuer, that’s a good thing. Secondly, is less obvious but an important structural advantage. When you go public, you file under the US registration S1. It’s very standard and straining in terms of what you can say about the prospects of a business’ future. When you choose to merge as part of the public process, as GNOG, Rush Street and DraftKings did, you no longer file an S1, you file an S4. This is a document that, in a very constructive way, SPAC sponsors have figured out how to make much more transparent to the issuer and to investors. So a company like DraftKings can give business projections and talk about what they think the next three to five years could look like, which is something you can’t do with an S1. Then of course, the S4 document is ultimately voted on by the shareholders, who vote based on more complete information. Basically, it’s faster and it allows for investors to get more information about the company they’re investing in.

We’ve seen DraftKings, GNOG and Rush Street all go public recently. How do you rate each of the deals, and which of those companies will see the biggest benefits? The DraftKings deal was groundbreaking because it was a SPAC by two companies, DraftKings and SBtech, which is very uncommon. The second thing that was groundbreaking with GNOG was that the SPAC, Landcadia II, that bought GNOG was in fact controlled by the same management team that owns GNOG. Nobody thought this could be possible, but because it was subject to a shareholder 18 GAMINGAMERICA

vote, everything was disclosed and it became possible. Tilman Fertitta raised the SPAC and then he used his SPAC to spin off GNOG, but he used his SPAC to take GNOG public. This opens up an unlimited amount of possibilities for private equity firms now who can do their own SPACs and then sell their portfolio companies into the SPACs and continue to be involved in the business.

Are such deals crucial to gaining a bigger market share in the US online market? Has COVID perhaps accelerated the amount of deals we’ve seen? In the pandemic, nobody is travelling and people are staying at home, so there’s a bigger online economy in general, including in gaming. Five years ago if you wanted to take a company public and you travelled all over the country and spend three weeks on the road, it could be highly inefficient. SPACs are doing well, not only in gaming but across all industries, because you can raise a SPAC on Zoom in a few days, then use the travel constraints because of the pandemic as a way to take the company public with better information than would’ve been the case in the traditional IPO route. The pandemic has accelerated the SPAC industry because it’s a way to raise capital, which then allows companies to go public in a way that’s faster and lets them get better information about the company.

“ The pandemic has accelerated the SPAC industry because it’s a way to raise capital, which then allows companies to go public in a way that’s faster and lets them get better information about the company.”

aga

A shared responsibility American Gaming Association (AGA) senior director, strategic communications and responsibility Cait DeBaun, speaks to Iqbal Johal about the necessity for the industry in the US to promote responsible gaming and education, given the popularity sports betting has seen since legalization.

The legalizing of sports betting in May 2018 came as a great boost to the US gambling industry. After years of legislation, PASPA was finally overturned, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a free-for-all ever since, for operators and suppliers to gain market share, and for states to capitalize on the guaranteed revenue increases that legalization has undoubtedly brought. Since May 2018, sports betting is now legal in 22 states and the District of Columbia, with at least a further six states that have active legislation. Since the period PASPA was overturned up until August this year, it was estimated that Americans legally wagered more than $25bn on sports betting, generating $231m in tax revenue to state and local governments. To further demonstrate the popularity and appetite among players in the US for sports betting, research by the American Gaming Association (AGA) predicted approximately 13% of American adults plan to bet on NFL games during the 2020 season. The US gambling 20 GAMINGAMERICA

industry body believes 33.2m adults will bet during the season, including 6.6m at physical, legal sportsbooks, which is a 2% rise on 2019, with 11.3m to place a bet through legal and illegal online platforms. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no doubting that sports betting has been extremely well received by both Americans and the gaming industry in general in the US. But of course, greater exposure of the vertical reinforces the need for responsible gaming education. With sports betting in its infancy, the public needs to be more informed of the risks and availability of it, while operators and suppliers must adhere to marketing codes and regulations to make sure the sports betting environment is as safe and enjoyable as possible. And thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where the AGA has stepped up its focus within the past year. Its responsible gambling mission includes the launch of public service campaign, Have a Game Plan,

aga

Bet Responsibly. Announced in March, the sports betting advertisement campaign is designed to educate fans and consumers about sports betting practices by launching live at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, and the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The campaign focuses on four key tenets: setting a budget and sticking to it, keeping it social, being informed and playing with regulated operators, with these responsible gaming messages promoted around the sports venues. Another of the Association’s key commitments, is its Responsible Marketing Code for Sports Wagering, which was released a year after PASPA was overturned, in May last year. The code includes self-imposed sports betting advertisement restrictions on target audiences, outlets and materials branding, while including responsible gaming in marketing activities. The code applies to both AGA members and non-members in the regulated sports betting ecosystem. AGA senior director, strategic communications and responsibility Cait DeBaun, spoke to Gaming America about the AGA’s responsible gambling commitments, and touched upon the importance of the message. She also mentioned how lessons can be learned from other markets, such as the UK, that have also been ramping up its own advertisement restrictions after much criticism from parliamentary groups, and operator fines for not adhering to measures aimed at preventing the overexposure of gambling messaging to young and vulnerable people. “It’s very important to establish a high standard for sports betting marketing and advertisement,” DeBaun explains. “We

cait Debaun

22 GAMINGAMERICA

learned from what happened in more mature markets around sports betting advertising and that’s why we wanted to get ahead of it with the sports betting marketing code. We spent a lot of time priming the market for legalization well ahead of the Supreme Court decision here in the US, and now it’s about market protection and how we can ensure that the success continues and responsible gaming and advertising is at the core to making that happen. “Our members and the broader industry are using this standard to ensure that we get ahead of it by self-regulation and transparency. The process allows anyone to submit a complaint on our website, which will then be sent to the advertiser in question who can respond. If that response isn’t deemed sufficient, the complaint is sent back to our Code Compliance Review Board to determine if the operator or advertiser in question is not within the means of the code. Then the decision is published on the website.” In other words, the transparency is there and it openly reflects on the advertiser in question, regardless of how negatively or positively they are abiding by the code. “Our members are committed to instilling responsibility across every part of their daily operations and our expectation is that this code raises the bar for the broader sports betting community,” she adds. The rise of sports betting and indeed gaming in general in the US has been meteoric. The industry has vastly expanded in the past 25 years, reaching a point where casino gaming is offered in 44 states, in various formats. That again proves the need for the continuation of responsible gaming education, especially when you consider the reach sports betting now has in the country, at a time where all four major US sports leagues took place during the month of September, an unprecedented occurrence. As DeBaun reiterates: “At the AGA, we’re particularly focused on ensuring that the industry’s responsible gaming commitment grows in unison with the expansion of legal sports betting. It’s tremendous what we’ve seen in terms of growth. More Americans than ever are accessing regulated legal sports betting options. In fact it’s to the point where four in 10 Americans live in states that offer legal sports betting, which in the US is impressive over two years, I don’t think there’s any other issue that has been as rapid as this has. “The NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB, as well as NASCAR and other great sporting events, have taken place recently, so there’s been a lot of options for sports betting and it’s important that the industry and the broader sports betting ecosystem encourages safe gambling behavior.” As with the AGA’s Have a Game Plan campaign, the focus is to reach fans who engage with sports wagering, using digital opportunities to get the message across now that fans are restricted in sports venues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only way the message will work is having

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sports teams and leagues embrace and promote the message, something DeBaun says has been the focus, and is on the way to being achieved. That was after NASCAR became the campaign’s first professional sports league partner, with the auto car racing sanctioning body teaming up to educate its fans on responsible sports betting in September. An important milestone, in pulling players into the regulated market. She said: “During September’s Responsible Gaming Education Week, we saw the industry fully embrace Have a Game Plan, looking at gaming properties that have put signage and materials in their brick-and-mortar facilities or seeing the message carry on social media or directly to consumers. “We need the full sports betting ecosystem – teams, leagues, media – to really embrace the shared responsibility, which is something NASCAR has done from day one. It’s a priority in their gaming strategy and we’re excited to see the campaign roll out directly to their audience, engaging fans to know when to bet responsibly. “We’re really focused on expanding and are hopeful to have more announcements with teams and leagues who understand that responsibility is shared across the sports betting ecosystem. “First and foremost we have a responsibility with our customers. We want to make sure that sports betting remains fun for fans to engage with their favorite teams and leagues, but it’s also about protecting the opportunity for gaming in sports. “I think there’s both a shared social responsibility here but also an economic opportunity that we all need to realize will be protected by front-footed initiatives like Have a Game Plan. “Specific to sports betting, in part because it’s a new market in the US, consumers still remain confused about online betting options, who’s a legal sportsbook, and who’s not part of that has to do with the deceptive nature of how offshore operators market themselves. If we were to get sports bettors into the legal market, advertising is essential. It’s going to help educate customers about their options in the regulated legal market. That said, we know what can happen when advertising is not regulated, as those familiar with the European market would be aware of.” It’s no secret how gambling is viewed in other countries, particularly in Europe. Political pandering has fueled the fire and led to critics calling for restrictive measures to prevent gambling harms and problem gambling, particularly in the

UK, despite the industry clamping down on advertising laws and VIP schemes. But what about in the US? DeBaun believes players are embracing the safer gambling messages and are less likely to bet irresponsibly now the message is out there. She points to AGA research, which shows that nine in 10 casual bettors set a budget before visiting a casino and 90% of them successfully track their spending. Despite this, she still believes there’s always room for improvement in terms of getting a clear message to customers. Gambling in the US is seemingly more widely received among the public compared to its European counterparts. More people in the US now view the industry as a responsible job creator and community partner, as DeBaun explains. “Last year, nearly 50% of adults reported viewing the gaming industry favorably, which is a record for the industry,” she said. “We’ve done this research into casinos and communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Maryland. We talked to the people who are engaged with the gaming community, whether it’s the Boys and Girls club, or small businesses. You can really tell the impact the gaming industry has on the communities where we operate. “That’s what the gaming industry means to local communities. It’s not just the jobs you see when you’re on the casino floor. There’s a whole host of jobs throughout the casino property, but also folks employed in small businesses, whether it’s the flower shops or cleaning companies that have built successful companies because of their relationship with gaming. That’s truly who we are and how Americans see us as well. “I think one of the differences between the UK market and the US market, is that the US market operators and suppliers in the gaming industry have a united champion with groups such as the AGA where we can present a common voice, and tackle issues such as responsible gaming as a collective gaming industry, which might not be as strong in other markets we’re seeing. Here we’re united in focusing on these issues and addressing them in more of a front-footed manner.” Despite the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears as if promoting the responsible gaming message is very much on the right track in the US, especially when it comes to the newly legalized sports betting market. More importantly, stakeholders are willing to get on board with promoting the message to keep gambling fun and safe, which points to positive signs for growth as we head into the future.

“ “We’re really focused on expanding and are hopeful to have more announcements with teams and leagues who understand that responsibility is shared across the sports betting ecosystem.”

24 GAMINGAMERICA

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history as a guiDe Oliver Lovat, who leads the denstone Group, breaks down how the eighties nearly finished las vegas, but the city’s survival was never entirely in doubt.

As America entered the new decade, the warning signs were already there. Trouble was brewing in the Middle East, forcing up gas prices. Inflation and interest rates were creeping up, and housing, steel and car sales were down. By January, the country was already in recession. Unemployment was to peak at 10.8%. Gaming was beginning to proliferate, and Las Vegas faced a safety crisis which could challenge the future of the city. How Las Vegas responded to the 1980s offers a case study to the challenges that face us today.

and the economy to slow. This tightening of monetary policy was compounded by the geo-political crisis caused by the Iranian Revolution and Iran-Iraq war, and subsequent reduction in oil supply led to inflation peaking at 20.5% Over the next few years, the jobless rate slowly receded, falling to 8.3% by the end of 1983 and to 7.2% by the time of the 1984 “Morning in America” presidential election. However, the unemployment rate didn’t fall below 6% until September 1987, well after the technical end of the recession.

crisis 1: There were two recessions in the USA in the early

crisis 2: On the 26 May 1978, in only the second state in the USA to allow legal casinos, Resorts Casino Hotel opened in Atlantic City. It was shortly followed by The Boardwalk Regency (renamed Caesars in 1983), and Bally’s Park Place in 1979. The Brighton (renamed The Sands from 1981), Harrah’s and Steve Wynn’s Golden Nugget opened in 1980. In the coming years, more were to follow. The miracle of Atlantic City was evident, from no gaming

80s, colloquially known as the double-dip recession. The National Bureau for Economic Research cites the double-dip as the harshest of the late 20th century. The short recession and recovery in January to June 1980, was followed by a sustained recession from July 1981 to November 1982. With inflation at 11.1% in 1980, The Federal Reserve raised interest rates to slow money supply, which in turn caused a rise in unemployment 26 GAMINGAMERICA

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revenue in 1977, to $325m in 1979, $640m in 1980, $1.1bn in 1981, $1.5b in 1982 and nearly $2bn in 1985. Between 19801989 total gaming revenues had grown 437% to $18.3bn. On appearance, this small portfolio of properties had relegated the mighty Las Vegas to a desert relic.

