FOCUS ON GAME VARIETY TO ADD INTEREST FOR REGULAR PLAYERS

IGT focus on game variety

Hold n Spin Games now make up a large percentage of the gaming floor across major Australian gaming markets. While numbers of these games change monthly as they move into more venues the approximate numbers in major jurisdictions at the end of 2018 were:

NSW Clubs –27%, NSW Hotels –45%, QLD Clubs – 25%, Qld Hotels – 34%

Yet despite the popularity and higher than average player return % of these games, the players still walk out the door complaining we have “tightened up the machines”. We know we haven’t, and are giving back more than we were 5 years ago, so what is happening.  The hold and spin style games, and games with dynamic paytables (where players increase their jackpots as they increase their bets),  are skewed towards players who can afford higher average bets, leaving the medium/smaller players who spend more time at the club running through their money quicker.

The only way to level this out in a club is by ensuring there is plenty of game variety on the gaming floor.  In order to try and fill this market gap IGT has been developing games that add some interest for the regular players with interactive, fun and entertaining features. Their new range of games increase game enjoyment for the regular players and are still gaining good performance results for clubs and hotels.

Among their leading games that offer something a little different for the players are:

Wheel Shot- Wild Gold and Wheel Shot-Hero of Greece use a wheel-style feature that gamers have enjoyed historically, but by turning the wheel sideways they display multiple 3D wheels that give the player a chance to build anticipation and progress across the wheels to bigger and extra credit prizes.

Multistar Hot Diamonds is the follow-on game from IGTs very popular Multistar-Dazzling Diamonds and carries through the same popular feature and bonus structure as the original game with a different group of strong low, mid and high denomination games.  Yes, the game has a bolt-on, hold and spin style feature only in the jackpot levels, but is the only multigame in the market with a hold and spin feature.

The Fortune Gong games, Guardians Treasure, Dragon Dynasty, and Phoenix Rising are packed with a range of unique game features, triggered by the random prize above stacked symbols on a reel.  Random credit prizes and free games that provide retrigger, along with credit bonuses keep the player interested. Once the player triggers the Big Reel feature, they are guaranteed to win something, with bonus credit prizes and the Maxi and Mini bonuses available to win.

Strong performance results for February 2019 show that players are looking for something different and unique to play:

Game	ADT $	ADR $	Denom TO Ratio
Multistar Hot Diamonds NSW Clubs	4308	404	1.86
Multistar Hot Diamonds NSW Hotels	6766	662	1.37
Wheel Shot – Wild Gold NSW Clubs	3895	384	1.46
Wheel Shot – Wild Gold QLD Clubs	4994	314	1.19
Wheel Shot – Hero of Greece NSW Clubs	2822	259	1.32
Wheel Shot – Hero of Greece Qld Clubs	2723	185	1.10
Fortune Gong Dragon Dynasty NSW Clubs	2169	173	1.19
Fortune Gong Eternal Riches QLD Hotels	2210	351	1.14
Fortune Gong Dragon Dynasty QLD Clubs	2039	159	1.29
Fortune Gong Dragon Dynasty QLD Hotels	3183	259	1.63
Maxgaming Data – February 2019