How has 2021 been treating you and Interblock?
I think it goes without saying that it’s been a challenging year for a lot of the industry. However, the silver lining is that we came out of Covid strong, at least from a North American perspective. When you talk globally, unfortunately Europe is going through another surge of cases and we’re concerned about that, and Asia is still struggling with another surge going on there.But the bright spot is North America. Although we are seeing more cases, the numbers out of the gaming sector post-Covid were some of the highest we’ve ever seen in certain regions. So, that was very helpful to the operators and suppliers alike.
As a result of Covid, as you can imagine, the online proliferation of sports betting and gaming has really taken off in North America — as it has historically in other parts of the world. It’s been a little bit of a surprise for us as to the momentum we experienced during Covid and post-Covid relative to electronic table games (ETGs). It’s been a catalyst of growth, more than we would ever have expected, and what’s been the biggest surprise to me is that when we came out of Covid, and live table gaming opened back up, I thought perhaps we would see a little bit of a lull because there was additional supply offered to the player base. But that hasn’t happened. The momentum continues to grow at rates equal to, if not even higher, than during Covid and post-Covid. So it definitely seemed to be a paradigm shift for our company.
How was G2E, both generally and for your company?
G2E this year was not as well attended as years past; however, the calibre of people who attended was, I think, the best ever: decision makers, owners, executives. I think because it had been a couple of years, everyone wanted to stay in touch with what new innovations were out there and how innovation could help their businesses.
Companies tended not to bring as many employees, but it was a tremendous show, and we went for invitation only because we are unfortunately a target of people trying to copy. We work very hard to stay a market-leader and innovate with our team to provide the industry with cutting-edge ideas and concepts, and ways to improve the performance of their casino floors – and we want to protect that. But the reaction was actually quite good. It was a more exclusive environment inside, and people felt very important. You knew when someone was in the booth that they were meant to be there, so you could focus your attention accordingly.
Assuming ICE goes ahead, what are your and Interblock’s plans for the show?
ICE will be very similar to G2E but will allow our European partners and customers a chance to see some of the newest technology hands-on. Especially last year, since a lot of people did not travel internationally or were unable to travel. This is really our way to take what we had at G2E and bring it over to Europe and do the same launch, the same introductions of very similar products and technology.
As we round off 2021 and head into 2022, what do you see as the key trends to look out for when it comes to electronic table games and land-based casino?
By the month right now, there’s such momentum and we’re learning a tremendous amount, both in the domestic North American markets and internationally, as a result of Covid and player perceptions of table games. What I see happening now is a convergence between the online world and the traditional casinos themselves, due to acquisitions and mergers.
We’ve experienced that somewhat in Europe historically, but I think North America is going to be to a much larger extent, where we have the traditional land-based operators – who are also in the online space – creating a unified approach to content and cross-marketing promotions that we haven’t seen before, at least in certain regions. I think that’s going to be something really fun to watch in 2022.
Relative to Interblock and ETGs, we continue to see a demographic split. Electronic table games cater to many different types of players which we didn’t know about five years ago. There’s one demographic that prefers more of a social aspect, and traditional casinos have such an advantage over online casinos in how to utilise their infrastructure to drive value – they have spas, shows, shopping centres and restaurants. As an industry, we haven’t been able to truly figure out when someone does enter a casino – or we pull someone online into that beautiful infrastructure and offering – how to get a lot of those peopleto step onto the casino floor.
What we are finding is that the stadium concept from Interblock is a place that, whether it’s a couple or group of friends, people can go and remain social at the end of the day. Historically, a lot of casino environments and technology are solitary in nature. Whether it’s a slot machine or even table games, you tend not ever to find three or four seats where you can sit together with your friends. So we found that the more social we make electronic table games in various distribution methods, whether it be a stadium or a single seat, has really resonated with the player base.
