'All Systems Go!' at G2E for DR Gaming Technology

Alex and Alfredo, did DR Gaming Technology's attendance at G2E Las Vegas 2018 live up to your expectations?

Alex: As noted ahead of G2E 2018, our attendance is, and will for the foreseeable future be driven by the fact that as a global supplier, we believe that it, combined with G2E Asia (Macao), and ICE Totally Gaming London provides us with the best possible spread of global customers, across equally well spread times of the year.

That said, G2E Las Vegas is the key exhibition for Alfredo and me, considering our regions of responsibility within the Company.

Alfredo: Exactly! As a relatively new office in the Group, compared to Alex who has been working out of Lima now for 5 years, my team and I, despite attending G2E 2017, have only been operating for just over 12 months. Mexico was identified as a key market for DRGT, hence the establishment of our office in September last year, and I am really happy to say that we have made some good progress since then.

G2E 2018 has provided us with the perfect platform and location to meet new customers and engage with existing partners. I, personally, was very happy with the interest shown in what we are able to offer; and what was extremely encouraging was how interested visitors to our booth were in both our management and jackpot solutions.

So, between you two gentlemen, you have what are a relatively new market for DRGT, in Mexico, and relatively established one's in Latin America and the Caribbean, to look after. Considering that, what were of interest to your customers Alex, and similarly yours Alfredo?

Alex: Absolutely correct! Having been in operation now for some time my Latin American and Caribbean customers are all very familiar with our core systems and jackpot products, and as such what intrigued them most were the newer additions to our portfolio.

What I am referring to here was our new Player Kiosk software and player interface upgrades which afford players the opportunity to perform a number of 'self help' tasks directly at their EGM or at a Player Kiosk on the casino floor, tasks like accessing points balances, recent local and wide-area jackpot hits, and the ability to order food and beverages at the touch of the EGM screen.

Of further interest for operators and players alike is the ability for us to now streaming live TV or other events like concerts or raffles directly to the EGM screen or our drScreenUltra player interface, in so doing engaging all visitors to a venue, or sharing these events with players at other venues.

Our booth DJ, Sherly Lynn, was streamed to EGMs on our booth during the show in Vegas, and the ability for visitors to the expo to see this functionality in action was a real drawcard.

Alfredo: I concur, Sheryl Lynn added a great vibe to the DRGT booth, and the ability to show exactly how she could be seen across a casino floor, as if she was playing at an on-site club or arena was phenomenal, my Mexcian customers loved that too.

As you correctly say, however, the Mexican market is new to DRGT, and as such, we had a far wider interest from our customers to the Group's technology solutions.

Our world-leading jackpot configuration options were a big talking point, as was our player-centric tournament module, player kiosk and member registration software. The integration of a passport scanner, and general ease-of-use of our drSelfRegistration product also received positive reviews, both as a cost-saving for operators in terms of the limited staff intervention required, and the value created for players who could register and literally issue themselves a new player card in a matter of minutes.

Then on the Tables side, our Table Management System's ability to seamlessly integrate into our accounting, cage and reporting modules, as well as the ability to easily allocate player loyalty points also received a lot of traction, as did our relatively new BlackJack11's Tables Jackpot game. It is currently the most profitable tables jackpot game in Africa, and I am quite confident that we will soon start to see similar success in Mexico. The general feedback was that the game was quick, easy to learn and easy to play – the very drivers of its current success elsewhere.

Back to DRGT and specifically Latin America and Mexico, where to from here?

Alfredo: As you know we have opened a total of three new offices south of the US border in the last 12 months. The Mexican office, which I look after, and then an additional two in Paraguay and Uruguay which for now Alex is overseeing as part of his Latin America and Caribbean portfolio.

As such, our focus is very much on establishing these offices as a real force to be reckoned with in their respective regions, and then consolidating to an extent, in order to ensure that service levels are always maintained and that we are always able to deliver to the standards set by our longer serving Peruvian counterparts, as well as those in Belgium, Austria and Malta.

Alex: Exactly! We take service very seriously, and notwithstanding our 'player first' mantra, our full company vision refers to the development and delivery of the best technology that puts the player first, and in order to do that we need to be able to assist our customers, the operators, to deliver on that promise.

We spoke about this ahead of G2E, and the end-user for us as the system solutions service provider, and for the operator, is always the player. As a result, we need to be there to complete the ‘loop’ and provide operators with not only installation assistance, but also any support that they may require in order to provide their players with the best possible experience. That means not only, fast, simple and smooth installations, but also and an ‘always available’ team of support staff and product specialists.

As a company, we will never compromise our service levels ‘just’ for the sake of expansion, our reputation, and our customers' reputations, are far too valuable to us to let that happen.

As we're talking expansion, I saw just ahead of G2E that you have now formally established DRGT Africa, can you tell me a little about that?

Alex: Of course! DRGT has been trading in Africa for just short of a decade but through a distributor called Simplicit-e Gaming Solutions established by Charl Geyser in 2009.
The Company, having enjoyed significant success over the last 5 years in Europe and Africa as well as in Latin America, and the Caribbean, was looking to invest directly in Africa, and Simplicit-e presented the perfect opportunity to do just that. We all know Charl and his team extremely well, and their track record speaks for itself.

For all intents and purposes, Simplicit-e will continue to operate as is, but as DRGT Africa, where we intend to fully leverage our local partner Grand Parade Investments' continental relationships, and the amazing 'player first' products we as DRGT continue to develop.

Thanks for your time gentlemen. In closing, what is the next stop on the DRGT roadshow, ICE Totally Gaming 2019?

Alex: Yes, we'll see you at ICE next year.

Alfredo: As a global team we're looking forward to exhibiting something brand new, something that our development colleagues have been working on for some time, and that we understand will be 'good to go' at ICE.

Ahead of ICE though, we'll also be exhibiting at the GET In networking and training event at the W Hotel Polanco Mexico DF on 15 November.