The first thing I wanted to ask you about was having PSY at the Inspire Resort’s launch event in South Korea. I just wanted to know how that went!
He is incredibly popular in Korea, and he has many more songs than Gangnam Style, that the US had grabbed onto for a long period of time. It was a sold-out event, incredibly popular and gained great receptivity. So, when I think about it, the whole grand opening event was spectacular unto itself. Both PSY and another popular act, Taeyang, were very well received and sold out very quickly.
I know it’s early days, but how has the property performed so far in terms of meeting expectations and that kind of thing?
We’ve just hit two months of having live gaming operations, and as we’ve said all along, we continue to launch new amenities. As an example, our food court opened recently, and we’ve had a couple of other retail shops open in the last couple of weeks. Some additional amenities, like our outdoor park, are still coming along.
A beautiful art museum is going to be coming online in the coming weeks (at the time of writing), along with a kid’s play area. So, the property is not fully developed yet. Nonetheless, the receptivity from not only the local Koreans but from international travellers, too, has been phenomenal. The responses we’ve received from our guests who have visited have been overwhelmingly positive. And I’m really excited about the future of the property as it continues to ramp and grow.
Sure. Once it’s fully developed, what are the main appeals of the property? And I say that very much with it being a high-class property with high-class competition. We’ve got Marina Bay Sands and various destinations across Asia. If you’re talking to a tourist or a high-value player and saying, ‘come to Inspire!’ what are the main appeals versus all these other wonderful properties around the world?
Obviously, there’s a lot of competition globally. There’s a lot of competition in Asia and I really am proud of the position we’re going to take within that competition. At the property, 5-star hotels have already received their rating. We’re going to have the largest indoor convention space in the greater Seoul area; we have the indoor water park; we have the largest covered arena in South Korea, as well.
The country has many stadiums, but not a state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility like we have. When we think about the multitude of dining and retail options, we have available, I think there are many reasons for people to come along, not only to our private gaming areas, our open gaming floor or our slot machines. I think the mix of products, amenities, offerings, and things to do is unrivalled in the industry.
I’m proud of what the property has to offer, and that doesn’t even touch upon all of the digital experiences we’re providing for the property, and various nodes and Instagrammable moments throughout the property. So, there are so many things to see and do, that visitors can come and spend their days there and really enjoy the property, with a multitude of things to experience and enjoy.
I note the word ‘Instagrammable!’ It’s interesting to hear it… and it makes complete sense in today’s world. But five or so years ago, it’s not something we would have talked about as much, and yet now it’s something CEOs such as yourself focus on. How important is the ‘Instagrammable-ness’ of a property?
You know, in this day and age of social media, I think it’s imperative when you’re talking about attracting particularly the younger generation to the property. They want to see things that are unique and different, which they can post on their social media pages, and that other people can see, then come and enjoy themselves. Here, I think about the digital street where we have a full display and the entire hallway that’s filled with electronic displays people can get pictures of.
And then we have what we call nodes throughout the property that have different Instagrammable moments. As an example, one of them has an outer space-themed element. Another one has a relaxing kid’s fun element. And there are various of those throughout the property where people can stop, get their pictures and post it on social media. I think it’s important you have those types of things that people are looking for, because it’s a reason to come out and it’s an opportunity for us to gain their loyalty; and have them come back and visit us multiple times.
As a tribal operator and a CEO, you would have obviously planned for the opening of the Inspire Resort, because it wasn’t built overnight! But you’re sharing your focus between US properties and now South Korea, as well. What is that balance like?
Oh, listen, we’re not only here in Connecticut, where our flagship property is, but we’re also up in Niagara in Canada, which is several hours away. We’ve been managing a property in Washington State for the last five years and we’re also in Las Vegas. So, I think, as an organisation, we’ve been looking to continue to expand to bring the Mohegan influence throughout the world.
Obviously being halfway around the world, there are time challenges we always have to accommodate for between our team members in South Korea and here. But we have to do the same thing when we’re dealing with the other side of the US. So, I think it’s about having the right team members in place, and providing the right amenities and services to our guests.
Not only that, but also bringing the Mohegan culture to wherever we go and being respectful of the cultures where we’re working, whether it be in Canada or South Korea, then meshing those together as an organisation; we want to continue to expand and grow our influence throughout the world.