crisis 3: In southern Nevada, the decade started disastrously. On 21 November, 1980, an electrical fire at the MGM Grand ripped through the property, leading to the death of 85 guests and leaving an indelible mark on the city’s history. The deadly nature of the fire was compounded by the light regulatory environment that had evolved in Nevada, where fire sprinklers were not essential in many densely populated areas. A second fire at the Hilton followed in short order, and although not on the same scale, it still resulted in several fatalities. The international headlines and accompanying imagery reached every home in the country. At the time of the MGM Grand fire, it was the largest and newest resort on the Strip. The gruesome reporting and the horrific deaths of so many guests caused genuine concern to many customers in terms of personal safety when visiting Las Vegas. As we note below, average occupancy declined from over 77% in 1980 to around 70% in 1982. There was to be no significant new resort openings on The Las Vegas Strip until the final weeks of the decade.

a Divergent response Las Vegas had an impressive array of resorts in the mid-1980s. In addition to Caesars Palace, Circus Circus, The MGM Grand (now Bally’s) and The Flamingo stood The Riviera, The Dunes,

Year

Visitation

Room Inventory

Occupancy

1980

11,941,524

45,815

77.2%

1981

11,820,788

49,614

75.7%

1982

11,633,728

50,270

70.3%

1983

12,348,270

52,529

72.6%

1984

12,843,433

54,129

72.5%

1985

14,194,189

53,067

79.8%

1986

15,196,284

56,494

81.4%

1987

16,216,102

58,474

83.4%

1988

17,199,808

61,394

85.1%

1989

18,128,684

67,391

85.2%

Table: 1980s Las Vegas Visitation Statistics 28 GAMINGAMERICA

The Sands, The Hacienda, The Algiers, The Thunderbird, The Barbary Coast, The Castaways, The Desert Inn, The Stardust, The Frontier, The Aladdin, The Marina, The Imperial Palace, The Boardwalk and off-Strip, the distinctive Landmark casino resort. Within Las Vegas, particularly in the 1980s, the Strip sold the same product at the same price to the same people at the same place at the same time. Points of differentiation were limited. What could be differentiated, however, was the customer. Within the executive suites, there were two responses to the crises: carry on as before and seek to capture market share, or differentiate the offering to appeal to existing and potential customer needs. The former was the most widely adopted to great effect. Arguably the two leading executives of the decade were friends and colleagues William Bennett and Stephen Wynn, men with shared experiences running Downtown properties, but with different visions for the future of Las Vegas. Bennett and his Reno-based partner Bill Pennington acquired the operating lease for Circus Circus in 1974, moving Sarno and Mallin’s bloated Technicolor fantasy into a robust, efficient, tightly controlled machine. Bennett was part of the generation of executives that emerged from military service, like Kirk Kerkorian, Jackie Gaughan and Mel Wolzinger. After engaging in other businesses, he turned to casino management, excelling with a clear focus on creating a value-based business, building thousands of new, no-frills rooms for “ordinary” Americans, an RV park, plenty of loose slots and affordable food and beverage choices. With fiscal discipline preserving high margins, Circus Circus Enterprises became the first major Las Vegas gaming

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company to launch an IPO. The listing allowed the group to raise funds for further value driven developments in Reno, Laughlin and for The Excalibur, which opened in 1990. After building The Luxor and Mandalay, and Bennett leaving the company, the renamed Mandalay Resorts Group was acquired by MGM for $7.9bn. A story now famous in gaming circles, Wynn took The Golden Nugget from Fremont Street to Atlantic City’s Boardwalk. He developed and operated one of the smallest resorts in the market, driving it to the highest gaming revenues. He believed that the mass market was well served and appealed to a different type of customer. While some have stated that this was the wealthy customer, this was not the case. The strategy was to appeal to the aspirational customer, a psychographic shared by many customers, wealthy and middle class alike. The Mirage opened in Las Vegas late 1989, bringing a new generation of customer to experience entertainment and amenities not seen anywhere else in the world. He elevated this model in The Bellagio, taking Las Vegas to a new level of luxury, elegance and profit. When Circus Circus Enterprises acquired Gold Strike Resorts, Bennett and Wynn became joint venture partners in The Monte Carlo, a property developed for budget travelers. Bennett’s team managed the property. MGM then acquired Mirage Resorts for $6.4bn. Both Bennett and Wynn were very different operators but had much in common. Most importantly, they had a clear view of who their customers were and went to great lengths to meet their needs. In Bennett’s case, these were good value and accessible amenities. In Wynn’s, aspiration and innovative experiences. Together, they reinvented Las Vegas for a new generation, watching as many other operators without their vision saw their properties implode – some to make room for Wynn and Bennett’s expansion.

30 GAMINGAMERICA

Roll with it Today, there are many different casino brands and operators, positioning various offerings for different customers. The key lesson of the 1980s is that even in the face of great uncertainty, if we have an understanding of our customers and have the ability to meet their needs, then there is a path for business success. Since August, a group of thought leaders (including myself) have been working on a post-Covid response for the future of Las Vegas. We have polled over 1,000 visitors and executives on their behaviors and attitudes. It’s clear that today, with 43m visitors, Las Vegas sees a wide spectrum of people. Even at this early stage of recovery, we’ve seen unprecedented actions. Arguably the leading property on The Strip, The Wynn (now without Steve Wynn at helm) is developing a hospitallevel Covid testing and safety facility. Convention leader the Venetian has partnered with Bureau Veritas to bring best practice in personal safety and health to their operations. MGM has also developed Covid testing capabilities for meetings and launched innovative marketing platforms to attract guests back. And the Cosmopolitan is restricting who can visit the property at peak times, and new hygiene, cleaning and safety protocols have been implemented in every resort in the city. The immediate steps have been reactionary, dealing with a highly fluid situation. The real test is in the months to come when strategic responses need to be proactive and focused in a highly competitive setting. Like the 1980s, we are either setting the agenda for an exciting decade or facing a future of obsolescence for many properties.

ggalv 2020

Lead Partner

GLOBAL GAMING AWARDS LAS VEGAS 2020: THE RESULTS ARE IN The winners of the seventh annual Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas were confirmed in October, celebrating those who have worked tirelessly to survive and thrive in the gaming industry under such difficult conditions this year. All winners were announced during our virtual Global Gaming Awards ceremony, live as part of G2E, with an after show where we spoke to the winners. Aristocrat continued on from its 2019 success by scooping an incredible three Awards, including title defences in the Land-Based Industry Supplier and Slot of the Year categories. And Scientific Games was another multiple Award winner, including its OpenGaming platform securing a thirdsuccessive Digital Product of the Year Award for the

32 GAMINGAMERICA

company. Seminole Gaming also clinched more than one Award, winning in the Land-Based Operator of the Year and the Property of the Year categories. BetConstruct was once again the Lead Partner for this year’s Awards, powered by Gambling Insider. This year’s winners were decided by the Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas Judging Panel, which stood at 100 Judges for the second successive year. Julian Perry, Gambling Insider COO, said: “A huge congratulations to all this year's winners, especially during such a turbulent year for the industry. A big thank you, too, to everyone involved in our first-ever virtual Awards ceremony, which was a huge success.”

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Lead Partner

Sponsored by

“This is part of our ongoing commitment to quality standards, taking care of our employees and creating really tremendous experiences for our guests. To be acknowledged again, we’re humbled and really appreciate it.” - Jim Allen, CEO, Seminole Gaming Picking up the Land-Based Operator Award for the first time was Seminole Gaming. Opening the very first high-stakes bingo hall and casino in the US over 40 years ago, the Seminole Tribe now operates one of the most profitable gaming enterprises across the globe. That initial facility is viewed as the forerunner of the Indian Gaming movement throughout North America, with the company making further advances within the industry when it acquired Hard Rock International in 2007, the first deal of its kind by an Indian tribe. Long recognised for innovation, the operator can now also be commended for its strict health and safety measures since reopening its

casino doors across the country amid the coronavirus pandemic. Just missing out were MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment (formerly Eldorado Resorts), who clinched second and third place respectively. The former is a three-time winner of the Award, claiming the title in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The latter, meanwhile, secured success as Eldorado Resorts in 2019. Also shortlisted for the Land-Based Operator Award were Las Vegas Sands, Boyd Gaming, Cherokee Nation Entertainment, Churchill Downs, William Hill US, Galaxy Entertainment Group and Twin River Worldwide Holdings.

SEMINOLE GAMING MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT (FORMERLY ELDORADO RESORTS) BOYD GAMING CHEROKEE NATION ENTERTAINMENT CHURCHILL DOWNS GALAXY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP LAS VEGAS SANDS TWIN RIVER WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS WILLIAM HILL US

Sponsored by

“It feels great, it’s a very exciting time for us. We’re very strong in the online casino category so we were able to pivot during the pandemic very quickly. That enabled us to grow our business when sports were cancelled.” - Richard Schwartz, president, Rush Street Interactive

RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE DRAFTKINGS GOLDEN NUGGET CAESARS INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT FLUTTER ENTERTAINMENT HARD ROCK ONLINE CASINO POINTSBET ROAR DIGITAL UNIBET 888 HOLDINGS

34 GAMINGAMERICA

Another first-time winner, Rush Street Interactive clinched the Award thanks to its rapid growth in recent months, amid talks for the operator to now become a public corporation. Rush Street Interactive generated profit in the majority of its markets, growing significantly thanks to its PlaySugarHouse and BetRivers.com brands in Pennsylvania. As the online market becomes an increasing focus for the industry, the Digital Operator of the Year Award is more prestigious and competitive than ever. 2019 winner DraftKings narrowly missed out in second place, having become a publicly traded company earlier this year following its acquisition of SBTech.

The sports betting company is now live in seven states after going live in Colorado, boasting a 2020 Q2 revenue rise of 24% year-on-year. And taking home third was Golden Nugget, which expanded its digital offering just last year through the launch of its online sportsbook in New Jersey. It dominated the state’s gaming revenue for online casino from that moment on, allowing the company to extend its fruitful partnership with Scientific Games. Also nominated was two-time winner 888 Holdings, alongside Roar Digital, Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Flutter Entertainment, PointsBet, Unibet and Hard Rock Online Casino.

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Lead Partner

LAND-BASED PRODUCT

Sponsored by

“It was quite the honour on behalf of Aristocrat, our global employee base, our land-based business and our customers all around the world. It’s what we do every day: think about making the best games for our players and customers.” - Hector Fernandez, president, Americas, Aristocrat Aristocrat continued its dominance of the Land-Based Product Award through its MarsX Cabinet, with its minimalist design a result of next generation R&D. The highly modern approach offers a dynamic experience, with built-in hardware to support the future of gaming. The small matter of its marketleading games provides further attraction, with Buffalo Gold Revolution and Mighty Cash Ultra just two options among a prestigious list. Aristocrat has scooped the Land-Based Product Award twice before, with The Walking Dead Slot Games and Lightning Link securing the 2014 and 2018 prizes respectively. Last year’s winner Interblock couldn’t follow up that honour this time around,

ARISTOCRAT -

despite its Stadium being nominated MARSX CABINET once again thanks to its ‘upgrade kit,’ which has taken into account the necessary precautions regarding the INTERBLOCK – STADIUM ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And taking third spot was Crazy Money Double INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES – Deluxe from Incredible Technologies. CRAZY MONEY DOUBLE DELUXE Other top-tier products to be shortlisted include Synergy Blue’s new 2600 Series Cabinet Line, Zitro’s Bashiba Link Illusion Cabinet, Konami’s CAMMEGH - TRIPLE ZERO ROULETTE WHEEL SynkConnect and Intralot’s Orion. EGT - G 55C VIP SLOT CABINET Completing the shortlist was Enrollment EVERI - ENROLLMENT KIOSK Kiosk from Everi, Triple Zero Roulette INTRALOT - ORION Wheel from Cammegh, and the G KONAMI - SYNKCONNECT 55C VIP Slot Cabinet from EGT. SYNERGY BLUE - 2600 SERIES CABINET LINE ZITRO - BASHIBA LINK ILLUSION CABINET

DIGITAL PRODUCT

SCIENTIFIC GAMES OPENGAMING

IGT – PLAYSPORTS SPORTRADAR – OTT SOLUTION ALTENAR - SPORTSBOOK BETCONSTRUCT - SPORTSBOOK INSPIRED ENTERTAINMENT VIRTUAL SPORTS NEWGIOCO GROUP - ELYS PLAYPORT GAMING 2-GO MOBILE GAMING PLATFORM PLAY’N GO - VIDEO BINGO GAMES 1XBET - 1XGAMES

36 GAMINGAMERICA

Sponsored by

“We’re just so proud to win these Awards and, on behalf of the entire team, thrilled to thank the industry for these recognitions, as well as the team at the Global Gaming Awards for putting on another fabulous event.” - Christina Karas, senior director of corporate communications, Scientific Games Scientific Games continued its dominance in the Digital Product category with a third successive Award, having clinched the honour in 2018 and 2019 with OpenBet and OpenSports respectively. OpenGaming has completed the treble, with several major operators relying on the platform. And in Q1 of 2020, the company witnessed an increase of 1 billion wagers placed on its Open Gaming System platforms year-onyear, further increasing its leading position within the industry. Taking second was IGT, whose sports betting platform PlaySports is a leader in the US market. Thanks to its in-house trading and marketing offers team, IGT has deployed over 300 of its self-service

PlaySports Kiosks, helping to expand sports betting access across the country. And it was Sportradar’s innovative OTT Solution that clinched third. If anyone understands and appreciates the flexibility of live sports, it’s the Sportradar team, which boasts over 15 years of experience as an OTT provider. Given the current circumstances surrounding land-based gambling operations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalisation is undoubtedly more important than ever. Every company has met this challenge head-on, with BetConstruct, Inspired Entertainment, Altenar, Playport Gaming, Play’n Go, 1xBet and Newgioco Group all making the shortlist for this year’s Digital Product Award.

