"At G2E Asia, DRGT will focus on its integrated Tables Management System"

Ahead of the upcoming G2E Asia 2019—scheduled to take place across May 21-23—, DR Gaming Technology's CEO and co-founder delved into the company's products and solutions that will be on display, as well as the company's presence across the globe and, more specifically its recent Asia-Pacific expansion.

How important is attending G2E Asia for DR Gaming Technology?

Asia remains a relatively new market for us, and as a result, this will only be our third showing at G2E Asia.

Having firmly entrenched ourselves in Europe and Africa, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean over the last decade and a half, the East has steadily started to become a more and more important growth opportunity for us. That said, doing business across the globe cannot be done with a ‘cookie cutter’ approach, and as such much of our success in Asia to date has been thanks to our long-term partner and customer RGB International.

Which of your technology and product solutions have you decided to highlight at this year’s edition of the Macao showcase, and why?

The Asian market is driven by Tables business, as we all know, and as such our integrated Tables Management System will be a key solution we will be focusing on at the show in May.

Our Tables Management System garnered significant interest at both G2E Las Vegas in October last year, as well as at ICE in London in February, and we have no doubt that the continued expansion and development of the technology therein will initiate further such engagements in Macao.

Notwithstanding the Tables bias referred to above, our general casino management system, and it’s associated player tracking interface, as well as our world-leading slots jackpots will no doubt also feature high on many visitors’ agendas. We have secured some considerable business in the region of late and we hope to expand on this.

Where has this recent Asia-Pacific expansion taken place?

To date, our systems and jackpot installations have taken place in Laos, Vietnam, and The Philippines, amongst others.

The most recent of which was at the 150 Machine Grandz VIP Club in Caloocan, Manila, which opened in late February with a full floor of our world-leading 8.8" drScreenUltra player tracking units and our casino management system.

We are also quietly confident that the global success of our Tables Jackpot side-bet game BlackJack11’s will spread to Asia too, along with our recently launched Poker21’s.

BlackJack11’s is a really simple, fast and easy-to-learn game that is currently the best performing tables side-bet game on the African continent, and is also gaining some significant traction in Europe, Latin America and Mexico, where one operator has more than tripled their number of BlackJack11’s tables in just a couple of months, from 7 to 23.

Poker21’s, the follow-up to BlackJack11’s, was launched in London in February, and the support for this game has also been strong. With two tables-specific jackpots on offer, we believe that we now have a formidable Tables jackpot offering for the Asian market.

In addition to the above, have there been any other new market entries or deployments over the last 12 months?

As you know, we increased our presence in Latin America towards the end of 2017, by adding a new office in Mexico and Colombia to our existing sales office in Peru, as well as offices in Uruguay and Paraguay in 2018. In addition thereto, despite having been active in Africa for almost a decade, we formally established DRGT Africa towards the end of last year through a mutually beneficial deal that saw us and our local partner Grand Parade Investments acquire our long-standing African distributor to establish the NewCo.

Notwithstanding the above, we are of the view that with the correct partners in place, and their aligned commitment to providing operators with world-class installation support, and ongoing after sales and service support, there is no reason why we cannot start to build a similar success story in Asia too, hence our ongoing attendance at G2E Asia.

In your view, are there any distinctive features that define specifically the Asia-Pacific market?

I think what has afforded us the opportunity to enter the Asia-Pacific market relatively smoothly is that as a systems developer and supplier our core product is not as susceptible to nuances in culture as is the case with actual casino games and themes.

Our interactions with operators at G2E Asia last year assisted us tremendously in gauging our product focus for the region, which encouragingly appears to be following the same trend as our entry into the aforementioned European, African and Latin America markets: casino management systems that are user-friendly, flexible, and use the latest technology, and jackpots that surprise and delight players.

Where do you think these markets are heading in terms of product trends?

In a recent study by Microsoft, it was noted that 54% of customers will increase their expectations for customer service today compared to a year ago. This is not just a Western phenomenon, but a global one we all experience daily, as both a service provider, and as a customer, irrespective of the sector.

Companies that will survive in this environment are those that not only manage to meet their customers' needs but actually drive those needs, many times off of advances in existing technology or new developments of their own. Our ‘Player First’ mantra drives all of our development, and I remain firmly of the view that DR Gaming Technology has to date managed to meet these pre-requisites for success in today's increasingly customer-centric world. Our challenge remains to at least keep ahead of the proverbial ‘curve’, albeit that we’d far rather be defining it.

Our ability to now seamlessly integrate Tables game play data into our accounting, cage and reporting modules bears testament to this, as does our world-leading drScreenUltra player interface, as well as our continued reign as the service provider with the widest number of jackpot configuration options on the planet.

If visitors to G2E Asia 2019 are looking for a user-friendly and robust management system solution, world-class jackpots to surprise and delight their players, or technology to assist them in engaging and communicating with their players better, DRGT is an exhibitor they should most definitely visit.