I see 2022 really as the year when the industry will be ready to talk about sections of a floor, labour issues that resonate in theUS – and internationally – and the ability of ETGs to reduce operating expenses and address those labour shortages, as well as the ability of technology to drive more handle and hold. It seems like a natural progression that we’re going to see into ’22; the expansion of a casino floor from an electronic technology perspective is going to grow. Especially when you know that under 2% of the floor currently in North America is ETGs, so it’s really in its infancy.
In our recent Gaming America magazine, you said you see the stakes as never having been higher for the traditional land-based segment. Is that what you meant by what you just mentioned? And if there are other things at play, can you tell us more?
With the proliferation, at least in certain parts of the world, with online gaming and sports betting, you can feel there is a shift in the gaming industry on where it is heading over the next decade, and the new types of players coming to fruition. We as an industry really need to figure out how to optimise the correlation between online and the ability of players to play remotely, and how to utilise land-based facilities to bridge the two to create one plus one equals three.
From my perspective the traditional land-based operators in the US and Canada, and internationally, have such an advantage. I think you see them now looking for ways to optimise that. At Interblock, our job is to continue to innovate and pull players onto the casino floor when they enter the facilities. But now we’re looking, like everybody is, to take our content and also put it online, so that when people do leave the land-based facility, they can find the same content, recognise it and continue to remain loyal and play – whether it be a brand or product – remotely, on a handheld device or computer. That’s what I meant, we all need to be thinking about the positives and negatives. A SWOT analysis relative to wagering in North America and how to use the advantages that we have created over decades as an industry. To not only protect what we have created, but to grow it.
You have been in the industry for quite a while, so this shift you talk about, is it one of the biggest shifts in terms of disruption you have seen? As for Interblock, you mentioned your ambitions to look at online content — what are your goals and how are you planning to approach this area in 2022?
We are absolutely looking to go into the online space. I have been hesitant over the past few years simply because the organic growth of our company and the infrastructure – we were very focused on sustaining the market-leading position we have on the ETG side and the traditional land-based; and there have just been so many new ideas and concepts to execute on, and frankly scale the company and build a foundation globally to support that demand. But now, looking forward, and seeing what’s going on, it’s a natural progression to take that infrastructure, that brand recognition, certain play actions and IP that we have created, and bring that to the online space. I think we’d be foolish not to. We’re finally at a point as a company where we have built a big enough foundation and infrastructure that we can handle two paths simultaneously, without jeopardising quality or that growth momentum we’re seeing.
Looking more internationally, your partnership with Holland Casino was a big achievement. What aims does Interblock have on a global scale?
We’re investing heavily right now, whether it be Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe – we’re seeing across the board double-digit growth in infrastructure and hiring. The challenging part is obviously trying to time resource allocation to market openings and momentums. Covid is a challenge to say the least, but we are launching several new products in the coming months that are designed to address demand in places such as Latin America or Asia-Pacific.
Unique products, whether it be for Asia, with sic bo and various forms of baccarat, to new forms of roulette, which tends to be the predominant product demand in Latin America. So we continue to increase product offerings throughout each region — we’ll continue to expand — and from that, we’ll begin to then see how we can take best practices from the land-based side and evolve those into a more online type of offering.
In a word or a phrase, how would you sum up 2021 and how would you sum up what you’re hoping for next year?
2021 was surprising. I think when everybody came out of the holidays last year, we came out with a little bit of concern and scepticism about where we were going to end up in the coming year. But looking back, I think most people would say 'wow.' It’s much, much better than we would have anticipated in a very positive way. I think it shows the resilience of the industry and the player demand for this segment. I think it accelerated so many areas of gaming that we have talked about for years, at a much, much faster pace than would have happened without Covid.
From many conversations I’ve had, people were anticipating to be where we are today in three or four years from now. I foresee a lot more M&A activity to come in the next 12 months because of all of this positive momentum and the economic environment of a lot of these companies is so strong right now. Despite seeing Covid affect the international markets again in a very serious way, I think the industry is very diversified in many aspects globally.Because of that, we’re going to see significant investments and significant strides forward, perhaps at a faster rate than what we’ve seen in the past couple of decades.
