When Gambling Insider asks Joe Pisano what the best aspect of being a CEO is, it is not the salary or status that comes to the forefront of his thinking. “The best thing about being a CEO is you’re creating jobs for people,” the Jade Entertainment and Gaming Founder tells us. “This is one of the best things in the world you can do because you’re not only helping that one person, you may be helping a family and that person may be putting kids through college. As a CEO, that’s the best thing about what I do.”
As Gambling Insider sits with Pisano and talks through a career that has taken him to multiple continents, and the Digital Operator of the Year title at the Global Gaming Awards Asia-Pacific 2023, there is a certain calm and patience that comes across. It becomes immediately clear that, in conversation, Pisano is never one to rush to a decision or say something in the heat of the moment. His dog, Duke, is perhaps less patient! Once or twice during our chat, Duke makes his presence known – maybe he was barking his own answer to one of our questions, we’ll never know…
Animals are actually a common theme for Pisano these days. As well as his Border Collie Duke, the CEO also holds a “passion” for farming, owning a farm two hours north of Manila – where he spent the weekend prior to our interview. On that farm, Pisano has goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, two cows, a horse, geese, rabbits and more – and the executive takes great pride in telling us all about them. But an awful lot has happened for Pisano, the boy born in Australia, to get to this point – a father who owns his own gaming company and farm in the Philippines. We reflect on the journey from the beginning.
You go to different countries; you install products in those countries; you work with the locals. But you effectively end up going to another ‘village.’ You don’t consider that you’re going to a different part of the world; it just feels like you’re visiting another village
The race to gaming
“I grew up in Australia and went to what would be considered a city school; Canterbury Boys High,” Pisano reflects.
“I guess the most famous alumni from there would be the former Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. We did have a racecourse across the road from the school. So, in my early years, I was very familiar with horseracing. Quite a few of the kids we went to school with, their dads were jockeys, trainers and the like at the racetrack. Even some of our after-school friends were involved in racing.”
There are no prizes on offer for putting two and two together: that early exposure to the racing sector inevitably lent a hand to Pisano’s future gaming career. Of the many CEO Special interviewees Gambling Insider has spoken to, there have been a variety of routes into gaming; growing up around racing is one of the more explainable – an influence also present for one of our other Australian CEOs in this edition, Tom Waterhouse.
“After school, I got into IT and worked for a company called Digital, which was eventually bought out by Compaq and then Hewlett-Packard,” Pisano continues. “They developed real-time systems and I ended up working for Automatic Totalisator, where we developed the first fully computerised Tote system.
I then went on to become Project Manager. I installed the Tote system in the racetracks in South Africa in Cape Town, Kenilworth and Milnerton, then in Port Louis, Mauritius, Tab in Malaysia and the racetrack in Malaysia. In those days, where the racetrack was is where Petronas Twin Towers are today. The track was eventually moved to make way for the Twin Towers and moved to the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, which was one of the few venues that allowed betting in Thailand. This was in 1986.”
Around the globe
We have only just started our interview and, already, Pisano has mentioned jobs in Australasia, Africa and South-East Asia. It is a point of comparison Gambling Insider is naturally keen to learn more about, but not before the CEO guides us further through his journey, including not only time in Nevada and a return to Australia, but Pisano’s initial arrival in the Philippines. “In 1988, I came to the Philippines to install the Manila Jockey Club, which is where Winford Resorts and Casino Manila is today. The racetrack later moved to Carmona CTI and, in June this year, horseracing ended. Manila Jockey Club is no more.
I then set up a book on Jai alai in Manila in the early ‘90s. We used to get around 20,000 patrons per night, so we ended up putting Tote windows in the car park.”
The sport Pisano refers to here, Jai alai, is popular within Latin America and the Philippines. Both UK and US readers may be forgiven for not being familiar – it involves ‘bouncing a ball off a walled-in space with a hand-held wicker cesta.’ It is comparable to a cross between squash and polo, played on a court similar in width to basketball – but almost twice as long. Between 1992 and 1994, Pisano recollects Jai alai being “by far” the most popular sport in the Philippines, which brought “so many patrons” to Pisano’s venue. Due to regulations, however, the property was eventually closed, prompting Pisano to move to another new continent, North America, before returning to Australia.
Pisano’s next destination was Reno, Nevada, to be precise, where he became involved in linking systems together and testing keno. Keno stayed with Pisano during his career, and his move back to Australia saw him join IGT to oversee its Asian operations. Here, Pisano found a central position to witness the birth of the Macau casino industry as we know it. It could be said Pisano had the best seat in the house – but this cliché would be unfair, as the executive was hands-on in the development of the land-based systems that helped forge Macau’s casino landscape. Pisano joined IGT in 2002 and the early 2000s was when the supplier opened its first office in Macau.