That provides quite a natural segue into the next question. Because I bear in mind your point that you’ve got a time difference anyway, and that you want to have that Mohegan culture globally, but what are the unique trends and characteristics you have to keep in mind for South Korea, specifically?
It’s interesting because every new jurisdiction you go into has their own unique culture. You always want to be respectful of the culture you’re working within, but we also want to bring our brand of culture to those properties while being respectful of local customs. I think we built our property to make sure we were reflecting that Korea is very attuned to a vibrant culture and cultural experiences. And they’re also highly advanced technologically.
When I think about what we built in South Korea, you’ve got the museum that’s going to be coming in, the massive kid’s play area, the pool dome, the largest indoor state-of- the-art arena we have. These factor in not onlythe technological advances that are happening in the world and that Koreans are attuned to, but also cultural experiences.
So, when we think about a lot of the nodes, when we think about a lot of the experiences we’ll be providing in the arena, it’s all related to Korean culture and bringing all the cultures in for Koreans to experience. So, I think those are two things I’d say we are primarily focused on.
Your casino is only going to be available to foreign bettors, not Korean nationals. Are there sizeable differences in operating a foreign-player-only casino?
I would say that any time you operate a property in a different jurisdiction, there are always going to be differences. You’ve got to make sure you’re working with regulators and cooperating with them; there are going to be different governments, and these are going to have different expectations, different wants and needs. You have to make sure you’re accommodating that when talking about a foreign-player-only casino. Obviously, our primary attraction for the gaming portion of the property is going to be foreign players.
It’s going to be people who primarily live outside of the country. But there are also a couple of million expats that live in South Korea, so there is a market within the country itself that you want to make sure you’re targeting on the domestic side. We still want to bring in the residents of South Korea for them to come and enjoy the property, really driving those non-gaming revenue and business volumes by utilising the hotel rooms and convention space.
We’re looking to attract local residents as well as international travellers, so I think we need to be diverse and multifaceted when we go about our marketing efforts, and the amenities we provide in the facility.
So, I’m going to switch the order of my questions a little based on that answer, because you mentioned non-gaming revenues and I’m interested in the split you’re seeing at the moment. As you said, it’s only a couple of months in, but what are you aiming for in terms of the mix of gaming revenue and non-gaming revenue? You also mentioned conventions; obviously, Las Vegas conventions are huge. Are you looking for that to be a real stronghold for the business?
The property is still ramping up and the ultimate mix is going to settle itself over the coming time as it continues to ramp. However, we offer a very large and wide variety of non-gaming amenities that we anticipate will be significant contributors to the overall revenue and profitability of the facility.
So, whether it’s our buffet, our indoor arena, the water park, the 1,200-room hotel, or the convention space, we do anticipate it to be one of the busiest convention spaces in the Seoul Incheon area. We anticipate all of those to be positive revenue drivers and bottom-line contributors through the property. Our goal for the property, quite honestly, is to be in the neighbourhood of a 50/50 split between gaming revenue and non-gaming revenue.
For the overall performance of the property, that’s interesting, and I appreciate you giving us an exact projected ratio there. That still puts a big emphasis on the gaming side of things, of course, so I’d like to finish on a question suppliers will be flicking through the magazine looking forward to most! What kind of products have you got in place on the casino floor? I know you publicised a high-profile deal with Light & Wonder. Which of your machines or tables are really standing out?
From a table games perspective, we’re going to offer your traditional table games: blackjack, baccarat and roulette. Predominantly in the Asian community, and this is not dissimilar from Macau or anywhere else, you go to Asia, you’re surrounded by baccarat tables. The no-commission baccarat tables we have are becoming much more popular. They’re an easier game for the dealers to manage with the players, and they’re not accumulating commissions that they have to figure out and pay at the end.
Our table game mix is going to be what I would consider a standard table game mix for the Southeast Asian region: predominantly baccarat, but providing your other traditional table games, too, including roulette and blackjack.
From a slot perspective, we obviously signed a partnership with Light & Wonder, and we’re getting the most popular machines they’re seeing in Singapore, Macau and other Asia-Pacific properties. I think we are going to provide, in comparison to our competitors locally and regionally within Korea, the newest, greatest, and most popular titles.