Aristocrat Gaming is aiming to supply the “lion’s share” of circa 3,000 gaming machines that are likely to enter the Macau casino market per year, said Lloyd Robson, general manager for Asia, in an interview with GGRAsia.
“It was really at the end of 2021 where we got the company to endorse our growth strategy in Asia,” as a whole, he noted.
“The end of 2022 into 2023, was where we really expanded that footprint in the Philippines from a role point of view as well as an infrastructure perspective,” he added.
In April Aristocrat Gaming – the casino equipment division of Australia-listed gaming content provider Aristocrat Leisure Ltd – launched a showroom in Manila, the Philippine capital.
But “never” did its wider regional effort “come at the expense of Macau”, where the market was once again vibrant, said Mr Robson, in a nod to its emergence from pandemic-related controls. The company is having a recruitment drive in Macau for fresh local talent at senior as well as entry level.
He was speaking during the MGS Entertainment Show, a casino-industry trade exhibition and conference held at the Galaxy International Convention Center in Macau.
The lead up to the next Chinese New Year in early February is an especially-important moment for the casino equipment brand not only in Macau but also the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, as it gears up for the once-in-a-dozen years event of the Year of the Dragon.
That chimes with a long-standing dragon theme seen in Aristocrat casino slot machine games, as well as its latest ‘Home of the Dragons’ marketing campaign.
“Our goal was really to get one of our key [dragon-themed] links operational [in Macau] for October Golden Week, which we did, and we put that into the majority of the concessions,” Mr Robson explained, referring to an autumn holiday period for residents of the Chinese mainland. “Phase two is to get our second key link really operational in this November, December period going into Chinese New Year,” he added.
“So, you’ll have our two key links – Dragon Link and ‘Jin Cai Hao Yun’ – live, as well as our ‘Dragon Universe’ mystery theme live, as we head into that February 10 period” of Chinese New Year, he stated.
Known hits and newcomers
The firm hopes to launch in Macau, in the second or third quarter next year, a third link product, “Cai Fu Zhong Sheng”.
It’s “a game very much built for Macau with a bit of a different mechanic than what we have in the rest of our games,” Mr Robson noted.
“We’ve also introduced a ‘Dragon Universe’ mystery link to put over the top of our standalone [slot] products for next year, which really just brings to life our standalone portfolio,” he added.
At the start of this calendar year, most of the Macau operators were “very focused on existing games,” including getting them compliant with Macau’s updated gaming regulations, stated the executive.
Mr Robson noted that as the Macau gaming industry “started accelerating this year, the appetite to experiment with new products became greater”.
He said the backing the group’s management had given regarding Aristocrat’s investment in the Macau market, meant it could cater for the different risk appetite games-wise among the city’s casino concessionaires.
Mr Robson said there were “some ‘safe bets’, which are brand extensions” of existing products, “to the other end of the spectrum,” including games which might be considered “quite risky” in consumer appeal.
“‘Safe’ really means moving money from ‘A’ to ‘B’ to ‘C’ and doesn’t necessarily drive incremental revenue for operators. So, we try to segment our portfolio: that gives the operator a bit of both,” stated Mr Robson.
Of up to 12,000 gaming machines permitted at any one time in the Macau market, “25 percent need to be upgraded on a per annum basis,” up to the end of 2026, observed the Aristocrat manager.
“That means there’s a minimum 3,000 changes a year. Like any supplier, we obviously would like to get the lion’s share of that. That’s why we’ve put such focus in our people and our product investment,” he told GGRAsia.
“We’re one of the very few [companies with] a product manager based in the market on the ground,” he observed. “I put a lot of the success we’ve had in the last two years in our product performance, to that role.”
“We’re adding more roles into the structure based here in Macau to position ourselves for further growth into 2024 and beyond,” said Mr Robson.
“We’re advertising a number of those roles,” which will be for locals. “We are… very committed to both the education and the employment opportunities of our local base here,” he stated.