“During those days, there were very few casinos in Asia,” Pisano tells Gambling Insider. “There were skiing highlands and a couple of properties in Macau and the Philippines. So I’ve seen the great build of casinos here in Asia and, here in Manila, we now have four integrated resorts. We have an integrated resort in Cebu. We’ve seen big resorts in Phú Quôc in Vietnam, including slot clubs, which were developed in Vietnam and two casinos in Singapore: Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa. Over the past 24 years, I have seen great development in the land-based casino industry.”
The best thing about being a CEO is you’re creating jobs for people. This is one of the best things in the world you can do because you’re not only helping that one person, you may be helping a family and that person may be putting kids through college
Truly omni-channel
With the turn of the millennium, it was no longer all about land-based casinos. It sounds simple enough to say in this day and age – especially with Pisano now the CEO and Founder of an online gaming company – and it is easy to look back now with hindsight and declare the rise of online gaming ‘inevitable’ or ‘obvious.’ But, with even the world wide web being so new, there were no guarantees. That explains why, despite holding conversations and seeing that “there was a future online,” Pisano did not become involved in online gaming until later on in his career. Another reason was regulatory restrictions in the Philippines, although this is also a situation that has changed over the years – with the nation now one of the largest online jurisdictions and “probably one of the few licensing jursidictions” in Asia.
The overall approach, therefore, is truly omni-channel, as Pisano describes: “Here in the Philippines, we have land-based casinos and online casinos. We have online sports betting and we have retail. We have live bingo and we have electronic bingo. We have slot parlours and we have a great diversity of gaming. You’ve got to credit the regulator (PAGCOR, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) for allowing us to be adventurous with gaming here and develop new products.”
Pisano, visibly upbeat during this part of our discussion, is also optimistic about the state of Filipino gaming moving forward. He explains: “We’ll see several games being developed called colour games, which are unique to this market. I also watched a video of the new development in the Philippines, which is going to be over 80 hectares, an integrated resort, and one of the best resorts in the world. It has 5,000 rooms and the video showcases what it’s going to look like. It’s going to be absolutely amazing!”
I see India and Sri Lanka as the biggest markets in the Asia region. India has 1.4 billion people and Sri Lanka is right next to it
Where next?
In general, Pisano’s optimism for the future applies to gaming on a global basis: “In terms of where the gaming industry is heading, it seems to be all about data and AI.” Discussions in recent years have centred around data warehousing and business intelligence, according to Pisano, and AI is going to play a “very big part” in the development of sports betting and new slot games. “The online industry and the land-based industry have embraced this technology and they’re going to continue to embrace it,” he says. “The next step here is AI and it’s really all about data and understanding not only the players but how to address those players. Part of this AI is going to include things like responsible gaming and understanding where there’s a problem.” On this note, Pisano concludes: “If you’re in the industry, it’s going to be exciting to watch these developments over the next few years.”
Despite the technological advances gaming – and the rest of the world – is making, however, it is interesting to note that the core gaming experience retains significant similarities across the globe, and perhaps over time too. When Gambling Insider asks Pisano to compare life and work across the different continents he has worked in, 40 years of travelling to different countries and sampling their gaming ecosystems has led the exec to the observation that people are “pretty much the same everywhere.”
The CEO explains: “You go to different countries; you install products in those countries; you work with the locals. But you effectively end up going to another ‘village.’ You don’t consider that you’re going to a different part of the world; it just feels like you’re visiting another village. Gaming-wise, it’s pretty much the same. The pathology of a gambler is similar whether it’s Africa, Asia, America or Australia. Of course, we see some differences; Asians, for example, like different types of games. If we go to Macau, we see it being predominantly a table games market. If we look at the electronic gaming slot machines, if you come to Asia, you’ll see the Asian theme games. But now, if you go to Las Vegas, you’ll see a lot of the same Asian theme games working just as well.”
Indeed, the “core essence” behind those slots, as explored by the cover feature of the July/August edition of Gaming America magazine, is the mathematics behind the games. Pisano notes that some of the earlier games in the industry’s history were Egyptian-themed: Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile and Book of Ra were some examples. Yet it wasn’t necessarily the theme that players loved, it was the maths behind them. The same concept applies industry-wide, whether that is a “Chinese theme today or an Egyptian theme tomorrow. We’ve seen leprechauns on the same game, it could be anything as long as it works well – and that’s quite common.”
