"This year’s G2E was our best show yet and AGS' first show as a public company"

Julia Boguslawski, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President of Investor Relations at AGS, looked back on the 2018 edition of the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas.

How would you summarize AGS performance at this year’s edition of G2E?

This year’s G2E was our best show yet and our first show as a public company. There was such incredible energy and excitement around our exhibit, our products, and AGS’ growth story. We hosted numerous key stakeholders in our booth, including customers, financial analysts, investors, and the media and they all experienced our obsession for the numerous new games, table products, and interactive solutions on display in the AGS booth.

As part of our multi-year corporate partnership with the Vegas Golden Knights hockey league, we hosted many hockey-themed activities in our booth and throughout the show. We displayed roulette signage with the Vegas Golden Knights animated helmet and a promotional Vegas Golden Knights-themed Big Red slot machine that attracted a lot of attention. Ambassadors from the team, including the mascot Chance the Gila Monster, the Golden Aces cheerleaders, and the Knight Line Drumbots, kept the energy and excitement levels high with appearances, performances, and numerous photo opportunities.

I also must give kudos to the entire AGS team; the show’s success is always dependent on our team’s hard work, creativity, and focus on innovation. We have the best team in the business, and they continue to raise the bar every G2E.

Which of the company’s products attracted the most attention from attendees?

Our customers were very excited about numerous products that we showcased at G2E. This year we unveiled our Orion Upright cabinet, the third platform in our Orion family. This form factor features the distinctive Orion design language, with 420 game-synchronized full-color LED lights for an innovative gameplay celebration. With dual 27-inch displays, an LCD topper, LCD button deck, and other player-favorite features, the Orion Upright will launch in 2019 with a library of exclusive new titles and some of AGS’ greatest hits.

For the Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil markets, we showcased our Alora video bingo cabinet along with a library of video bingo games, including the player-favorite Lotto Diamond. These games are available in multiple languages including Portuguese, Spanish, and English and feature-linked, near-area progressives and a community bonus. The Aloracabinet has a unique feature – an illuminated foot pedal serves as an alternative to the traditional PLAY button, delivering a convenient hands-free experience.

There was also a lot of excitement around our Dex S single-deck poker shuffler, which was just recently approved by GLI. This streamlined design is economical, durable, reliable, and exceptionally functional; we’re excited about getting this into the market.

Along with the shuffler, our innovations in table-game solutions generated tons of buzz at the show, especially Bonus Spin Xtreme, a progressive side bet with three virtual wheels; and our award-winning STAX table-game progressive solution, which took Gold in this year’s Gaming & Technology awards that are announced during G2E.

Our AGS Interactive team was on hand to demonstrate our B2BSocial White-Label Casino as well as our new real-money gaming content aggregation platform following our acquisition of Gameiom. Our leadership team from the UK was on hand to talk with attendees about our offerings and initiatives in this space.

Has this year's edition of the trade show met your expectations? Was there something different from previous editions?

We thought the show was very well-executed and well-planned this year. Attendance felt like it was at an all-time high, and traffic in our booth was consistently busy. The overall energy of the show was quite different this year than last year, when we were all still in shock and mourning following the mass shooting. I think the mood and spirit at G2E reflected the state of our industry – optimistic, resilient, growing, and flourishing.

Could you detail your current presence in the United States and your future plans in the country?

We’re excited to continue expanding our presence in the U.S. With under 3 percent market share in the U.S. and Canada, there is plenty of opportunity for AGS to grow its footprint to at least match its current ship share levels of 5-7 percent. We just recently got licensed in Ohio and Pennsylvania, two states which offer significant opportunities for AGS. Pennsylvania has 12 casinos and Ohio has 11 casinos and racinos, and both markets are primarily repeat-play, where our games tend to perform the best.

And we continue to ramp our profile and our floor share in numerous other states, as AGS is still a relatively new player in the commercial Class III space and we have significant whitespace opportunity. It’s an exciting time for AGS.

What is the next event your planning to attend?

We’re excited to participate at ICE London February 5-7, where we will focus on our real-money gaming solutions, which include a game aggregation platform and remote gaming server through which we deliver a library of more than 600 games.

And then we look forward to showcasing at NIGA 2019 April 1-4 in San Diego, where we’ll have the opportunity to meet with many of our great tribal customers who have been huge supporters of AGS since our inception. We will focus on our lineup of high-performing new Class II and Class III games on our Orion and ICON platforms, as well as our large library of proprietary table games and solutions. This is an important show for us and for many of our customers.

And last but not least, we’ve already started planning for our fourth annual GameON customer summit, which will be held in June. We are also hosting GameON Mexico in May. Our GameON conferences are the most impactful events that we host each year, and although they are a lot of work, we love the opportunity to spend uninterrupted time with our customers and we are passionate about raising the bar each year.