Machines & Gaming: Viva Baby Vegas...
Pioneers of the digital AWP have learned to be patient. No one doubts that digital is the future. As machine take declines the possibility of offering a wider choice of games and gaining better controls through an internet-based network is an obvious opportunity to expand the player base beyond the core user and maximise the cashbox.
But the obvious reckons without the inertia caused by so many thousands of old analogue fruit machines still out in the trade, and the risk of alienating the core user who remains a vital source of income for many licensees.
Dave Elebert, managing director of digital entertainment network Baby Vegas, believes that the market is turning the digital corner, however.
After many months of testing and talking to pubcos he has finally struck a deal with Sceptre Leisure, the country's third largest operator with 16,000 machines, that will see his digital AWPs installed in pubs at a slow but steady rate, with groups including Admiral Taverns and brewers such as Thwaites and Joseph Holt involved.
"We've been trying to get into the market for 14 months and after four years of declining machine take and a booming gaming market things are starting to happen," says Elebert.
In that time Baby Vegas has been refining its product. Its AWP now features 10 games, all different to the original five it started with, and each of them tweaked 100 times to achieve maximum player appeal based on numerous tests.
"At first we were roulette-focused, but now we have three different poker games and a new blackjack game plus content we have bought in - and there is a raft of content coming through," says Elebert.
"We aim to piece together the perfect menu. We want as many people playing as possible rather than the existing focus on a small core of players that may now be less than five per cent of pub-goers - years ago it was more than 10 per cent.
"We can open up the gates now because there is such a broad spectrum of choice. And we can gauge the reaction of people to new games instantly online."
Pub operators, though, will need to change their mindset to make the digital revolution work. "This is a product that changes day to day and every site is different," he explains.
Trials of Baby Vegas have been persuasive. "We've seen a 20 per cent increase in take - and in some sites it's doubled. Feedback from licensees suggests it's played by all generations, from 18 to 80-year-olds, and by women, too.
"Look around the ATEI show and it's 80 per cent digital. There's only one way it's going. Gaming in pubs will be unrecognisable in six to nine months."
Ken Turner, who is managing the roll-out at Sceptre, is a little more cautious, however.
"I think you've got to see this as an evolution rather than a revolution," he says. "It's important to recognise that analogue machines still dominate the market. Digital will run alongside analogue for a long time.
"How long that evolution will take depends on whether we can get jackpots higher. It's still only £35 in pubs compared to fixed-odds terminals which have a £500 jackpot. Licensees are losing players to betting offices and arcades and that's slowed development.
"But all the pub operators I've spoken to are keen to trial Baby Vegas, and in these challenging times this is exactly what the pub trade needs to bump up profitability and fight back."