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Lead Partner

LAND-BASED INDUSTRY SUPPLIER

Sponsored by

“During this global pandemic, we really said we wanted to simplify our business and focus. We carried this mantra internally and externally, focusing on our people, our customers and to preserve the longevity of the business.” - Hector Fernandez, president, Americas, Aristocrat Aristocrat defended its Land-Based Industry Supplier title thanks to constant innovation, with casinos choosing to dedicate entire floor areas to its Buffalo Brand, launched in February of this year. The company is a true global gaming powerhouse, having also won the Slot Award in 2019 to go with its Land-Based Industry Supplier success. Licensed in around 300 gaming jurisdictions, Aristocrat’s 5,000 employees serve thousands of satisfied customers across the globe. Both IGT and Scientific Games have previously dominated this category, and Aristocrat now looks set to follow in their footsteps with back-to-back wins.

The hugely successful pair were, however, unsurprisingly close to securing further success. IGT finished second in its bid for a third title, with Scientific Games clinching third and just missing out on an unprecedented fourth Award. With all US casinos closed for a time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all nominees were forced to work twice as hard to stand out, with their safety measures upon the reopening of casinos being of huge importance. Completing the shortlist were AGS, Gaming Arts, JCM Global, Interblock, SuzoHapp, Novomatic and Everi.

ARISTOCRAT IGT SCIENTIFIC GAMES AGS EVERI GAMING ARTS INTERBLOCK JCM GLOBAL NOVOMATIC SUZOHAPP

DIGITAL INDUSTRY SUPPLIER

Sponsored by

“It’s always particularly special. We try to make games players love but, in light of who the Judges are, your peers and in some cases your competitors, it’s especially cool. You’re up against the best of the best and it feels incredible.” - Todd Haushalter, CPO, Evolution

EVOLUTION SBTECH/DRAFTKINGS KAMBI

ASIA LIVE TECH BETCONSTRUCT CONNECTIVE GAMES CONTINENT 8 TECHNOLOGIES IGT PLAYDIGITAL PLAYTECH SCIENTIFIC GAMES

38 GAMINGAMERICA

Winning the Digital Industry Supplier Award was provider Evolution. As the demand for live casino grew, Evolution answered. The company’s market share is set to rise rapidly once it completes the process of acquiring NetEnt, having already witnessed a 41% year-on-year rise for Q1 2020. In the space of 12 months, Evolution has produced 12 new games, and is showing no signs of stopping there. This category focused on those taking the digital gaming industry in the right direction, and it was SBTech/Draftkings that finished in second spot in our Digital Industry Supplier Award. In the past 12 months, SBTech has expanded across the US, with its

sports betting technology recently launched in Oregon, Indiana and Pennsylvania. And it was 2019 winner Kambi that took third, having reported a 21% increase in year-onyear revenue to $103.6m. The legalisation of sports betting in the US has unsurprisingly witnessed an increase in demand for product and innovation, while online casino has also enjoyed a gradual growth, as well as the digital industry. BetConstruct, IGT PlayDigital, Scientific Games, Playtech, Continent 8 Technologies, Asia Live Tech and Connective Games were also shortlisted for the hugely competitive Digital Industry Supplier Award.

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Lead Partner

CUSTOMER LOYALTY PROGRAM

Sponsored by

“On behalf of all of us at MGM Resorts, a big thank you and it’s always an honour to be recognized by our industry peers. Providing great customer service and experiences through M Life Rewards is what we do best.” - Marc Jacobson, manager of corporate media relations, global corporate communications and industry affairs, MGM RESORTS MGM Resorts International INTERNATIONAL - M LIFE Now a six-time winner in this category, it seems M Life from MGM Resorts International simply cannot be toppled. Collecting the Customer Loyalty prize in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019 and now 2020, M Life provides members with valuable benefits and exclusive access. These guests can earn Tier Credits for almost all of their spend, undoubtedly enhancing their gaming experience. Second in the category was Caesars Rewards from Caesars Entertainment, which put an end to four years of dominance from MGM by winning the Award in 2018. However, it couldn’t do so again this time around. Penn National Gaming, meanwhile, finished

in third place with its mychoice program. Loyalty programs have become more CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT – CAESARS REWARDS vital than ever as operators look to welcome consumers back through their casino doors, and the other nominees have PENN NATIONAL GAMING – MYCHOICE been offering some of the most exciting and successful programs out there. Rush FOXWOODS RESORTS CASINO Street Interactive’s RSI loyalty program, FOXWOODS REWARDS Ocean Casino Resort’s Ocean Rewards Club, GALAXY ENTERTAINMENT GROUP Mohegan Sun’s Momentum and Galaxy GEG PRIVILEGE CLUB Entertainment Group’s GEG Privilege Club MOHEGAN SUN - MOMENTUM made the list. Also shortlisted were Rymax OCEAN CASINO RESORT with Experiential Events and Merchandise OCEAN REWARDS CLUB RUSH STREET INTERACTIVE Rewards, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas RSI LOYALTY PROGRAM with Identity, and Foxwoods Resorts Casino RYMAX - EXPERIENTIAL EVENTS AND MERCHANDISE with Foxwoods Rewards. REWARDS THE COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS - IDENTITY

PROPERTY

THE GUITAR HOTEL THE VENETIAN MACAO THE COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS

BORGATA HOTEL CASINO & SPA CASINO DEL SOL ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR FOXWOODS RESORTS CASINO MOHEGAN SUN OCEAN CASINO RESORT PECHANGA RESORT & CASINO

40 GAMINGAMERICA

Sponsored by

“It was an amazing project and there’s no other building like it in the world. Having to open it under the COVID environment has created a little bit of a challenge. But we’re really happy with its early results and we believe it will continue to grow.” - Jim Allen, CEO, Seminole Gaming One of the newest additions to the Global Gaming Awards, the Property category started just two years ago, and is arguably one of the most difficult to win. Not only does size and the volume of gaming machines play a part, but properties must be accommodating, well-designed and globally renowned. Every single shortlisted property met those requirements and more, but it was The Guitar Hotel that clinched top spot. After taking almost a decade to build, the first-ever guitar-shaped hotel opened its doors to the world last November, and since then has enjoyed great success. Standing at 450 feet tall, this stunning building

comprises 638 rooms across 36 stories. The $1.5bn expansion on the existing complex in Hollywood, Florida, has been stunning its visitors on a daily basis, perhaps unsurprising given how majestic this masterpiece truly is. Having won the Property Award last year, The Venetian Macao just missed out on a title defence this time around, with The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas taking home third spot. Casino del Sol, Pechanga Resort & Casino, Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods Resorts Casino, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Encore Boston Harbour and Ocean Casino Resort were also shortlisted for this highly respected honour.

ggalv 2020

Lead Partner ggalv 2019

PRODUCT INNOVATION

Sponsored by

“One of the great things about this opportunity we had is that so many of the contactless products were already in the works for Scientific Games. We were really ready to go and rise to the challenge.”- Christina Karas, senior director of corporate communications, Scientific Games Scientific Games came out on top thanks to its innovative Contactless Gaming Solutions, with the Unified Wallet providing customers with the opportunity to access funds to play tables and slots through a mobile phone application. The product also comes with Dynamic Distancing, a hugely important feature to ensure the safety of all players during these uncertain times. Redefining live casino, Evolution Gaming’s Mega Ball and Crazy Time secured second spot. And, introduced at G2E, IGT’s PeakBarTop Cabinet finished in third. Introduced in 2018, the Product Innovation category is another new addition, merging the digital gaming innovation and

land-based gaming innovation sections to CONTACTLESS GAMING SOLUTIONS create an Award worthy of all the creativity that goes into creating a new product. EVOLUTION – MEGA BALL AND CRAZY TIME Much like with every other Award, the coronavirus pandemic has put a great strain on companies to perhaps be IGT – PEAKBARTOP CABINET more creative than usual, and all of the nominees have met this challenge head-on. They include; Incredible Technologies CASINOTRAC - DYNAMIC AUTO - Infinity Pilot, CasinoTrac - Dynamic SOCIAL DISTANCING PROGRAM Auto Social Distancing Program, Global INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES Payments Gaming Solutions - VIP Mobility, INFINITY PILOT GameCo - The Multiplayer Arena, Golden GAME CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES Race - New Virtual Football, Game Changing TRIBAL GAMING CLOUD GAMECO - THE MULTIPLAYER ARENA Technologies - Tribal Gaming Cloud, and GLOBAL PAYMENTS GAMING SOLUTIONS Paysafe - iGaming Payments API. VIP MOBILITY GOLDEN RACE - NEW VIRTUAL FOOTBALL PAYSAFE - IGAMING PAYMENTS API

SLOT

ARISTOCRAT DOLLAR STORM

NETENT – DIVINE FORTUNE SCIENTIFIC GAMES – DANCING DRUMS EXPLOSION ARUZE GAMING PACHINCOIN JACKPOT SERVICE ECLIPSE GAMING JACKPOT $PINS HIGH ROLLER IGT - HEXBREAKER 3 LIGHTNING BOX - EAGLE SUN PRAGMATIC PLAY GREAT RHINO MEGAWAYS WORLDMATCH - NIGHT VAMPIRE ZITRO - 88 LINK WILD DUELS

SCIENTIFIC GAMES -

Sponsored by

“We made a strategic choice not to slow down our R&D development and we’re looking to create an even better product in 2021. Thank you to everyone for our Awards, we really appreciate it.” -Hector Fernandez, president, Americas, Aristocrat Aristocrat has continued its complete dominance of the Slot category with its Dollar Storm. In another Award only established in 2018, Dollar Storm was created exclusively for the Award-winning MarsX Cabinet, which clinched top spot in the Land-Based Product category. Aristocrat has won the previous two Slot Awards, with its Game of Thrones slot victorious in 2018, followed by Buffalo Diamond in 2019. Dollar Storm has now secured the hat-trick. Taking second place was NetEnt, whose Divine Fortune transports players back into a mythical era. The slot is part of NetEnt’s efforts to target US markets,

with free spins and a Mega Jackpot just two in a long list of exciting in-game features. And finishing in third was Scientific Games, whose Dancing Drums Explosion features on the Twinstar V75 Cabinet, which also boasts a number of explosive in-game features. Also shortlisted in this hugely competitive category were Aruze Gaming with Pachincoin Jackpot Service, Eclipse Gaming with Jackpot $pins High Roller, IGT with Hexbreaker 3, Lightning Box with Eagle Sun, Pragmatic Play with Great Rhino Megaways, WorldMatch with Night Vampire, and Zitro with 88 Link Wild Duels.

GAMINGAMERICA 41

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Lead Partner

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS

Sponsored by

“For us, it’s every standard we hold ourselves to. It’s an Award that’s in line with our values and it means so much to us to be recognized by our peers. We’ll aim to continue to ensure we’re offering the best services in 2021.” -Anna Sainsbury, chairman & founder, GeoComply GeoComply took home its third Responsible Business Award, having received the honour in 2016 and 2018. The company has become a crucial part of the US online gaming market, and continues to evolve its products year after year. The careful, thorough testing of products, meanwhile, is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of the entire industry, and BMM Testlabs took second spot thanks to its rigorous testing protocols. BMM is present in 13 countries throughout the globe, ensuring it is the world’s most experienced and most trusted independent gaming testing laboratory. And third place went to San Manuel Casino, whose annual

San Manuel Golf Tournament has donated over $1.6m in charitable funds over the years. A sense of community is the number one priority for organisations within the industry, with player protection and indeed a wider social responsibility all part of the daily routine. Over the past 12 months, such issues have been more important than ever in preventing addiction and other gambling-related harm. All of the nominees went above and beyond the call of duty, and they wereBBIN, Boyd Gaming, Caesars Entertainment, Gary Platt Manufacturing, Hard Rock & Seminole Gaming, Las Vegas Sands and MGM Resorts International.

