Australia-listed slot machine maker and online gaming content provider Aristocrat Leisure Ltd is committed to “continue to launch innovative products”, to stay ahead of the competition. That is according to comments by Craig Toner (pictured), chief executive of Aristocrat Gaming, in an interview with GGRAsia.
Aristocrat Leisure has three operating divisions: Aristocrat Gaming, the group’s land-based gaming technology segment; Aristocrat Interactive, the firm’s segment focused on online real money gaming (RMG); and Product Madness, its social games unit.
Mr Toner – who has been with the Aristocrat group for more than seven years – was appointed CEO of Aristocrat Gaming in December. He served previously as chief financial officer and executive vice president of operations at Aristocrat Gaming.
“My focus has been getting out there, listening to all of our key customers, and listening to the opportunities that they see out there,” stated Mr Toner.
Such efforts started early this year, at the ICE Barcelona casino trade show in Spain; and continued in May at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) Asia 2025 casino trade show and conference in Macau.
“We’ve been working around, meeting all the key customers, listening to what they see as the opportunities, and then understanding how we can bring those solutions to help them deliver that to their customers,” observed the executive.
“The gaming industry is an agile, very fast-paced industry,” Mr Toner remarked, adding that the company is “thriving” on the back of a “strong” product portfolio. “So, seeing Aristocrat continuing to invest in innovative product and leading the market, that’s the primary goal,” he added.
“I think one of the pivotal moments [for the group] was that we sustained the investment into the land-based content whilst we added the online segment,” noted the Aristocrat Gaming CEO. “We didn’t take investment away from the land-based segment to invest online, as we see both segments equally important to drive growth moving forward.”
Aristocrat Leisure reported revenue of just above AUD3.03 billion (US$1.96 billion) for its financial first half, up 8.7 percent from the prior-year period.
The firm said revenue growth in the six months to March 31 “benefitted from the inclusion” of NeoGames SA, an online RMG provider that was acquired in April 2024.
Aristocrat Interactive generated interim revenue of US$166.7 million, up 131.8 percent from a year ago.
Products, partnerships
Mr Toner said the company would “continue to launch innovative products” that meet its clients’ needs.
Calling the “Dragon Link” title a “once in a generation product”, the executive said the group’s new product, “Phoenix Link”, is now being installed in a number of jurisdictions.
“A priority is sustaining those super-performing titles that we know our customers and their players love,” added the executive.
According to Mr Toner, customers are now “looking for long-term partnerships, moving away from a purely transactional relationship”.
Via those partnerships, suppliers “can create a sustained pathway to give operators the confidence to invest” in products, he explained.
“But we can also partner in devising marketing campaigns, theme rooms, and really drive the player experience so that players keep coming back into those venues,” he added.
An example of that was the launch in September last year of a themed slot area called “Dragon Zone”, a collaboration between Aristocrat Gaming and the Studio City casino resort in Macau, which is run by Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd.
“Having those themed areas is making a big difference, and we are seeing that demand from multiple customers across the [Asian] region and globally,” stated the Aristocrat representative.
He added: “Customers continue to look for that in partnership agreements as we move forward, to leverage that approach.”
Outside Asia, the Aristocrat group has launched the “Baron” cabinet line, including the “Baron Portrait” and the dual-screen “Baron Upright”.
Mr Toner said the company was “seeing very strong demand” for the Baron cabinet from customers in Australia. “We’re looking to absolutely have a good second half” in terms of business performance.
“We’ve been out in Europe and America with the dual-screen [cabinet] for about six months, and it has gone exceptionally well; and we’ve just launched the Portrait [product] in the U.S.,” he told GGRAsia.
In Asia, the Aristocrat group “still has a long runway” on the “Mars” cabinet series, as the industry “sort of lost a few years amid Covid,” noted Mr Toner.
“At some point, we’ll work through how we transition to the Baron line, but we still see the primary focus on the Mars cabinets,” he stated.
New markets, online
The Aristocrat Gaming CEO said there are plenty of opportunities for the industry to grow, particularly in new markets such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The Aristocrat group said in October that it had been the first international slot and online technology company to receive a gaming-related vendor licence in the UAE.
“The UAE represents a growth market, and we were just there having a customer forum for European customers,” said Mr Toner.
He added: “We will always look to work with our customers and how to partner with them, and that’s especially important in new markets where no one really knows what the players’ preferences are, and what’s the game style.”
“Even if we start with some products on day one, I’m pretty sure the floor will look very different on day 365,” he noted.
“We are excited by the Emirates, and Japan has been there for a while,” as an emerging land-based casino market, “so we are ready, willing, and able” to build business in those places, he stated.
According to the executive, the firm’s approach is “always to fine tune” its content to each market.
“In the first year, everyone [at UAE] is going to be working out what is the profile of the customers. Once we know that and what game titles resonate with players, then we can refine it,” he remarked.
Mr Toner said the company was also focused on getting the group’s content “built for the online segment,” with the few titles already launched, “performing exceptionally well”.
“We are focused on getting the rest of that backlogged library up and running to get it in the online world,” said the CEO, adding that the NeoGames acquisition also provided exposure to the European market.
In the interview with GGRAsia, Mr Toner said one of his targets as CEO of Aristocrat Gaming was to “retain key talent and be a talent magnet,” in a bid to sustain the group’s growth.
Investing into the company’s products and expanding its content across multiple channels were also goals mentioned by the executive.
“I think we’ve proven that we can adapt and make the most of whatever challenges we are faced with,” he noted.
Referring to the tariff war between the U.S. and China, the representative said the Aristocrat brand “built a very resilient supply chain approach during Covid”.
He added: “We’re now leveraging that same resiliency, multiple countries of sourcing, and so on, which is helping us navigate the tariff challenges.”
