Skill-based games, like skills, will take some time to develop

October 5, 2017 8:54 PM
  • Nick Sortal, CDC Gaming Reports
October 5, 2017 8:54 PM
  • Nick Sortal, CDC Gaming Reports

Skill-based games are still just a tiny piece of the casino pie, but each year, they are becoming a larger part of the conversation.

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Moderator Howard Stutz noted the growth when introducing a panel of experts during a lunchtime discussion Thursday for media attending G2E.

“It started with talk, then a couple of companies came in,” he said. “This year, it looks like everybody has some skill based game.”

Blaine Graboyes, CEO of GameCo, Inc., and Darion Lowenstein, chief marketing officer for Gamblit, said this year their games have started to creep onto casino floors. GameCo has 60 games on the floor and expects 250 by the end of the year, in New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, on cruise ships and elsewhere.

Lowenstein, whose games went live in March, said Gamblit has purposely been very gradual in its rollout, citing the need for multiple software upgrades. Gamblit games are at MGM Grand and other Vegas hotels, as well as southern California.

“We have to remember how early this is,” Graboyes said. “Slots are perfectly optimized games that have been improved for 120 years.” “You could add another slot game that moves money around the floor and meets the floor average. But if you want new games and new revenue, there’s this whole new type of game, with new dollars to be had.”

Konami’s bread and butter is in slots, but is eager to grow business with skill-based games, said Steve Walther, senior director of marketing and product management for Konami.

“We’re trying to answer, ‘How do you create the experience for people who want to do something different?’” he said. “We have to maintain our existing business but we have to grow.”

Lowenstein said 6,500 exit surveys across 18 locations show the average skill-based game player is 36 and a good number said they would not have participated in traditional gaming.

“Most are seeing it as incremental revenue,” he said.

And he says they belong on the floor.

“We originally thought our games would be most successful in bars, but it turns out it’s at gaming floors,” he said.

Steve Sirianni, vice president of slot operations at MGM grand, said one of the biggest revelations as skill-based games rolled out is that there’s a learning curve.

“They’re not used to these types of games. We’ve done things on the marketing side on property to market and promote the units,” Sirianni said. “But it’s something that’s going to take time, and we’re going to need more manufactures and more games to come to market before people really understand that this is a different gaming experience.”

Added Walther: “It’s not just drop it on the box and hope people find it. If you put a new slot on the floor, everyone’s going to it because they know how to play it. We have to do a better job as manufacturers, and operators have to do a better job, in teaching players it’s not going to bite.”

And Sirianni emphasized that skill-based games are still a tiny piece of their business.

“We see our traditional slot as the staple of our business and we see that for the long term. I wouldn’t say were ready to carve out a huge portion of our floor, but we see a gradual introduction,” he said. MGM has created Level-Up, a new gaming space that’s more social and more interactive – and a place where MGM can place these games as they come to market.

When asked if skill-based games were here to stay, Graboyes noted that nothing in gambling is permanent.

“We don’t do free trials because it takes a commitment from the operator,” he said. “For us, it’s really about having that long-term collaborative relationship.

The American Gaming Association arranged the event. Brett Abarbanel, director of research for the International Gaming Institute at UNLV, and Salim Adatia, VP of iGaming & Canadian Services at Gaming Laboratories International, also participated.