GEOCOMPLY BMM TESTLABS SAN MANUEL CASINO

BBIN BOYD GAMING CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT GARY PLATT MANUFACTURING HARD ROCK & SEMINOLE GAMING LAS VEGAS SANDS MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL

AMERICAN EXECUTIVE

JASON ROBINS DRAFTKINGS

ANNA SAINSBURY – GEOCOMPLY JIM ALLEN – HARD ROCK BARRY COTTLE - SCIENTIFIC GAMES BROOKS PIERCE - INSPIRED ENTERTAINMENT DAVID LOPEZ - AGS ELAINE HODGSON - INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES ERNIE STEVENS, JR. - NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING ASSOCIATION GEORG WASHINGTON - SYNERGY BLUE GREG CARLIN - RUSH STREET GAMING

42 GAMINGAMERICA

Sponsored by

“The Global Gaming Awards are the gold standard in the industry and I’m really just so appreciative. I have too many people I want to recognize but I do want to mention my two co-founders, Matt Kalish and Paul Liberman.” - Jason Robins, CEO, DraftKings HECTOR FERNANDEZ - ARISTOCRAT JOE ASHER - WILLIAM HILL US JOHN CONNELLY - INTERBLOCK KEITH SMITH - BOYD GAMING KIMBERLY VAN AMBURG - CASINO DEL SOL MARIO KONTOMERKOS - MOHEGAN GAMING & ENTERTAINMENT MARTIN STORM - BMM TESTLABS MATT KING - FANDUEL MELONIE JOHNSON - BORGATA HOTEL CASINO & SPA MICHAEL RUMBOLZ - EVERI MIKE DREITZER - GAMING ARTS RENATO ASCOLI - IGT RICK MEITZLER - NOVOMATIC SHEILA MORAGO - OKLAHOMA INDIAN GAMING ASSOCIATION TOM REEG - CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins won the American Executive Award, with the operator reporting a 24% year-on-year 2020 Q2 rise, as well as acquiring SBTech in December. GeoComply CEO Anna Sainsbury claimed second, with Hard Rock CEO Jim Allen in third. Sheila Morago of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association and Ernie Stevens Jr. of the National Indian Gaming Association shared fourth spot. The American Executive of the Year Award is the only one that celebrates the individual as opposed to a company, with all nominees playing a crucial role in guiding their respective teams through this extremely challenging period.

G2E keynote

Power to the people Gaming America reviews the G2E keynote address from MGM Resorts executive Jyoti Chopra, who details company’s latest diversity and leadership strides. Jyoti Chopra, MGM Resorts International chief people, inclusion and sustainability officer, gave the keynote presentation at the 2020 Global Gaming Expo, where she shared the company’s latest diversity and leadership initiatives. Chopra also touted MGM’s efforts to support recently furloughed and laid off employees amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chopra, who joined MGM in November 2019, previously worked as a global inclusion executive for Pearson and BNY Mellon, and before that, she served a decade as MD for Merrill Lynch. Chopra’s addition to the MGM leadership team bolstered the company’s C-Suite diversity; she is a recipient of an Outstanding Asian Americans in Business Award. In Chopra’s first year with MGM, she has been at the forefront of the company’s new inclusion and diversity strategy. “Anything strategy begins with a look at the macro environment,” Chopra said. “The starting point for us at MGM as we were thinking about our new HR people and talent diversity strategy was to understand the macro landscape and what was really going on in the world around us.” In an analysis of its talent landscape, MGM uncovered eight pervasive people trends including a heightened emphasis on diversity and inclusion across the workplace; the rise of contingent workers and agility; a need for digital fluency amid technological advancements; and incorporating digital natives – the emerging millennial to Gen Z workforce – into its talent pool. MGM also paid close attention to immigration policies and trends such as the tightening of borders across the world, Brexit and US immigration reform. Chopra credited the increased focus on diversity and inclusion to a “surge of public advocacy and movements [and] the rise of legislation and regulation from this area.” According to her, approximately 70% of the total MGM workforce is diverse. Chopra said, “We look at, for example, the Dodd-Frank Act Section 342 that called on financial service firms and banks to begin self-reporting their diversity data. Or you could look at the mandatory gender pay gap reporting that the UK government installed in the last few years where if you’re a company of more than 215 employees, you’re required to publish a gender pay gap report annually.” The second key component to MGM’s diversity and inclusion strategy is a 10-part employee value proposition. The main theme 44 GAMINGAMERICA

Jyoti chopra

to the proposition is supporting future employment and career opportunities for past and present workers. MGM also wants to create an environment that is inclusive, has a sense of purpose and is predicated on performance, according to Chopra. “For us it’s about creating wow moments, if you think about employee experience, the candidate experience as an example,” Chopra said. “For our people, it’s also about creating and cultivating high performance culture and organization because our people are the ones that drive our results and really enable our business activities and business actions.” MGM’s people-driven mission has run up against the realities of the pandemic. Since MGM reopened casinos in

G2E keynote

July, about half of its national pre-pandemic workforce of 70,000 employees is back to work, Chopra said. Chopra’s G2E keynote occurred before MGM’s Q3 earnings call, where CEO Bill Hornbuckle said the company had returned about 29,000 employees. The company reported a net loss of $525m for the third quarter. Net revenues fell 66% to $1.1bn, a result of reduced travel to Macau and Las Vegas. In late August MGM laid off about 18,000 employees. During recorded question and answer session with a Wall Street Journal reporter, Chopra couldn’t give a timeline as to when employee figures might return to pre-pandemic levels. “It’s our fervent hope, aspiration and ambition to bring our business volumes, our business levels and our revenues to where they were before the pandemic and to bring as many people back to work as we possibly can,” Chopra said. To support former employees, MGM developed an alumni portal that launched on 1 September. Ex-MGM workers can request access to the portal, where they can add job and career preferences to their profile and sign up for job alerts. The portal includes employment resources through MGM’s partner organizations. The company also sends out job email campaigns and a monthly newsletter. “Since we’ve launched this portal, we’ve had 22,000 hits to it and a lot of activity and utilization of the portal, so we’re really pleased to be able to make this available as a resource to our colleagues,” Chopra said. In addition to the portal, MGM has taken other steps to support employees who have left their jobs or been laid off. The company hosts alumni network events and runs an employee emergency grant fund administered by the MGM Resorts Foundation. The fund has paid out over $14m to current and former employees according to Chopra. Many MGM workers are parents with mouths to feed and children to send to school. These employees often work odd-hour shifts as well. Company managers are encouraged to be flexible and recognize the challenges placed on families, Chopra added. “The majority of the workforce in the industry is hourly,” she said. “We have to recognize that. This is an industry that is always open. We have properties, resorts, customers that are on sight 24/7. It’s a tough industry and the demands are tough.” The company offers families with children resources to access support structure. In late October MGM partnered with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), to offer free virtual tutoring for children of current MGM employees. MGM also runs a scholarship program for children of employees. “The entire management team here recognizes that people’s lives have been disrupted,” Chopra said. “People have to do with unprecedented health and well being issues, loss of life tragically and children not being able to go to school.” MGM’s leadership team has worked hard to improve its understanding of the communities its employees live in. The death of George Floyd, an African-American killed by police

during an arrest in Minneapolis in June, initiated a push for advocacy among company management too. MGM was one of a number of companies to adamantly reject racism and throw its weight behind the Black Lives Matter movement. Hornbuckle said in June that MGM would make a significant contribution to the NAACP to improve community relationships. “Particularly in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the social unrest in the United States, we as a management team at MGM Resorts found that it was really important to be connected to our colleagues, to actively listen and hear concerns of what was on the top of minds of our colleagues and employees,” Chopra said. The social unrest of 2020 spotlighted the lack of racial diversity in management positions among corporate America. Chopra said MGM has not made a quantitative goal for diversifying its leadership team but acknowledged the company has a ways to go in some categories. “We have very strong representation actually at some of the management level ranks,” Chopra said. “Where we need to focus and improve is really in the senior levels of management at our company.” To grow its management pool, MGM has launched The Accelerated Development Leadership Program, where a 52-member cohort meets on a regular basis to discuss strategies. Every member will be paired with a senior vice president level or above sponsor. Hornbuckle is among the sponsors for the program, which spans over the course of a year. “We need to pull diverse talent up through the pipeline, particularly when you get into the president and senior vice president levels and above into executive management and the C-Suite,” Chopra said. “So we’re really taking this notion of sponsorship very seriously. We’re hoping that all of these collectively will help advance diversity and inclusion.”

“It’s our fervent hope, aspiration and ambition to bring our business volumes, our business levels and our revenues to where they were before the pandemic and to bring as many people back to work as we possibly can.” GAMINGAMERICA 45

granD opening

Full circa Ezra Amacher gets coveted access to the soft launch of the highly anticipated Circa Resort & Casino in downtown, las vegas. Some might say that operator Derek Stevens is punching above his weight, but he believes he has a fresh perspective and a giant sportsbook to not just compete but dominate.

On first arrival, the night of October 28 appeared to be a typical one for downtown Las Vegas. After a stretch of unseasonably warm days, cool air finally fell over the city, allowing for locals and visitors to stroll along the city’s streets in search of some nightlife. Nevertheless, most of downtown’s casinos and restaurants seemed dormant, no doubt a combination of it being a Wednesday night and people’s trepidation of venturing out during a pandemic. A handful of places opened their doors to Ogden Avenue, but it wasn’t clear which were open and if they were, whether anybody was inside. Up ahead, a wide alleyway leading to the busier Fremont Street Experience was lined with local performers back in business, eager to fill up their tip jars. Foot traffic is picking up ever so much. Some people dress ball-game ready, or just ready for a ball, but before the alleyway reaches Fremont, there is now a bulbous, blue exterior to a building in sight. Its shape and lighting are reminiscent of an NBA arena, and outside on this evening in particular, building workers dressed like ushers congregated 46 GAMINGAMERICA

by an employee-only entrance. A hundred feet ahead, a growing line of people formed on Fremont Street, eager to be allowed inside this enormous complex for the soft launch of the highly-anticipated Circa Resort & Casino. Though the line wasn’t large, everyone in it shared an anticipation usually reserved for attending a heavyweight boxing matchup. But instead of tickets, people were holding out their IDs, which were scanned one by one to ensure entering guests were 21 or older. Once allowed into the property, guests were greeted by a bronze wall that reads, “Make History, Leave A Legacy,” a perfect Instagram backdrop. What happens from there is up to each visitor. Some will dart to the card tables. Others will head to the slots and a few will lounge around at the sportsbook. Downstairs leads to an extravagant steakhouse and upstairs offers entry to an equally extravagant pool amphitheater. Guests at either end of the property come prepared for a memorable experience. In between, there are a variety of restaurants, bars and built-in allusions to the golden years of old Vegas. Circa Resort & Casino is Downtown’s first built-fromthe-ground casino in four decades. The casino’s 777-room hotel is scheduled to fully open at the end of the year. The property is the brainchild of operator Derek Stevens, who also owns downtown casinos The D and Golden Gate. A Detroit native, the 53-year-old Stevens has embraced Las Vegas in a style more reminiscent of Howard Hughes than Sheldon Adelson. Now he’s laying down his biggest bet yet that Vegas, and particularly its fabled Downtown, will return to spectacular heights. “In a year where we’ve heard the phrase more than we wanted to, we’re all in it together,” Stevens said at Circa’s grand midnight opening. True to his word, Stevens spent the next 10 minutes thanking his team and encouraging guests to visit Circa’s competitors. As he reminded the inaugural crowd, Circa won’t succeed unless all of Las Vegas succeeds with it. If an era of Las Vegas closed due to the consequences of the pandemic, Stevens and Circa hope to be on the leading end of a new more prosperous one. Stevens has a showman quality,

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granD opening

which is rare for big-time operators ever since the downfall of Steven Wynn. He wants his presence felt both literally and figuratively when visitors walk inside a Circa property. Up until now, Stevens was known more for his vision and marketing tactics than for end results. The Circa brand is new compared to operators like Caesars, MGM, Wynn or even Boyd. Out of town tourists may have previously been to a regional resort run by one of the latter brands but Circa’s fresh look is now firmly planted in Las Vegas and is quickly making a name for itself. The lack of brand familiarity can also be an upside. First-time visitors to Circa Resort & Casino will almost certainly be impressed with the property’s amenities, and it’s worth shedding some more light on what the casino has to offer. Once on the casino floor, visitors are treated to a traditional array of 1,350 slots spread out across two floors and 8,000 square-feet. Forty-nine table games line the two floors as well. Dancing dealers, dressed in blue Circa outfits, are there to attract attention as well. The female dancers, a carry-over from Stevens’ other two downtown properties, offer some vintage Vegas entertainment without being overly risqué. Nearby, a high-limit gaming lounge gives gamblers a more intimate space filled with Art Deco design, while a 165-foot bar provides ample room for social distancing. The trademark attraction to Circa’s casino, however, is its three-floor sportsbook, which Stevens says is the largest in Las Vegas. (The Westgate would disagree.) The sportsbook features a 78-million-pixel, high-definition screen that can play 19 games at once, and seat up to 1,000. The facility also includes hundreds of stadium seats, meant to resemble attending a game in person. But the best seats may be on the third floor, which gives off an upper deck feel rather than a feet-on-the-dugout experience. “When I was a kid going down to Detroit Tigers baseball games at the old Tigers Stadium, I always loved that right field

48 GAMINGAMERICA

overhang, so that’s really something we built in here where you actually have the seats hanging over the sportsbook,” Stevens said. Besides its gigantic capacity, the sportsbook’s top feature is its diner booth seating that includes waitress service. Stevens, a self-proclaimed sportsaholic, clearly wanted the best sportsbook in town and while neither true footfall nor sports have started up again since restrictions were put in place, he’s confident he’s accomplished this feat of securing the top sportsbook position. The centerpiece to the casino itself is the neon cowgirl sign known as “Vegas Vickie,” which extends from the first floor lobby to the third floor. The 25-foot sign debuted in 1980 and became a landmark attraction at Fremont Street Experience before undergoing refurbishment in 2016. From the third floor, visitors can access Stadium Swim, a large pool complex with a 143 by 40 foot LED screen. To get there, guests ride a steep escalator that spans a couple hundred feet in elevation. A hundred or so reclining chairs line the artificial turf and there are six pools across two levels. A DJ plays music when there isn’t live sports on the gigantic screens. While attendance was low on the first night, crowd size will surely rise during NFL Sundays and other big sports nights, which could test the current social distancing measures. But to keep the area clean, Circa uses ultraviolent light sanitation and real-time chemical monitoring controllers. Back inside, the casino offers several restaurants and cafes and strategically located near the corners of the casino floor, food venues are accessible and easy to find. Many of the restaurants trace their roots to Michigan, a way for Stevens to give back to his home state. Detroit’s imprint on the Circa brand is second only to Vegas’. Whether Circa can live up to its ambitions is something that won’t be known for a while. Debuting a casino during a pandemic is not what Stevens drew up years ago, but to his credit he stuck with the 2020 opening date when many in his position would have waited until 2021. Circa won’t dramatically grow travel to Las Vegas, but when visitors do arrive again in historic numbers, they’ll get to try out a casino that reaches the adjective other casinos fail to even attempt: unique.

