The Bright African Future for Scientific Games

Wavell Alexander, Senior Director & General Manager South Africa shares his insights on the successes, challenges and positive future outlook of operating in the exciting African market, along with Scientific Games’ commitment to Africa. Gaming for Africa spoke to Wavell in this exclusive interview.

Wavell Alexander, Senior Director & General Manager South Africa

Tell us a little about Scientific Games in SA. What opportunities does this market bring?

Scientific Games is an industry-leading provider of gaming and technology solutions across the world. We are an innovator of creative content setting new standards in the gaming industry by leading the way in design, manufacturing, and distribution of premium gaming content and hardware. South Africa in particular has always been a key market for us. After 24 years of operating in this space, we continue to thrive across 22 countries currently within SubSaharan Africa, with more room for opportunity and progression on the horizon.

The reason we have so much success in South Africa is that the entire SG product offering is available to the market, from EGMs, to progressive table gaming, and slots systems, we offer a diverse portfolio of content and hardware to help operators profit from this vibrant marketplace. Additionally, we are hosting some of the world’s most popular games including the Duo Fu Duo Cai™ Golden Relics™ and 5 Treasures™ in the bingo market.

What challenges does this market bring?

The African market is continuing to face challenges due to the Covid pandemic. Under normal trading conditions, some casinos and bingo venues operate on a 24-hour basis, but curfew restrictions in most locations and limited product operation have stopped this. For example, in some venues only 65-75% of EGMs or EBTs are open to play, which limits the opportunities available. Added to this the restrictions on travel to South Africa have impacted the number of tourists visiting casinos in the last 18 months. However, despite the challenges that are in play right now, we remain positive about the industry’s recovery in South Africa over the next couple of years. SG is focused on doing everything it can to support our partners and use the experiences in other markets to work with our partners as well as new operators and leverage from the SG teams experience and proven product performance our portfolio offers.

Do you see the relationship changing between SG and its customers in SA due to the disruptive effect of Covid?

We’ve been offering support to operators throughout COVID and will continue to do so in the years to come. Our dedicated sales and technical field team based in Johannesburg continue to work closely with operators. 2021 really was about supporting our partners and Drive Recovery through various SG initiatives, which provides placement of product with flexible commercial terms to all our South African and African operators, allowing them to keep operating top performing games on their floors despite reductions in capacity. We are thrilled about how the 2021 programme of work has further strengthened our partnerships in the African market.

What is the feedback you have received from you have received from casino operators and casino operators and players in SA? players in SA?

What the pandemic has shown us is that operators are looking for strong partnerships with suppliers that focus on growing their business and moving them forwards in challenging economic times. Now more than ever, operators want products that are reliable and robust, as their players won’t accept anything less. It is and will continue to be, our job to offer the support and product mix that strengthens revenues for our partners.

Operators have been positive about the support offered by SG throughout the pandemic. We have maintained strong engagement through the most difficult times for businesses and focused our efforts on driving recovery for our partners.

As a company we made sure that our commercial terms were flexible, to allow operators to maximize profits, and enable them to set up for what will hopefully be a fully functioning market in 2022. We’ve also received positive feedback on our market-leading content which delivers both performance and profits for the operator. We have tried and tested products that players know and love and keep returning to, including the popular Duo Fu Duo Cai™ and Jin Ji Bao Xi™. By offering a reliable product set and strong brands, with games like Money Link, Jinse Duo, and Lock It Link, we can help to be a driving success in this recovery process. We offer a sense of familiarity to returning players thanks to these fantastic titles, but also extend to a wider player base due to our product differentiation through the introduction of new titles.

Tell us about SG’s plan so far for SA and what does it involve in the future?

We have a long and rich history in the South African market that we continue to build upon. We are here to stay and remain committed to innovating and playing a big part in the future of gaming in the South African market. We will continue to offer our successful robust and reliable product base, that not only delivers performance, but brings efficiencies and economies of scale to our partners. We are able to do this with our end-to-end solutions across slots, table gaming, utilities and a unique bingo offering.

We know that evolving our offering is just as important in remaining competitive and that providing something new to players is also key to success. We’ve got a great road map of games and products coming out in the South African market. For instance, we recently launched Kraken Unleashed an exciting title that is showing strong performance. In addition, we’re building on our vast library of top performing table games, including Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em and House Money. Finally, we’re delighted that our new title, Free Bet Blackjack Push 22, will be hitting casino floors in South Africa soon. We are excited about the new product sets that will be launched in 2022, we look forward to sharing more!

Operators have been positive about the support offered by SG throughout support offered by SG throughout the pandemic. We have maintained strong engagement maintained strong engagement through the most difficult through the most difficult times for businesses and times for businesses and focused our efforts on driving recovery for our driving recovery for our partners.”

Gambling in Africa is predicted to grow massively over the coming years, mainly online - do you foresee this growth having a positive impact on traditional slot-based gaming? Do you foresee traditional slots evolving to embrace online gaming preferences?

The South African market is an exciting place to be right now, there continues to be positive growth in the gaming industry. Once online gambling is legalised, SG will be in a strong position to offer games online that will be familiar to players from the land-based slot market. These games have strong player loyalty and familiarity, which will transfer into the online world and vice versa.