It could have a Chinese theme today or an Egyptian theme tomorrow. We’ve seen leprechauns on the same game, it could be anything as long as it works well – and that’s quite common
Sometimes, you can’t make it on your own
A common phrase one will find in job descriptions is “self-starter” – and an equally common descriptive term in biographies is “self-made.” While both of these phrases do hold meaning, and some individuals are simply more intrinsically determined than others, there is an argument that no one is completely self-made or self-starting. For every CEO we have interviewed over the years, there was an inspiration or mentor somewhere along the way. And, when Gambling Insider asks Pisano who the biggest mentor in his career was, it provides an interesting reflection on his own character and management style.
“When I worked at Automatic Totalisator, we were going from electromechanical to computerised technology and the Head of Services there was called Alan Rose,” Pisano recalls. “He had a down-to-earth style of dealing with technology. We had mechanical engineers. We also had electronic engineers, and we were transitioning from mechanical to electronic and computerising. I had a lot of respect for Alan, not only as a technologist but as a person, the way he conducted himself. He was a very down-to-earth person.”
Here, it is certainly worth noting how Pisano presents himself today and our own description of the executive earlier in this very article: ‘There is a certain calm and patience that comes across. It becomes immediately clear that, in conversation, Pisano is never one to rush to a decision or say something in the heat of the moment.’
On the flipside, though, we should not pretend for one second that the CEO role is an easy one. Not everyone possesses the ability to lead an organisation, and not even everyone who can will get the chance. What is Pisano’s toughest challenge as a CEO? “The budgeting and financing,” he responds candidly. “I’m not strong at that. I like to have new projects and spend – and I need a strong CFO to say ‘we don’t have the money to do that!’ So the worst thing is the money side of the business: controlling the money, looking at spreadsheets and when I know we can’t spend the money.” But, again, this is where Pisano is not alone. Jean Rose Buenaventura, his “brilliant” CFO at Jade Entertainment and Gaming, is ex-William Hill and “very strong” – a “big help” that is not lost on Pisano.
Making the leap
The influence of Rose and Buenaventura help prove the point that no executive can truly go it alone – but, naturally, those with an entrepreneurial mindset can choose to pursue their own avenues of doing business. Previous guests on the CEO Special who have explored the entrepreneurial route – and with great success – include DraftKings CEO Jason Robins, LeoVegas CEO Gustaf Hagman and PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell. In 2009, Pisano made this leap himself, founding Jade Entertainment and Gaming. He admits, though, that the thought process behind the move was rather simplistic: ‘I need a job, so I’ll create my own.’ As Pisano recollects, there was a space in the market for a distributor of diversified gaming products. He began working with properties on a revenue-share basis, where Jade would supply the equipment and operate the property for the owner. Over time, Pisano brought in more products and then started to introduce services.
“Pre-Covid-19, there was an opportunity to go into sports betting,” Pisano tells Gambling Insider. “A casino asked me, ‘Can you supply sports betting?’ And I said ‘yeah, sure. Why not?’ So we installed our first sports betting site in the famous Okada Manila. But we got hit by Covid-19 and we had to close. Then we thought a good thing to do would be to expand the casino floor online. This is where remote gaming came in. The property was closed, but expanding the casino floor into the online space allowed the business to continue. So that’s when we got together with BetConstruct and developed the full retail and online solution. This is where Jade Sports Bet is today.”
Over the years, Pisano has recognised the importance of attracting customers within sports betting – which is no surprise given the competition for customer acquisition across key markets like the UK and the biggest US states. As such, Jade has spent “a lot” on marketing. Once you go under the hood, however, Jade has also expanded heavily in terms of product in recent years. There is live horseracing and dog racing streaming from the UK and Mexico, while Jade is about to go live with fantasy esports in the Philippines (at the time of writing).
“It will be the first fantasy sports product here, and that’s as a player acquisition tool,” the CEO explains. “We’re also launching fantasy basketball here in the Philippines. Then for the future, I see India and Sri Lanka as the biggest markets in the Asia region. India has 1.4 billion people and Sri Lanka is right next to it. We’re about to launch Jade Fantasy Cricket in Sri Lanka. That’s together with Supreme TV, who have the rights to the Sri Lankan cricket league there. So now it’s moving into products such as fantasy that will bring players into our database, which we can market offerings beyond gaming, such as microgaming or opinion betting. You may have an opinion that it will rain after lunch and an opinion exchange is where we can post what we think and set the odds. These are all maths and database-driven.”As for Pisano himself? A rewarding career shows no signs of slowing down. “I enjoy the industry, I have a lot of friends in the industry and, as you know, I go to a lot of industry events,” he closes. Let’s see which gaming “village” Pisano ends up visiting next.