Resorts World

How in the world Although well into development before the pandemic took hold, Resorts World Las Vegas is staying the course to deliver an experience that lives up to its name. Property president Scott Sibella speaks with Carl Friedmann about adapting to current circumstances and persevering to honor the summer 2021 grand opening.

Can you give us a general overview of the project itself, its ambitions and stats on offerings and scale? Resorts World Las Vegas is the first resort to be built on the Strip in over a decade. We’re sitting on 88 acres and currently only building on two-thirds, leaving room for future development. We will have 3,500 guestrooms and suites and have partnered with Hilton to bring three of their premium brands under one roof, giving more variety to our guests than has been available in Las Vegas before. The three brands are Hilton, our full-service brand; Conrad, our lifestyle luxury brand; and Crockfords, which is our high-end, ultra-luxury experience and one of the first LXR Hotels in the US. In addition to our luxury guestrooms and suites, Resorts World will feature incredible dining, retail, entertainment and nightlife, including a 5,000-capacity, stateof-the-art theatre, which will be programmed in partnership with AEG, and immersive nightlife and day-life venues. Resorts World is going to be truly different than anything the city has seen before.

This project has been long in the making but the last year has been particularly challenging. Considering the unpredictability of visitors (especially international) 50 GAMINGAMERICA

returning to Las Vegas, how are you able to persevere to complete through extraordinarily difficult times? How is it possible to meet your summer 2021 deadline? We’re very proud of what we’re building here. Although we faced challenges with the pandemic, we never stopped construction and are on track to open next summer. Our team is working diligently to evaluate the infrastructure and review every touch-point across the experience through a new lens that is hyper focused on sanitation and safety.

We want to celebrate examples in the industry of resilience, inspiration and hard work during these times, so in spite of the difficulties, where are you seeing evidence of encouragement and inspiration? Time and time again, Las Vegas has proven to be a resilient city. By the time we open next summer, we plan to employ over 6,000 team members and we are very proud and excited to create job opportunities and positively impact the lives of people in our community and beyond. We truly believe that travelers are eager to return to Las Vegas and we look forward to being part of the city’s rebound once we’re through this pandemic.

Resorts World

How are you adapting to the likelihood that Asian visitation to Las Vegas in particular will remain low through 2021 and potentially beyond? Several factors will play a role in the city’s recovery, but Las Vegas has proven to be a city that rebounds quickly. We are encouraged by how many people have started to return to the city from drive markets and while we understand international visitation will take the longest to come back, that is just one segment of our customer base. Even amid the pandemic, a number of major construction projects and new developments, including ours, have continued, which I believe will only entice new visitors to want to visit Las Vegas through 2021 and beyond.

There’s been talk that the coronavirus pandemic will permanently alter how casino floors are developed and utilized. How has Resorts World changed its casino floor design in response to the pandemic? Being the first resort to be built on the Strip in over a decade, we have a natural advantage to create the cleanest, safest resort experience in Las Vegas simply because today’s technology and advancements didn’t exist 10 years ago. Two aspects of the guest experience we’re looking at very closely are air quality and progressive technology. Not only do we want to provide the cleanest air on the Strip, from casino floor to the guestrooms, we believe our technology will really set us apart in the market.

You previously said you expect gaming to make up only a quarter of the property’s revenue. What non-gaming entertainment and dining establishments do you expect to generate the most business? When I first got into this business, gaming was 70% of the revenue. Today, we’re anticipating 75% non-gaming generated revenue at Resorts World Las Vegas. It’s a paradigm shift, which means now our focus is much more on what else we can offer to our guests including fantastic dining, entertainment and nightlife options.

How significant are conventions to the Resorts World business model and what steps is RW taking to ensure conventions can safely take place upon reopening? Convention business is significant to Las Vegas market as a whole and is certainly an important piece of our business. In addition to cutting-edge amenities and luxury accommodations, our resort will offer 350,000 square feet of flexible meeting and banquet space to include 50 meetings rooms and six configurable ballrooms; a 100,000-squarefoot pillarless events center with flexible configurations for a multitude of functions including meetings, banquets, exhibition space and sporting events; a 23,000-square-foot Lily Ballroom and terrace with floor-to-ceiling windows 52 GAMINGAMERICA

boasting incredible views of the Las Vegas Strip; and the 5,000-capacity concert theater, which is scalable to host large general sessions and meetings. We are also thrilled to be one of the first resorts on the Strip to receive approval for the passenger station stop and tunnel that will connect to the Las Vegas Convention Center Expansion via Elon Musk’s innovative transportation system, The Boring Company. This new project will provide a rapid and seamless experience between the Las Vegas Convention Center and Resorts World Las Vegas via underground tunnels in all-electric Tesla vehicles. Convention guests would no longer have to worry about long walks or gridlock traffic around the convention center since they could take the transportation system to Resorts World Las Vegas for lunch, meetings or personal appointments, and be back to their conference or expo in minutes. Through our partnership with Hilton, we can leverage their programs and resources like Event Ready and Clean Stay to create the best meeting space possible. We are also focused on making sure the building has the best ventilation and air purification systems, and that there is a focus on natural light in the meeting space, which is very rare.

How might the timing of Resorts World opening , potentially during a very busy travel season if we’ve cleared the worst of the pandemic by then, be fortuitous for the property? We hope the pandemic is behind us by the time we open next summer, and we think Resorts World will play a large role in the city’s rebound. We’re continuing to evaluate what the industry and our sister properties are doing very closely and are looking at every way we can create the safest, cleanest resort experience on the Strip.

What if any entertainment acts have been signed already to perform at Resorts World? We have partnered with AEG to program and operate our theatre, and while it’s still too soon to confirm talent or programming, we’re talking to some great A-List acts that we know our guests will love, and we’re are excited to share more details in the coming months.

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global payments

an inDustry ripe For Disruption Ezra Amacher visits Global Payments’ las vegas headquarters to speak with president Christopher Justice, discussing how a cashless payments process can transform a patron’s experience of a casino.

new kiosk family When Christopher Justice became president of Global Payments Gaming Solutions in 2017, he found an industry ripe for disruption. Decades had passed since MGM Resorts International first introduced TITO technology but the way customers accessed their money and cashed in their winnings remained largely the same. And even though consumer demand for instantaneous transactions changed with the rise of smartphones, operators struggled to adapt. “The challenge is I don’t want to walk 20 minutes to the cage, I don’t want to stand in line,” Justice tells Gaming America during a recent visit to the company’s Las Vegas headquarters. “I certainly don’t want to walk to a cashier. I certainly don’t want to be asked to do the walk of shame. ‘Oh my god you’re back again?’ It’s those kinds of things that create that negative customer experience.” Justice and Global Payments saw an opening to streamline the gaming transaction experience, which led to the creation of VIP Mobility. The product allows for customers to directly add money to a mobile device, then use the device to create 54 GAMINGAMERICA

digital TITO tickets either by scanning an existing voucher or using a VIP Preferred e-check account. Casino guests can scan a VIP barcode from their device to play slots or table games. After playing, they can return funds to either a casino-branded app or their bank account. Launched in late 2018, VIP Preferred has already attracted millions of customers and operates in more than 500 properties, according to Justin Sprague, Global Payments’ VP of marketing. As the coronavirus pandemic forces the gaming industry to adjust to an increasingly digitalized way of operating, Global Payments is optimistic its service will only grow in popularity. The longtime attitude around gaming has been that cash is king, but Justice doesn’t see it that way. He’s quick to point out that since the origination of TITOs, slot machines have become mostly cashless. “The whole conversation around cashless is how do you acquire one of the wagering instruments without having to use the paper,” Justice says. “So our solutions really enable that across the board, whether that is talking to a machine, interacting with a machine or frankly just interacting with your phone from the comfort of your seat. They are hand in hand where customers want to be everywhere else, including gaming.” Global Gaming’s own consumer trends point in the direction of a gaming consumer base that prefers an increasingly digitalized experience. By 2020, customers were predicted to manage most of their interactions virtually, and want gaming and interaction on multiple platforms. Operators are under pressure to provide an omni-channel platform where a customer can deposit and withdraw funds onto the same app they use to shop, eat and play. As Justice sees it, the real competition is not casino against casino, but between gaming and the

global payments

technology companies that have revolutionized how customers experience transactions. “We’ve got to create an experience for the guests that meets the fact they throw all of us in a bucket together and say, ‘I should have an Amazon-like experience with Uber delivery model with Apple Care wrapped on top of it' because that’s what the guest is really wanting,” Justice says. “The early adopters of those technologies are seeing much bigger swings in terms of patron lift, as they will attract new customers because folks will change brands very rapidly for improved increase in service.” Casinos have constantly been forced to keep pace with the surrounding technological climate. Justice recalls the story of a Global Payments founder visiting Las Vegas, back when customers had to match the sticker on the back of their ATM card to the stickers on the ATM to see if it would work. Guests were limited to cashing one $100 check and checks often had to be processed across multiple states. “There was this huge gap between what people really wanted to spend and what they had access to,” Justice says. “They started a program that back in the day we used in other industries, whereby we would guarantee the funds transfer.” Justice, himself a veteran of multiple industries, sees a parallel between what Global Payments is trying to accomplish and his work of bringing electronic payments to McDonald’s. At the time, retail chains were hesitant to fork over processing fees to VISA and Mastercard, and didn’t believe customers would buy into electronic payments. Justice’s team convinced McDonald’s to go to an eight-store pilot in Chicago. Same-store sales skyrocketed and within three weeks the multinational decided to roll out electronic payments across the US. “People started going in and instead of just a hamburger, they got the hamburger, fries, pie, Coke and all the things,” Justice says. “Basket size increased and as you were pulling out you could pull off any interstate exit and the line to McDonald’s at lunch was around the building, while Wendy’s, Arby’s and all the rest of them were nearly empty. It wasn’t that McDonald’s food got all that much better overnight. It was just the fact that’s where people could go to pay for it and it was so much more convenient. As a microcosm at least, I think the same thing is happening here.” Regulators have been slow to catch on to cashless gaming, thus hindering Global Payments’ profitability. However, the coronavirus led the Nevada Gaming Control Board to approve new regulation making it easier for customers to transfer funds from a debit or prepaid debit card to a gaming account. Nevada still prohibits direct transfers from a bank account to a gaming device. Justice is certain Global Payments will be on the leading edge when cashless gaming takes off, due to the company’s

existing partnership with financial services and its history of properly handling payments. Global Payments has partnered with VISA and MasterCard to change rules to allow for a more expedited process for providing access to funds. “The thing about payments is they have to be right and they have to be right every time,” Justice remarks. Recently, Global Payments worked with VISA and MasterCard to deliver all-cash services at its kiosks. The kiosks range from LSK2500, a high-capacity, high-volume option to LSX 3100, a small footprint ‘do-it-all’ machine. All kiosks enable e-check, debit and credit card advance, while higher traffic ones like LSK2500 and LSK4100 execute TITO processing and bill breaking. The development of the kiosks took place well before the coronavirus, but the pandemic’s emphasis on social distancing makes them an especially pertinent tool. “They eliminate the congested lines, face-to-face transactions, and they allow people to stay really in their more self-contained bubbles,” Justice says. “So they were a perfect match for COVID but they were aligned with all the consumer trends prior to that.” The pandemic has also led to growth for Global Payments’ online gaming business. In the last few months, the company has partnered its online gaming solutions with PointsBet Illinois and Penn National’s Barstool Sportsbook mobile app. Though online makes up less than 10% of Global Payments’ total revenue, Justice naturally alludes to it as the provider’s fastest-growing segment. “I think there’s certainly been a good shift to online gaming but I think there’s also been a convergence from an online gaming perspective,” he says. “I can play live blackjack because I like that experience, but I can play online slot machines in New Jersey, place my sports bets and do all that stuff. You’ve got to address your guests wherever they may be.” GAMINGAMERICA 55

esports

Esports: Resilient to crisis Pavol Krasnovsky, CEO of esports betting company RTSmunity, explains why the esports vertical has seen significant growth in recent years and how the pandemic has accelerated this.

Firstly, can you explain a bit about the evolution of esports betting? When did the vertical first come to your attention as a viable form of betting? It was during the time when me and my brother studied in the UK. Our first idea was to develop an algorithm that would help League of Legends players make better decisions. But once we were able to quantify the state of the game, we realized the information is much more suitable for the betting market. The esports betting market was, and to some extent still is, in its infancy stage. Many operators tried the same trading approach they use for football betting â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and they got burned. The amount of data inputs used in esports is incomparable to traditional sports. There were some attempts to develop esports betting products, but the result was millions of euros gone, with no tangible result. That was only good for us, as it gave us the competitive advantage. Having a profitable product tested by the best names in the betting world is something special.

Have you seen consistent growth in the vertical? Definitely! You can look at it from two perspectives. Esports as such â&#x20AC;&#x201C; popularity is growing, fan base is growing, prize pools 56 GAMINGAMERICA

are growing. The ecosystem still has a lot of work to do, because only a few selected esports teams generate any profit. But the industry is growing rapidly by double digits every year. The second perspective is the betting world. And what can be a better indicator of the growth than Betfair Exchange, where we worked in those years as market makers and liquidity providers? When we started, the monthly volumes were maybe thousands of euros. We are now in autumn 2020 and traded volumes on esports have already passed â&#x201A;Ź100m ($118m) for this year.

The vertical is usually associated with a younger demographic. What do you think is needed to get older bettors interested in esports? This is a very difficult question, and honestly, I would just not do it. Our approach is to always understand and fulfil customer needs. So instead of forcing esports on the older generation, why not offer compelling products for Generation Z? The esports fan base is far from being satisfied with the current betting market and there is a lot of potential. So my advice would be to continue doing what works for your

esports

older customers and prepare great esports products for your younger generation.

One issue some bettors have with esports is whether it is possible to ensure integrity and combat match-fixing. How do you ensure integrity within esports betting? This is a very important topic for us, because not only do we provide our odds feed to betting operators, we also trade on Betfair Exchange. So we have skin in the game so to say. If we miss any match-fixing issue, we can lose a lot of money. But the positive side is we have unique market insights, allowing us to spot any suspicious activities on the market. That way, we can protect ourselves and also our customers. There is also the Esports Integrity Commission, which is doing a very good job of investigating any and all match-fixing issues. As an extra precaution, we do not cover low-tier tournaments with prize pools below $10,000: quality over quantity.

Has the current pandemic impacted the trajectory of the esports vertical? Have you seen an increased popularity in your products during this time? Yes, definitely. We are approached by two types of customers; either established operators trying to tap into the esports market by providing top betting offers, or companies starting with new esports-only betting websites. The first type of customer is looking for live-odds feeds and risk management, while the second type is interested in our Esports Betting Iframe. That is a betting platform where we utilized all our experience and designed it to fit exactly into esports fans' needs. Operators can just connect it to the wallet and offer top-tier esports betting in a matter of weeks. Odds, streams, statistics, chat, everything done by us, so operators can focus on marketing and customer care. The feedback so far is great.

Do you expect the pandemic to have any long-term effect on esports? The pandemic demonstrated one thing: esports is resilient to crisis. The speed in which all professional leagues transitioned to fully online mode was impressive. And right now we are in situations where many countries have a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Will it influence traditional sports? We don't know. But we know for sure esports will go forward. All the people who had doubts about esports, or didn't know what esports was, now have a much better understanding.

During the pandemic we have seen a number of operators make use of celebrities and sports stars to increase the popularity of certain esports events. Do you think there is merit in this strategy? I would even propose to be more courageous, and cooperate with streamers and esports players. They are the superstars of today, even though they are not as visible. But why? Because

Pavol Krasnovsky

most of us consume content â&#x20AC;&#x153;the old way.â&#x20AC;? If you look at how Generation Z consumes content, it's Twitch, Tik Tok, Instagram. The power behind influencers on these platforms is enormous. Why not use it? Esports players and streamers are much more relevant than any pop star or football player, except the really top ones.

Finally, as we look towards the future of the vertical, what are your expectations for esports betting in the next five years? We are currently working on a comprehensive esports betting market report that will cover exactly this topic. What I can tell you right now is that the growth will continue. In the next five years? My prediction is esports will surpass the betting volumes of American football or cycling. The main focus will be on user experience. Betting will be different. Forget about complicated overviews of odds and handicaps. It will be super easy and it will be a natural part of the esports experience.

Do you think it can ever overtake traditional sports betting in its popularity ultimately, or is this unrealistic? Never say never, but this seems like a far stretch. On the other hand, esports is on the way to be in the top five sports by betting volumes in the next four years and top three will definitely come as well. So this fact alone should be enough to get all operators interested. However, horse racing and football betting is still on top and will stay there for some time. GAMINGAMERICA 57

terms and and conditions conditions terms xxxxxxxxx

Lost in translation Owain Flanders looks into the problems that can be caused by unclear or unfair terms and conditions, and how operators can avoid the pitfalls that lead to customer complaints.

Shortly after the conclusion of the French Open this year, Gill Alexander entered the Westgate Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip with a spring in his step. The US television and radio personality was visiting the property’s sportsbook to collect the winnings of a high-odds bet he placed on the women’s winner. That same day, Iga Swiatek became the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title when she beat American fourth seed Sofia Kenin in the final. Alexander bet on Swiatek with multiple land-based and online operators before the French Open began in September, and had already collected his various sized winnings from a number of these sportsbooks before stepping through the Westgate’s doors. He was expecting the Las Vegas casino to dish out one of the largest payouts of his betting spree, totalling $30,000, but the Westgate had other ideas. Staff at the casino’s sportsbook refused to pay out due to a specific clause in its terms and conditions. The deflated Alexander walked out of the casino property with only his stake in hand. When he isn’t placing bets, Alexander is also the host of ‘A Numbers Game,’ a podcast on sports betting media channel Vegas Stats and Information Network. As a result, he was able to describe the situation in full during an episode in October. This included the specific term that barred him to collect his winnings, which read: “Football and all other events must be held within eight days of scheduled date and or location... if any of the above circumstances exist, the wager will be voided and refunded.” 58 GAMINGAMERICA

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the French open was delayed four months from its original start date, and as a result, the bet was void in the eyes of the casino as soon as the delay was confirmed. Although he was forced to accept the refund, Alexander criticised a lack of clarity surrounding the terms and conditions of the sportsbook. He also argued that the Westgate had contradicted its own rule in paying out winnings on the NBA, which ended late due to COVID, and MLB, which began months after its scheduled start date. Ultimately, the cost was high on both sides of this situation. Alexander lost the winnings he felt he deserved in making the correct prediction, while the Westgate received some rather negative publicity through Alexander’s podcast and Twitter activity. While they often say all publicity is good publicity, for an operator trying to maintain its sportsbook customers amid a pandemic, this is attention I’m sure the Westgate would rather not be subject to. Within this recent story is a lesson for all sportsbook and casino operators, both in the US and further afield. While terms and conditions are necessary for any legitimate sportsbook to maintain consistency in bet settlement, unclear information can create problems. In this particular case, it’s unlikely Alexander will be returning to the Westgate to place any more bets. In turn, this has cost the casino a customer, and a particularly high-value one given Alexander’s presence in the media sphere.

terms and conditions

While working for one of the UK’s most popular sports betting and casino operators, I was able to learn first-hand the damage poorly-worded or misleading terms and conditions can have on both customer retention and acquisition. This was undoubtedly one of the most common issues that arose when handling customer complaints on a daily basis. Not only that, but it would also cost the operator countless customers each week as players vowed never to return. Indeed, the effects of this are twofold. Simply put, if a player is expecting winnings they feel they have earned fairly, they will be unhappy when an operator refuses to provide those winnings. In turn, this results in a lack of trust between the customer and the operator. After all, how is the customer to know this will not happen again? Furthermore, it’s often the case that the same bettor will tell friends and family about their disappointing experience. An operator’s profitability relies heavily on its reputation, and through situations such as this, reputations can be easily and permanently tarnished. Of course, an industry that makes money from its customers’ losing bets is always going to receive more than its fair share of complaints. But clear and concise information can go a long way in preventing unnecessary grievances for customers, customer care staff, managers, traders and everyone in between. With that in mind, what can an operator really do to ensure it’s providing enough clear information for its customers? The primary focus of any operator when creating its terms and conditions should revolve around fairness. While deceiving loopholes may profit an operator in the short term, they will only cost the company money as disgruntled customers gradually make their way out of the door in droves. A large part of this fairness lies in providing consistency between bets. In the case of Westgate, for example, Alexander was unhappy that the sportsbook didn’t apply the same rules to other sporting competitions that had also started or ended after the initial scheduled date. Although a customer may still be displeased with a certain rule, if an operator is consistent with that rule, then the player is more likely to accept it. How is a customer expected to trust an operator who upholds one standard for one situation and a completely different one for another? A large part of maintaining this consistency will lie in training staff. From customer care teams to traders and managers, it’s invaluable for all members of the company to be able to apply the same set of rules. Regardless of the person a customer comes into contact with in a business, it’s vital that they receive the same information. Once an operator has created a set of fair rules and a strategy through which it can ensure consistent enforcement, the secondary focus should be on ensuring these terms and conditions are easily accessible for all customers. Not only does this require terms and conditions to be available to customers on websites or in land-based properties, but it also requires that information to be clear and easy to read. While the majority of customers will not

“One tactic currently employed by a number of UK-based sports betting operators is the provision of straightforward terms below individual bet types. For example in horse racing, a small information section providing information on place and non-runner terms can go a long way in providing customers with enough information prior to placing a bet.” spend any extended length of time reading terms and conditions, they are even less likely to do so if that information is provided in large chunks of jargon-filled text. One tactic currently employed by a number of UK-based sports betting operators is the provision of straight-forward terms below individual bet types. For example in horse racing, a small information section providing information on place and non-runner terms can go a long way in providing customers with enough information prior to placing a bet. This is even truer for more niche forms of betting, such as insure bets, in which the player’s stake is returned if the horse places. In this case, a small description on a web page can spare customer care teams a number of complaints from customers expecting pay outs on each way terms. Perhaps if these features were available to Alexander prior to placing his bet with the Westgate, then the situation could have been avoided. Yes, this could have resulted in the podcast host not placing the bet in the first place, but it would also mean that he had maintained his faith in the operator. Ultimately, trust goes a long way. Considering the current COVID-19 crisis, it’s more important than ever for operators to be able to retain and acquire customers. There are many ways companies can do this, but it all starts with getting the basics right. Clear, concise, accessible and consistent terms and conditions are necessary for the foundation of any strong gambling business. Hopefully, the Westgate will take note. GAMINGAMERICA 59

Simplebet

Keeping it simple Chris Bevilacqua, co-founder & CEO of Simplebet, speaks to Tim Poole about micro-markets and how the supplier is using them to try and transform US sports betting. almost the last two and a half to three years building it out. We’re a B2B company, it’s enterprise software solutions that we sell to commercial customers like FanDuel, DraftKings, MGM Resorts and all the consumer-facing operators. That then enables their users to have micro in-play betting experiences. So for example in a sport like baseball, you can bet using our products on every pitch, every at-bat, and in a sport like American football, you can bet on every play and every drive; in a sport like NBA, every possession, every shot. And our automated platform, our enterprise solution, allows for that to happen at scale.

Chris Bevilacqua

Live betting is already a dominant force within European sports wagering. In the US, it’s a growing force, though it has significant room for manoeuvre. Chris Bevilacqua, co-founder and CEO of Simplebet, is aiming to capitalize on the potential of in-play markets, and after signing partnerships with FanDuel, PointsBet and Intralot, has made early progress towards doing so. Gaming America caught up with the executive to hear more about Simplebet and ‘micro-markets.’

Tell us about Simplebet. What does the company do and what is it that’s different about you from the rest of the market? Simplebet is a digital products company that is leading the way with machine learning and automation, building products that enable in-play micro-betting opportunities. We’ve spent 60 GAMINGAMERICA

Off the back of that, two questions come to mind; does that mean you are exclusively about in-play betting and don’t focus on pre-match markets? At the moment, that is correct. We see the big opportunity in the first-mover advantage, and you know having in our view cracked the code around automation and machine learning, our value and competitive advantage in the marketplace is that we have been able to do that, and no one else has. So we are totally focused on in-play and micro-markets. However, we have built a platform that we could very easily move into the more traditional markets, and use our technology platform to do that. But we think that’s a pretty crowded market, so we haven’t allocated any resource at this time to do that; we’re just going to stay focused on the in-play and the micro-markets for now.

Obviously in-play betting is quite strong in Europe, but in the US do you see live betting as quite a gap in the market?

Simplebet

That’s exactly right and probably even more so. I mean, in Europe, about 70% of the sports betting handle is already in-play – in-play meaning money lines, and overs and unders, and the outcome-based bets where a line is set and then it moves throughout the game. It’s still a bet that doesn’t get resulted until the game is over, so that’s much different than what we’re looking at here in the US, which is a different market. Obviously we’re at a much earlier stage than the international markets and the European markets where this has been legal for a long time. And we think because of the cadence of US-based sports like football, baseball and basketball – which make up about 90% of the sports betting handle here in the US – we’ve seen in the early going almost 80%, for example in New Jersey, of all betting has been in-play and mobile. So New Jersey has been the state that has sort of led the way over here: much like it has been in the European markets, in-play is probably even a higher percentage of handle at the moment. In our case with in-play, we’re taking it to the next level and that’s what we’re referring to as micro-markets. So what’s different about our micro-markets products is that they’re not really built and positioned for the punter or the serious sports fan, it’s really more built for a casual fan; someone that really wants to watch the sport that they love and interact, and be entertained with it. It’s a much different experience and therefore it’s a different kind of product and one we argue to our commercial customers, it sort of grows the whole pie, because we’re bringing in casual fans to the sports betting market that wouldn’t otherwise be in the ecosystem. We think we are helping them grow the pie, we think it reduces their customer acquisition costs, increasing the long-term value of a customer. This type of product is just a different product than what you would see in a traditional in-play product like you’ve seen in Europe over the years.

Could you explain exactly what micro-markets are in a bit more detail? Micro-markets are all user versus the house; this isn’t a daily peer-to-peer fantasy type offering. When we talk about micro-markets, we’re talking about betting opportunities that result in minutes or seconds, unlike the traditional markets which result over the course of a two or three hour game. It really is taking two and three-hour basketball games, baseball games and football games and turning them into millions of little games. So if you look at our first three products, NBA, NFL and MLB, in 2020 alone, we’re able to bring to the market between those three sports across every single game in those three sports, about 2.5 million new markets. Baseball is almost a million and a half of those; football is about 600,000, NBA is about 750,000, and those are just the early markets.

We have derivative markets we will make out of all those markets, which will increase the amount of micro-betting opportunities by a factor of ten, so three years from now, just from those three sports, we will have 25 million betting opportunities. And when I say derivative markets, right now in our NFL, we have a product on FanDuel called PlayAction, it’s been up for about five weeks right now, and they are drive-level bets; so you can come and bet on a particular drive in an NFL game; it’s going to result in a score, or it’s going to result in a change of possession: yes or no? Then we have a four or five-sided market that says; is it going to be a touchdown, a field goal, a punt, a turnover, or other. When you look at even a few weeks from now when we start rolling out play-level markets; what’s going to happen on the next play, is Patrick Mahomes going to throw for ten yards or more, is Le’Veon Bell going to run for five yards or less? The permutations are endless, and we can do that, because we’ve invested in automation and we’ve invested in machine learning. It’s all automatic and algorithmic, and there’s no human intervention, there are no traders necessary to create the odds. We do all that with our machines and our automation, so we create markets, we suspend markets, we re-price markets and we result markets, all in minutes or seconds; it’s a very fast feedback loop. You could place your bet and then you will know whether you have won or lost in a matter of 90 seconds, and our platform does that for you. That’s the difference between micro-markets and the traditional markets that move in-play with that market, because you could continue to bet on a particular thing but it results after the game is over.

Is the platform you are describing the stand out factor that helped secured partnerships with FanDuel, PointsBet, Intralot? Yeah, we only launched the FanDuel partnership five weeks ago. It was our first live product and we did not have a pre-season that we typically would have had to test or work out all the kinks, because it’s a very complicated product we had to build. It’s taken two and a half/ three years to build this and it’s been spectacular, but we had to work it out and get it integrated properly and get it rolled out. To give you a couple of numbers, FanDuel so far hasn’t even marketed it yet; in the first five weeks as we’ve worked out all the kinks, the average user that is betting on these micro-markets, these drive-level markets, is betting somewhere between 25 and 35 times per user per game. About 25% of the users are spending an hour or more on the app and about 10% of the users are spending two hours or more on the app. We have around 30% retention rate, meaning about 30% of the users that came in, those customers came back and played it again, which is very high retention. The result of GAMINGAMERICA 61

simplebet

all this, over the last five weeks, is now that this is starting to come out, we’re now getting a lot of incoming from other operators that say, ‘hey wait a second, are those numbers real? Because if they are real, that type of engagement, you just don’t see anywhere.’ We’re now getting into lots of different interesting follow-on discussions and it feels a little bit like we’re drinking from a fire hose here over the last three weeks. Our challenge as a young company – we have 40 people, we have heavy investment in machine learning and product people – to get our products rolled out, we have to do technical integrations that don’t happen in 24 hours, you have to devote a little bit of engineering resource. So it’s a little bit of a juggling act, you can only do one or two at a time before you go to the next one, which are all good problems to have, because there is demand for the product.

bearing all that in mind, what are your goals going forward, have you got a growth plan mapped out? The growth plan is to get more customers on the platform and get these unique products out into the marketplace. We just feel like the market will take over, and we’ll have some real demand for our products, which may allow us to have some more leverage with our pricing. If these products are driving engagement like we’ve seen in the early going, it’s only going to make it more valuable as a commercial product. We need more customers, and we want higher rates – our business model is net gaming revenue,

62 GAMINGAMERICA

percentage of net gaming revenue – so obviously we want to show to our consumer-facing customers that we want to help them get more revenue, get new players and lower customer acquisition costs. If we’re able to do that, that’s what our business plan relies on; if we can prove all that, note we’re just talking about the commercial customers. Where we are really seeing some outsized early interest, not surprisingly, I come out of the sports media world – I’ve been in the sports media business for 35 years – what now seems to be the more immediate opportunity is coming from media companies. Because what’s their currency? Their currency is people watching their programming, so if we have a product that incentivizes people to watch longer, that’s obviously hugely valuable to a media company; as well as the rights holders, the leagues and the teams, because if more people watch their games longer, that makes their media rights way more valuable, and makes advertising sales more valuable. So we’re seeing a lot of interest on let’s just call it the media equation, the media side and the rights holders’ side. Because we’re at the early stages of rolling out micro-markets, which we think are going to be a big percentage of the overall sports betting handle two or three years from now. But in the immediate interim, if we can show people that are using our products or watching games for 20/30 minutes or an hour longer than they would normally watch it, that’s a huge deal.

Greenberg Traurig

An unlikely hero Harrison J. Meyers and Amy L. Kramer, of law firm Greenberg Traurig, discuss how table tennis became the unlikely first hero of Colorado sports betting.

Last year, as Coloradoans went to the ballot to allow sports gaming, few anticipated that sports betting would launch at a time when professional sports were inactive because of a global pandemic. On 1 May 2020, when gaming went “live” in Colorado, the NBA, NHL, MLB and every other major sports league had shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprisingly, a sport with a small but loyal following filled the void: table tennis. Professional table tennis was able to continue during the pandemic because of its unique ability to offer competitors proper spacing. This enabled certain professional table tennis associations to continue putting on tournaments with relatively little modification to format or venue. And Colorado’s sports bettors took notice. In May 2020, table tennis received the most wagers from Colorado sports bettors to the tune of roughly $6m. In June, that figure rose to $9m, almost a 50% increase. As expected, wagering on table tennis relative to other sports decreased with the gradual return of major professional sports. Betting on baseball reached the same $9m threshold in only nine

days of betting in July after the MLB returned on 23 July 2020. Whether table tennis has more staying power than other COVID-19 trends – like homemade bread – remains to be seen. But Coloradoans’ embrace of this fringe sport for betting shows the future of the industry is bright. There was already research to suggest an appetite for sports gaming. The American Gaming Association researched consumer trends related to sports gaming in March of 2019 and found that up to 39% of American adults are either current or potential future sports bettors. Not surprisingly, football, baseball, basketball and hockey were the most likely sports to be wagered on. But when these “core sports” exited the playing field due to the pandemic, Coloradoans pivoted to other sports, including table tennis. Even with the availability of other sports, Colorado’s launch could have been a strike out but for Coloradoans’ prior approval of sports betting in physical sportsbooks and online. With casinos closed for in-person betting because of Colorado’s Safer at Home Order, Colorado sports bettors moved online, with many utilizing increasingly popular mobile applications. What is the relevance of table tennis’ rise during COVID-19? It suggests the resilience of Colorado’s sports gaming market. Coloradoans have demonstrated an interest in wagering on sports, regardless of whether it is one of the core four or not. As the nation reopens, and professional sports leagues resume play, wagers on traditional sports are likely to once again dwarf table tennis. But who knows? With the underdog sport’s rapid rise in popularity among sports bettors, perhaps table tennis star Oleg Pronin may soon become a household name in Colorado. Greenberg Traurig’s Global Gaming Group focuses not only on casino operations, but also addresses sports betting, lotteries, pari-mutuel wagering, charitable gaming, tribal gaming and internet gaming, where permitted by law. Members of the practice have varied backgrounds and are located throughout the firm’s offices, allowing them to assist gaming clients in this highly regulated industry across multiple US jurisdictions and internationally. More insights can be found on the Greenberg Traurig website. In Denver, Greenberg Traurig offers clients a business-minded perspective into legal issues and a gateway for Colorado businesses to operate in today’s global marketplace. Practice Group Attorney Harrison J. Meyers and Shareholder Amy L. Kramer are members of global law firm Greenberg Traurig’s Denver office. GAMINGAMERICA 63

uS 2020 retrospective

Roller coaster of emotions 2020 has been a year like no other for US gambling. Industry veteran Bill Pascrell III looks back on the year for US gaming with Iqbal Johal, and what 2021 has in store.

The start of 2020 almost seems a lifetime ago. The year began with so much optimism, particularly in the US gaming market. With 2019 ending on the landmark merger between DraftKings and SBTech to form a combined company with a market capitalization of approximately $3.3bn, a year of increased expansion and growth was expected as the US aimed at consolidating its position as one of the leading markets in the gaming world. Then the COVID-19 pandemic caused chaos in not just the gaming industry, but every facet of business worldwide. The land-based retail and casino sector was one of the most affected industries worldwide, leading to huge financial and job losses. From mid-March until at least May, all 994 commercial and tribal casino properties in the US were closed, gradually reopening up their doors again in the summer. 64 GAMINGAMERICA

By the start of November, American Gaming Association (AGA) statistics showed only 79 remained closed, with the other 915 open though operating under strict capacity and social distancing restrictions and measures. To demonstrate the devastating impact caused by the pandemic on the casino sector, properties in Nevada lost more than $12bn in total revenue from March until August. Research by bestcasinosites.net showed the 334 casinos in the state lost an average of $33.3m in revenue each day, ranking it number one for the most revenue lost out of the 58 destinations with the highest casino revenue worldwide. The US market was the hardest hit overall, with New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York also featuring in the top 10. There’s no quick fix either to the land-based sector, especially with capacity limits very much still in place with no sign these will be relaxed anytime soon. Bill Pascrell III, partner at Princeton Public Affairs group, and leading analyst and legislation advocate in the US online and sports betting market, reiterates the struggle for the bricks and mortar industry. “The brick and mortar casino industry is really hurting, through no fault of their own,” Pascrell III tells Gaming America. “The impact of COVID has driven people away from the retail component, even though casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City are back open, but people are not flocking to them. But it’s forcing further innovation of the gaming floor. I think the gaming floor in the next five years won’t look anything like it looked this year. “The stronger companies in the market such as MGM, Caesars Entertainment and Golden Nugget are all going to survive. It’s the smaller regional casinos that are going to suffer as they don’t have the capital to deploy or sustain themselves through this COVID environment. If we have another year like we had this year in 2021, I think you might see dozens of casinos across the country in the US shut permanently. “I am hopeful we can start 2021 fresh. But we’re probably a vaccine away from the market being able to stabilise before it can grow again.” However, as the retail sector suffers, the online industry is booming. The pandemic has arguably led to an acceleration

US 2020 retrospective

from offline to online in the US gaming market, as the industry transitioned to a digital offering to keep the market thriving and growing. The transition to online has also been a result of the pent-up demand for sports betting activity, with live sport suspended from March until July in the US. But with all four major sports leagues all taking place on the same day for the first time ever on 10 September, New Jersey set the record for the highest-ever month of sports betting handle in the country for September. The state collected $748.5m in sports betting wagers during the month, with more than 90% made via mobile. That has helped the state become the third largest online market in the world, an impressive feat considering it’s only been available online for six years, with casino and poker launching on 23 November, 2014. As Pascrell explains, the pandemic has helped expand online gaming across the country and is proving the initial doubters wrong. “The global pandemic is a horrible situation, which has impacted the way we do business, the way we socialise, the way we school our children,” he says. “But COVID has had some positive implications, particularly when you speak to the online gaming industry. Multiple governors have been having conversations with me directly about how we can bring online to their states. For example, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, realizes an extraordinary amount of money is being drained out of New York into New Jersey; people are driving over the bridges to get to New Jersey to place their bets. “There are governors in deep red states like Mississippi who are very keen to bring online in. What’s been helpful is as COVID has transitioned people to online, those who ordinarily wouldn’t go online, it’s also had the impact of showing that online is not a threat to the offline sector, but rather a compliment. If it were not for the online gaming industry right now in the US, many casinos wouldn’t be able to stay alive. I’m very enthusiastic for 2021 for a host of reasons but primarily because I think you’re going to see the onboarding of multiple new jurisdictions in the US, for online poker, casino and sports betting.” In terms of thinking back to the start of the year, Pascrell firmly believes the market is exceeding early year expectations, despite the impact of the pandemic. “I believe that the US gaming online market is booming and exceeding expectations and doing extraordinarily well,” he adds. “We have a number of new states this year alone that have passed legislation and regulation and have launched. I think we’re growing in a very responsible way.” In terms of highlights for the market in 2020, Pascrell is adamant the most significant development has been New Jersey’s strong showing in online gaming that has seen it become the third biggest market worldwide. Another market that Pascrell believes has performed admirably, is Pennsylvania, which is relatively new to the market with online gaming legal for a year, and he thinks the creation of a better offering will stop locals from entering neighbouring New Jersey to bet.

“What’s been helpful is as COVID has transitioned people to online, those who ordinarily wouldn’t go online, it’s also had the impact of showing that online is not a threat to the offline sector, but rather a compliment. If it were not for the online gaming industry right now in the US, many casinos wouldn’t be able to stay alive.” When it comes to specific companies, Pascrell was in praise of GVC Holdings, who has made the US a main focus. He explains: “I think that GVC is starting to pick up a lot of steam in the US. They’re a very big and strong company with global reach and the US is now becoming a priority for them in their executive C-suites. CEO Shay Segev has made it known that he’s looking at the US as a huge priority going into the new year.” Put simply, Pascrell is adamant the US market is on track to become the biggest in the gaming industry, and that there have been more positive moments than negative ones. “I think the US market is strong and doing a lot of responsible things,” he says. “I think the market will continue to grow, and I think the US gaming market within the next two or three years will become the strongest, most vibrant market on the globe. “The more successful we are passing legislation and regulation, the more successful we will be at shutting down the black market and addressing problem gambling and doing responsible gambling. I also think the addition of esports and fixed-odds horse racing to the US market, which are new in terms of real money gaming, will thrive.” This year has been a roller-coaster for the US gaming industry. While the retail sector has been severely damaged, online gaming is exceeding all expectations, and legislation is making swift progress throughout the states. It’s hard to predict quite what 2021 has in store, but you can’t rule out further expansion of online and sports betting in the US. GAMINGAMERICA 65

proDuct reviews

For the greater gooD breakthrough products and seizing opportunities in a time of the stranded gambler.

ainsworth: a-star curve

25 cents and up. The two titles – first shown at G2E 2020 – offer a classic gambler experience focused on a chase for a wheel spin. . Lucky Empress: This innovative title gives players a great high volatility gambling experience. In Lucky Empress, players collect coins to unlock huge multipliers in a “spin ‘til you win” format. Add in a beautiful Asian-themed display and it has the makings of a hit. . Path to Wealth: This gives players the chance to traverse a game board on the path to credit awards, free games and more. The persistent-state style of game offers three-levels of standalone progressive jackpots.

beDe gaming: builDing tools to protect players ainsworth: a-star curve The new shape of Ainsworth has been introduced to North American casino operators. The A-STAR Curve features a 43-inch floating infinity monitor, dynamic LED lighting and a state-of-the-art LCD button deck. The new cabinet – Ainsworth’s first to launch in North America since 2017 – incorporates supreme engineering and a sleek modern design into an exciting new product for casino partners across the region. The all-new A-STAR Curve offers an elegant design that will attract players on any casino floor. “We are incredibly excited to have launched the A-STAR Curve in several major gaming markets,” said Deron Hunsberger, Ainsworth’s chief commercial officer. “This highly anticipated release is the result of extensive R&D efforts and brings our cabinet offerings to the next level with its modern appearance and a full suite of new game titles.” In addition to looking great, the A-STAR Curve offers several features focused on ease of use including a built-in USB charging station and front-facing lock for easy maintenance. The cabinet can be placed on most standard gaming bases. The A-STAR Curve has been launched with a full library of approved software. Nearly a dozen games are already available. Highlights include: . Super Charged 7s Classic and Reel Hot 7s Classic: These three-reel video slots offer five or nine-line gameplay in denominations from 66 GAMINGAMERICA

To support our vision to be the safest place to play, Bede has been continuing to focus on our suite of player protection tools. We have already implemented a number of metrics to allow RG agents to monitor the risk of their customers suffering from problem gambling. These include the ability to monitor player adoption of responsible-gambling tools such as stake, loss and deposit limits and how close players get to hitting their pre-selected limits. This, combined with the campaign manager, can alert operators to a player exhibiting problem gambling behaviours through monitoring the use of responsible gambling tools. We have now developed a powerful and effective machine learning system to identify players at risk of gambling harm. Bede Gaming’s problem gambling propensity model has the human at heart; we have a data science process that has human touch points throughout. We carry out workshops to understand the needs and wants of each operator, fully customizable to them, their jurisdiction, brand and business process and most importantly their players. Bede then provides detailed documentation of what was done and analysis of your customer base to explain what we did. When building our products, we apply a blend of academic research, Bede’s industry knowledge and subject matter expertise of the client. Finally, we analyze business processes and structures our client already

product reviews

has in place to ensure seamless integration of machine learning into the existing operation. We then build our models combining rule-based and supervised learning modelling techniques. Supervised learning takes all our rich platform data and utilizes machine learning algorithms to predict a player’s likelihood to be a problem gambler. It does this through using a column that identifies if a player is a problem gambler or not, learning the patterns of what is and isn’t a problem gambler. The model then outputs a risk score and category, which are integrated with Bede’s Business Intelligence Suite, allowing for RG agents to access in-depth business intelligence on the player’s profile. The result of this is that Bede’s player protection tools can help players and operators stay in control, and in doing so create a healthier ecosystem for the customers and business to prosper.

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Continent 8 Technologies: The Multi-State Solution for US iGaming C8’s multi-state The rollout of Continent 8 Technologies’ (C8) award-winning IT and Data Center Network across all regulated states as they come online demonstrates our commitment to providing the highest levels of service to our US iGaming partners. Locations already include Atlantic City, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Philadelphia, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, and as more states regulate C8 will be launching more data centres that are fully licensed and approved by local regulators where required. C8’s multi-state offering delivers a full range of hosting solutions from co-location to private cloud, supported by low latency, highly resilient connectivity, with the option to include additional security services such as DDoS and WAF protection. These services are available through a single contract arrangement across the states, simplifying pricing and removing the need to manage multiple suppliers. Building on a wealth of experience, C8’s hosting and connectivity solution is able to meet all your iGaming data requirements and offers: . 20+ years expertise: Continent 8 iGaming data centers are designed and built on a wealth of experience of the global online gaming marketplace. . All iGaming data centers are licensed, compliant and fully approved by local regulators, where required. . All iGaming data centers are interconnected via a single US Gaming Exchange Network and come with secure DDoS

Galaxy Gaming: Daredevil Poker Galaxy Gaming is thrilled to announce the newest addition to its impressive roster of innovative and proven to perform casino games and solutions. Distinctive from other poker games, Daredevil offers players the opportunity to decide how many cards they want to play against the dealer, with players being rewarded for their more daring decisions. The goal for the player is clear - the fewer cards you play, the more you get paid. Daredevil Poker is a house-banked, poker-based game using a standard 52-card deck. Each player and the dealer receive seven cards. The object of the game is for the player’s hand (using between one and five cards) to beat the dealer’s best five-card hand. Daredevil Poker also contains optional bonus wagers that are not dependent on the base game’s outcome. Operators choose which optional bonus wager, or wagers, they want to offer, such as: safety net, prime 7, flush, straight flush, straight flush progressive, and seven-card linked progressive. This straightforward but fresh and exciting game is sure to add energy to your casino floor. Keep an eye out for more GAMINGAMERICA 67

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exciting new product and solution announcements from Galaxy Gaming in December 2020. Innovative games are part of what makes Galaxy Gaming distinctively different.

directly impact the needs and objectives of their partners’ communities. They achieve this by developing best-in-class products that deliver outstanding performance through deeper player engagement and memorable gaming experiences.

fsb: new retail innovations

eclipse gaming: super $ vault Super $ Vault, the latest addition to Eclipse Gaming’s portfolio of imaginative themes and innovative math models, adds a new level of excitement to casino floors. Featured on the striking Impact 43 portrait cabinet, this game bolts players to their seats with a multi-wheel pointer and a chance to win all three progressives on a single spin in the wheel bonus. Three bonus symbols on one pay-line reveals the riches of the Super $ Vault wheel bonus. One to three pointers are activated, and players try their luck to open the treasure-filled vault. The pointers spin hitting one to three credit prizes or the sought-after progressives. No additional wager is required to initiate the second chance respin that is triggered on the third wheel following a close call and providing a second chance to crack open the vault. Partner with Eclipse to experience how Super $ Vault and all of Eclipse Gaming’s newest innovations achieve success that goes beyond the game. Relationship-driven and deeply committed to the Tribal gaming market, Eclipse Gaming creates games with a purpose – to generate powerful results that benefit their partners and

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Award-winning sports betting and iGaming suppliers FSB continue their expansion into the retail sector and their offering is worth shouting about. FSB has invested heavily in its cutting-edge retail betting products to allow operators to offer over 150,000 pre-match and in-play markets across over 20 sports to players in markets around the world. Its retail offering covers three core products – SSBT, EPoS and telephone betting, all of which are supported by their award-winning sports betting platform and back office system, Custodian. All products can be branded, customised and localised to deliver a superior experience to retail bettors. FSB’s hardware agnostic SSBT solution is app-based and can be downloaded onto an operator’s existing Windows 10 hardware or one of the many hardware solutions offered by FSB and it’s partners. It offers a self-intuitive UX and with all the popular bet types, cash-out functions, create a bet, in-play betting and lotto and virtual games where permitted are included as standard. It can also be combined with an operator’s online and mobile sportsbook, allowing it to offer a truly omnichannel product and experience to players. Not only that, FSB’s SSBT product is supported by their market-leading back office where operators have real-time visibility of risk and liability, putting the power very much in the operator’s hands. This is supported by a UK-based trading, account management and finance team. FSB’s EPoS product benefits from many of the same qualities

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as its SSBT product, and has been designed for fast and efficient bet placement. It is available as a downloadable app that can be installed onto an operator’s existing hardware or onto newly supplied FSB hardware for those seeking the optimal set-up. It’s a product that bodes well for a successful foray into retail for FSB.

playport: instant win The Playport instant win game platform gives players an easy way to buy and play instant win games using our mobile app, with an unlimited selection of entertaining and rewarding game products that can be easily selected and organized. Playport provides Tribal casinos with the ability to sell new-style Class II games that mimic those lottery and charitable games successfully sold by retail-based gaming operators. Playport supports hundreds of play styles that are new to the casino floor yet already popular among casino customers, providing casinos with the tools to fundamentally change how the sales and marketing of instant win games are conducted. National studies show that tribal casino customers are 200% more likely to buy games at retail stores than any other product sold at retail. With Playport, popular retail sold games become part of the casino game portfolio and offer new reasons for players to spend their gaming dollars in casinos. “While fundamentally our platform hasn’t changed as a real-money mobile gaming platform, in terms of features and functionality, it’s changed immensely from year to year, whether it be third-party integrations, new game styles, new payment methods or geofencing,” said Playport Gaming’s Larry Pelzer, gaming director of business development, casino markets. Playport may be custom-branded to align with the casino’s marketing strategy and provides the opportunity for: . Custom branded games, including holiday or theme branded games for sponsored events to engage players

playport game

. Co-branded game themes to appeal to a large variety of consumer brands and content providers, including the offer of exciting prizes from national brands . Fast and frequent refreshment of new games to fulfil any game marketing opportunity.

aspire global: aspirebattle

Aspire Global has launched AspireBattle, a unique and free to enter competitive sports betting feature. The feature has multiple unique selling points to engage and thrill sports bettors across the board, implementing a socially competitive and collaborative element, not seen before in the industry. Boasting various exclusive functions, the feature provides sports bettors with the ability to participate in tournaments, covering all major sports on the market. Players can create their own personal tournaments and invite friends via a special code to bet live and compete for the top place on the leaderboard, creating a personal element to sports betting fun. The feature administers live statistics during the tournament as well as personal statistics for players to monitor to increase the level of competition and fun. As well as that, there is a real-time leaderboard showing scores across all categories with achievements such as best soccer bettor, best basketball bettor, longest winning streak, highest odds winner, biggest trendsetter, and best bettor of a specific sporting league. Perhaps one of the most sophisticated and unique elements of this new sports feature is the real-time bet feed. Novice bettors and participants now have a chance to up their game by playing copycat. Players can copy bets placed by those high up on the leaderboard to try and increase their chances of winning and climbing the board themselves. Morten Hauge, head of sports at Aspire Global, said: “We are pleased to, once again, bring to the market an innovative and unique feature in the sportsbook vertical. The sports gamification invention was created to complement players’ ordinary sports betting and to act as the ‘perfect side dish.’ We are especially happy about the player control functionality, which is reflecting our strong focus on responsible gaming.” GAMINGAMERICA 69

Gaming America Nov/Dec 2020

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Gaming America Nov/Dec 2020